Battle of the Smartwatches

There have been speculations that Apple is developing a smartwatch called "iWatch" though there have been no proof that they are really developing or producing one.

So not to be left behind, other electronic giants join the bandwagon and are also rumored to be developing smartwatches of their own. The companies are Samsung, Google, and LG.

As for me, I'm going to give it a pass. I just can't imagine myself wearing an oversized geeky watch that looks ridicolous.

Denny Hamlin felt disrespected by NASCAR fine

BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) - Denny Hamlin believes NASCAR was disrespectful by not contacting him before fining him $25,000 over critical comments about the new race car.

Hamlin said a bigger name would have at least gotten a courtesy call beforehand.

That's what played into Hamlin's anger last week when he stood firm in his refusal to pay the fine for criticizing the Gen-6 car following its second race of the season. He said he'd be suspended before he'd pay over a statement many considered mild made on pit road at Phoenix following a third-place run.

Honda to recall 250,000 vehicles scary brake defect

Honda Motor will recall nearly 250,000 vehicles globally, including sedans, minivans and SUVs, because of inadvertent braking. This may be a sign of the bedeviling problems to come with the complex electronics controlling cars.

Four models included in the recall are: the Odyssey minivan, Acura RL sedan, Acura MDX crossover SUV and Honda Pilot SUV, all made between 2004 and 2005.

The stability assist system in the vehicles may malfunction and the brake could operate even when the driver is not pressing the pedal, said spokeswoman Tomoko Takemori. The vehicles may also brake more strongly than intended when the system malfunctions, she said.

No accidents or injuries have been reported from the problem, Takemori said.

bout 183,500 Pilot, MDX and RL vehicles in the United States are affected by the recall. Honda is also recalling 57,000 vehicles in Japan, including about 42,566 Odyssey minivans.

Cars in Canada, Mexico, Germany, Australia and New Zealand will also be recalled.

Honda declined to say how much the recall will cost or where it got the problematic parts.

Leaked Samsung GT-I9502 images

Samsung GT-I9502 images leaked on a Chinese forum that seem to be a variant of the Samsung Galaxy S IV.

The forum poster claims that the device is dual-SIM and will make its way to China Unicom.

It has an elliptical Home button and a glossy back. The Back and Menu capacitive buttons are located on either side of the Home button. The front shows the typical Samsung branding sitting just below the earpiece surrounded by other sensors and a front camera as well.

Some of the images reveal a lot of info regarding the device specs. They show the phone featuring a 1080x1920 display, a 1.8GHz quad-core Exynos 5410 processor with 2GB RAM, PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU and Android 4.2.1.

Wii Tennis Effective Training Tool for Surgeons

21 surgical residents performed laparoscopies with significantly improved accuracy after a month of playing video games in addition to their usual training. The results is according to research published February 27 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Gregorio Patrizi and colleagues from the University of Rome, Italy.

"Play to Become a Surgeon" is the study that resulted when researchers at the University of Rome took the teaching opportunity presented by video games more seriously than have others before them. They introduced play as part of training for post-doc fellows in their first two years of residency, instructing them to use the Wii for an hour a day, five days a week.

The study found that participants in both groups improved their skills over the four week period, but those who had been trained on the Wii showed a significant improvement over the other group in their performance on several specific metrics like economy of instrument movements and efficient cautery. The study concludes, "The Nintendo® Wii might be helpful, inexpensive and entertaining part of the training of young laparoscopists, in addition to a standard surgical education based on simulators and the operating room."

Intel reveals their newest dual-core Atom processor for smartphones and tablets

Intel launched today at Mobile World Congress 2013 a fast dual-core Atom mobile processor for smartphones and Android tablets.

Intel promised that the new chips, 22-nanometer processor, will enable a new generation of faster and power-efficient smartphones and tablets.

The Clover Trail+ "32 nanometers" is Intel's first dual-core chip for smartphones. The Atom processor provides double the computing performance and triple the graphics capabilities of its predecessor, Medfield. And that performance boost comes at the same level of power consumption as Intel's prior offering.

PS4 Controller Touchscreen

An image has been circling the web shows a prototype controller for the upcoming PlayStation 4 “PlayStation Orbis" console. The photo shows a controller that looks largely like a Dual-Shock, but with a touchscreen in the upper middle.

The controller is connected to a large silver box which could possibly be a PS4 dev kit, but that’s unconfirmed. The new controller also has an illuminated LED strip on the back edge, which I presume can change colors like the current PlayStation Move controllers can.

There also rumors that comes from the Wall Street Journal, which reported that Sony plans to utilize Gaikai, a game streaming company Sony owns, to stream existing PS3 games to the new console.