Razer gives away custom Star Wars-themed Blade, may turn friends Imperial Guard red with envy

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/18/razer-gives-away-custom-star-wars-themed-blade/

Razer has been big on Star Wars gaming gear, but never quite like this. Enter a free contest and there's a chance to win a completely unique Star Wars: The Old Republic version of Razer's Blade gaming laptop. The winner sees the system's normally black shell replaced with a matte, laser-etched aluminum gray and the green backlighting dropped in favor of a subtler yellow matched to the MMORPG logo. Anyone who brings out this portable at a bring-your-own-computer gaming party is inevitably going to be the center of attention, although we have a feeling some would almost prefer the second-place bundle of peripherals -- at an estimated worth of $15,000, the Star Wars Blade might be too precious to carry for all but the most well-heeled of fans.

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

Razer gives away custom Star Wars-themed Blade, may turn friends Imperial Guard red with envy originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Oct 2012 03:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Hosting Android Event October 29, Likely To Announce A New Smartphone (GOOG)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-android-event-2012-10

Google just sent out invites to the press for an Android-themed event in New York.

The announcement will likely be for Google's new Nexus phone, which is rumored to be made by LG. It's also possible Google will team up with other hardware manufacturers to make Nexus devices this year. The LG Nexus is said to be a variant of the LG Optimus G, which recently launched.

Finally, there are rumors Google will offer a new Nexus 7 model with 32 GB. The entry-level 16 GB Nexus 7 could also drop to $99 from $199.

Android Boss Andy Rubin is also scheduled to speak at AllThingsD's mobile conference following Google's press conference. We're guessing he'll use that opportunity to show off the new Android hardware.

Even more interesting, Microsoft is holding a press conference the same day to announce the final consumer-facing features for its next mobile operating system Windows Phone 8.

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Scientists Erase the Memories of Sleeping Mice [Science]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5952627/scientists-erase-the-memories-of-sleeping-mice

Researchers at Stanford claim they've figured out how to erase the traumatic memories of mice while they sleep bringing them one step closer to their goal of ending PTSD for humans. Apparently a prescription memory-eraser could even be on the way. Are we closer to an Eternal Sunshine moment than we think?

The conventional treatment for stress and anxiety caused by traumatic events can be grueling for the patient, barbaric, even. They've simply got to recall the drama over and over and over in front of a shrink until, eventually, they learn how to deal with it—and there's no guarantee the patent won't relapse.

Nature reports the research of a Stanford team that found a way to replicate this therapy passively in sleeping mice. First, the researchers trained mice to fear the smell of jasmine by exposing them to the smell and then zapping them electricity. Once the mice were thoroughly traumatized, the researchers went about un-traumatizing the mice in their sleep.

One batch of mice received traditional therapy: They were exposed to the smell while they slept without getting shocked, and eventually got over the fear—temporarily at least. These mice, like PTSD humans tended to relapse.

The researchers treated the other batch of mice by tampering with their brain chemistry. Nature explains:

In other mice, Rolls administered a drug to block protein production in the basolateral amygdala - a brain area associated with storage of fearful memories - just before the animals went to sleep. The researchers then exposed the sleeping mice to repeated odor puffs alone. Upon waking, these animals showed reduced fear responses to amyl acetate [the smell chemical] that carried over even into new environments.

Holy smokes that's crazy! Imagine a world in which the tedium and pain of therapy could be replaced with a simple pill. The world would be such a happier place. Unfortunately, the drug used in the study isn't safe for humans, but it turns out that existing anxiety meds could potentially be used the same way. It seems the solution to an old psychiatric puzzle might have been lying under our noses for decades. [Nature]

Image by angeladellatorre under Creative Commons license

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Wi-Fi MicroSD Adapter Lets You Swap In As Much Storage As You Need [Storage]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5952654/wi+fi-microsd-adapter-lets-you-swap-in-as-much-storage-as-you-need

Unlike the Eye-Fi wireless SD cards which lock you into a set amount of storage, PQI's Air Card uses a microSD slot so that as the tiny cards get bigger and bigger, you can easily upgrade the adapter's capacity.

And like the latest generation of the Eye-Fi cards, the $50 PQI Air works with mobile devices thanks to an accompanying iOS and Android app. So you can share photos and get your snaps online without the need for a card reader or a USB connection to a PC. It works with three devices at once too, so you can send shots to your phone and tablet at the same time, and according to the PQI site it supports pretty much every popular camera on the market today. [PQI via DPReview]

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Micron's RealSSD P320h PCI Express SSD gets reviewed: wildly fast, but a little unstable

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/17/micron-realssd-p320h-pci-express-ssd-reviewed-video/

"Taking one's sweet time" just took on an entirely new meaning. Well over a year after Micron first introduced its RealSSD P320h PCI Express SSD, the aforesaid device is finally hitting the general availability stage. And with that, the flood of reviews begins. What sets this guy apart right out of the box is its native stature; much like Fusion-io (and very unlike most all other rivals from OCZ, Intel, LSI, etc.), this thing sidesteps the mishmash of SATA / SAS controllers and opts for a direct-attached PCIe approach. At around $7,000, it's clearly aimed first at enterprise, but given Micron's history in the consumer space, one could assume that this kind of wizardry will eventually trickle down. The fine folks over at HotHardware found their tester to be shockingly quick, easily outpacing its rivals when it came to read and write performance. Unfortunately, the Windows drivers provided weren't exactly mature, which led to a few booting issues when swapping in varying motherboards. Of course, no one ever said the Ferrari of PCIe SSDs would purr without a bit of finagling. Hit up the links below for the full spiel.

Continue reading Micron's RealSSD P320h PCI Express SSD gets reviewed: wildly fast, but a little unstable

Filed under: Storage

Micron's RealSSD P320h PCI Express SSD gets reviewed: wildly fast, but a little unstable originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Oct 2012 15:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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