“Coming Home” by Wisconsin student wins U.S. 2013 Doodle 4 Google competition

After 130,000 submissions and millions of votes cast, Sabrina Brady of Sparta, Wisc. has been named the 2013 U.S. Doodle 4 Google National Winner. Her doodle, “Coming Home,” will be featured on the Google homepage in the U.S. tomorrow, May 23.



Students across all 50 states amazed us with their creative interpretations of this year’s theme, “My Best Day Ever...” From scuba diving to dinosaurs to exploring outer space, we were wowed by the ways young artists brought their best days to life in their doodles.



Sabrina’s doodle stood out in the crowd; it tells the story of her reunion with her father as he returned from an 18 month deployment in Iraq. Her creative use of the Google letters to illustrate this heartfelt moment clearly resonated with voters across the country and all of us at Google.



In addition to seeing her artwork on the Google homepage, Sabrina—who is in 12th grade at Sparta High School—will receive a $30,000 college scholarship, a Chromebook computer and a $50,000 technology grant for her school. She will attend Minneapolis College of Art and Design this coming fall, where she will continue her artistic pursuits. Congratulations Sabrina!

In addition to the National Winner, voters across the country helped us determine the four National Finalists, who will each receive a $5,000 college scholarship:

• Grades K-3: Reagan Gonsalves (Grade 1, Santan Elementary School, Chandler, Ariz.) for her doodle “My best day ever is learning about nature.” Reagan says, “My best day ever is to be around the pretty animals and plants in nature, because I love to know about what is around me. I love to watch hummingbirds drink nectar out of flowers. I love to read books on nature and how plants and animals grow.”


• Grades 4-5: Audrey Zhang (Grade 4, Michael F. Stokes Elementary School, Levittown, N.Y.) for her doodle “...When I discover paradise!” Zhang says, “My best day ever will be when I discover paradise. In paradise, I could play with dragons, romp with leopards, and chat with fairies...It would be the best day ever when I could finally live in a mystical, dreamy realm.”


• Grades 6-7: Maria Iannone (Grade 7, Chestnut Ridge Middle School, Sewell, N.J.) for her doodle “The best day ever.” Maria says, “Where I live, it's difficult to view the night sky very well. Having an interest in astronomy, a day where I can observe the things I study on my own time would satisfy me.”


• Grades 8-9: Joseph Han (Grade 8, Falmouth Middle School, Falmouth, Maine) for his doodle “Late-afternoon bliss.” Joey says, “For me, ‘the best day ever’ doesn't consist of ambitious dreams, but rather the enjoyment of a day spent in carefree euphoria. Being in the woods is something that evokes such happiness in me. The lighthearted joy of rafting, fishing or catching fireflies is what I've attempted to capture.”

After the awards ceremony, all 50 of our State Winners will unveil a special exhibition of their artwork at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where their doodles will be displayed for the public to view from May 22 - July 14.



Thanks to all who voted and helped us select the 2013 Doodle 4 Google winners. Even more importantly, thank you to all of the students who submitted their artwork and the parents and teachers who continue to inspire and support their young artists. Until next year... happy doodling!



Posted by Ryan Germick, Doodle Team Lead



via The Official Google Blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/coming-home-by-wisconsin-student-wins.html

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Vachen Smartwatch: Traditional Look with Smart Features

While all major tech companies trying to come up with high performance smartwatches are cramming them with as many features and apps as possible, this new product takes pride in taking wearable timepieces back to basics by maintaining the looks and feel of a traditional wristwatch. And a very elegant looking one, while we’re at it.

Instead of creating a smart device and add clock functions to it, the creator of the Vachen smartwatch, Won Rhee, came up with a timepiece to which he added various smart features such as email and text notifications.

The Vachen smartwatch retains the esthetics and foremost functions of a traditional timepiece, but it offers some very interesting features that really make buying such a gadget worth it. The Vachen connects for both Android and iPhone devices, and it runs on Android Gingerbread. It is equipped with a 1 GHz processor, but also with WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.

With a battery life of 48 hours, the watch’s LCD display measures 1.54 inches and has a 240×240 resolution, basically the same pixel density and size as the sixth iPod Nano. The device displays the time but also SMS, call and Google alerts. Other useful features are the alarm, timer, moon data and tide graph, compass, stopwatch and the possibility of using it for motion-based control of various smart devices, smart TVs included.

What makes the Vachen really irresistible is the fact that users can customize its appearance anyway they like. Buyers will have access to over 100 different watch face designs when the device is launched. But the Vachen website also offers access to a free tool with which users can create their own designs and then upload them to the product’s app store. The watch also comes with different straps, to match the various face designs.

The Vachen app store has not yet been opened, but this is scheduled to happen in the very near future. The developers are also planning to give the watch Facebook app and Windows phone support after the launch.

Until then, the project still has to secure its $100,000 goal on Kickstarter. The crowdfunding campaign is currently at over $76,000 and has one week left. Backers can get their own Vachen smartwatch with a unique case, for prices ranging from $169 to $279.

[Images via Kickstarter]

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via TechBeat http://techbeat.com/2013/05/vachen-smartwatch-traditional-look-with-smart-features/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=vachen-smartwatch-traditional-look-with-smart-features

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World War Z Game to Be Released May 30

Zombies! Brad Pitt! And a lot more zombies! Okay, so we’re very excited about the upcoming zombie invasion movie World War Z, out June 21. Based on a 2006 novel by Max Brooks, the movie stars Pitt as a UN employee and features, well, you guessed it, hoards of zombies. And if that’s not enough to get your attention, try the World War Z game, to be released May 30.

The game continues the trend of movie-video game tie ins, although history has shown us that the sooner this trend disappears, the better. Virtually all video games that tie in with a film are more or less epic failures. But World War Z seems intent on changing this fact.

The game was developed by Chicago-based Phosphor Games and will be released for iOS and selected Android devices on May 30, Paramount Digital Entertainment announced. This is encouraging news, since Phosphor Games has an impressive track record and its latest title, critically acclaimed Horn, won several Game of the Year awards last year.

The trailer for the World War Z game looks good too, almost comparable to the quality we see in some PC and console releases. The game was built around Unreal Engine 3, Phosphor Games said, promising to offer a fully immersive gaming experience, top notch graphics and the studio’s trademark multipass blended textures and ambient occlusion lighting.

The game is set in the same universe as the movie and the player seems to be pitted against even more zombies than we would have thought possible after seeing the feature film’s trailer. Players will have to go through 28 levels and battle zombies in various scenarios and with different kinds of upgradeable weapons.

We really hope this release will prove game-film tie in naysayers wrong and actually offer players a quality gaming experience. Especially after the previous release from Paramount Digital Entertainment, Star Trek The Video Game was a not so enjoyable an experience, other than the voice acting from the cast of the movie Star Trek: Into Darkness.

[Image via lytherus]

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via TechBeat http://techbeat.com/2013/05/world-war-z-game-to-be-released-may-30/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=world-war-z-game-to-be-released-may-30

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