LAS VEGAS — I’ve had a standing desk for two years now, and while it’s practically the greatest piece of furniture to ever enter my life, I somehow forget to actually stand at it while working.
HumanScale is all too familiar with lazy people like me using their ergonomic desks without reaping the full benefits, so the company teamed up with Detroit startup Tome to create a standing desk solution called OfficeIQ that syncs with HealthKit to tell you when you’re being too damn lazy.
LAS VEGAS — The wait for the world’s first Lightning headphones is almost over.
Philips’ upcoming Fidelio M2L bypasses the analog headphone jack, instead sending the digital audio signal through the Lightning port used in late-model iOS devices.
“You keep the digital signal as far as possible until you have no choice,” Benoit Borette, a Philips audio engineer, told Cult of Mac.
Apple did amazing things in 2014, but when it comes to growth, the iPad wasn’t exactly a blockbuster success. In fact, they’ve been slumping. Although Cook views slowing iPad growth as a “speed bump,” iPad upgrades are inarguably closer to the upgrade rate of laptops than smartphones.
Cook’s optimistic. “Because we’ve only been in the market for four years, we don’t know how long the upgrade cycle will be for people,” Cook said during the October earnings call. “So that’s a difficult thing to call.”
So what does 2015 hold for the iPad? Sadly, it’s not clear.
LAS VEGAS — On the surface, there’s nothing very exciting about a portable flash drive. It doesn’t excite me at all. But make that drive a sleek, Lightning-equipped, 256GB beast of a thing, and now we’re talking.
The Leef iBridge, on display here at International CES, packs the most storage of any iOS-compatible hard drive on the market. But all that space comes at a steep price.
$399.99, to be exact. Certainly jaw-dropping, but something in me, and obviously in the Leef team, believes there’s at least a few people out there who will buy it. If not, the cheaper 128GB ($200), 64GB ($120), 32GB ($80) and 16GB ($60) models should appeal to the layman.
There’s a nice companion iOS app that reads what you’ve stored and even lets you shoot photos/video directly to the drive. Not a bad thing to have for a photo adventure in the wilderness. Or if you still don’t have enough storage available to install iOS 8.
Throughout December, we heard a lot of rumors that said Apple might be bringing back the 4-inch iPhone form factor. My colleague Luke categorized these rumors as “unlikely,” and yet they continued, perhaps buoyed by the crossed-fingers of women and the tiny-handed. But now a new report says they were unlikely after all.
The role of Steve Jobs’ eldest daughter Lisa Jobs in the upcoming Universal movie biopic was previously described by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin as the story’s “heroine.”
Given some of the A-list names that have been associated with the project, it’s therefore something of a surprise to hear that the role has apparently been awarded to 17-year-old actress Perla Haney-Jardine.
If your reaction to that news is “who?,” you’re most likely not alone. Up until she won this part, the Brazilian-born American actress is best known for playing the four-year-old daughter of Beatrix “The Bride” Kiddo and Bill in 2004’s Kill Bill Vol. 2.
Not exactly bad training for playing the daughter of the often steely tech-ninja Steve Jobs, perhaps!
Want to buy an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus without a SIM card, or locked to a specific carrier? You finally have your chance: unlocked iPhones have just gone on sale through Apple’s brick-and-mortar and online stores for the very first time.
LAS VEGAS — Taking a urine-analysis test to check your most vital and private health stats usually requires an hour-long visit to the doctor. But in 2015, you’ll be able to pee on a stick and get 12 vital health measurements without having to leave your bathroom.
Scandu, the Silicon Valley-based medtech company behind the tiny Scandu Scout analyzer, has created an at-home urinalysis device called the Scanaflo that bridges the gap between the medical community and consumers.
The iGrow Hair sounds like some kind of comical mishearing of iPad Air. In fact, the iGrow and iDerma are the latest wacky gadgets to show up at this year’s CESB — or not so wacky at all if you listen to its creators.
The fully-adjustable, FDA-approved devices boast a proprietary Low-Level Light Therapy (LLLT) technology. According to its makers, a combination of red laser and LED light diodes is used to “stimulate and energize cellular activity” to reenergize the natural function of the hair follicle.
If your hair is thinning (although you’re not yet bald), iGrow offers a 4-to-6 month process which could give you back a head of hair that is demonstrably thicker, fuller and more vibrant than ever.
Oh, and just in case you’re wondering, yes, it does come with a 6-month money back guarantee.
LAS VEGAS — An iPhone battery case is kinda like insurance: You don’t really want it, but you know you need it. It’s been months since Apple started selling the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but we have yet to see any battery cases from established brands … until now.
Otterbox unveiled its Resurgence power case for the iPhone 6 at International CES this week. The case packs a 2,600-mAh battery that will charge your iPhone’s battery twice over. And, like everything Otterbox makes, it’s designed with military-grade drop protection.
The case charges itself via a micro-USB connector, and it has a button on the back that needs to be pressed when your iPhone requires more life. Otterbox is offering four colors, and the case should be available in a couple weeks for $100.
The so-called Bendgate incident might have done Apple no favors in 2014, but according to a new patent published today, Cupertino is far from done when it comes to flexible iPhones — this time, purposely so.
Apple’s newly-granted patent covers an invention related to flexible housing for future iOS devices. As described, these devices would be capable of being bent or even folded with no damage to the internal components.
To pull this off, Apple would likely ditch the milled aluminium used in current iPhones for more easily deformable materials such as soft plastics and fiber composites able to withstand repeated flexing.
LAS VEGAS — The first full day of CES if starting to wrap up and if there’s one trend starting to emerge, it’s that there are no trends. Nowhere was this more apparent than Samsung’s keynote, where the company threw everything and the kitchen sink into its announcement of new home appliances, a vacuum, a Virtual Reality service called Milk, a cute portable SSD, and of course, one of the craziest TVs we’ve ever seen.
Dropping ridiculous TVs has become something of a tradition for Samsung at CES, and this year is no different with the SUHD S9W TV that’s touted as ‘the most seductive TV ever made.’ It’s just too bad you’ll never get to use their beautiful gimmick.
AAPL shares have been tanking the last few weeks after reaching a record high in 2014, but Apple is looking to stop the bleeding later this month by announcing what’s expected to be another record breaking earnings report for Q1 2015 on January 27th.
LAS VEGAS — Gardening isn’t easy. Especially if you leave home for weeks at a time and your plants go unwatered.
You could hire a gardener, but Parrot is ready to make it easier and cheaper with their new automated watering pot. The device will keep your leafy friends hydrated with just a tap of your phone.
LAS VEGAS — Who ever thought a blood-pressure monitor could look cool?
Qardio did. The U.S. medical device maker is obsessed with crafting hospital-grade gear that wouldn’t look out of place sitting alongside your iMac.
The company’s latest product, unveiled during the International CES trade show here, is a smart scale that delivers feedback in the form of a smile or a frown, depending on how your weight is trending.
“It makes you feel good,” said Rosario Iannella, Qardio’s chief information officer.
LAS VEGAS — It seems like everyone is selling some kind of smart light bulb these days, but Sengled is setting itself apart by incorporating wild add-ons like Bluetooth speakers and Wi-Fi repeaters.
That’s right, a light bulb with a speaker.
At a demo during CES Unveiled here, the company showed me its lineup of four smart bulbs, all of which have their own gimmick beyond the to-be-expected remote control functionality through an app.
Imagine walking five street blocks in a city like, say, New York. Then think about climbing that distance straight up.
That’s what Kevin Schmidt does for a living: changing the airplane warning lights at the top of super tall TV towers.
This drone from PrairieAerial caught the guy in action as he climed the now-defunct analog KDLT antenna in Salem, SD. Watch the whole thing as he grabs a vertigo-inducing selfie at the top.
LAS VEGAS — For eight years, Paul Chavand been working hard to bring the world a pair of motorized skates. Why? To revolutionize the simple act of walking. Chavand’s dream is turn a simple stroll into an effortless glide on motorized wheels.
But don’t call them skates. Chavand, a mathematics teacher from France’s Burgundy region, gets rather upset at that. Skates imply imbalance, falling over and wildly flailing arms. Chavand’s Rollkers require no “skating.” You just stand still and the motorized wheels zip you along. Balancing is as simple as standing up, the inventor says.
So instead of “skates,” he calls his invention, rather comically, “under shoes.”
The big question is why you’d want them.
LAS VEGAS — Football in America is under attack after the revelation that concussions cause serious brain damage rocked the NFL. Youth participation has plummeted in the last two years but the folks at Linx have a new solution that will help parents keep track of when their kids are getting pounded too hard on the field.
The Linx IAS sports monitor is a tiny Bluetooth sensor athletes can wear in a skull cap or headband to keep track of every impact on the field, no matter if they’re playing football, lacrosse, soccer, hockey or pretty much any other contact sport.
LAS VEGAS — The small but humbling act of loosening your belt after a big meal is finally over!
Inventor Bertrand Duplat has developed a motorized belt that automatically loosens its grip when your gut bulges.
“The experience of the belt hasn’t changed in centuries,” Duplat told Cult of Mac at CES International. He calls his invention, which certainly will change your belt experience, Belty.
“When you sit down and eat a long dinner, it loosens automatically. It tightens up when you stand up,” he said.
LAS VEGAS — What if your entire life was like a Russian dash cam? Our phones already know where we are and what we’re doing every moment of the day, but the Narrative Clip takes things to the next level.
This tiny little square clips onto your person and takes a 5 megapixel photo every 30 seconds. Apparently wearing such a thing makes you a “lifelogger,” which sounds like a great term to drop on a first date. Then again, once you admit that you’re wearing an always-on camera during a date, it won’t really matter if you call it lifelogging or not. You’re not getting a second shot.
If you can suffer through the selfies, food shots and pet pictures, you can catch a glimpses of the revolutionary art form that is mobile phone photography. Book publisher Pierre Le Govic has positioned himself to be the first important curator of the fleeting beauty on Instagram.
Le Govic, who established a publishing house in France for mobile photography in 2013, has issued Out of the Phone: The Mobile Photo Book 2014 Edition, featuring one picture each from 100 photographers from 25 countries
LAS VEGAS — Not every wearable launched this year will get slapped on your wrist.
Quell, a new electrical-stimulation device designed to help alleviate chronic pain, gets wrapped around the wearer’s calf.
“I like to say it’s like a USB port into your central nervous system,” said Frank McGillin, SVP and general manger of Quell.
While a wave of fitness trackers and the upcoming Apple Watch are drumming up a healthy buzz about wearables, more and more medical devices work with smartphone apps and tap into Apple’s HealthKit platform. Quell doesn’t yet work with HealthKit, but McGillin told Cult of Mac that’s certainly in the cards.
For a man who played a part in coming up with some of the most gorgeous designs in recent history, I’ve never been too sure about the surprisingly bulky appearance of Venus: Steve Jobs’ 256-foot super-yacht.
With that being said, however, a new crop of photos showing the €100 million vessel in full ocean-going mode definitely makes me rethink my views on the subject.
Half-summer house and half Apple Store, it looks every bit the kind of vacay destination that would have helped Apple’s late CEO recuperate after a new iPhone launch — had he ever gotten the chance to use it.
Usually, we tell you what we think about things that come down the Mac and iOS news pipeline. But this time, we want your opinion: what do you think of this iPod Classic smart cover for iPhone that turns your handset into a vintage iPod, like the day of yore?