News - page 1409

LAS VEGAS — Shure has hit the extremes lately in terms of how much they think music lovers are willing to pay for headphones and earphones, but their latest in-ear monitors cost just $50.

The new SE112s are just half the price of Shure’s previously cheapest IEMs, the SE215, and only $20 more than Apple’s iconic, earbud-ish EarPods. It’s quite a change for Shure: Earlier this year, the company came out with the ultra-high-end, $1,000-plus SE846 canalphones. And their exotic, carbon-fiber SRH1540 headphones arrived just a few months ago at a robust $624.

Apple has today announced that App Store sales topped a whopping $10 billion in 2013, with over $1 billion made during December alone. Almost three billion apps were downloaded during the final month of the year, making it the most successful month in App Store history.

We all know that the iPhone 6 will be thinner than the current model — Apple hasn’t released a major iteration of a product yet without making it at least a tiny bit svelter — but will it also be physically bigger? That’s the million dollar question, and a new rumor says ‘yes’, and that Apple may release a physically bigger iPhone as early as May.

The iPhone 5c is not a cheap phone. In fact, it costs $549 without a contract. Apple has 0% share of the sub-$400 “budget” smartphone market by sole dint of the fact it doesn’t sell a budget iPhone.

But hey, don’t let that get in the way of Microsoft trying to claim they are outselling the iPhone in the under-$400 market, which is sort of like saying that Louis Vuitton is outselling Apple in designer clothes.

Something that often gets missed about wearable technology is that — while the tech part is all well and good — in order for it to appeal to the average consumer it needs to look like something you’d actually be happy to be seen wearing.

In this capacity, Martian Watches’ newly-announced semi-smartwatch the Martian Notifier excels.

If there’s one thing the fine citizens of the United States love in their cars it’s cup holders. God knows why a car needs like 20 places to stow a bucket of coffee or soda, but it does. Which means, ironically, that the average U.S car has an average of 16[1] cup holders empty at any one time.

Thankfully, the SpeeCup is here to fill up at least one of them, although given the amount of free cup-holder space available, it seems almost silly to combine a speaker, a Siri-enabled mic and a cup-shaped vessel into just one single gadget.

We called it a “badass” product when MakerBot announced their Replicator 2X at last year’s CES, and now the company is back with three new 3D printers — including the Replicator Mini, which is being pitched as an affordable desktop unit for beginners.

“This is fifth-generation technology that’s setting the standard for reliability, quality, and connectivity,” MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis said of the new Replicator printer. “It’s our fastest and easiest 3D printer to use.”

Apple has too many white men in its upper ranks, say shareholders who are pressuring the company to add more female and minority directors to its board.

In response, Apple has added new language to its board charter claiming that it will consider more candidates who meet this criteria — noting that, “The nominating committee is committed to actively seeking out highly qualified women and individuals from minority groups to include in the pool from which board nominees are chosen.”

Canon’s new PowerShot N100 is also called the Story Camera. Why? Because it reads to you as you fall asleep at night? Because it puts speech bubbles in the mouths of your portrait subjects? Nope. It’s because it has a second camera on the back that snaps a photo of the photographer as they snap a picture of, well, anything.

MeteoEarth is a pretty rad weather app for the iPad. It’s purpose isn’t really to tell you whether to take an umbrella with your to the shops, but it can do that if you like. No, what MeteoEarth is really good at is showing you beautifully-animated views of the weather as it blows and scuds across the surface of the Earth. And now you can get it for the Mac.

We wrote yesterday that CES 2014 is all about the wearables, and Razer is yet another company jumping on the bandwagon: choosing CES as the location at which to announce its new (and unexpected) class of Nabu smartbands.

While smartbands are absolutely everywhere these days, Razer hopes that the Nabu — designed to work with Bluetooth 4.0 devices — can set itself apart thanks to its open software platform and unique features. Think smartwatch meets fitness tracker.

Nikon has chosen the media shoutfest that is CES to announce the D3300 SLR, an update to the – that’s right – D3200. It comes with a new sensor, a faster processor, a different crappy kit lens and this year’s favorite new gimmick: no optical low-pass filter.

LAS VEGAS  – Remembering passwords seems to have become one of great challenge in computing for simpletons like me. Solutions like 1Password and iCloud Keychain have tried to solve humans’ forgetfulness, but EyeLock revealed a new product today that not only stores all your passwords, it keeps them locked away with your own personal iris scanner.

CES is all about the groundbreaking, cutting edge technology, which is why ION chose the event to debut their, err, Cassette Adapter Bluetooth technology.

Enabling your car’s cassette player to become its own wireless Bluetooth receiver, the Cassette Adapter Bluetooth lets you stream music from your iPhone or other Bluetooth device without the need for cables or complicated installation. “Just pop it in and it automatically turns on,” reads the company’s press release.

The FAVI pico+ projector is just another little battery-powered “beamer,” a DLP projector that can be kept in a pocket and used to throw photos and video from your iPhone or iPad up onto the wall. But this one has a neat extra – the built-in Wi-Fi radio ands AirPlay support, so the only cable you’ll need is the charger to keep the thing going.

The Fujifilm X100S aka The Best Camera I Ever Owned aka The Only Leica A Photographer Can Afford is now available in black. And unlike the overpriced special edition black X100, the black X100S is neither a special edition nor more expensive – it’s just a regular alternative colorway for the camera.

LAS VEGAS — With the throng of tech bloggers covering CES, it’s not often that the heavily covered show hands us a surprise — but here’s one.

Netatmo, the French outfit best known for its fancy cloud-connected micro/personal Weather Station (and now also a device that measures your level of sun exposure), is about to add a hard-core new component: a rain gauge.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2014 – We’ve been hearing for months that Apple may or may not launch a larger screen iPad in 2014, but this afternoon Samsung tried to get a jump on the competition with its new lineup of PRO Galaxy and Note tablets for the common working man, and in typical Samsung fashion, they’re busting out a couple of screen sizes, including a 12.2inch monster.

The original Jet Car Stunts rocked the App Store back in 2009 — blowing away our memories of fiddly pre-iPhone racers with a colorful speedster of a game that took full advantage of the device’s touch interface and accelerometer to create something truly addictive.

Apple will hold its earnings call for the first fiscal quarter of 2014 on Monday, January 27th. During the call, Apple executives will talk about the company’s sales during this last holiday season.

Most notably, this will be the first quarter to see how sales of Apple’s latest iPads have been, and iPhone sales should also be interesting. Apple announced a deal to sell the iPhone on China Mobile last month, but sales from that big partnership won’t be very noticeable until after preorders are over and sales officially start.

With all of the pressure Apple faced in 2013 from Wall Street, the U.S government, legal disputes with other companies, and growing competition in the smartphone market, this earnings report will show us just how well Apple managed to close out the year. Based on Apple’s own guidance to investors, it could turn out to be the company’s best quarter ever.

Source: Apple

LAS VEGAS — Square sells its own cash register replacement for the iPad, but the mobile payments company has yet to debut any iPhone-compatible accessories for its card reader. Well, until now.

Griffin has made a Merchant case that is designed specifically to work with Square’s tiny reader, and it doubles as an added layer of protection for the iPhone.

LAS VEGAS — Not to be confused with “Blue Steel” from Zoolander, the Pebble smartwatch brand is branching out into the more premium, classic world of timepieces with Pebble Steel.

Announced today at CES, Pebble’s new watch has the same OS current owners know, but the physical materials have been upgraded from plastic to CNC-machined stainless steel. With a new developer SDK and its own app store on the near horizon, Pebble is leading the smartwatch race. But does it have what it takes to make the smartwatch cool?

LAS VEGAS — Remember the Hammerhead? It’s a device that attaches to your bicycle, links to the GPS on your phone via Bluetooth, and guides you along a pre-chosen route by flashing a left or right light when you need to turn.

Schwinn‘s new CycleNav does one better. Like the Hammerhead, it attaches to your bike (via quick release) and flashes an LED light to alert you to an upcoming turn. But it also speaks voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation to you through a speaker, just like your iPhone does.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2014 – Belkin is really hopping onto this connected-home thing with fiery fervor. They already have a formidable array of Internet-connected devices in their WeMo line — switches, plugs, motion detectors — and now they’ve added light bulbs and a DIY WeMo interface that can be adapted for use with practically anything that’s powered by electricity. Oh, they’ve also just come out with a big, shiny cloud-connected crockpot so you can cook dinner from the office.

LAS VEGAS — Home security, solar-powered gadgets and health accessories will be big technology themes of 2014, if what’s on show at CES is to be believed. At the kickoff media event here, manufacturers provided first peeks at their wares for the new year.

Here are some the best gadgets we saw: