https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O70X7JY4re0&feature=youtu.be
It won’t let your kid paint with light in the traditional, photographic sense — using a light source to burn magical images into a photograph.
Instead, Griffin’s new Crayola Light Marker turns an iPad into a canvas that’s transformed with light — a form of light painting, and just as magical.
The French were everywhere at this year’s CES, measuring everything. Everything. The most imaginative expression of this peculiar (but useful) French obsession was the Hapifork, a Bluetooth-connected utensil that measures the user’s eating habits.
If that sounds interesting, good news: Hapifork has finally made it to Kickstarter, just two months behind schedule.
Apple is working on the use of flexible-glass touch displays. Which products will Apple use flexible displays in?
The answer is: all of them.
When people think about flexible displays, they think about small-screen gadgets like iWatches and curved-glass iPhones. What most don’t realize is that flexible displays can bring some amazing benefits to a device, even if the display itself isn’t curved.
And Apple has patents on all of it.
Here’s how Apple might deploy flexible displays to transform every product they make.
Even before I ever dreamed of writing and taking pictures for a living — I’ll just pause here to let my fellow journalists and bloggers finish laughing hysterically at the idea that earnings from journalism could be considered “a living” — I rocked one of those photographer’s jackets. You know the one — zippers and pockets everywhere. I was a Geek King in the jacket, but I didn’t care; it let me carry all my gizmos and, yes, sometimes even photography gear.
Only the most wizened, old-school photographers use those vests anymore. And there are far better ways to shlep a quiver of gadgets — like the magnetic-sleeved, 22-pocket, Personal Area Network-equipped Tropiformer by Scottevest. Oh yeah.
Yeah, that’s a bit of sarcasm up there in the hed; there’s obviously no lack of choice regarding Bluetooth speakers. This year’s CES exploded with Bluetooth, and it doesn’t seem a day goes by that a manufacturer doesn’t release another model.
iHome is more about, well, more; so instead of releasing one, they’ve released four.
Hold the phone! Or, rather — don’t. Martian Watch models see much of its promised potential unlocked With the launch today of iOS and Android apps, just ahead of their estimated ship date(s).
The app finally adds two major features to the watches — remote camera control and social media updates — along with a few smaller ones.
We’ve seen a lot of iPad-enhancing accessories over the last couple of years. Speaker cases like the Belkin Thunderstorm, bring-your-own-keyboard cases like the Incase Origami, and even iPad battery cases. But here’s a new one: DOCKr, an accessory that brings all these advantages together in one Skittle-colored package.
We’ve been fascinated the stuff emerging from motorcycle-wizards-turned-iDevice-accessory-crafter Rokform ever since we took their machined alloy Rokbed iPhone case for a spin a few years back. Today the company revealed the Rokshield v3, basically a smaller, iPad Mini version of their Roklock case and mounting system.
I thought I’d heard everything there was to hear from wireless speakers. I have tested everything from the smallest, crappiest pocket speaker to the big booming Big Jambox. Then I “hooked” the Libratone Zipp up to my iPhone, and I started to enjoy music again.
Yes, it’s a frisbee that doubles as an iPhone speaker. When you’ve finished flinging the Fli Tunes around, pop the center out and stick your iPhone in it. Be sure to pick up your iPhone before flinging it around again.
One type of bag was conspicuously missing from the lineup when Pelican released its ProGear line a few months back. There was a smorgasbord-like selection of tablet- and laptop-toting bags — but nothing for camera gear. Now Pelican has filled that space, integrating their vault-like case technology in the new S130 ProGear laptop/camera backpack.
Noise-cancelling headphones are suddenly all the rage. It certainly seems as if every big player in the audio game has at least one model that features active noise-canceling, usually accompanied by other luxury features — and with a corresponding luxury pricetag. Even manufacturers who’ve only recently begun making cans, like Logitech UE and Klipsch, prominently feature active noise-canceling in their model lineups.
It may even seem as if the technology has been added to some models simply because it’s become the feature du jour — an impression strengthened by the fact that not all noise canceling is the same. Not even remotely.
None of the headphones in our showdown — the Klipsch Mode M40 ($350), the Logitech UE 6000 ($200) or the Monster Inspiration ANC ($300), the noise-canceling version of the regular, passive Inspiration model we reviewed last year — exhibits the powerful noise-canceling ability that can almost completely drown out noise, like that of the Bose QuietComfort 15. Nor do they sit on the next level down, with NC performance similar to, say, Audio Technica’s ATH-ANC7b (although one here comes close).
Apple was caught last year selling Apple Certified refurbished hardware on eBay using the pseudonym Refurbished-Outlet. Allegedly.
The prices and details of these products were generally the same as refurbished products sold on the apple.com site. The products come with a one-year warranty and mobile devices contain a new battery.
But this week it emerged that Apple is lowering the prices on eBay, sometimes by quite a bit. For example, Apple normally charges $999 for a refurbed MacBook Air with 128 GB. But that same system with the same Apple inspection and one-year warranty went on sale in the eBay store for $899. Prices on other hardware products were slashed similarly.
(In addition, we learned, the company as been apparently working with “power sellers” on eBay to sell Apple hardware. For example, until they ran out of the 500 units put up for sale of 13-inch MacBook Pros selling for $999. These are new devices, not refurbished, and Apple is probably using the “channel” to clear out inventory.)
It seems to me that Apple is working behind the scenes to experiment with different models for selling refurbished and excess inventory. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple was also trying other channels for doing the same thing that we don’t know about. And I also wouldn’t be surprised if refurbished gadgets vanished from the Apple site altogether, and for those items to be sold in the darker alleys of the Internet (like eBay) exclusively instead.
But I think there’s a ginormous opportunity here for embracing “used” in a big way — and it’s something only Apple could pull off.
Have you ever tried to do any serious videography with an iPad? I don’t recommend it casually, but the iPad can be a great HD video tool, combining high resolution video capture abilities with a large screen for monitoring. Connecting it to a tripod, however, can be a trial.
SerialKickers aim to solve this problem with a new product for iPad, the ArchMount, an ultra-portable mounting system that will let you attach your iPad to a camera tripod for use in video, tele-prompter, or music applications.
I’m sitting here using an amazing pair of headphones while I work: the SteelSeries Flux wired headset. Cult of Mac put these in our Awesome 2012 Advent Calendar this past holiday season, and for good reason. They’re superb headphones, very portable, easy on the ears, and have some great advanced features, like detachable cords and a second headphone jack on the headset itself to share your music with a friend.
Today, then, SteelSeries and EA announced the Real Racing 3 Gaming Headset, which is based on the very same Flux headset, to reproduce the racing sounds and over-the-top dub step soundtrack in Real Racing 3, released in the US App Store today, with much higher fidelity than any standard earbuds you might get from, say, Apple.
The French have a history of coming up with some pretty fascinating ideas. Some don’t work out too well. Some are ingeneous. The VEA Buddy watch looks like it fits in the latter category. What makes it different than the deluge of other smartwatches that have recently arrived: It might actually be brilliantly (French word, by the way) practical.
There’s this really cool, funny, slick video made by a bunch of Israelis called Sight, in which a guy walks around in a world where everything he sees is overlayed by augmented reality. Everything. All the time. Sounds far-fetched? Not so much anymore.
Today, Metaio announced that their new augmented-reality chip, called the Metaio AREngine, will make its debut in ST-Ericsson phones — in a handset(s) that may be available to the public as soon as the end of this year, or early 2014 if things move more slowly.
Like the Plantronics Voyager Legend we reviewed a few months ago, Jabra’s new folding-boom Motion series incorporates motion sensors — so they can do things like automatically answer calls when you place the headset to your ear, and even automatically adjust the volume.
If you’ve been waiting for Apogee’s pro, multichannel Quartet to finally become iPad-compatible since we mentioned%20it%20last%20month,%20time’s%20up%20—%20it’s%20ready.
When we spotted Luvvitt’s backlit Ultrathin iPad mini keyboard cover last month at CES, Luvvitt CEO Eli Altaras told us we’d see a version for the iPad at some point. It’s just popped up on Luvvitt’s website, packing the same rainbow backlighting as the mini version, in the same ultra-light profile. And it’s got a beefed-up battery to boot.
You know about Magnetyze, right? It’s a system that lets you charge an iPhone 4/S or Galaxy S3 without the need for a cord. Pop your iPhone into the provided case, then drop the case on the magnetic charging base and your iPhone will charge (and sync) — it works kind of like the MagSafe power adapter on a MacBook. It’s really cool on the S3, because the Magnetyze case replaces the S3’s original back, so there’s almost zero extra bulk. Neat.
As video surveillance goes, Netgear’s VueZone system is about as easy and user-friendly as it gets. But does VueZone sacrifice power and performance for ease-of-use? We tested the two-camera system, which cam with two motion-detecting cameras, four magnetic mounts and the master gateway for $290. It also came with a one-month trial subscription to the Premier service subscription; the no-frills Basic service, which allows you to montitor up to two cameras remotely from your computer, is free.
Boy, things are really heating up in the minimalist heck-with-all-this-crap-I-only-want-to-carry-one-thing space. Earlier this week, Distil Union unveiled Wally, basically a strip of leather that clings tenaciously to the back of your iPhone, with a small cavity you can fill with cards or cash.
But the $35 Crossover, created over at crowdsource-design site Quirky, looks like it might be even more minimalist than Wally — it’s just two silicone straps that grip the edges of your iPhone. And it comes in all kinds of colors to boot.
Back when I lived in SoCal, I was fixated with the coast. The sand, the surf, the sailboats. In fact, I often sailed out of Oxnard, a sleepy seaside burb just north of Los Angeles, which also happens to hide Mac-friendly bag-maker HEX.
Makes sense, then, that they’d launch the nautically themed Cabana collection, a heavily striped gathering of MacBook carriers and cases, and even an iPhone case. And nothing says “boating” more than a copious helping of stripes. But the bags aren’t just all about looks; they’re also all constructed of tough, water-resistant waxed canvas. I can practically hear the seagulls.
That’s right — instead of a case that turns your iPhone into a wallet, Wally, the latest Kickstarter project from Distil Union, sort of does the opposite. It’s a slip of leather that attaches to the back of an iPhone 4 or 5 via something called “micro-suction,” and creates a cavity with just about enough space for three of your most-used cards.
