Celluon Magic Cube Laser Projection Keyboard and Touchpad

Posted on January 31, 2012 by gadgets

Keyboard projected onto desktop using a laser

The Celluon Magic Cube turns any table or surface into a virtual keyboard or multi-touch mouse with its amazing laser projection and motion detection technology. The Magic Cube is smaller than a pack of cards – easy to use, and a great travel companion projection keyboard for mobile, tablet, and laptop devices. Do read the reviews on Amazon, it isn’t so much magic as a bit of cool engineering that might be a bit ahed of ready for prime time. Still if you like to try cutting edge gadgets and are willing to accept the drawbacks they sometimes have, this might be worth looking into.

Projects a virtual laser keyboard onto any table and detects keystrokes. The experience of typing on a projected keyboard is different than a standard keyboard. Projects a condensed QWERTY layout. The Magic Cube detects movement just above the surface of each projected key. Practice using included tips is recommended. Devices with automatic keystroke correction, like the iPad, iPhone, and iPod improve accuracy significantly.
Acts as a standard keyboard via Bluetooth (wireless) or USB (wired)–no drivers needed
Great companion wireless keyboard for tablets and touch phones. Small. Light. Charges via USB
Compatible with Win XP SP2+, Mac 10.4+, iOS 4.3.5+ (iPhone/iPod/iPad), etc
Mouse mode projects a standard two-finger multi-touch pad (Windows 7 only. Not iOS capable)

Try on Clothes and Accessories Virtually

Posted on January 17, 2012 by gadgets

FaceCake Swivel lets you try on clothes at home taking advantage of Kinect technology. Very cool. Kinect continues to allow some great innovation.

The application allows you to try on multiple items, layer them and see how they look from different angles (as you move the items move with you – it is true that this is still pretty rough, but given how fast innovation moves this part will likely improve quickly). You can also send an image to friends to have them weigh in on your potential purchase.

I haven’t been following that closely but my vague recollection is Kinect backed off attempting to prohibit innovation that integrated connect into other products. That was a very smart move, I believe.

Self Balancing Enclosed Motorcycle

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Gadgets

Very cool. I believe small cars and easily hourly rentable cars are going to dramatically increase in use in the future. This may well be one option. It looks fun.

The C1 is fully electric and gets 150 miles per charge. Lit Motors has target price is $13,000 with production starting in 2013.

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Storing and Sharing the Photos You Take with Various Gadgets

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Gadgets

Cell phone cameras have greatly increased the number of photos most of us have to share. Once you have them how to share them is the next question. There are various options that are pretty good for those that like them but also with some limitation: facebook (I don’t use it), Google’s Picasa (I don’t at all like how rigid Google is in how things are handled), Flickr and Smugbug (along with many others). I ran across a new site that seems like it might be nice: OpenPhoto.

The easiest way to signup is to use your dropbox account, for storage. If you don’t have a dropbox account yet, sign up (it is free).

Get an invite code (they are in an early, limited release right now). You can just email them or follow them on Twitter and send them a request.
Sign up (select the option to “Store originals in my personal Dropbox account”)
You will then be prompted to login to Dropbox to complete the integration
Then follow very easy add and upload photo process, that you are taken to.

If you have dropbox already, it should take less than 2 minutes to be up and running.

Good job, OpenPhoto. One feature I would like is to be able to edit the date of the photo (I have photos from the 1970s saying they are 5 months old (when converted to digital images) and I don’t see a way to edit it yet. This project is new, so that isn’t surprising. It would be nice to see that updated at some point.

Overall, it is very easy to use, and I really like how it keeps the photos in your control (to the extent your dropbox [or whatever you use] space is in your control). Very easy to assign rights (all rights reserved – or various creative commons licenses or your own license); on a per photo basis. You can also make photos public or private (for viewing over the web).

Unless you are sharing originals so other can print them out, for archival purposes (or something similar) you are probably wise to save the images in a much smaller file size. There is really no reason to upload 2 Mb images for people to look at on their monitor (unless there are going to zoom in like crazy). You can reduce the file sizes dramatically and what people see on their monitor will not change.

Here are my photos. It took me less than 10 minutes (and most of that was finding the photos and editing the text) for the first 2 I uploaded.

You can make groups, which is nice. Hopefully this allows you to share photos with groups (or will, at some point). I haven’t figured that part out yet. The software is open source, which I like. The idea behind it is to have something like wordpress that provide software that you can run for your own blog but this time it is to manage your own photos.

Boxee Box – HD Streaming Media Player

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Gadgets

The Boxee Box is quite an excellent media hub. The Boxee allows you to manage your content and connect to the internet (by wireless or wired). You can even try out Boxee before you buy the box.

Download Boxee’s software and try it for free on your computer first, they will automatically import your account when you’re ready to buy a Boxee Box and bring the experience to your HDTV. Get tons of free stuff, and pay for the premium content you want. No monthly bill. No more paying for stuff you never watch.

You need to use you computer or external storage (the Boxee doesn’t have storage in the box) to watch your own content.

Boxee back

Gadgets to Mask Noise and Help You Sleep or Concentrate

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Gadgets

Some people (me, for example) are bothered by noise much more than others are. I find it hard to sleep or concentrate when I am being distracted by random noises. Sound proofing (to prevent the noise from getting to you) is wonderful but often can not take care of all noise problems. In this case you essentially have to mask the noise with other noise.

Sleep Mate sound machine - it is small ( 5.8 x 5.8 x 3.8 inches ; 1.6 pounds)

Fans do this reasonable well, actually. But they are designed for something else and can have annoying noise signatures themselves.

The Sound Conditioner is a device specifically designed to produce sound similar to that of a fan but many (including me) find the sound more soothing than a fan. It is also very adjustable. But basically it just produces white noise by blowing air through adjustable openings. It also is nice if you don’t want to blow the air around your room (as a fan will do). It does require 115 volts (the leve used in the USA). They have an identical version called the Sleep Mate (but if you want something for an office the word, sleep can bother some managers). I would suggest getting the dual speed version (that is what I have).

Ecotones sound machine (it is also small 6.3 x 4.5 x 5.5 inches ; 2 pounds)

The Ecotones Sound + Sleep Machine is a great device that creates various noises (stream, ocean, fireplace, rainfall, meadow…). One great feature of this device is that it has a microphone it uses to hear the noise level and then adjusts to increase the volume it produces to mask the noise pollution. It also will accept 100-240 volts (it has a transformer itself – like computer laptops do). It is very good for low levels of noise pollution (I would say under 60 decibels). However high levels it has to get so loud to mask them that it isn’t very useful.

Aakash Android Tablet from India: $35 for Indian Students, $60 Retail

Posted on October 27, 2011 by gadgets

Aakash Tablet from Venturebeat on Vimeo.

The Indian government has created a very interesting tablet for students in India. The 7 inch display tablet device is runs Android and is remarkably powerful given the price. Obviously it isn’t as responsive as devices like Amazon’s Fire.
Video on this cheap device from India works very well.

Aakash Android Table Review

The components inside the Aakash tablet are cheap, and easily sourced. For example, the Aakash tablet has a headphone jack and an audio-in jack, but no external speakers — an obvious cost-savings measure. However, with the addition of cheap headphones, and an equally cheap microphone, the owner can make calls on Skype and has the potential to communicate with people around the world.

The screen is pressure sensitive (also called resistive touch) and responds somewhat slowly to gestures. It’s definitely not as dazzling as the high-end tablets familiar to Western audiences, such as the capacitive touchscreen iPad
…
What makes the Aakash tablet different is that its creators didn’t strive for perfection. Instead, the emphasis was on getting the product into the market quickly so it could be adopted, tinkered with, and improved over time. As Wadhwa said, “to get the cost down, you have to make some compromises.”

The unmistakable impression we all got from using the Aakash tablet was that it is built for performance. Every design choice that might seem like a negative reveals three, four, five — or more — net benefits.

Why does it have two USB ports? So you can plug in a keyboard, of course, and still have a free slot for an external hard drive, or some other device. What about that screen cover that seems like it’s made from laminating material? If the tablet is meant for educational use, it’s probably going to have to contend with some pretty rough handling, dirt, dust and moisture. Better that it should withstand damage than look the extra bit nicer.

I really love to see gadgets aimed at the majority of the world’s population instead of only the rich. Gadgets aimed at the rich are pretty darn cool and fun. And I like them. I just also love to see us looking to create gadgets everyone can use.

Noah Escape Pod

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Gadgets

With the recent tragedy that hit Japan, Japanese companies have dedicated their time to finding solutions on how they could cope with threats from tsunami and natural disasters in the future. A small company named Cosmo Power came up with one answer with the Noah capsule.

Made from fiberglass, this capsule can hold up to 4 adults inside. Th gigantic tennis ball looking shelter has been tested to withstand crashes and impacts, even simulated dangers one could expect during earthquakes and tsunami. There is a small window so one can see outside and breathing holes located at the top. Recalling the videos of the Tsunami it is possible to imagine how this could have helped many of the victims of that recent tragedy.

Since the completion of Cosmo Power’s ark version, over 600 orders have been placed, at about $4,000 each. Hopefully, it can help save lives in any future calamities.

The video is in Japanese.

Zojirushi Rice Cooker and Warmer

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Gadgets

Imagine cooking perfect rice all the time that is a quality like of a restaurant rice but cooked it right at the comfort of home. Unbelievable? Well, actually it is possible with Zojirushi rice cooker. This is a no ordinary rice cooker because Zijorushi NS-LAC05XA uses the Fuzzy logic technology which controls the temperature of the rice cooker to let users cook any kind of rice, even rice like sushi, porridge, brown and white. Its front panel control has a colored LCD to display the timer and clock function. Cooked rice is always perfect and served hot all the time because Zojirushi rice cooker has an automatic warmer to keep the rice warm until you are ready to serve it.

The NS-LAC05XA rice cooker and warmer measures 11.5” x 9” x 7.25” which can cook up to 3 cups of rice in its non-stick inner pan. Its compact size is perfect for small kitchens. The retractable cord and spatula holder keeps the rice cooker tidy looking. This 450 watt Zojirushi rice cooker and warmer is not only stylish in design with its clear coated stainless, but is also durable which comes with a 1 year warranty.

Take a look at the many very positive reviews on Amazon, here are 2 short quotes from a couple of those reviews, The only way to make rice:

I set the timer in the morning and the rice is ready when I come home from work. When I walk in the door, my apartment smells of cooked rice, — which is surprisingly pleasant. The timer is a must especially for brown rice which takes one hour and 40 minutes to cook. If I come home late, the rice is still okay since it automatically goes into a keep warm mode when the cycle is completed.

Absolutely Love This Rice Cooker

The quality of rice and beans has been outstanding. Plus I can’t get over how much money I’m saving by not buying take-out, and I get to season the food to my liking. There is hardly any food that is cheaper, more comforting or nutritious than rice and beans, and you can keep the oil and butter to a minimum to keep the calories low while not feeling deprived.

Amazon’s Android Tablet, Kindle Fire, is Very Attractively Priced

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Gadgets

Amazon has unveiled their new Android Tablet and it sells for just $199 for a 7″ multi-touch display. The tablet can use wifi but not cell phone signals to access the internet. Just this week, Amazon, also announced the large amount of content, available to USA Amazon customers only, that subscribe to Amazon Prime. I never really cared about faster shipping but features like a large library of content available for free streaming of 10,000 movies and TV shows makes the package very attractive, I think. The Kindle Fire is another in the long list of innovations from Amazon. I am very impressed with their management, leadership and willingness to focus on the long term and take risks with their investments.

The Amazon Fire has a heavily Amazon modified Android operating system. Amazon doesn’t do a good job of explaining what the limits on their marketing material the share really are. They hide how few people really have access to some features (like saying “18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books” – without mentioning much of that is available to less than 5% of the population). Since they don’t make that clear, it is hard to know what other limitations they don’t make clear so outside the USA (95% of the population) you are on your own to guess what features are really available to you.

It has most of the features you would expect of a Android tablet: the ability to use the internet, app market, etc.

Unlike the previous Kindle options this offers color touch screen. Amazon is keeping the digital ink Kindle’s as their suggested book reading choice. Heavy users of the book reading function will likely keep a Kindle digital ink device. But the new device can also serve as a book reader, there are limitations of the current color technology that mean it just isn’t as great for long hours of book reading.

Amazon is touting the “cloud-accelerated” browser which does sound like a worthwhile innovation taking advantage of their Amazon Web Services cloud (AWS). The Amazon Silk browser is different in a radical new way. When you use Silk, without thinking about it or doing anything explicit, you’re calling on the computing speed and power of the AWS. We’ve refactored and rebuilt the browser software stack to push pieces of the computation into the AWS cloud. This lets Silk do more work, more quickly, and all at once.

Silk browser software resides both on Kindle Fire and on the massive server fleet that comprises the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). With each page request, Silk dynamically determines a division of labor between the mobile hardware and Amazon EC2 (i.e. which browser sub-components run where) that takes into consideration factors like network conditions, page complexity and the location of any cached content.

Amazon EC2 is always connected to the backbone of the Internet where round-trip latency is 5 milliseconds or less to most web sites rather than the 100 milliseconds that’s typical over wireless connections. AWS also has peering relationships with major internet service providers, and many top sites are hosted on EC2. This means that many web requests will never leave the extended infrastructure of AWS, reducing transit times to only a few milliseconds. This is good, latency is an important, and often overlooked technical issue. It also seems a bit misleading, I think the latency your device experiences interacting with the cloud is higher (the technical details Amazon is touting are talking about communication within the cloud – which is good and helpful, just not quite as good as it sounds). The silk browser technology looks to be a very big innovation that will be very useful.

The price of the Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet illustrates once again that Amazon is still practicing what Jeff Bezos’ believes: driving down costs to customers and customer focus.

There are two kinds of companies, those that work to try to charge more and those that work to charge less.

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