Month: June 2015

Categories
Smartwatches/Bands

PureWrist band purifies payments of filthy money

With Apple’s ApplePay having made the splash it has, and Google nipping at its heels with Android Pay, the contactless payment arena is a crowded battleground. It may seem like there’s little reason to try to create alternatives considering how widely adopted both systems have the chance to be.

But that’s not stopping newcomer PureWrist from introducing their own. The bracelet takes a more traditional approach to contactless payment, incorporating the Gratitude prepaid debit card within its stylish, water resistant, silicone construction. Supported by the MasterCard network, the Gratitude uses an embedded antenna that lets users connect their own bank or PayPal accounts and pay with their bracelets at those increasingly common payment points everywhere.

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Categories
Imaging

SnapPal’s out to be a photographer’s best friend

There are many camera triggers on the market that are used to help photographers create time lapse photography. Some of them allow users to add their own sensor to a device, while others can also enable motion control or water drop photography. But it’s difficult to find one product that can do all of those and other functions, which means photographers who want all that functionality must buy different devices from different vendors at a potentially large cost.

SnapPal is a camera trigger that was designed to perform multiple functions and can be used for high-speed photography, time lapse, motion control, and water drop photography, according to its Kickstarter campaign. Other capabilities include bulb mode, allowing the user to increase or decrease exposure by varying the shutter’s opening time while performing time lapse. SnapPal comes with an infrared remote control, so there is no need for a smartphone app to control it as there is with the CamsFormer triggering system. The device costs $99 and will ship in August. Its maker set a campaign goal of raising $10,500 by July 9.

One drawback is that the remote looks a bit clunky. Some photographers will likely prefer to use a smartphone app. SnapPal also won’t work with every camera on the market. It does, however, apparently support many models, including most Canon and Nikon digital single-lens reflex cameras, Pentax K series cameras, Panasonic GH series cameras, and the A7R, A7S, A57, A58, NEX-3NL, NEX6, A65 and A77 from Sony, according to SnapPal’s maker.

 

Categories
Accents Connected Objects

SmartMirror, SmartMirror on the wall tells you who’s the most informed of them all

Humans are a vain species, spending upwards of two weeks a year prettying themselves up in front of mirrors. The SmartMirror is looking to give people the option of making that time more informative and entertaining.

The 15 pound, 1920×1080 edge to edge LCD not only serves as a mirror but also serves up the time and date, calendar appointments, weather, news, Twitter mentions, sports scores, data from other connected products in the home, or even cat facts if the user is so inclined.  And with its embedded Raspberry Pi B+ and Wi-Fi connectivity, widget possibilities are limited only by what people end up developing for it.

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Categories
Smartwatches/Bands

Cogito Fit takes on geeky smartwatch competitors with style, simplicity and savings

Think wearables and the smartwatch inevitably springs to mind. With us firmly in the age of the Apple Watch, entrenched stalwarts like the Moto 360 and the Pebble are fighting to stay within the public eye through innovative offerings and novel form factors. All this going on doesn’t mean new ideas can’t spring up, though.

The Cogito Fit attempts to tack on a bit more functionality to a basic smartwatch without resorting to daily charging . Billing itself as the first fashion-forward connected watch on the market, the device not only looks good but also addresses a few limitations of high-end devices. Cogito offers a face with LED icons for basic notifications, straps in a few colors, and a bezel that can be swapped depending on preference.

Feature wise, the Cogito Fit functions like most other smartwatches in its notification capabilities, and when its done alerting someone to what e-mails, SMS, calls, and social media updates they have, a light activity tracker also tracks steps.

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Categories
Maker/Development

Form-Mate vacuum former gives your vacuum cleaner something else to do

Model makers, DIY enthusiast, and those dabbling in 3D printing have a need to create plastic copies quickly. For this, most use the simple process of vacuum forming, or the heating and stretching of a thermoforming sheet over a previously created mould. What isn’t simple at all or the current vacuum forming machines available, which can be large, complex, and expensive.

The Form-Mate is a vacuum forming machine on a diet, even if it’s 24 kg weight doesn’t seem so slim.  A bunch of features make it worth using, though., These include compatibility with household vacuum cleaners, customizable and savable settings, and ability to be folded. The Form-Mate is priced at $544, and is expected to be delivered by August 2015. Its $5,444 campaign goal is looking to be funded by July 22, 2015.

Compared to other vacuum forming machines, the Form-Mate offers improvement in many different areas; it can replicate a large variety of items due to its size. Even with this considered, this is a very niche product that will have trouble reaching its small target audience.

Categories
Games Sports Toys

On Wheelz fuses shoes and skates, makes crowded streets a roller derby

Remember those Fisher Price skates everyone had as a kid? They transformed sneakers into skates, and for most kids, they were the coolest thing ever.

On Wheelz has taken that simple idea one step further. They’ve upgraded this common kids’ toy into a grown-up mode of transportation. Wear stylish sneakers or dress shoes that snap on to the skate “chassis”, and get rolling! The On Wheelz concept is elegant and simple. In the factory, the name-brand sneakers and dress shoes are fitted with a snapping port in the sole. The port slides into the four-wheel chassis, and all bets are off. The creators are hoping to reach a goal of $32,851 by June 30th, 2015 and deliver in Oct 2015. Backers can pay $356 for a pair of the skates (stylish shoes included!)

Personal transportation doesn’t come much more discreet than this adult version of Heelys, but it’s certainly more apt for recreation than the daily commute. The company also offer a service where a backer can send in their shoes and have them retrofitted with the port, making this product unique and customizable.

Categories
Input

ProxLok locks your computer screen when you walk away from it

Computer security remains critically important, especially when in public places. Fingerprint readers are increasingly being used as a solution, but once computer users logs in using such a system, they must then remember to log out every time they walk away from the computer for even a few seconds.

patent-claimedProxLok is out to provide a better solution. It’s a proximity-based biometric login device that plugs into a computer via USB. It comes equipped with a fingerprint reader and uses Bluetooth to detect the presence of the computer user’s cellphone. When the computer user walks a few feet away from the computer, the device automatically locks the computer screen. If users don’t have their cellphones with them, after logging in, ProxLok will warn them that it can’t detect their cellphones and ask if they want it to periodically request a fingerprint scan to keep them logged onto the computer. ProxLok costs $179 and ships in November. Its maker is hoping to raise $175,000 by June 17.

Proximity technology has been used in several products already, including Loxet, which automatically locks a car as soon as the driver walks away from it. ProxLok’s most obvious flaw is that many computer users are smart enough not to walk away from their computer when they are in a public place. However, there’s always that quick excursion to the  cafe bathroom for which it may defend against prying eyes at least until more smartwatches can implement these features.

Categories
Cycling

RideAir portable tire inflater will pump you up on the go

It’s pretty amazing what the single press of a button can do for people nowadays. Controlling music, brewing coffees, opening garage doors — the applications for connected technology are effectively endless. However, there’s been no button to press to deal with the inconvenience of flat tires.

RideAir extends that one button utility to flat tires, using an 22 oz. aluminum canister holding 300 psi of compressed air to rapidly inflate both Presta and Shrader tires, or anything else for that matter with a suitable needle adapter.  This gets about 1.5 full tires for a standard 700mm x 25mm road bike tire, and more or less based on size and use.

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Categories
Luggage and Bags

GoBag gives clothes a squeeze to dodge luggage fees

Check or carry-on? With added charges and overages, more passengers are squeezing everything they can into those overhead bins.

The GoBag is a versatile bag designed with the journey in mind. The “Works” package includes the Max Pack Bag to pack clothes and other soft items. Then, by hand or vacuum, the bag compresses down for more carry-on space. There’s also an adaptable harness for a laptop, so it’s protected and easy to grab at security. The GoBag also features a clear “washbag” that detaches and slides right into the airport bins. The creators of the product ask $180 for “The Works”, and they are hoping to raise $70,392 by June 24th, 2015, with expected delivery in Oct 2015.

The GoBag brings the concept behind the long-available Space Bag to luggage. This rugged carry-on features zippers all around, so everything is easy to access on the go. Of course, if you need to pack things other than clothes that are easily compressible, it may have limited value.

Categories
Smart Home

The flick of a switch turns on all the lights with LampLink

To create the perfect ambiance in any room, the right amount of lighting is necessary. Most of the time, though, a room’s outlet placement can limit the kinds of lighting arrangements possible, forcing people to place a lamp somewhere they don’t want it to be.

LampLink is a transmitter/receiver system that allows a user to control all the lights in a room at once without the use of a smartphone. The transmitter is plugged in to a wall switch connected outlet, while the transmitters are plugged into lamps. When the wall switch is flicked on, all other lamps connected are turned on as well.

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