Month: June 2015

Categories
Imaging

Valo could have value for photographers needing flexible lighting

Getting the right amount of light is a frequent challenge for digital photographers, whether they are shooting still images or video.

The makers of Valo set out to solve that challenge by developing a programmable, modular LED flash for photography and video lighting. Photographers can use it as a flash or as a constant light source. It can be used as a main light, a hair light, a fill light or a background light. The open-source device is ready to use out of the box and features a micro-controller, and upgradeable firmware. Valo costs $189 and will ship in December. Its makers are hoping to raise $55,000 via Indiegogo by June 28.

Valo offers multiple lighting solutions in one affordable device, so it should come in handy for many photographers. One of the things that sets it apart is that the photographer can combine multiple units together to create a larger unit without wires, using the product’s internal magnets. Its wire-free nature extends to charging as each unit comes with its own internal battery and charges by USB. That may result in having to charge multiple units , but could take less time than charging a larger unit.

Categories
Cycling Music Technology

BikeMic keeps cyclists in tune with their playlist and environment

Riding a bike through any environment is already somewhat dangerous depending on the amount of pedestrian traffic and cars present. What makes it even more dangerous is the use of headphones while riding, something many people do that significantly increases the risk of serious, or even fatal, injury.

People love their music, though, and aren’t so easily persuaded away from it. BikeMic makes the choice easy by providing a mic that connects headphones with its music device to funnel in ambient noises. This way, those noises are mixed in with the music to give riders the best of both worlds. With BikeMic, riders can still hear the cars, people, and conversations around them, all without having to take their headphones off.

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Categories
Maker/Development

Musio robot may be music to the ears of AI fans, kids

The most widely-used personal assistant application remains Apple’s Siri. But, as many iPhone and iPad users know, it is pretty difficult to engage in a true conversation with Siri because its software can only do what it’s been programmed to do by Apple.

Musio is a cross between a robotic toy along the lines of Sony’s long-discontined AIBO and a personal assistant. The Android-based device features artificial intelligence and was designed to engage and grow with its user, while its Arduino-compatible board enables the device to do whatever the user asks, its maker says. It is being fielded in three separate versions, each featuring a different brain.

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Categories
Podcasts

Backerjack Podcast #19: Peers for your Ears and Cooking with Brains

In Episode 19 of the Backerjack Podcast, Steve and Ross check out some of the latest products seeking funds and preorders:’

  • June, a smart oven that can recognize food and cook it for you.
  • Aumeo, an adapter for headphones that checks how you optimally hear audio and tunes music for each ear.

Download the episode or listen below, subscribe via iTunes or RSS, and follow Backerjack on Twitter and Facebook. Also check out Steve’s great work on Apple World Today!

 

Categories
Connected Objects Cooking

June smart oven cooks for you all months of the year

Cooking at home can be the ticket to lower dining costs and better health metrics, but many people have a limited culinary repertoire and sometimes even less skill. Indeed, cooling remains one of the few arts that can help sustain us or at least allow us to better enjoy  a critical component of life.

June is a countertop convection oven that can cook a wide range of foods via a number of techniques. including roasting, toasting and broiling.Among the tech components that differentiate it from similar looking devices are a 5″ touchscreen on its front and a n HD camera that can relay video to a smartphone, providing easy answers to the perennial question, “What’s cooking?” Its smartphone app can also show the progress of a cooking task graphically.

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Categories
Connected Objects Music

Aumeo headphone adapter lets everyone make personalized sound decisions

What makes for great audio? Readers of different headphone reviews may often find that experts disagree because what one person considers great audio quality may differ from another.

patent-claimedThat is due in part because everyone’s ears are different, in fact, as unique as fingerprints according to the team behind Aumeo, a small slim square device that takes Bluetooth audio from any device and sends it to the wearer’s choice of wired headphone. Six years in development, the Aumeo adapter works with an app to figure out the optimal hearing profile of each ear via a one-time use app and then from there processes all subsequent sound to the user’s benefit.

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Categories
Sleep Technology

SensorWake alarm clock helps you arise with aroma

It’s pretty hard to make a unique alarm clock. After all, no matter how many bells and whistles a manufacturer adds to such a device, it’s still going to wake people up using sounds –- be it the radio or more traditional annoying alarm sounds.

patent-claimedSensorWake, however, is an original twist on the alarm clock, using the sense of smell to wake users up. It uses patented technology that enables a scent to be released from fragrance capsules at a specified time. One capsule can be reused up to 60 times and the device will wake users up in less than two minutes each time, according to consumer tests that were conducted on more than 100 people, its developer says.

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Categories
Smart Home

Presence home security system keeps the sensors, skips the fees

Everyone wants to keep their home safe. Not everyone wants to pay the sometimes steep monitoring fees associated with doing so. The result? Houses everywhere essentially are left unprotected.

The Presence home security system gives both renters and homeowners peace of mind without taking a piece of their wallet with it.  It uses the cameras and Wi-Fi connectivity of the spare smartphones and tablets most people already have, and puts them to use alongside a variety of sensors, like motion and temperature, to keep any household safe from intruders, flooding, and a variety of other problems.

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Categories
Organization

EazyPac helps pills and other small necessities come along for the ride.

Ever tossed a container into a backpack or diaper bag and had the contents spill on everything?  Or had to carry multiple containers for liquids or pastes, and another type for solids, just to avoid leaks?

The Eazy Pac is an all-in-one container that collapses to take up almost no room. The Eazy Pac is great for baby food, small snacks like nuts, and even shampoos and conditioners when traveling. Versatility is the name of the game, and it’s easy to use one container for multiple purposes. Due to the wide-mouth design, the washes easily so users get that peace of mind between uses. The containers also come in various colors, so they’re easy to identify without having to open them. For $17, backers get a pack of two in August 2015, and the creators hope to raise $30,000 by June 12, 2015.

A walk through any Container Store will yield no shortage of small containers that compete with the EasyPac. However, the product’s collapsible nature sets it apart somewhat.

Categories
Food and Beverage

Miito is a mighty quick and energy-efficient way to heat liquids

The standard method used to heat liquids including water has been with a kettle or pot. But that traditional system often leads to a lot of waste of water and other liquids because people tend to heat more than they actually use. The traditional heating method also requires a lot of energy.

Miito is a device designed to solve those issues. It is made up of a small, circular induction base unit that the user places a cup or any other vessel on and a heating rod that then gets placed inside the vessel and quickly brings the water, soup or almost any other liquid to a boil. Miito will cost about $100 when it ships in April 2016. Its makers set a Kickstarter goal of raising $167,383 by June 14.

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