Author: Michael Radon

Categories
Connected Objects Lighting Music

Playbulb is a connected light that plays music

Music is something everyone can enjoy privately, but all it takes is the right lighting to make it perfect for any party.

PLAYBULB color is another combination smart lightbulb and wireless speaker, offering multiple configurations of light shows, a spectrum of colors, and thumping sound to turn any room into a party room. Using Bluetooth 4.0, PLAYBULB color supports modern iOS and Android devices firmwares, and can also update its own firmware to allow for new features.

With a range of 30 feet, PLAYBULB color streams music from any smartphone or tablet and can change color on the fly or even every time a phone has been shaken, to create personal choreographed light shows. The PLAYBULB color can also be set up in any E26 or E27 lamp to stream ambient light and music for sleeping or as a wake-up alarm. Developer MIPOW only needs $10,000 to bring these bulbs to shelves, and backers can install one for $49 in January.

PLAYBULB color is neither the most innovative product on the market nor the most practical, as colored light often does very little illumination. That being said, it’s a great addition to any dorm room, bedroom, or any room where ambience is key.

Categories
Health and Wellness Wearables

Aqua 100 swim trainer provides strategies for your strokes

Activity trackers are great ways to not only stay in shape, but improve a workout from the ground up. Plenty of devices handle this task easily, but for those that prefer to push themselves through swimming, there are a number of hurdles an activity tracker needs to jump beyond just being waterproof.

The Aqua-100 is a personal swimming coach that gives real-time information without interrupt the rhythm and motions of swimming. Worn by strapping it onto the back of the hand, the Aqua-100 monitors laps, distance, number of strokes, stroke rate, and even what direction the swimmer is moving in. Because it’s worn on the back of the hand, swimmers can see this data as they extend their arms forward in mid-stroke, keeping the swimmer afloat and active. The information displayed can be changed by twisting the wrist twice, keeping the device easy and intuitive to use.

With a standard digital LED display with backlighting, the Aqua-100 is as easy to read as it is to use. The data tracked using the device during swimming can be uploaded to a computer as well, allowing avid swimmers to track their performance over time. The Aqua-100 is nearly ready to go to market, but needs $40,000 to be prepared for production. Swimmers can get their hand in one for $129, shipping in February 2015.

Having a dedicated tracker for a specific kind of workout is a must-have for athletes at any level and those who are passionate about a particular form of fitness. The Aqua-100 is an extremely functional device great for those that prefer to swim laps or just enjoy the water, but aesthetically the device lacks the flair of what people expect from activity trackers. If function trumps form, and swimming is the preferred exercise of choice, then Aqua-100 will be a sure buy.

Categories
Camping Chargers/Batteries

WakaWaka returns with a solar charging power kit

Kickstarter success story WakaWaka already has a history of creating simple, innovative devices that harness solar power into personal electricity. Now, they tackle a situation in which electricity stops being an option. The WakaWaka Base is a portable “power and light first aid kit” that includes a foldable solar panel and base that can connect to LED flashlights, phones, or any USB device to charge it. The solar panel is strong enough to charge even on cloudy days, and the base can hold enough charge to power a week of light or five full smartphone charges with no additional solar energy.

Ideal for any storm preparedness kit, camping gear, or car trunk, the WakaWaka Base ensures that nobody ever has to worry about being stranded and having their phone battery die on them or having to wander around in the dark. WakaWaka needs $70,000 to test, manufacture, and release the Base. The peace of mind the Base provides costs only $89, and will be out in May 2015. This kind of product innovation is what makes WakaWaka products so popular, and there’s no reason why any smartphone user or homeowner should be without the WakaWaka Base.

Categories
Cell Phone Accessories Smart Home

Rico reuses your older smartphone into a smart home station

Keeping current with the latest smartphones is a battle with many casualties, namely all the old phones that just wind up in a closet or a drawer collecting dust. What if there was still a way to put their processors to use?

Rico is a cute little smart home sensor package that can function basically on its own to do motion detection, smoke monitoring, and controlling devices connected to smart outlets. What makes Rico unique however is that it also serves as a housing for smartphones, that combines the strengths of smartphone hardware with home automation sensors. As a result, this opens up the possibility of having an HD security camera with microphone and speaker connected via 3G and Wifi.

In doing so, Rico pushes two important realities of the modern age: finding a use for devices that are too often simply discarded or forgotten and helping consumers more easily enter the era of the smart home. Rico developers MindHelix, Inc. are trying to raise $100,000 to finish design, testing, and production phases on the project. Interested supporters can grab a Rico for $99, with an estimated delivery in November 2015.

While the individual feature set of the Rico may not be anything groundbreaking, the method that it goes about accomplishing home automation is very clever. It would be nice to see the addition of a smartphone provide more than just audio/video functions and network access, but ideally this will help some consumers save money on home automation.

Categories
Television

Vega Android TV box apes Sony’s 4K set top puck

Like the original transition from black and white to color TVs, and then SD to HD, the time has come for people to start the upgrade to 4K TVs. With Sony pioneering the technology, getting an alternative product may be difficult at first.

The Vega S82 4K set top box is incredibly similar to Sony’s 4K set top in terms of functionality, features, and even design. The key difference between the two is that the Vega S82 runs an Android OS on a Quad-Core processor and has customizable user interfaces and more. The campaign is looking for just $5,000, though the purpose for those funds is not stated. Supporters can get a Vega S82 for $200 in December.

Having more options for 4K media is a welcome addition to the market, but there just aren’t enough details about this product to instill consumer confidence. With a few technical specs, a very unimpressive pitch video, and not much else, it’s difficult to make a determination if this is a worthy competitor to Sony or just a product that’s more concept than reality.

Categories
Pets Sensors/IoT

Pod pet locator can withstand the elements

When a pet goes missing, it creates a tense situation full of nerves and panic as the family members try and locate a living being that could be absolutely anywhere and is unable to pick up a phone or write.

Pod is a GPS tracker that can be clipped onto a pet’s collar that provides a mixture of tracking and social features to push notifications to phones when a dog or cat goes wandering off  unsupervised. In addition to being able to simply locate a pet, Pod functions as a sort of local social network for pet owners to compare running speeds or area explored. The tracker is lightweight and waterproof, so it won’t risk shorting out and won’t weigh the pet down or make it uncomfortable. Pod needs $50,000 to do its part in preventing lost pets. At the $149 pledge level, supporters can get this real time tracker and attach it to their beloved pets.

Anything that can prevent a lost or endangered pet is a great tool to have, although a lot of the core design is built around letting pets run free. That kind of attitude is not global, and owners will still be responsible for their pet’s behavior, so buyers beware.

Categories
Imaging

Elephant Steady is a smart, affordable smartphone video stabilizer

Amateur movie makers around the world have learned that while a smartphone may be a great tool to have on hand in terms of video quality and convenience, the shaky, unprofessional shots can be distracting. Quality video requires a stabilizer, and a stabilizer should have some personality.

Elephant Steady was a project that received funding on Kickstarter and Campfire, but developer Adplus was disappointed that the stretch goal to offermultiple colors was unmet, so they’ve taken to Indiegogo to offer five new colors.

With a variety of different colors available, backers are able to vote for their favorites, and the five colors that receive the most votes will be created for distribution and sent out to backers. Adplus is asking to supplement their original campaign with $10,000 to customize colors. Backers can get their Elephant Steady for $79 to ship out in February 2015.

The Elephant Steady itself seems like a handy stabilizer for iPhones, with a solid construction, and anyone who missed out on the first campaign should check this out. Starting a new campaign to fund an unmet stretch goal might not yield the most positive results however, especially for something as superficial as new colors.

Categories
Television Video Games

G-Pack packs a gaming PC into a TV

As SteamOS makes the move for PC gaming into the living room possible, it also allows manufacturers the freedom to do unheard of things with gaming PCs. The living room follows more aesthetic guidelines than the boxy, gaudy features that many computers tend to obey, so those interested in making Steam Machines have an extra challenge to meet.

The G-Pack is an incredibly well-designed gaming PC designed to offer access to Steam and all the latest PC games without cluttering the living room. The thin box comes with a universal mount and is meant to be affixed to the back of flat screen displays no matter their size or how they’ve been mounted. In order to keep wires and cables easy to access, the G-Pack can even be stretched out to more comfortably hug wider displays.

More than just a pretty face, the standard G-Pack is as easy to upgrade as any PC and comes with some powerful hardware. With the latest Nvidia GeForce video cards, a minimum of 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and a mixture of 1TB or larger hard drives and solid state drives, these machines are built to handle hardcore, graphically intense gaming. G-Pack creator PiixL is asking for $150,000 to bring G-Pack to production. Backers can get their game on for $1,645 for the base system.

The Steam Machines platform is already facing an identity crisis, trying to figure out what sets them apart from any decent gaming PC. A hardware design like G-Pack is a great response that keeps living rooms clean and sharp while opening the door to a whole platform of popular and fun games. Its smart aesthetic design will bring fun to the room without cluttering the walls and floors with cables.

Categories
Cell Phone Accessories

Snap 6 lets you activate the new iPhone’s camera remotely

Even though the age of the selfie has progressed to the word finding a home in the Oxford Dictionary, the process isn’t perfect. From dropped phones to fingers accidentally blocking the lens, a lot can go wrong with a simple selfie.

SNAP! 6 wants to fix the issues that come up when trying to capture that perfect self-shot. Aside from being a functional iPhone 6 case with a widened base grip to make the phone easier to hold with one hand away from the camera, SNAP! 6 includes an actual shutter button to make the process more intuitive and allows for interchangeable lenses to fit the situation. Taiwanese developers bitplay Inc. need $20,000 to manufacture the SNAP! 6. Selfie takers can pledge $35 to get one of these cases by December in a variety of four colors.

There are plenty of cases dedicated to making the photographic side of phones a more intuitive experience, and this seems to be one of the best at more closely emulating the traditional camera. iPhone users will be able to flaunt this one above their Android-loving friends with plenty of high-quality, braggadocious selfies.

Categories
Smartwatches/Bands

Epic cell phone watch is another spin on the wrist communicator

Google, Apple, Samsung, and other tech giants may not always agree on much, but if their product lines are any indication, they all seem to agree that the smartwatch is the next big thing that people won’t be able to live without.

Add Epic to that list of companies. This new startup has developed working prototypes of “watchphones” that can be worn on the wrist or on a necklace or lanyard. Unlike some smartwatches, the Epic Mini Pendant Phone and the Epic Signature Edition watchphone function completely independently of any other devices, with touch-screen displays, activity tracking, and a 74-hour battery with 6 hours of talk time. Team Epic has set a curious goal of $300 to begin production. Backers can pick up an Epic Signature Edition watchphone for $249 or the Mini Pendant Phone for $200 in February 2015.

The rise of smartphones was predicated on giving people PC functionality on a portable, powerful device. While wearable tech is a great step in the next direction, consumers may not be willing to scale back those functions in the name of being able to wear their devices. While it’s great that Epic watchphones are independent of other devices, people would still likely keep phones in their pockets for the heavier tasks.