Tag: Bluetooth

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Input Reviews

Jorno keyboard review

Review Score: 4 out of 5

The Jorno folding keyboard had a colorful history even before showing up on Kickstarter in late 2012. The most promising folding keyboard since the days of the Stowaway, it had been one of the more impressive startup products at CES, but was then cancelled before being raising over $100,000. Then Jorno missed its expected shipping date by about two years as other folding options came into the market. In light of production problems along the way that required design changes, backers received a different item than the one they signed up for, but most were probably delighted to receive anything at all given the long delay in which many had given up hope.

Unlike other keyboards that fold in half with a single centered hinge, the Jorno has two hinges. The left one falls just to the left of the R, D and C keys while he right one lies just to the right of the P, ; and > keys. The keyboard tuns on automatically when opened and turns off when folded. Between the sturdy hinges and underneath the keyboard is an unsightly bulge that likely houses the battery and contains the microUSB charging connector.

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Personal Transportation

A Segway evolved, RevoBot lets you roll on to wherever

Remember the Segway? It was touted as revolutionizing personal transportation device, but ended up being the preferred ride of Hollywood mall cops. Still, the bulky and expensive device inspired many to come up with something between a bicycle and a car.

RevoBot is a relatively lightweight, single-axle, two-wheeled balancing personal transporter that allows users to travel up to seven miles per hour. The Bluetooth-enabled device can be connected to a smartphone, enabling users to listen to music while traveling. Other features include a Samsung lithium ion battery that takes two hours to charge, along with LED lights for safety in the dark and low-light environments. It is being offered in a choice of five color options. RevoBot will retail for $1,000 and ships in September. Its maker set an Indiegogo campaign goal of raising $20,000 by August 4.

The intelligent body gravity board doesn’t feature any handles, so it could be harder to operate RevoBot than a Segway. But RevoBot’s maker says it’s easy to learn, with the average time for a beginner to get used to it only about 10-15 minutes. Larger drawbacks for some consumers could be the fact that it’s only been tested for users up to 230 pounds, and that it can only travel 10-12 miles on one charge. Of lesser concern is that although it was designed for indoor and outdoor use, its tires weren’t designed to be used on dirt roads. All in all, RevoBot seems like a fun gadget for the well-balanced to possibly save some time dashing through buildings.

Categories
Smart Home

LazyLocks smart lock secures your doors on the cheap

A friend or relative is knocking on the door. Great, now comes the wrenching decision to get up from the couch to let that person in. A connected door lock could come in handy, allowing couch potatoes to let somebody in with just a click on a smartphone app.

LazyLocks is an aptly-named and inexpensive connected door lock that works in conjunction with a free Android and iOS app. It can be easily connected to any door without replacing an existing lock, according to its Indiegogo campaign. LazyLocks uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and displays the status of users’ home doors right on their smartphones, wherever they are.

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Connected Objects Music

Xkey Air lets you stylishly make MIDI music on the go

The original Xkey keyboard by The CME Group is a MIDI-compliant keyboard that boasts a slim profile and strong aluminum finish, with its only issue being its reliance on a USB connection. Although its design has received positive reviews from both amateur and pro musicians alike, the questions remained: when would a wireless version be created?

For those who were waiting, the wait is now over: the Xkey Air is the Bluetooth LE-compatible version of the Xkey. The Xkey Air retains all the features that made the original so appreciated, and as such users can still expect either 25 or 37 real-sized keys that are velocity sensitive along with a suite of programmable buttons that control characteristics such as octave, modulation, pitch, and sustain. Wireless instruments have always had to contend with problems of latency and battery life and the Xkey Air does its best to address these through just a 7 ms latency and an advertised minimum of 10 hours of battery life.

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Connected Objects Music

Back to the Backers: Mikme wireless recording microphone

After failing to reach its Kickstarter goal of raising $217,000 for the Mikme wireless recording microphone early this year, Mikme Audio is giving Indiegogo a try with a new campaign for the device. The company has, however, opted for a much more modest goal of raising $25,000 by July 26 this time.

patent-claimedMikme allows users to record quality audio with just the single touch of a button. The company has done some work above and beyond its Bluetooth connection to stream audio reliably to its iOS and Android companion app. Users can use the app to simply save, mix, edit and share their recordings and can mix up to eight tracks. The device comes with 8 GB of onboard memory, enabling up to 180 hours of recording. Other features include a gold-plated condenser capsule. Mikme will ship in November and cost $299 at retail.

With its single button devoted to recording, the device remains a good option for consumers looking for a simple, high-quaity microphone that offloads all the user interface to an app for easy editing and sharing.

Categories
Smart Home

Ola uses touch sensor, fingerprints to rock the smart lock

Smart locks have become one of the more popular components of the smart home product category. The one drawback of some of them is that they rely on the user accessing a smartphone app in order to open up a door, and that can sometimes take a while –- especially if the smartphone is buried at the bottom of somebody’s bag or, worse, the phone has been forgotten somewhere.

Ola is a smart lock that uses Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity and capacitive fingerprint technology that makes it not only a keyless solution, but also a phoneless one. It’s able to store up to 1,700 fingerprints and takes less than one second to open the door once the fingerprints are read by the touch sensor, according to its maker. Ola is powered by four AA batteries and doesn’t require a Wi-Fi connection, so it will continue to work even if the power goes out. It costs $179 as part of its Kickstarter campaign and will ship in March. Retail pricing hasn’t been set, but is expected to be about 30 percent higher, said its maker, who set a campaign goal of raising $125,000 by July 23.

Ola is bound to appeal to a wide audience. Although it doesn’t require a smartphone for users to open a door with the smart lock, there is an app for Android and iOS devices (and soon Windows) to facilitate registration for new users. The “masters” of the house can also use the app to give or deny access to guests or manually unlock the door via Bluetooth. The only minor drawback is that it’s water resistant, but not waterproof, so if it’s submerged in water for an extended period of time that would break the electronic components of the lock. Its maker also warns that it’s best to dry off one’s fingers before opening the lock because water can impact the sensor’s ability to recognize fingerprints.

Categories
Input Smartwatches/Bands

Aria lets you gesture toward your smartphone, offers hands-free control

As advanced as the smartwatches on the market now are, their small screens and tiny buttons don’t necessarily make for the most engaging user experiences. Half the time, they end up adding layers of complexity rather than the opposite, creating opportunities for companies like Deus Ex Technology Ltd to cook up new ways to leverage the benefits these devices give us in a more useful way.

Their solution is their Bluetooth-enabled Aria wearable, a gesture control interface that lets both Android Wear and Pebble Time owners use their devices with only finger gestures. Whether it be a flick of the index finger or a tap of the ring finger, these gestures are fully customizable so that actions, like opening emails or taking calls, are simple to execute. Aria does all this by using sensors to remember which tendons flex with each respective finger movement, assigning commands to each when performed.

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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.

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Connected Objects Music

Spiro X1 Bluetooth adapter eliminates the puzzle of headphone wire tangles

The headphones people listen to their music on can be considered sacred. What those same people could do away with are the mess of tangles that inevitably come with owning a pair.

New York inventor Daniel Geenberg’s Spiro X1 replaces the detachable wires of select headphones from big names like Beats and Bose with a compact, Bluetooth-enabled adapter that streams music from a iOS or Android phone.

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Connected Objects Input

Phree lets you scribble on any surface, saves notes to your phone

editors-choiceWhat do Texas and mobile device interfaces have in common? Everything’s bigger there. Touch screens such as those in nearly every smartphone and tablet today set a new bar for ease of use. But their fingertip friendliness came at the price of precision compared to the mouse, which could pinpoint things on the screen.

patent-claimedPhree, however, takes a fresh approach to the idea of a pointing device for smartphones. Unlike other smart pens that work directly on the surface of the smartphone or on paper, Phree allows scribbling on virtually any surface and sends its output to the screen and is compatible with existing pen-aware applications.

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