Tag: smartphone

Categories
Connected Objects Imaging

Smove smartphone stabilizer lets you move while shooting video

Shooting video on smartphones can be tricky, largely because they tend to lack the same quality image stabilization capabilities as the best traditional standalone cameras. That’s if they even have any image stabilization functionality at all.

Smove is an intelligent smartphone stabilizer with a built-in charger and an Auto Face Follow feature that recognizes faces and automatically rotates to follow them. It supports all iPhones 5 through 7 Plus, and all Samsung Galaxy smartphones.

Smove ships in December at future pricing of $249. But Indiegogo backers have been able to order one for a pledge starting at $119 for early birds. Its makers are out to raise $20,000 by Oct. 26.

There have been many smartphone stabilizers before Smove, including Elephant Steady. But Smove stands out from the pack thanks in large part to extra features that include its ability to be used as a phone charger and Auto Face Follow. It also touts advanced features including automated 360-degree panorama shots.

 

Categories
Cell Phone Accessories Imaging

The New Glif keeps your smartphone photos on the level

As the cameras on smartphones get better and better, the need for a good tripod mount to take better photos on those smartphones keeps growing also.

The New Glif is a redesigned version of the pioneering Glif tripod mount for the iPhone 4 that adds new features and now works with the latest iPhones. The mount’s makers have focused on a quick release mechanism, as well as portrait and landscape support, with the new model.

Continue reading “The New Glif keeps your smartphone photos on the level”
Categories
Apparel Connected Objects

The The PowearIN jacket is the one that keeps your gadgets going

What used to be a day at the office is anything but. Today the demands of a connected world dictate the office be anywhere at any time and as such, people need easy ways of carrying their devices and powering them, too.

Enter the awkwardly titled PowearIN, a technical jacket that’s a device in and of itself. By considering all a connected user on the move needs, the company of the same name has created a jacket that stuffs more than forty separate features into its design. Its INbutton, sporting five buttons and rotary-styled operation, is central to what it can do and allows users to control four separate modes: a music mode, a lighting mode, a power mode, and a camera mode.

Continue reading “The The PowearIN jacket is the one that keeps your gadgets going”
Categories
Smart Home

With a smart lock, Monkey lets one key replace all others

The biggest issue with the sea of smart locks on the market is their design. As they can only really be used by homeowners, a large population of apartment dwellers miss out on the convenience having a smart lock provides because they still need a physical key for the front door of the building.

Locumi Labs thought it was time for a solution, creating the Monkey keyless entry system. Instead of being a typical smart lock, the monkey takes the form of an extremely compact, Wi-Fi enabled chip that is easily installed in the intercom in an apartment or home. From that point, a companion iOS or Android app is able to open the building’s main entrance using an app command, time-restricted access, or smartphone proximity for hands-free access.

Continue reading “With a smart lock, Monkey lets one key replace all others”
Categories
Cell Phone Accessories Imaging

ScopeCam uses your phone’s better camera for selfies

Today’s smartphones put incredible photo taking capabilities in a device that’s always at home in a pocket. Their front-facing cameras have spawned millions of selfies. But the sad secret about these narcissistic snapshots is that the front cameras of almost all smartphones lag significantly behind their rear cameras in terms of resolution even as smartphone companies are steadily improving selfie features.

ScopeCam is a simple phone device that clips on to a smartphone, allowing you to use its rear camera to take forward-facing shots. This gives you the best of both selfie worlds, being able to use the big screen of the phone to frame the photo and the full power of the camera to take the photo — well, almost the full power as there’s no way to turn the flash to the front of the phone.

Continue reading “ScopeCam uses your phone’s better camera for selfies”
Categories
Podcasts

Backerjack Podcast #22: Cameras That Think and See in 3D

In Episode 22 of the Backerjack Podcast, Steve and Ross check out some of the latest products seeking funds and preorders, including:

  • Graava, a small smooth action cam that can pick out the most interesting parts of raw footage to create a mini-movie.
  • Bevel, an inexpensive smartphone add-on that allows the capture of 3D objects that can be rotated and viewed from different angles.

We also mentioned a few other products we wished we had time for: the TrekAce forearm navigation device and the Nourish nutrition drink countertop device. Also, check out Backerjack’s first hands-on reviews of the Pebble Time smartwatch, Remix Ultratablet and Jorno folding keyboard.

Download the episode or listen below, subscribe via iTunes or RSS, and subscribe to the Backerjack Daily Digest to make sure you catch all the gadgets we’re covering. Also check out Steve’s great work on Apple World Today!

 

 

Categories
Technology

Ubik Uno smartphone was made for you and me

These days, using a smartphone may seem easy to many of us, but making them is tough. There are a lot of tradeoffs that companies must make — the better the specs, the pricier the device.

Ubik Mobile hopes to become a more responsive player in the crowded Android market by tapping into the power of the people in a number of ways. First, by bypassing carriers and other retailers, it can cut out middlemen and the piece of the pie they command. Second, by launching the Ubik Uno,  its first phone on Kickstarter, it gets the benefit of getting case before fulfilling preorders. The Ubik includes many leading-edge components, including a  horizontally bezel-free display, an eight-core MediaTek processor and a 20 MP/4K camera with Sony sensor, at the price of a mid-tier device.

But the third way may be the most novel. The company plans to create a community that will vote on features for subsequent Ubik devices. Ubik seeks $200,000 by August 15th and the price of the smartphone, which is due to ship in September, is $345.

Continue reading “Ubik Uno smartphone was made for you and me”
Categories
Smartwatches/Bands

Back to the Backers: Blu wearable smartphone

Since the advent of the iPhone, smartphones have all generally become the same rectangular slabs of glass and plastic we’ve all come to know, love, and obsess over. So when Blu jumped on the scene this past March with its concept for a hybrid wearable smartphone concept, its innovative design definitely garnered attention — although not enough to raise the close to $500,000 necessary to fund it. Now, Blu is back with another Indiegogo campaign and this time its goal is even loftier, aiming for a cool $1,000,000 in an all-or-nothing fixed funding campaign. That goal will cover the development of the product’s many flexible components, from its F-OLED display, circuit board, and larger capacity 4200mAH battery.

Continue reading “Back to the Backers: Blu wearable smartphone”
Categories
Connected Objects Imaging

Radian 2 makes regular cameras cool again, provides wireless time lapse effect

Many opt to use their smartphone cameras in lieu of actual cameras. DLSR cameras, however, still produce better quality shots, even though many don’t have the same cool effects that smartphone cameras have.

With the Radian 2, the follow-up to a successful Kickstarter project, photographers get the real camera quality with a fun time lapse effect. This small black and round product attaches to many different types of cameras via a USB port. Using Bluetooth, it connects to one’s smartphone via the accompanying app. The app helps to program the effect including the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. It also receives real time thumbnails of the shots being taken to ensure the camera is capturing what the photographer wants.

This product has lots of potential, especially as it adds extra features and capabilities to its menu. The myriad of camera mounts are quite appealing as well. One will cost backers a donation of $220 for estimated delivery in September 2015. Radian 2 will only enjoy success on Kickstarter if it raises $153,471 in funding.

Categories
Cell Phone Accessories

Quick Cool offers personal phone fan with not-so-quick delivery

With welcome warmer days ahead, people are enjoying rising temperatures, but forgetting how hot it can really get.

Now, anyone with a cell phone can cool themselves down. The Quick Cool is a small 2”x2” fan that can plug into any phone via a USB cable. It has a battery life of around four hours and can easily be recharged. Once production starts, the product will be available in a variety of colors.

While the Quick Cool does have the convenience of working with phones, an obvious question looms: Is such a device actually a beneficial? A fan sucking up a phone’s battery life doesn’t seem desirable in the slightest, especially since most phones can barely stay alive for a full day. There are also a multitude of small portable fans already out there. Additionally, the device’s 2”x2” size doesn’t seem large enough to really make any kind of real difference from a cooling perspective.

Still, interested backers can have one of their own for $40 if they’re willing to wait until April 2017 for delivery. Quick Cool is looking to raise $8,000 on Kickstarter by April 29.