Yearly Archives: 2011

Andrea Electronics Quality Headsets

Accessories, CES 2011, ,

Super Beam HeadphonesBoth Todd Cochrane and Tom Newman had fun trying out the product being shown by Roland Nutter of Andrea Electronics Andrea Electronics has been in the speech recognition market for 15 years, they make quality headsets and audio drivers. He showed off the new line of Andrea Super Beam headsets. The headsets come in two models one with earbuds and the second over the ear kind.

The idea was to eliminate the need for a microphone to be out in front of a person’s mouth. They did this by putting the microphone in the earbuds. In one mode the microphone collects only audio that is created right in front of a person mouth. The background noise is cancelled out. In this mode there are two filters. A light filter that would be useful in a coffee shop environment where there is some background noise but its not very loud. In a more noisy environment like a concert or ballgame you could use the more aggressive filter. The software you use to record, is going to be easy to use for the beginner, but highly customizable for the expert. You can use it conjunction with Skype and remove constant background noise coming in from the caller, such as the noise coming from an air conditioner.

The software works on both Macs and Windows. As you can see in the video, Tom tried the headphones out and seemed quite impressed by them. The earbuds will be $129.00 and the over the ears will be $149.00 and should be available in June.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central. and Tom Newman of The Fogview Podcast.

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ViewSonic Shows off Its Tablets and 3D Cameras

CES 2011, Gadgets, , , ,

Todd Cochrane spoke to Adam Hanin, VP Marketing Viewsonic Corp. He talked about a couple of products that ViewSonic is introducing this year. The first was the Viewpad 7 which is a 7 inch Android 2.2 Tablet. It has both a front facing and rear facing camera. The rear facing camera is in the middle. It is a wifi device, but it does have a sim card slot and if you have a sim card from a certain phone company, it can act as a phone. He also showed off the Viewpad 4 which is a 4.1 inch Android phone device. It has a Qualcom dual core processor and is very fast. It has a 5 megapixel camera and 2G of memory. it is coming in June and should be around $400.

He also showed off the Viewfun 3DSnap camera. It has dual 5-megapixel lens which permits shooting in 3D. It supports a camera resolution up to 12-megapixels in regular 2D. It has an auto-stereo screen, which allows you to take 3D pictures with out wearing the 3D glasses. The included software will convert the picture to red blue which with the included glasses allows you to view the pictures in 3D on any device. It uses a standard SD card. it will be available in Q1 2011 for around $149.99. He also quickly mentioned the Viewfun 3D Pocket which does video and stills. Which is available now for around $179.99. Finally the Viewfun 3D Pocket HD, which does 60 frames a second, 1080p, 3D video and will be available in early Q2 for around $199.99.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central.

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Vivitek: 3D Projector in a Small Package

CES 2011, Video, , ,

Todd Cochrane spoke to Christopher Yang from Vivitek about their newest product the Qumi that uses the Pico Projector. The system can project 3D, which you can watch with active 3D glasses, or 2D up to 720P. It uses the Texas Instrument DLP processor with an HD chip set. A full projector with an LED bulb will give off from 800-1000 lumens.

This projector gives off 300 lumens and has a 2500:1 contrast ratio. It is not meant to replace a full projector, it is a great travel projector. It has a VGA, HDMI Connections, USB port, micro SD Card Input and audio-out. You can connect it to a camera, smart phone or laptop. It should be available in April or May time frame for about $499.00

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central.

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First Aid for Pets with Mobile App

CES 2011, Gadgets

Family members come in all shapes and sizes. And some of them have furry faces.  This innovative iPhone, iPad and Adroid app from Pet Tech offers training and record keeping beginning with the Snout to Tail assessment and first aid procedures with words and pictures. There is an audio track for those who learn better by listening. You can also catalog of all your pet’s information, and click a button to email the report to your vet or pet sitter.

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Yale Real Living Lock System

CES 2011, Wireless

Yale Locks

Todd spoke to Jason Williams from Yale Locks about their newest locks called Yale Real Living. They are introducing two models, a less expensive keypad model and a acrylic touchscreen model. The touchscreen model is activated by swiping your hand across the screen, Then you input your code and your information is sent to the Control4 system. Based on how the system is setup for your code; you could have the lights come on, turn your TV on, wakeup your computer or anything else that is integrated into the system. Each person can have their own code and can set the system the way they want. You can program it for up to 250 users.

It can be used for both internal and external doors. Jason Williams indicated the system can send you text messages or an email from pre-programmed alerts if you want. You can set it to remotely lock and unlock doors from any web-enabled device. Even program user access by date and time. It is highly customizable and very secure.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central.

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Vidtonic: Build Your Own Android TV

CES 2011, TVs, , ,

Todd Cochrane spoke to Jeff Cody and Matt Miller from Vidtonics a company that is just launching and will be providing a kit to build your own TV. Everything you need is included in the kit, the LCD panel(22-42 inches), the board and anything else you will need. They made it clear that there is no soldering involved, if you can build a computer you can use this kit. It is made for hardcore coders and those who like to tinker.

Both the hardware and software are open source. Because it is an open development platform it allows for and in fact they encourage customizations and mod-ding, They are hoping for a lot of community participation and contribution. It will have a Texas Instrument processors and will allow up to 1080P resolution. It also includes an expansion port for testing purposes and special uses. It should be available this summer on-line at Vidtonics, pricing is unknown at this time. If you like to build computers or tinker with things this maybe the product for you

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central.

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Toddygear: A Fashionable Cleaning Cloth

Accessories, CES 2011

Toddy Gear

Todd Cochrane and Tom Newman talked to Todd Gable founder & CEO of Toddy Gear. Toddy Gear is a fashionable microfiber cloth. It can be used to clean a tablet or smart phone screen. It is a double sided cloth. On one side is a silk microfiber with various artistic patterns and on the other is a plush microfiber material. It is machine washable and the anti-micro-bile coating doesn’t come off.

There are several lines, the one for men is called Hottie Tottie, the women’s line is called Chic E. Boutiquee. There is even a girl’s line called Misbehave. They also will make cloths with a company brand on it. It is $14.95 per cloth and is available through the Toddy Website, and at the Verizon store,

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central. andTom Newman of The Fogview Podcast.

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Skype Introduces New Services at CES 2011

CES 2011, Computers,

Skype

Todd Cochrane interviewed Rick Osterlash, VP of Consumer Products for Skype at CES 2011. Skype announce several new products and partnerships either at CES or just prior to it.

The first product Mr Osterlash talked about was a new version of Skype for the iPhone, which allows two-way video calling. The calls can be either phone to phone or phone to desktop. This update was issued just before New Years and over the New Year’s holiday there were more than 1 million video calls made from the iPhone. Apple was very helpful in getting the application on the iPhone. Second Skype announced a partnership with Verizon which will enable Skype on devices including Android. Furthermore they announced a partnership with various TV manufactures. Skype will come installed on certain TVs, allowing consumers to make video Skype calls directly from these TVs. At the same time they also announced partnerships with some Blue-Ray manufactures which would allow customers to use Skype on older TVs. Finally they announced that the new version of Skype on the desktop will allow group video calls. This is available for both Windows and Mac, although the Mac version is still in beta.

Skype is doing very well in fact there was a study done by TeleGeography which said that 25 percent of all international calls are now done through Skype, and that number is only increasing.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central.

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Gracenote Moves Beyond Music

CES 2011, Gadgets, , ,

Todd sounds out Stephen White from Gracenote, which provides technology services to the music and video industries. You might not have heard of Gracenote, but if you’ve used iTunes, you’ve used a Gracenote service called MusicID which autocompletes the track listings when you rip a CD.

Starting out from the original CDDB (Compact Disc DataBase), Gracenote now has relationships many key players in the field including Apple iTunes and Nero. In the automotive industry, it works with Mitsubishi, Ford and Mercedes-Benz.

Stephen discusses how Gracenote has worked with hardware manufacturers such as Sony to bring their services to the smart TVs and media players, and the challenges they’ve faced in implementing within a consumer device.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central.

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Able Planet and Linx Audio Headphones

Accessories, CES 2011

Todd listens to Mary Semcken, VP of Marketing for Able Planet, which has an innovative technology for reducing the decibel level of headphones without reducing the richness of the sound. Amazingly, Able Planet has won a CES Innovation Award every year from 2006 through 2010.

Mary shows off three new headsets, the first in military-style colours so that you can wear the colours of your team while playing Call of Duty. Camo, desert, navy.

Secondly, Able Planet has developed a Signature series of headphones in conjunction with a number of sportstars. Motocross women’s champion Ashley Fiolek has a pink set with 10% of proceeds going to breast cancer charities and Chris Anderson’s (“the bird man”) Signature set has copies of his tattoos on the phones.

All available shortly from major retailers and direct from Able Planet.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central.

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