All posts by Todd Cochrane

Speakers in Your Cloths by VeriSonik

CES 2012, Mobile

VeriSonik Speakers in your clothes, at first I thought why would anybody want to have speakers in their clothes, but the more I thought about the more I liked the idea. Ok, maybe we should step back for a minute, what are we talking about. We are talking about Electret-electrostatic Flexible Loudspeakers (EFL) from VeriSonik. These are super thin speakers, about the same thinnest as a very thin piece of cardboard only flexible. Unlike regular speaker that have large cones, these speakers create sound by the use of positively charged membranes. They use only 10 percent of the power of normal speakers. The sound isn’t great, it is like the sound you get from a pair of modestly priced headphones, but it’s ok.

VeriSonik sells the speakers to end customers. The end customer comes to VeriSonik and tells them how they want to use the speakers. VeraSonik then integrates the Electret speakers into the end customer’s design. I could see these speakers being placed in many things, including pillows, backpacks, stuffed animals, backs of chairs just to name a few. VeriSonik is based in Taipei, Taiwan and has been around since 2010. Electret-electrostatic Flexible Speakers were developed by Taiwan electrets electronics corporation(TEEC). Have you ever heard these speakers, what did you think of the sound.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central

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Kingston HyperX SSD

CES 2012, Computers, ,

Kingston is known for their memory, but now they are branching out into the world of hard drives and, more specifically, solid state hard drives, or SSD’s as they are commonly referred to. The HyperX is the top of the Kingston line when it comes to this technology. The SSD is a much-hyped technology that has remained a dream for most consumers because of their price-point, but they are starting to come down into the realm of the affordable, although still top-end, drives. The SSD provides much faster speed than the traditional HDD, plus they are much smaller in size, which is driving the new Ultrabook craze, which was also capturing the media at this year’s CES.

The new HyperX comes with an external drive bay that you can plug into your computer and software to clone you current drive to get you started without any down time. The new Kingston drive may still be out of reach for the average user, but that’s okay, because they know it’s for the enthusiast, who knows how to get inside a PC and change out hardware, clone drives, and use all of the hardware and tools that come along with a project such as this.

Currently for the 120 GB version seen in the video below the price is coming in at a little over $200. To find out more be sure to check out the video and visit Kingston.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network.

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eFun Brings the APen Stylus to the iPad

Accessories, CES 2012,

apen logoThe iPad was purposely designed to be used without a stylus, but that doesn’t stop some users from wanting one. It’s especially handy for things like editing a document, writing notes, or for drawing apps. Now eFun has introduced one especially made for the iPad. The new stylus comes with a lot of options as well. You can not only write, draw, and edit, but you can do so in multiple colors and line weights.

The stylus, which debuted last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is available now for $99 from APenUSA. To see this cool new iPad pen in action you can check out the video posted below of a live demo from the CES show floor.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network.

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Swingline Stack-and-Shred

CES 2012, Home,

Swingline Do you have that box of papers next to you or maybe across the room, you know the one. It’s the one full of papers you need to shred. You keep telling yourself you need to take care of it, but then somehow it never gets done. You tell yourself you are too busy or you have other things to do, but in reality you don’t do it because you hate having to feed the paper in one at a time.

Swingline to the rescue. Swingline has been making products for offices for over 80 years including shredder, stapler, punches, trimmers and sharpeners. Their latest products in the shredder line are hands free shredders called Stack-and-Shred. There are multiple lines and models both for home and office. These new shredders allow you to place a stack of papers into the shredder and then close the lid and the machine takes over from there. No more having to feed in one paper at a time. The home models are made to take 8×11 inch paper and have a separate feed for envelopes. Other models for business take larger size paper. There is an auto unjamming feature, so the machine will try to clear itself, before asking for help.

These personal shredders are currently available at Office Max, Office Depot and Staples and run between $150.00 to $250 depending on size and models. So now you have no more excuses for not getting those papers shredded.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central

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