Category Archives: Gadgets

Kiband Helps Keep Your Child Close to You

February 26, 2015CES 2015, Gadgets, HomePLUGHITZ Live

A trip through Eureka Park at any CES is always bound to lead to new and exciting products and individuals who are passionate about those products. That’s the exact case with Kiband, a company that formed around a direct necessity and problem that impacted its CEO.

Kiband started with its CEO that lost his child at a 4th of July event for about 15-20 minutes. After trying leash solutions and other methods that really didn’t work out for him, he created his own company to try a change up the market.

The key with Kiband is prevention and less of informing you of when your child actually gets lost. Using the parent’s phone, the Kiband sets up a local geofence around the smartphone, and as the child approaches the perimeter set by the parent, the Kiband will first vibrate. If they then venture outside of the proximity, the device will then use an audible tone to alert the parent.

The distance is totally customizable by the parent and allows them to give the child as much leeway as they deem safe. The Kiband is also easy to set up, as it instantly connects to the phone and the app is made for those who are less tech savvy.

Still in research and development, the kids who have tested the device have really taken a liking to it and didn’t want to remove it because it looked cool and was minimally invasive. Pricing will be around $100 to $120, with pre-orders available through an Indiegogo campaign, and delivery estimated to be in the summer.

Interview by Nicholas DiMeo of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology for the Tech Podcast Network.

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Meccano Introduces Your Favorite Robotic Pal, the Meccanoid

February 26, 2015CES 2015, Gadgets, Toys & GamingPLUGHITZ Live

Robots are something we all know and love, regardless of age or experience with technology. They’re just one of those things that you want to play with and learn more about. Luckily, Meccano is looking to make all of that possible by introducing a robotic friend that can be fully programmed to do a variety of things through a multitude of input methods.

For those familiar with the Erector Sets of the past, you may have already been familiar with Meccano, just under a different name. But now, Meccano will be bringing its name, along with its flagship product the Meccanoid, to stores across the world, beginning in August of 2015.

The Meccanoid stands four feet tall and comes in a simple-to-build kit. Once built, you can use different ways to tell the companion what to do. The easiest is the “mirror” method, where you press the record button on the robot and move its limbs around. Upon pressing the play button, the robot will do what you made it do, along with playing back any audio it recorded along the way. You can also program it via a smartphone that you connect to the Meccanoid via Bluetooth, or with a computer connected with USB. There’s even the possibility of hooking up a Kinect or similar device, and having the robot follow your every move using tracking, which is really cool.

The Meccanoid can be built into a bunch of different forms, from a normal robot friend to an automated trash retriever, to anything else you can think of. With the ability to fully code the bot, the combinations of forms and functions are practically endless.

Meccano also won the Last Gadget Standing event at CES 2015 with its Meccanoid product.

Interview by Nicholas DiMeo of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology for the Tech Podcast Network.

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Zolt Proves That Great Things Come in Small Packages

February 26, 2015CES 2015, Computers, GadgetsPLUGHITZ Live

It’s no secret: Everyone, at least once in their life has forgotten a charger or brought the wrong one on a business trip or vacation. What if there was one charger that you could bring that could handle 2 devices and a laptop? And what if the charger automatically knew what voltage and wattage to deliver to the devices? Meet Zolt.

The world’s smallest laptop charger was a 2015 International CES Innovation Award Honoree. Zolt’s ability to charger a laptop and two other devices at the same time is what makes it so unique and truly a product that stands out from the pack.

Zolt comes with a 6-foot proprietary cable that’s the same color as the charger, which comes in an assortment of flavors. It also features the a bunch of different laptop tips that charge almost every device on the market today. Your Lenovo laptop, Apple iPad and any micro-USB device are all on the list of the hundreds of devices in total that can work with Zolt.

Weighing in at only 3 ounces, and available for a special pre-order price of $79, or $99 when launched, Zolt looks to makes its debut sometime in Spring 2015.

Interview by Nicholas DiMeo of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology for the Tech Podcast Network.

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Shortcut Labs Announces the Flic, a Programmable Button to Simplify Your Life

February 26, 2015CES 2015, Gadgets, MobilePLUGHITZ Live

Lots of talk surrounded the Shortcut Labs booth at Eureka Park this year at CES. The company had taken to Indiegogo to launch a new product, Flic, that is set to make life easier with the literal touch of a button.

This Bluetooth-enabled, programmable button has three different ways to press it, and each of those can be programmed for a specific task using the Flic app. Whether you want to select a certain playlist on Spotify, navigate to a destination on your GPS app or create your own command, all of that can be done with Flic.

A 6-pack was going for $99 on Indiegogo during CES, and Shortcut Labs managed to blow past their goal reaching over $700,000 in funding, 801% of their goal. That’s a truly impressive feat for something so unique, and it’s simplicity is what wins over consumers.

Interview by Nicholas DiMeo of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology for the Tech Podcast Network.

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Ericsson Changes the Way We Think About Cloud Security

February 26, 2015CES 2015, Computers, GadgetsPLUGHITZ Live

With the cloud becoming an ever-expanding, highly-vulnerable space, there comes a time where businesses need to start caring about their customers’ data. That time is now, and many companies are working towards building better infrastructure to put customers’ minds at ease. One of those companies is Ericsson, one of the world’s largest mobile infrastructure groups.

Ericsson is taking the charge to make the cloud more safe and secure. By 2020, Ericsson estimates there will be 50 billion connected devices, and a majority of those devices will live in an industrialized cloud system. The problem is that the cloud isn’t secure nor efficient enough to sustain those devices.

Because of this, Ericsson is working on a platform that is highly programmable, highly accessible, highly governable, and controllable, but above all else is secure. The hope is that this work will change the way businesses think about security and the cloud, and the easiest way to explain the concept is to say that we need to build a bigger wall around our data.

Ericsson is just starting with its mission to roll out a better way to authenticate, validate and confirm your data and its transmissions. The ability to forensically prove your data during a breach and after a breach becomes crucial to understanding the severity of the breach, and Ericsson has made a series of acquisitions and partnerships to start to make this possible. If the infrastructure contains governed policies and profiles, the end users can feel safer knowing their data is authentic.

Interview by Nicholas DiMeo of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology for the Tech Podcast Network.

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FreeWavz Wirefree Wearable Earphones

February 22, 2015CES 2015, Gadgetsbluetooth, CES, CES2015, headphones, interview, videogeek news

Bluetooth headphone are commonplace these days but usually there’s a connector between the two earphones, either as a wire or a band. The FreeWavz wirefree earphones are different, using Bluetooth to transmit the music to both earphones, so there’s no physical connection between the earphones. The earphones are smart too, as the blend between sound from the smartphone and the surrounding environment can be adjusted to match the wearer’s preferences.

That’s the “wirefree” part taken care of. What about the “wearable” bit? Aimed at the fitness enthusiast, FreeWavz aren’t only earphones, they’re fitness bands for the ears, measuring the wearer’s heart rate. As you’d expect, the data is reported back to the connected smartphone but the wearer also hears about his heart rate, calories burned, distance and steps in his ears via the FreeWavz. It’s all clever stuff and there’s more revealed in the interview.

The FreeWavz earphones are expected in the summer and are on pre-order for $219 (RRP is $249).

Interview by Don Baine, the Gadget Professor for the TechPodcast Network.

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Gibson Talks About Their 2015 Guitars and Features

February 20, 2015CES 2015, Entertainment, GadgetsPLUGHITZ Live

Whether you play guitar or not, you almost certainly know Gibson. The company is best known for carrying on the tradition of Les Paul, who was the creator of one of the first, and certainly best-known, solid-body electric guitars. The Les Paul line of guitars carries on in the visual tradition, making them incredibly distinctive.

This year, which would have been his 100th birthday, the company is celebrating by enhancing his legacy through enhanced and additional products. For example, his signature, as well as the number “100” in his handwriting, has been added to each guitar. There is also a hologram of what is believed to be the final photo of Les Paul on the back.

In the technology of the guitar, the company has made their robot guitar smaller, and will include it with every Gibson USA guitar this year. For those who do not know, this feature allows you to choose a tuning, and the guitar tunes itself. It requires no wood be removed form the guitar; instead, it sits at the top behind the tuning knobs.

As Daniele is a big fan of Gibson, and is really into their guitars, she was curious which Gibson guitar a beginner should own. Check out all of the cool new features of the Gibson guitars.

Interview by Daniele Mendez of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology for the Tech Podcast Network.

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Qi Extends Its Capabilities, Powers Kitchen Equipment

February 20, 2015CES 2015, Gadgets, HomePLUGHITZ Live

Fulton Innovation introduced us to the Wireless Power Consortium in 2012, and since then, our team has become big supporters of the Qi wireless power standard. Since its beginnings as an inductive charger for mobile phones, the technology has continued to improve.

Today, the standard supports higher amounts of power transmitted over longer distances than ever before. The Wireless Power Consortium is not complete, though. They showed us a prototype of an enhanced coil that supports 1 kilowatt and can be transferred through a kitchen counter. The same coil will be able to support over 2 kilowatts in the near future.

That type of power is obviously not designed for charging phones and tablets, but instead for powering real-life devices. In their prototype, they use a food processor being entirely powered through the countertop. They even show off controlled amperage levels, which increase and decrease as different modes are chosen, or as the distance from the coil is increased.

The prototype gained the Wireless Power Consortium F5 Live: Refreshing Technology’s TPN Pick Award.

Interview by Scott Ertz of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology for the Tech Podcast Network.

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Nexia Shows Off a Lot of New Connected Devices

February 20, 2015CES 2015, Gadgets, HomePLUGHITZ Live

We first met Nexia Home Intelligence at CES 2012, and were immediately impressed with their system. Allowing you to control and automate your home, either local or away, through a single connected dashboard.

Since our first meeting, the company has added new partners and new products, and this year the company is showing a whole collection of new products compatible with the system. Ranging from home security to home automation, there is a little bit of everything available in the system.

Some of the products shown off include:
– First Alert smoke detector ($49.99)
– Linear Siren & Strobe ($69.99)
– Linear LED Bulb ($54.99)

Interview by Scott Ertz of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology for the Tech Podcast Network.

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Goal Zero’s Line of Travel and Emergency Power Products Expands

February 20, 2015CES 2015, Gadgets, MobilePLUGHITZ Live

At CES, portable power is essential; in the real world, it can be just important. Goal Zero knows this, which is why they are constantly trying to improve and enhance their line of emergency and travel products.

This year they added the new Venture 30: a 7800mAh charger for phones and tablets. That equates to 3 charges on a phone, with the ability to charge up to 2.4amps on each of the 2 USB ports. The charger comes complete with built-in flexible cables for charging the device and a product. To ensure it is protected, it is rated at IPX6.

In addition to the charger, is a solar flashlight. While that might seem insane, the Torch 250 is extremely useful. While camping, or even at home, you can charge the flashlight during the day and use it at night. You can also charge it via USB, or even with a crank, or use the battery to charge your other devices, making it double as a solar charger. You can get one right now for $79.99.

Interview by Scott Ertz of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology for the Tech Podcast Network.

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