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Category Archives: Home
Pinball for Home Rec Room
You’d think that a professional pinball machine would be out of the budget for home entertainment. The founder of Stern Pinball, who claims sixty five years of experience in the industry, says that is no longer true – their new unit is within reach of many consumer’s budgets. Plus there are themes such as AC/DC, X-Men, Avengers, and Avatar that have approached instant classic status.The same actuators, flippers and electronics used in their commercial business- but the coin collection system has been left out. The machine disassembles easily so it can be carried into a home basement rec room and set up.
Stern is the only manufacturer of arcade quality pinball machines in the world, located near Chicago.
TPN Interview by Andy McCaskey, SDRNews and Don Baine, The Gadget Professor.
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Befrugal.com Coupons with Cash Back
Scott Ertz and I are joined by Jon Lal from Befrugal for the Live TPN CES stream. Befrugal is a company that gives you coupon codes from the website. They debuted a browser add-on that helps you find coupons for a purchase. You also can be part of a cash back program of around 7%.
Available for Chrome, Firefox and an iOS app coming soon. Befrugal is 100% free. (www.befrugal.com)
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Video by Sctott Ertz of F5 Live and Jeffrey Powers of Geekazine
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IOGear Wireles 5×2 HD Matrix announced
IOGear makes some pretty cool hardware, some of which I use in my own home. Most recently the company made a trip to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada to show off one of its newest offerings — the Wireless 5×2 HD Matrix.
The name may be a bit cryptic, so an explanation is required here. Perhaps you have heard rumors of wireless HDMI? Well, it is here now and this device has five ports and a receiver to prove it — that is four inputs and one output. There is full switching capability and it has a claimed range of one hundred feet. Plug in all of your devices and then place the receiver with a TV in another room and control everything wirelessly, even when two TV’s are displaying content from different devices. For instance, one can be using the Blu-Ray player while another plays DVR content. No more need for two boxes.
A two TV setup will run you $399 and the device will be available at the end of March. But honestly, you need to watch the demo posted below to really appreciate this technology.
Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network
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Pure Jongo at CES Unveiled
At this year’s CES, Pure launched Jongo, the world’s most affordable (and colourful) multi-room music system. Vicky tells Todd all about it.
The Jongo range will shortly include a couple of wireless speakers and a hi-fi adaptor, all with both Bluetooth and wi-fi built-in. Music can be streamed using the Pure Connect app via wi-fi to any speaker in range or else smartphones and tablets can stream music directly to the speakers using Bluetooth. Both Apple iOs and Android devices are supported and it uses the existing wi-fi infrastructure: there’s no need for special transmitters.
The S340B speaker will be available soon and can be pre-ordered on Amazon. Price is listed as $229.
The stereo speaker (T640B) and the hi-fi adaptor (A140B) will be on-sale in the summer with MSRPs of $329 and $119, respectively.
Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network.
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Portable Cooking Without Flame
Emergency Food Prep or Hiking Off the Grid
If you need to prepare a hot meal and find yourself a long way from a source of power, here’s an ideal product. By adding a liquid to the container along with a chemical fuel packet, within sixty seconds you have boiling heat to cook all sorts of mealtime treats. Combining 16 different chemicals, it provides up to sixty minutes of heat for baby food, lunch, or dinner.
Snow, soft drinks or water are just enough to activate the chemical pouch in the system.With a shelf life of five years, the system is ideal for off road, camping or boating use. The small set is $35, including ten heating pouches. including the container. Replacement is $15 for a pack of ten.
TPN Interview by Andy McCaskey of SDRNews.com
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Kitchen Tech for the 21st Century
Some Radical Thinking on Home Appliances
Our homes are a fertile ground for engineer’s imagination. The basic functions of heating food or keeping it cool and fresh are now being re-imagined with advances in digital control and solid state technology.
For the past 120 years, our vision of the ice box or oven heat box has been exactly that.. a box. Whirlpool research is challenging that mental image with some exciting concepts- returning to gathering around the cooking fire or making the food storage and stocking a part of the room decor. Not a box in sight, and on the horizon for introduction as early as 2020.
TPN Interview by Andy McCaskey of SDRNews.com
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Home Smart Phone Kickstarter Project
HD 360 degree Sound
A CES-2013 Innovation Award Winner from Urban Hello puts the focus on a neglected category: the home telephone. It has been recognized by the IEEE Spectrum as the first product to recognize HD voice calls.
Smartphones have replaced many home landline connections – but there have been some compromises along the way in sound quality and the ability to set up a round-table conversation. Incorporating much of the commercial speakerphone technology, this Kickstarter project is compatible with DECT phone systems connected to landline or VoIP unit.
The phone is unusual in that it is being underwritten by a Kickstarter Project
TPN Interview by Andy McCaskey of SDRNews.com
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Smart Fridge – Android Powered
Hisense
Hisense Offers Ideas to the US Market
LCD control panels have been around four years – so don’t be confused by the fully capable Android tablet on the HiSense Smart Refrigerator, which integrates a general purpose Android tablet with full internet capabilities and some present day technology into a modern refrigerator concept. The concept includes a bar code scanner that enables real-time inventory awareness, andthe tablet can communicate shopping lists directly to smart phones and keep track of the freshness status of the items in the fridge.
The tablet allows you to leave notes, take photos, and communicate to smartphones. Recipe favorites can be incorporated into the inventory planning, as well as keeping track of specific diets and nutrition.
This unit is being introduced into China, and should be in the US in the next 12-18 months.
TPN Interview by Andy McCaskey of SDRNews.com
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Modular Home Security
Sensors and Apps Combined into Affordable Alert Service
The smartphone is changing security monitoring and home automation – with consumers demanding the ease of use of app based display and control. Smartphone connectivity and apps permit Lowe’s to offer packages like the Smart Kit and Safe and Secure are basic security systems in a box. In addition to hardware such as plant monitors, smoke detectors, instrusion alarms, medical alert or area coverage monitors, Lowes now offers a variety of monitoring services that that can trigger alert or safety alarms.
Integration of pet doors, sprinkler systems and other sensors all combine to observe the daily routine of seniors and alert via SMS is less than $15 per month.
TPN Interview by Andy McCaskey of SDRNews.com
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