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Pure Jongo at CES Unveiled

CES 2013, Home

Pure LogoAt 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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Stern Pinball Games for the Consumer

CES 2013, Home, , ,
Stern Pinball Releases Consumer Versions
Stern Pinball Releases Consumer Versions

You like pinball games as much as we do so stick around and see what the pinball pros at Stern are doing to bring pinball machines to home consumers.

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This is Stern’s first venture into consumer pinball machines. They are the only company in the world currently manufacturing pinball machines and now they’re bringing them into people’s homes. Stern wants to begin training a new generation of pinball enthusiasts by making the games more available to them.

These products are half the price of the least expensive commercial version but with commercial grade bumpers and flippers so that it doesn’t feel like a toy or cheap pinball machine. There are two consumer versions available now, Transformers and Avengers branded machines. They include multiball and many other “pro” features for half the price.

Video of Chris Montera by special arrangement with Health Tech Weekly (HTWeekly.com).

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Swissvoice iPhone, Android Docking Handsets in ePure

CES 2012, Home, , ,
swissvoice
swissvoice

Company Swissvoice has been around in Switzerland since 1893. They are bringing some of that technology to the US with the ePure. It’s a series of phones – a land-line version, but also a iPhone and Android version.

The iPhone dock phone lets you put your phone in to charge, but then you can use the handset to answer phone calls. If you turn the receiver on the side, you can use it as a bluetooth speaker.

The ePure also has a multi-phone solution. This is for your Android phone, or another smart phone. Once again, you can use the receiver as a cordless phone, or speakers when set on their side.

We finally looked at another device that you connect up to your router, it then will push the call to multiple lines. If you don’t pick up the land line, it rings the cell phone. Swissvoice has a patent pending. Your iPad, your iPhone and other devices can manage calls.

These products are planning to hit the US by July. The station is $99, the iPhone ePure will be $199, multi ePure will be $150. The cordless ePhone is $99.

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Dynamics PowerCards Make Your Credit Card Smart

CES 2012, Home, , ,
Dynamics Inc
Dynamics Inc

The credit card is getting an upgrade. It also won the CES 2012 Innovation award.

Jeff Mullen, CEO of Powercards joins us to talk about the Dynamic Credit Card. They just raised over  40 million dollars to create one of the smallest devices ever developed. 70 electrical components in the size of a credit card.

This is the world’s first card re-programmable mag stripe. Push a button and the card will re-write the data to the magstripe. You can then swipe your card into the reader.

It feels like a regular credit card. You can bend it, and put in your wallet. The cards are completely sealed, so they can get wet without issue. The battery will last for up to four years.

If you have multiple accounts (personal, business), then you can push a button and your card is a business credit card. Push the other button, it is your personal credit card. After a while, the card can clear off your mag stripe, so you are forced to chose your card type again.

Another use of these cards would be Reward points. Push a button, and your card is using your rewards points.

There is another card that has a pin code on it. Enter your pin code and the system will put your card info on the mag stripe. After use, the mag stripe will clear, so your card becomes a blank piece of plastic.

Finally, Jeff showed us a medical card that will show emergency numbers and other medical information medical professionals may need to keep you alive. The card comes with a card holding case that you put in with your drivers licence. During emergencies, medical professionals look for your ID, then pull out the life card. They get a number which they put into their computers and get important information.

The cards do not have a price point. The cards will be announced later in 2012.

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Stanton SCS.4DJ Digital DJ Mixstation

CES 2012, Home, ,

SCS.4DJ MixstationIf you’re a DJ, you probably know the name Stanton, purveyors of DJ hardware. If you’re not a DJ, you probably still know the parent company, Gibson, of the guitar fame. Either way, we’re in good company here. Todd and Steve mix it up with Darrin “B-Side” Young from Stanton.

On show is Stanton’s SCS.4DJ Digital DJ Mixstation, a self-contained digital controller that has its own built-in computer and mixing software. The Mixstation is Linux-based with proprietary software that takes advantage of the unit’s features.

The music itself is all digital (.mp3, .wav, .aac) and USB storage can either be plugged in temporarily or else more permanently fitted on the underside in media bays.

Some of the cool toys include a 4″ hi-res colour LCD screen, display of the current track’s beat and wave form, media browser and automatic synchronisation between tracks (beat match). There’s also an auto DJ feature that takes a playlist and beat matches between the tracks. Nice.

Available now for $499 from over 500 retailers nationwide.

Interview by Todd “TC” Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network, and Steve “Surfer” Lee of Waves of Tech.

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Fulton Innovation’s Wireless Charging

CES 2012, Home, ,

Fulton Innovation logoThe great thing about CES is that every now and then an unknown shows off something cool. I’d never heard of Fulton Innovation but they have smart products based around wireless power transmission. Todd learns more about eCoupled from Dave Baarman.

Fulton Innovation have developed an inductive coupling solution that scales from simply making a magazine cover light up as you walk past to being able to charge a whole bag of devices without taking them out of the bag. Electric cars could be recharged by parking in the right spot and not by plugging them in.

Not all of these products are ready for market just yet, but inductive charging efficiencies are on a par with plug-in chargers though economies of scale are needed to bring the prices down to a point where it’s built-in as standard. Palm’s Pre range of smartphones used inductive charging with the Touchstone and the Motorola Droid 4 has inductive charging as an option. As a Pre 3 owner, it’s brilliant not having to fiddle with cables and I hope more devices come to the market with inductive charging in 2012.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network, and Dave Lee from Waves of Tech.

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Yale Locks Brings High Tech to the Common Door

CES 2012, Home, ,

Yale has new home door locks that bring a high-tech flare to your house. These aren’t your average doorsets – they have touch-screens and smartphone apps. You can buy the locks alone from many retailers, like Amazon, however, they are big with custom installers of home security systems. Now they have introduced NFC (near field communication) to their locks. That means you don’t need a key or a code. Your phone alone can unlock the door just by being close to it. If you are worried about your phone being lost or stolen then you can set up a secondary line of security such as a pass code. You can also revoke a mobile key via the web site if a phone gets lost. In addition, you can assign a separate code to each person in your home and even have the lock send you a text when someone passes through the door. Yale Locks are available on the market today, and the ones with NFC technology will be arriving soon. Prices and availability have not yet been determined.

You can find out more at Yale. Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network.

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SoftKinetic Gesture Recognition Platform

CES 2012, Home

SoftKinetic CameraMicrosoft can rightly claim to have brought gesture recognition to the consumer market through Kinect for Xbox in 2010, but SoftKinetic has been in the business since 2007, providing hardware and software solutions for the consumer electronics and professional markets. Andy and Courtney find out more from Virgile Delporte.

SoftKinetic are team of mathematicians, 3D imaging specialists, software engineers and game designers that have developed both hardware and software components of an end-to-end solution that can be incorporated into new products. The 3D middleware platform, iisu, lets content and video game developers, arcade and fitness equipment manufacturers develop their next interactive product or solution without needing a deep understanding of how the technology behind gesture recognition actually works.

If you want to have a play, SoftKinetic’s DepthSense Professional Kit, which includes a camera, is available from their store for just $499.

Interview by Andy McCaskey and Courtney Wallin of SDR News and RV News Net.

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Green Plug Brings Control to AC-DC Conversion

CES 2012, Home

Green Plug LogoAs energy prices rise and green credentials come under scrutiny, each step in the energy path is being examined for inefficiency. Andy and Courtney listen to Paul Panepinto from Green Plug on their technology.

Green Plug have developed a digital controller to optimize the conversion of electricity between AC and DC. For the non-engineers, AC (alternative current) is what is in your wall socket and DC (direct current) is what most of your gadgets use. All those power bricks and wall warts are transformers combined with AC to DC converters to change 110 V AC to 12V / 5V DC.

Green Plug has pioneered the use of intercommunicating digital power and load processors to optimize the AC-to-DC power conversion and increase efficiency. It’s an area that has been typically overlooked in power management but Green Plug has reduced the implementation cost to make the inclusion of the technology cost-effective. Over the next few years, it’s likely that this technology will start to appear laptop and phone chargers, so keep an eye out for it.

Interview by Andy McCaskey and Courtney Wallin of SDR News and RV News Net.

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Leonar3Do Virtual Reality Kit

CES 2012, Home

Leonar3Do 3D Controller

This looks more like an instrument of torture than any kind of bird I’ve seen but fortunately it’s not and it’s actually the virtual reality controller from Leonar3Do‘s desktop VR kit. Andy and Courtney breathe a sigh of relief and chat to Stewart Oldroyd from Leonar3Do.

Hungarian start-up have created “the world’s first desktop VR kit”, consisting of the scary controller above, 3D glasses and three line sensors that affix to the computer monitor to track the position of the controller and the glasses. There’s a video on the company’s website that shows the system in action and it looks amazing.

The innovative part is that it’s an out-of-the-box environment which costs around $1500 rather the $10,000+ usually associated with VR systems. Currently only available for enterprise and education markets, the consumer version will arrive in late spring.

Interview by Andy McCaskey and Courtney Wallin of SDR News and RV News Net.

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