Category Archives: Mobile

Take Control of Your Car with Mavia

CES 2012, Mobile,

Mavia DeviceTodd chats to Madison of Mavizon about their new Mavia automotive product which keeps tabs on your vehicle in more ways than one.

Mavia is a small box (see picture left) that plugs into your vehicle’s ODB-II port – that’s the connector used by technician’s to check on the car when there’s a problem. The Mavia combines readouts from this port with its own internal GPS receiver to provide location and technical information that is sent back to an online hub at www.mymavia.com. Android and iPhone client apps can be downloaded too.

The MyMavia hub will show data on the vehicle such as gas mileage and distance to next service, plus any diagnostic error codes. MyMavia can interpret some of the diagnostic codes and it enables the owner to consult other resources, online or otherwise, to find out more on what’s wrong with the car. MyMavia incorporates location services too, showing where the vehicle is on Google Maps and there are connections to social sites like Foursquare.

The Mavia is in a beta testing phase so pricing is not confirmed but is expected to be around $200. The device will be available from retail outlets later in the year and requires no special fitting; it’s a self-install.

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

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Mercedes Benz Introduces Mbrace2

CES 2012, Mobile,

Mbrace We talked to Robert at the Mercedes-Benz booth at CES 2012 about Mercedes-Benz’s new Mbrace2 technology. Mbrace2 is Mercedes-Benz’s newest generation of connected car technology. It is fully loaded with Mercedes-Benz apps which are customized versions of popular apps including Google Local Search, Yelp, Morningstar Finance, news and others.

Safety of both the driver and those around them is very important to Mercedes-Benz, so each app is customized for the driving environment. For example on Yelp and Google Local Search data entry is disabled while driving. The driver can only access predetermine search terms such as banks, restaurants, hotel while driving. Moving up and down through choices is done through a knob that sits on the center console of the car. You can call or navigate to a location directly from Mbrace. If you are using the news application while driving it will only show you the headlines and maybe a picture. However there is a one button push to send the full article to an email address.

Everything is controlled through the center panel. All updates will be done through the cloud. As time goes on Mercedes-Benz hopes to integrate more of the GPS technology available in the car with off-board tools that are on phones. Mercedes-Benz hopes to have Mbrace available on all models starting in 2013. There will be a monthly subscription fee but the price has not been determined.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central

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Mercedes Benz Helping You Connect to Your World

CES 2012, Mobile,

Mercedes BenzRight now if you own a SL class from Mercedes-Benz you can access data, make calls and play music on your phone directly thru the mbrace system. However if you have a C class or an GLK series car that option is not available to you.

Mercedes-Benz is currently developing a concept that will allow customers with C class or GLK series owners to be able to integrate their smart phones or iPod Touches directly into their car. Once the device is plugged in the car will take over the info and become the infotainment system. You can then control the smart phone directly from the car, allowing for hands free-calling and access of supported applications on the smart phone through the car interface. All updates will be done through the smart phone so you will always be up to date.

The system they are now developing for the C class and GLK series will allow those customers to get connected at a more reasonable price. They hope to have the system available for C class and GLK series cars by the 3rd quarter of 2013.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central

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The Kit by Livio Radio

CES 2012, Mobile,

Livio Radio

I have a 1998 Nissan Sentra it has an Am-FM radio and a cassette deck, which is how I connect my iPhone to listen to music. It works for that purpose, however I can’t legally make or take calls while I am driving. The car runs great so I am not in the market for a new car, however I would love to be able to make hands free calls in my car. The The Kit by Livio Radio was made for someone like me. It was shown at CES 2012. The Kit will work with any car that has an FM radio and a 12 volt adaptor. The device plugs into the 12 volt adapter and then works with your iPhone or iPod Touch through Bluetooth. With the Kit by Livio Radio you to make hands free calls with the integrated microphone. You can voice dial anyone in your iPhone address book. It also allows you to stream music from your favorite music application including iTunes through the award-winning car Internet application. The Kit is around $119.99 and is available through the Livio website

If you have an older model car and are looking to get connected, the Kit by Livio Radio maybe your answer if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch. It runs around $119.99 and is available through the Livio Raido website.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central

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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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IonRoad: Android Co-Pilot App Monitors Traffic

CES 2012, Mobile, , , , , ,

A Smart Phone Equals a Smarter Driver

This app from iOnRoad turns your Smartphone into a Personal Driving Assistant. This app (Android now, iOS to come) mounts in the center of your windshield and uses the built in video camera to look at the road ahead. It then computes the closing speed to vehicles or objects ahead and sounds a warning if things are moving too fast.

What does this mean ? It means that there are another pair of ‘eyes” on the road immediately in front of you. Collision warning, lane departure warning, and when you leave the car, a handy feature that allows you to locate your car when you come back after a flight.

Interview by Courtney Wallin of SDRNews for the TechPodcast Network.

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Paysaber: Mobile Payment Processing

CES 2012, Mobile, , ,

Small business owner ? Credit processing does not have to be a pain. Paysaber offers a complete point of sale solution with an encrypted credit card reader, barcode scanner and thermal printer: all in the palm of your hand. It is ready to work with any iOS device, and features encryption of every swipe and transmission to and from the credit processing gateway.

 

Interview by Andy McCaskey of SDRNews for the TechPodcast Network.

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DeLorme In-Reach Satellite Communicator

CES 2012, Mobile, , ,

GPS Plus Emergency Satellite Communicator

The Award-Winning DeLorme In-Reach allows you to stay reliably connected wherever you go. You can end and receive text messages, even while out of cell phone range- letting your friends in basecamp or family know that you have crossed a phase line, milepost or difficult portion of your hiking or climbing route. You will get confirmation of message delivery. And most importantly, you can send Interactive 2-way SOS in a real emergency and communicate with responders to make sure that they understand the nature of your emergency.

The system includes global coverage, and is in the $250 price class.

 

Interview by Andy McCaskey of SDRNews for the TechPodcast Network.

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InCarBite: Tablet Mounting System

CES 2012, Mobile, , , , , ,



InCarBite solves two problems: How to keep your iPad securely mounted in a vehicle, yet keeping it easily removable for use inside the house. InCarBite allows you to safely mount your iPad or Android tablet to the headrest support in the family mini-van. While it delivers a personal viewing experience to the backseat passenger on the road, the same unit un-snaps from the vehicle mount, and travels easily to the home for under-cabinet kitchen mounting.

Interview by Andy McCaskey of SDRNews for the TechPodcast Network.

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Zagg HZO – Waterproofing for Electronics

CES 2012, Mobile,

Zagg Logo

Zagg’s protective films are popular “first purchases” for new smartphone owners and at CES 2012, Zagg shows off their latest protection mechanism. Todd chats to Bill from Zagg to find out what it protects against.

The adage is that water and electricity don’t mix, and by extension, water and mobile devices don’t mix well either. Zagg hopes to change that with a new nanotech-based coating, HZO, that repels water so effectively that a dunk in the drink will have no effect on the device.

The HZO coating is applied during the manufacturing process so that every component is properly treated and waterproofed. There’s no physical skin or cover as the water-repellency is at the molecular level. Almost any device can be waterproofed – smartphones, tablets, MP3 players, headphones, but it has to be done during manufacture, not by the end-user.

Zagg is currently in negotiation with major OEMs so expect water-repellent devices to hit the market in 12-18 months and if you want to see an iPhone working underwater, then watch the video.

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

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