LiftMaster is known for its range of garage door openers and this year, they’re introducing their new MyQ technology that will let home owners monitor and control their garage door from a smartphone or tablet anywhere in the world, including iPhones, iPads, Blackberries and Android devices.
Intended to be professionally installed, the cost is $350-$400 for a new door opener that incorporates MyQ technology and it’s available now.
The nest thermostat has received more than its fair share of press coverage recently, but that’s because it’s both smart, cool and well-designed. Todd chats with Kate from nest about this great new product.
The nest thermostat is a smart thermostat that learns from your habits and behaviours and adjusts itself to match them, turning the heat up when you want it and down when you are out of the home. It’s exceptionally easy to use – you turn it up, you turn it down, that’s it. The nest has several learning modes, including schedule learning and activity detection, which help it keep you comfortable but the energy costs down.
The nest thermostat costs $249 but it’s on because it’s been so popular. The thermostat comes with everything you need to install the devices yourself, including a screwdriver!
Dan from Powerbag shows off the latest in geek fashion, a messenger bag that has a built-in battery and charging system. Up to four different devices can be charged in the bag at the same time. Included are a selection of charging tips, including the Apple connector and USB variants. The battery capacity should charge a smartphone several times, or a tablet once.
Available now for $139 to $249 for a rolling bag with a bigger battery.
There are many smartphone-tablet holders out there. CastIV is one of them, but they look to add a little more than just a stand.
Geared toward the musician, the CastIV sidekick allows you to put your iPhone or iPod in eyeshot so you can practice your tunes. Even a Korg guitar tuner fits well in the sidekick. Just place the belt on the strings, push together and clip with the mount.
If you would rather have the iPod, Android device or iPhone on your microphone stand, well, they make an interchangable clip so you can cuff it on the stand, put the device in place and start playing.
For those iPad or other tablet owners out there, you can also get the Tab station – a mount for your iPad that connects to a tripod or microphone stand.
The Guitar Sidekick and smart station are $24.99, with the Tab station for $34.99
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Interview by Jeffrey Powers of Geekazine and TechPodcasts
Mike Mihalik from LaCie shows off their new Thunderbolt-connected hard drives for the Apple Macs, including the previously announced Little Big Disk and the new 2big, which has two internal 3.5″ drives. Also announced was the eSata Dock, a docking station that connects legacy SATA devices via Thunderbolt.
Thunderbolt offers seriously quick data transfer speeds with write speeds of 252 Mb/s and read speeds of 459 Mb/s shown in the video.
The Little Big Disk is available now, but the 2big and eSata Dock units won’t be available until later in the quarter, with pricing to be announced.
In this backchannel video, we look at the line coming into CES Unveiled. Jeffrey then enters into the hall and walks around CES Unveiled right before the masses enter.
During the fun at CES 2012, Jeffrey Powers stopped by the Schick booth, where barbers were on hand to take care of that stubble – on his head. The barbers were using the Schick Hydro 5 razor, with 3 vibration settings, for a smoother shave.
Elliot from Elliot & Co was the barber who tended to Jeffrey’s hair. During the event, he talked with Jeff about the Schick Hydro 5 razor.
As a musician and a Podcaster, I know how getting earbuds that kill exterior sound can help. Not only to cancel out other sounds, but save your ears from harmful noises (if you control the volume). That is where Sonomax eers come in.
They create do it yourself custom molds.
There are two types of kits – a single driver and a dual driver earbud ( separating Bass and Treble). You put the kit in your ears, pop the tops, wait four minutes and voila! You have a custom set of earphones.
These earphones will cut down the decibel level significantly. Therefore, if you are doing something in a noisy area, these earbuds will protect.
I have yet to try them out while drumming, but I can tell you they are perfect when I had to go outside to shovel the blizzard we had. I could focus on the task and not be distracted by anything else.
Prices only start at $199. Custom ear molds from the doctor’s office cost $1000 – $2000. Therefore, this is a pretty good deal.
Todd Cochrane talked to Marc Quadagno and Shaun Fisher of RawTalentGuitar about their product at CES 2011. The RawTalent Guitar program works with any guitar that you can plug in. It comes with a guitar to USB cable. Plug one end into the guitar and the other end into a PC. The program offers performance feed back in real time. As you play your notes are place on top of the the correct cords and notes. The music scrolls as you play so there is no need to turn pages.
The program includes a Amplitube X-gear an industry-leading amp and FX modeling tool, so you can get the effects you want, without having to pay thousands of dollars for the equipment. It can even teach you how to tune your guitar and there is a metronome to help you keep time. There are 15 license songs included in the program. They said one of the hardest things they had to do is trying to get licenses for the songs. Rawtalent Guitar is available now for $199.99 at this time it is Windows only, although they are working on a Mac version
Todd Cochrane and Tom Newman spoke to Peter Whitman Director of Operations for DataLocker, about the importance of encrypting your data, especially when traveling. Peter Whitman talked about DataLocker newest product the DLS3. The DLS3 is an encrypted portable hard drive. It connects to your computer by USB 3.0 technology (it will work on USB 2.0) It use military grade 256 bit AES XTA mode encryption.
The DLS3 drive uses two factors of authentication a RFD card and a pass code. If someone tries to guess the code and enters the wrong code nine times the system will wipe the data. There is rapid secure wipe. It also uses keypad randomization so you can not figure out the code by lifting the fingerprints. It is platform independent so you can use with a Mac or PC. You can use is as a bootable drive and even partition it. It should be shipping in March.