Tag Archives: tech

Ampy Charges Up Your Devices Just by You Moving Around

CES 2016, Gadgets, , , , , ,

AMPY MOVE has found a unique way to help find the energy to keep your smart phone powered throughout the day: your body.

AMPY MOVE is a motion charger that captures kinetic energy from your motion and transforms it into battery power. Co-founder Alex Smith said at CES that one hour of exercise could supply up to five hours of extra smart phone standby battery life. The form-fitting device features an 1800mAH Li-Ion battery and can also be charged from a wall outlet. A second USB port allows the user to charge their smart device from the portable charger.

The product is already available for purchase at getampy.com and retails for $99.

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Interview by Scott Ertz of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology

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Spun Puts a New Spin on the Way You Eat, with Food-Tracking Utensils

CES 2016, Gadgets, , , , ,

spun-forkFitness and healthy eating are on the mind of many people around the globe, with technology a major player in helping those to reach personal goals. Spun utensils are just the latest tool aiming to assist consumers in tracking what they are putting into their bodies.

Spun utensils are designed to take calorie-counting apps to the next level. After taking a picture and identifying the food on your plate, the smart utensil tracks calories and nutrients with each bite rather than just calculating the whole meal. This means you can cut your portion short should you reach your calorie limit before the plate is cleared. The app also allows for things such as monitoring seconds between bites and you can even select profiles that will offer tailored recommendations towards reaching your personal goals.

For an expected retail of $74.99, a Spun starter pack will come with the intelligence handle along with two different spoon size plug-ins as well as a fork attachment. A stylish carrying case is also included with the product. Founder Umar Bakhsh said the utensils will launch in beta form in March of this year with a hopeful release in June.

Sponsored by:
Declare war on crappy earbuds and treat yourself to a better headphone experience with new Monster headphones.
Welcome to the Eureka! Factory, where great programs, projects, events and creative spaces and places happen!
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Interview by Scott Ertz of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology

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Somabar Combines Alcohol and Robots to Mix You the Perfect Drink

CES 2016, Gadgets, , , , , , , , ,

somabarNot all of the technology being shown off at CES is designed to give consumers convenient and faster access to the latest forms of information and entertainment. Some of it is created with the idea of making certain tasks just a little bit easier.

That’s the thought behind Somabar, a fully robotic bartender that can create and mix a beverage without so much as the unscrewing of a cap. The app-controlled drink mixer uses six different pods to blend together over 300 different cocktails, or the user can program their own creation into the app. Following feedback from its Kickstarter campaign, Somabar also comes with a full water-flushing system for automatic cleaning.

Inspired by CEO Dylan Purcell-Lowe’s travels to Japan, where he witnessed prepackaged rum and Cokes being served from a machine, Somabar is set to be released in July and will retail at $449. The robotic bartender can be purchased at http://www.somabarkickstarter.com.

Sponsored by:
Declare war on crappy earbuds and treat yourself to a better headphone experience with new Monster headphones.
Welcome to the Eureka! Factory, where great programs, projects, events and creative spaces and places happen!
Follow TPN on Twitter: Techpodcasts; Facebook: TPNTV; Google+: TPNTV

Interview by Scott Ertz of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology

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Tom Banks – Liberty Speedway and RC Cars – IBM Innovate 2014, Orlando, FL

Computers, Gadgets, Special Events, , , , , , , , , , , ,

In this interview, Nick talks to Tom Banks, the Technical Evangelist for WebSphere Application Server Liberty Profile. Tom might have the coolest job, as he tries to find new and innovative ways to show off IBM technologies to the masses and has done so with a car that can be driven via your smartphone.

The car has sensors to prevent it from crashing, speed limiters and more, and it is all run off of Raspberry Pi. The application is so compact that it only takes up a small percentage of the resources of the mini-computer.

Video by Nicholas DiMeo of F5 Live and PLuGHiTz Live.

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Watson – PitStop Meetup – IBM Innovate 2014, Orlando, FL

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In this second part of a two-part PitStop Meetup, we move to Watson, IBM’s deep learning and cognitive reasoning technology. The experts discuss several different fields where Watson could improve life. This is the tech that not only has solved problems in the healthcare and finance industries, but has given us amazing food concoctions out of the by using cognitive cooking.

Related reading on deep learning

Video by Nicholas DiMeo of F5 Live and PLuGHiTz Live.

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Internet of Things – PitStop Meetup – IBM Innovate 2014, Orlando, FL

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In this first part of a two-part PitStop Meetup, the Internet of things was the point of conversation. From the estimated 20 billion possible connected devices to how to actually use the data these devices are giving you, it was definitely an interesting discussion. Where are we now? What is the future of our data and devices? All of that is talked about in this segment.

Video by Nicholas DiMeo of F5 Live and PLuGHiTz Live.

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Attendee Reactions – IBM Innovate 2014, Orlando, FL

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In this short video from IBM Innovate 2014, we wanted to ask a few attendees what they thought about the convention and what they learned or hoped to take away from it. For Nick, while there was no 3D printer to take away, there is butternut squash BBQ sauce on the horizon!

Video by Nicholas DiMeo of F5 Live and PLuGHiTz Live.

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FRC Team 1649 EMS – PitStop Meetup – IBM Innovate 2014, Orlando, FL

Computers, Gadgets, Special Events, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Long standing fans of our F5 Live and its events will know that seeing a FIRST team at IBM Innovate 2014 was quite refreshing for Nick! FRC Team 1649 EMS was the center of attention for a PitStop Meetup hosted by Veronica Belmont. The team discussed its recent successes in the past two seasons of FIRST competitions and some of the members talked about their plans after high school, which include wanting to become an engineer. There is a lot of crossover between robotics and software development, and that point is really driven home by this panel.

Video by Nicholas DiMeo of F5 Live and PLuGHiTz Live.

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Sky Matthews – Connected Car, Jaguar F-Type – IBM Innovate 2014, Orlando, FL

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A seat in a custom Jaguar F-Type led us to speaking with Sky Matthews about the connected car and the Internet of things. Expanding beyond just a buzzword from a few years ago, Matthews digs deep into what the future could hold for all connected devices around the planet. He also talks about the Jaguar and the potential of what it can do. From advanced notifications about traffic and weather conditions, to giving you real-time information about things happening inside your house or place of work, your car could have the potential to be just one of many devices providing you with useful information at all times.

Video by Nicholas DiMeo of F5 Live and PLuGHiTz Live.

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Clinton Bonner – topcoder – IBM Innovate 2014, Orlando, FL

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[topcoder] has been around longer than most “Top” shows you might have seen on TV and in fact, has over 600,000 people signed up to the site from all over the world. Their mission? To compete in challenges in different aspects of software design. The site also has a community aspect where members improve their skills, demonstrate and gain reward for their expertise, and provide the industry with objective insight on new and emerging technologies.

One of the cool things about topcoder is that the site launches challenges that require an extremely fast turnaround. So fast that they actually launched one during IBM Innovate 2014 that lasted only 22 hours. The task was to work with a Twitter data scraper to create beautiful and useful experience. Developers everywhere took this challenge head-on and the results of their efforts were very impressive!

Clinton Bonner from topcoder talks about all of that, as well as some really cool things the site’s members have created.

Video by Nicholas DiMeo of F5 Live and PLuGHiTz Live.

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