Hasta La Gadget!

A week ago, we learned about the Mycestro, a pointing device that, despite its unusual form, only has a humble goal: to replace your mouse. The Ego! Smartmouse on the other hand is quite the opposite. It looks like a traditional mouse, but it is much more than that. The question is, do we need a mouse that’s this smart?

Made by Laura Sapiens, the Ego! – no, no, no signore, it’s Ego! Put some life into it! – is a Bluetooth mouse that can be used both on a flat surface as well as on air. You can also use the Ego! to control your HTPC or other Bluetooth media players. It can also be used as a wireless flash drive. It can also be used to as a gesture-based gaming controller. It can also remember and automatically input your passwords for you. It can also vibrate to alert you of an appointment or a new email. If Old Spice were to design a mouse, they’d probably come up with an Ego! Except the Old Spice mouse would have a six-pack.

In order to perform all those tasks, the Ego! runs on Linux, has a 400MHz ARM9 CPU, a flash memory capacity of either 2GB or 4GB, a VGA camera, a touch sensor (in place of a scroll wheel), an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a compass, a vibration motor and an optical mouse sensor. It’s got nothing on my mouse though! My Logitizzech M305,000 is covered in luxurious duct tape and has a special right-click button – 60% of the time, it works every time.

Here’s another look at the non-mouse features of this mouse:

Laura Sapiens is currently raising funds for the Ego! Smartmouse on Kickstarter. Pledge at least £70 (~$106 USD) to get one.

But back to my original question: how many people need a mouse this smart? The gestures for managing windows for example – is that actually faster than just using the mouse the normal way? How often do you need to move a file and yourself as well to another workstation? Will the VGA camera be good for anything else other than that gimmicky pairing method?

I’m not saying the Ego! is a bad mouse. I’m just not that convinced that it should exist. Partly because it’s making my mouse feel bad.

[via Laura Sapiens via Digital Trends]

A prototype of the AirDock.

(Credit: Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)

Driving and smartphones don’t mix well. While you can get a lot done using voice commands with Siri on your iPhone, you still have to activate her. If you’re driving, that can take valuable seconds away from paying attention to the road. The AirDock Kickstarter project is looking to make Siri air-activated rather than fingertip-activated.

AirDock is described as “in-car, eyeless Siri.” That means you don’t have to take your gaze off the road to use it. The prototype version of the AirDock involves a suction-mount dock you put your iPhone into. A plastic tube with a squeeze bulb on the end sticks out from it. Squeeze the air bulb to push the home button, turn on the phone, and activate Siri.

Related stories

• Siri to make automobile debut on Chevy Spark, Sonic
• Honda adding ‘Eyes Free’ Siri integration in some 2013 cars

There’s a certain silly factor to the AirDock. After all… [Read more]

Related Links:
Honda adding ‘Eyes Free’ Siri integration in some 2013 cars
Henge Docks offers quick and cheap MacBook docking options
$11 million sought to build X-wing, counter Kickstarter Death Star
Google’s Grammys Nexus 4 ad: Look, it’s smarter than iPhone 5
Indigo brings Siri-like assistance to Android for free (hands-on)

If you came across this building, you’d think you’d stumbled into Toon Town. The outlandish structure looks like a couple of buildings stacked on top of each other. More »

Apple’s annual shareholders meeting was held today, and present were many shareholders who were concerned about Apple’s decline in stock prices since September. Apple’s stock price is down 35% since its $702.10 peak in September. Its stock price is currently sitting at $443.77. This drop in stock price took out a total of $240 billion in shareholder wealth, and shareholders want to know what Apple plans on doing to change things around.

Despite the drop in stock price, Tim Cook still had an amazing 99.1% approval rate in his re-election as CEO. Cook had many discussions with shareholders about the direction Apple is going, and he says that there are many great products that Apple is planning that will help boost the company’s stock price. Cook, however, did not elaborate on what type of products these would be. The shareholders asked that Apple increase its dividends to $2.65 per share, which would turn out to be a total of $10 billion in annual dividend payments.

That’s much lower than David Einhorn, who runs the Greenlight Capital hedge fund, had planned. Einhorn, who was absent from the meeting, wanted Apple to release preferred shares called iPrefs that would offer an annual dividend of 4%. Einhorn even sued Apple in order to block a proposal from the company that would require it to receive the approval of its shareholders before issuing preferred stock.

Cook commented on Einhorn’s suggestions and lawsuit, saying, “I strongly believe it was a silly slideshow, regardless of how the judge ruled on it.” Apple had begun 2013 with $137 billion, which is much more than the $98 billion it had at the start of 2012. There was a huge influx of sales on iPhones and iPads that contributed to this number. Cook also says that he has no worries about Android having a higher market share than Apple, because in the end, all Apple wants to do is create the best products. A shareholder suggested that Apple create a computerized bicycle (iCycle?) to help boost its stock prices, erupting laughter in everyone, including Tim Cook.

[via ABC]

Tim Cook talks financials at Apple’s shareholders meeting is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Late last year, Spotify announced it would be adding some new content to its service in the form of new sections called Discovery, Collection and Follow. The new sections were expected to start rolling out to its users by early 2013, one of which is starting to make itself available.

The Follow tab will allow Spotify users to follow their friends and celebrities to help better discover what they’re currently listening to as well as their feedback on certain tracks. Think of it as Spotify’s own personal network that revolves squarely around music available on the service.

Spotify’s other tabs Discovery and Collection have yet to roll out, but their Follow tab should be making its way to your account in the near future. All three tabs were are still expected for an early 2013 release, which we hope now that the Follow tab is starting to surface means the other two should be releasing relatively soon.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Billboard Incorporates YouTube Viewership, Raspberry Pi works as an Audiobook ,