Hasta La Gadget!

Often the stuff that gets press attention from Kickstarter tends to focus on the consumer market, but the Hydra is a new project on the crowdfunding site that could make big waves in everything from hobby electronics, to home robotics, to industrial manufacturing. It’s a compact power supply with three outputs, each with completely configurable voltage. Put simply, the Hydra is almost like a Raspberry Pi for the power supply industry: small, customizable, and relatively inexpensive at $200.

Power supplies are required for any electronic device that needs to plug into a wall outlet or battery pack in order to function. They’re responsible for converting electrical power from one form to another, and making sure that the voltage out to devices matches their requirements. The Hydra can handle voltage in of anywhere between 5V and 14V, and push it back out via its three outputs to a range of 3V and 12V, with each of the outputs individually configurable via USB, Bluetooth (and a smartphone app) or serial connection.

According to the Hydra project creators, the Hydra serves essentially as a full-featured replacement for a bench-top power supply, which, as you can see from the picture above, is a much, much larger device. It can be configured to work as a battery charger for most types of rechargeable batteries, and it can also power high-power LEDs, electronics and wireless transmitters. You can use it for mobile devices by connecting it to a battery pack, or build an entire industrial robot for a factory production line with it, depending on your needs.

The project is the brainchild of Caleb Chamberlain, who holds a Master’s degree in electrical engineering from BYU, and founded CH Robotics to design and create inertial and orientation sensors for different kinds of robots. The Hydra is already a functional prototype, and Chamberlain says there’s a production process in place to start creating them at volume once they get the startup capital, which is likely why he’s only looking for $10K to fund the product. The Hydra is available for $160 through pre-order, or $212 for a Bluetooth-enabled version, both of which have an estimated delivery date of April.

The Hydra may not be as consumer-friendly as an iPhone case or a Bluetooth speaker, but it’s a Kickstarter project that could have considerable impact in amateur, small business and industrial markets, and as such it’s definitely one to watch.

Macs weren’t very well known for being gaming machines just a few years ago, but things have changed drastically. More and more developers are bringing their games to OS X, and Valve’s Steam gaming service has been available for Mac for quite some time now. This time around, EA’s own Origin service is ready for Mac gamers.

Origin for Mac was initially announced way back in August 2011, and just went into alpha testing last month, but the platform is finally releasing to the public in all its glory. Origin is almost identical to Valve’s Steam service, in which it allows gamers to buy and download games and demos, as well as chat with friends.

And, just like Steam’s own cross-platform abilities, select EA titles will also be available to play across both Mac and Windows machines, meaning that gamers using both Windows and Mac can purchase a game once and download it for both systems. The game obviously has to be compatible with both platforms, but if so, gamers can play the game on a Windows machine and continue where they left off on a Mac.

EA doesn’t say exactly how many titles in Origin are compatible with Mac, but they mention popular games like Dragon Age 2, Batman: Arkham City, LEGO Harry Potter, and The Sims 3. EA also recommends that gamers be running OS X 10.6.8 or newer with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor or better in order to get a maximum experience with the service.

EA’s Origin gaming distribution service arrives on Mac is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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It’s been nearly two months since Time Warner said it’d start streaming on-demand content on its TWC TV website, but the giant cable provider announced today that customers can now (finally) start enjoying the à la carte service on their desktop or laptop. Similar to its offering on iOS, Time Warner Cable subscribers will have access to more than 4,000 TV shows and movies from various networks and studios, which, according to the company, also includes “certain” subscription-based programming by the likes of Showtime and HBO. Just like the rest of Time Warner’s web TV service, the recently announced on-demand content is also compatible with both Mac and PC (sorry, Linux), and, naturally, that includes support for some versions of all major browsers — including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

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No, the £19.99 Globee Night Lights does not have any kind of typo in it, that is just the way it is called. Most of us might be satisfied with just a regular night light at the side of our beds so that we do not end up stubbing our toe against the side of the bed in the middle of the night as we make our way to the bathroom, paving the way for a litany of curses to spew from our mouths. Why not be different with the Globee Night Lights? It will be more than a decent night light, except that it espouses the wonders of a big city, and you can choose from various landmarks such as Edinburgh, London, New York, and Paris. I am quite sure that some folks would prefer to strike Edinburgh from the list and throw in Milan instead, but hey, it isn’t me who came up with the Globee Night Lights.

Boasting an illustrated map of your selected city, the Globee Night Lights will show off key landmarks in a cute and colorful ‘tour-guide’ manner. Under its silver plinth, you are then free to wander around town (mentally speaking, of course), thanks to the spinning function that needs to be powered by, yeah, your hands. It does not run on AC power, so you might want to get ready a bunch of rechargeable AAA batteries for this bad boy – it consumes a quartet of them at any one time.

[ Globee Night Lights copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]