Watch Smartwatch Space For Continued Consolidation As Samsung Gears Up To Kick Off The Race

pebble-shots

Last week, geek-focused early smartwatch player WIMM Labs was revealed to have been acquired by Google, lending strong support to earlier speculation that the search giant would enter the watch-based computing fray with a wearable-device follow-up to its ambitious Google Glass project. Consider it the opening bell as the race begins to own consumer wrists, and expect more targets of opportunity to get cleared off the board this coming Wednesday once Samsung gets the ball rolling with what will likely be the first smartwatch entry from a major player.

Samsung’s Galaxy Gear appears to be a decent enough lead-off batter for the smartwatch line-up; rumors suggest it’ll have a decent internal processor (1.5GHz dual-core), 1GB of RAM, a 4 -megapixel camera with 720p video capture, a 2.5-inch OLED display and 10 hours of battery life. @evleaks has offered up screenshots that purportedly show the Android phone for controlling the Gear and its settings, and it looks like a lot of what we’ll see in the Gear in terms of functionality will resemble what we’ve already seen from devices like the Pebble.

There’s a decent amount of consumer interest in devices like Pebble, which had sold 275,000 devices to date as of July through pre-orders and Kickstarter, and the Hyetis Crossbow, an absurdly expensive smartwatch from a Swiss watchmaker that has already managed to rack up 300 sales – which sounds weak until you realize that each of those 300 people are paying $1,200 for their Crossbow. But none of these devices from smaller startups is doing anywhere near the kind of numbers that an Apple or a Samsung would require to make a product sustainable.

Others like MetaWatch haven’t revealed just how well they’ve been doing yet, but the Fossil spin-out did have a successful Kickstarter run for its Strata smartwatch. MetaWatch and Pebble (whose creators have been building smartwatch devices since the inPulse) in particular look like choice acquisition targets as OEMs like Samsung and Apple look to bolster their smartwatch expertise ahead of a device launch.

Some big companies. like Sony, have a head start in terms of in-house experience. It built a Bluetooth watch back in 2008, and followed that with the Sony Smartwatch, which is getting a sequel soon. But others including LG and the countless additional OEMs probably investigating this space following all the hype that’s been generated have good reason to be on the lookout for an easy talent acquisition.

Hardware startups are difficult in terms of making something sustainable and making something that can scale with demand while keeping costs low for end users. It’s a challenge that convinced MakerBot it was better to partner up with a larger, more experienced company through acquisition, and it could eventually do the same for Pebble and its ilk. The only problem now might be whether it’s too late to join up with anyone who’s looking to build such a device, or whether the bulk of the talent/expertise land grab has already taken place.

This Bathroom Scale Also Suggests Exercises To Maintain Your Weight

This Bathroom Scale Also Suggests Exercises To Maintain Your Weight

Good news if you’re tired of your personal fitness trainer’s constant nagging you about eating healthy and staying active. You can just replace them with this bathroom scale that not only tells you how much you weigh, but also what kind of activities you can do to maintain your current physique.

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Game Of Thrones House Sigil Bow Ties: Game of Bows

Ever since Doctor Who made bow ties cool, they have shown up in all kinds of forms. The latest in bow tie fashion are these Game of Thrones house sigil bow ties. I can’t exactly see Eddard Stark (for obvious reasons) or, well, anyone from Westeros wearing one. Still, you can enjoy them.
game of bow ties
These neat bow ties are made by Etsy seller 2Marys and come in House Lannister, Baratheon, Stark, Targaryen and Arryn styles. All you have to do is choose your sigil and wear it proudly.

game of bow ties1

game of thrones bow tie 3

They will cost you just $10(USD), which isn’t too bad at all. Unless you pay the iron price, of course.

[via Geekologie]

GenShock electricity-generating active suspension is coming to passenger cars, eventually

ZF to produce Levant Power's regenerative car suspension

Levant Power’s energy-producing GenShock suspension has been stuck in limbo for a while, but the company has just announced a deal that could finally put the technology in passenger cars. Automotive component firm ZF has agreed to help develop a GenShock-based active suspension that will both convert road bumps to electricity and smooth out its host vehicle’s ride. The system will theoretically offer the comfort of a luxury sedan, the power efficiency of a hybrid and the nimble handling of a sports car. It might even simplify repairs — since GenShock recovers energy through pumps, it can raise each wheel without needing a jack. ZF doesn’t yet know when we’ll be driving cars with the new suspension, but the technology is reportedly inexpensive enough that buyers won’t require a supercar-level budget.

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Via: Autoblog

Source: ZF Friedrichshafen

Power Toolbox misses out on the Father’s Day boat

power-toolboxDoes dad like to tinker around the house? Most men do, and they would obviously need a set of tools that they can call their very own. The thing is, how many of us are serious enough to make sure that the tools in our possession are of of good enough quality? Even then, you would also need a decent toolbox to stash away your little gizmos and gadgets that continue to confound the missus. Why not do that in style with the $39.99 Power Toolbox?

The Power Toolbox is said to come with more than enough room, allowing it to hold the various gear that are required for you to handle just about any odd job around the home. What happens when you are in need of electricity? That is not an issue with the Power Toolbox (hence its name), where you can detach and unspool the 20′ heavy duty extension cord with four grounded outlets. The Power Toolbox will boast of a trio of stacking removable caddies, in addition to specially-designed compartments that will allow drill bits, screwdrivers and others to have their own “place of residence”. Made out of durable, impact-resistant plastic, the Power Toolbox will feature a non-skid surface, and can support up to 300 lbs., meaning when you need to take a break or reach out to higher place, it doubles up as a seat or stepladder. You do not have to wait until Father’s Day next year to get him one of these bad boys now, you know.
[ Power Toolbox misses out on the Father’s Day boat copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

LLCs Offer Secrecy To Foreign Criminal Groups That Want To Launder Money Through Miami Real Estate

Alvaro Lopez Tardon needed to launder tens of millions of dollars in proceeds from selling thousands of kilograms of cocaine trafficked from South America to Europe, so he turned to Miami condos, federal authorities say.

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XBMC: More Advanced Settings

This article was written on May 10, 2012 by CyberNet.

Xbmc

While XBMC is a versatile piece of software there are always a lot of things that advanced users wish they could configure, but the developers can’t possible cram it all into the XBMC interface. That’s where the advancedsettings.xml file comes into play. This file will let you adjust a dizzying number of settings that are not configurable any other way, and gives you even more control over your XBMC experience.

You’ll find the advancedsettings.xml file in your profile folder:

  • Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/XBMC/userdata/
  • Windows: %appdata%\XBMC\userdata\

Once in your profile directory find and open up the advancedsettings.xml file, or create the file if it doesn’t already exist. After you’ve got the file open you can start changing some of the hundreds of settings that are available.

What settings have I changed? I’ve covered a few in past guides including setting up a media library that is shared amongst multiple machines, and I’ve even provided configuration tips to help resolve buffering issues. I have a few other tweaks that I haven’t mentioned yet…

Video Library:

There are several settings that I change related to the video libraries:

<videolibrary>
<flattentvshows>2</flattentvshows>
<hideemptyseries>true</hideemptyseries>
<recentlyaddeditems>50</recentlyaddeditems>
</videolibrary>

Here is what each of them mean:

  • flattentvshows (2): Shows all episodes for a TV show at the same level rather than sorting them by season.
  • hideemptyseries (true): Hides TV shows that don’t have any episodes in them. This is especially useful if you delete shows after you watch them.
  • recentlyaddeditems (50): Increases the number of items that are displayed in the recently added list.

Splash Screen:

This is a simple setting that disables the splash screen when XBMC is starting up. It’s something a lot of people probably won’t care about changing, but since it is available I thought it wouldn’t hurt to turn it off:

<splash>false</splash>

Debug Log:

I don’t always use this, but if I’m trying to troubleshoot a problem it can be useful. This will let you adjust how much info gets logged:

<loglevel hide="false">1</loglevel>

These are what the various values are used for:

  • -1: All logging is OFF
  • 0: Normal logging, only logging errors (Default)
  • 1: Debug logging
  • 2: Debug logging with free memory, frames-per-second and CPU usage shown on screen
  • 3: Debug logging with free memory, frames-per-second and CPU usage shown on screen; Plus full SMB logging

CyberNet’s XBMC Guides:

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

Target’s Ticket video on-demand service launching soon

DNP Target's Ticket video ondemand service enters limited beta

If you can’t get enough digital video storefronts, there’s one more on the way — Target’s Ticket service. The video on-demand service has been in closed beta for awhile now, and, according to TechCrunch, employees have been told that it will be launching to the public soon. Prices vary by program, but TV episodes cost around $2.99, or as much as $34.99 per season. Movies sell for about $15, give or take a few bucks, and rentals are $3.99 and $4.99, which closely matches the prices of Google Play, Amazon and iTunes. The use model is familiar too, granting users 30 days to activate a rental and 48 hours to watch after pressing play the first time.

The service is only available for the company’s employees and REDcard holders at the moment, but Target hopes to open access to more customers soon. Apps for Android, iOS, smart TVs and game consoles are in testing too, so you should be able to watch virtually anywhere. The retail giant is offering a few flicks for purchase ahead of home video too, so if you’re impatient, yet somehow missed Star Trek: Into Darkness in the theater, now is the time to buddy up to a redshirt.

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Source: TechCrunch, Target Ticket

Find the Best Auctions eBay Has to Offer

This article was written on December 08, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Weekend Website

If you’ve watched the Tonight Show with Jay Leno lately, you’ve probably seen their “Stuff We Found on eBay” segment. Actually, you’ve probably seen re-runs  because of the whole writer’s strike, but before that, on occasion he has shown different unique/weird/humorous things that were found and sold on eBay. It always amazes me what people list, but it amazes me more when people actually by the stuff that shouldn’t have been listed in the first place.

If you’re wondering how to go about finding the most interesting/best auctions that eBay has to offer without the help of Jay Leno, you’ll want to turn to http://bestof.ebay.com.  Best of eBay is a fairly new community driven site from eBay that is dedicated to showcasing some of the more interesting items that people put up for sale on eBay.  There are a few social elements incorporated into it which we’ll talk about in a minute, but you don’t have to be social. If you’d just like to browse through all of the crazy stuff, you can do that too.

The “Socialness” of it…

best of ebay vote As mentioned, Best of eBay is community driven. Think of it like Digg – if people don’t submit stories to Digg, there’d be nothing to the site.  It’s the same with Best of eBay – if users don’t nominate listings, there’d be nothing to view.  Not only can users nominate for listings they come across that stand out, people can also vote. Towards the right of each listing will be an image that displays how many votes each listing has.

Navigating…

Navigating the site is pretty simple. Up towards the top is the option to view listings that were recently submitted, “today’s best,” and the “best of all time.” There’s also a drop down box where you can select a specific category that you’d like to view. Unfortunately, there are only select categories to choose from.  If you’re just wanting to browse and not really get involved, I recommend taking a look at the Best of All Time.

Tagging/ Top List/RSS…

top list ebay Just like many other community driven/social sites out there, Best of eBay relies on tags.  When you nominate a listing, you can select appropriate tags for it.  To the right of the page you’ll see a tag cloud so that you can quickly navigate to a topic that might interest you like Christmas, Cars, or Gag Gifts.

Another element of the site is their Top list which simply shows who has given the most votes and which items have received the most votes. You can even comment, or if you’d like to subscribe to the Best of eBay via RSS, you can do that as well.

Some of the “best” of all time……

Remember, these are actual listings!

The Hillary Clinton Nut Cracker (link):

nut cracker

This item sold for $20.50

Name my 24 Toed Kitten (link):

24 toed cat

This item had a winning bid of $28.00

Crazy Alien Eggs Straight from the Twilight Zone (link)

alien egg

This item had a winning bid of $51.00

Knitted Quiche Meal (all fake food) (link)

quiche

This item sold for $13.99 – other listings from the eBay user included a knitted holiday tea set and sunny side up eggs.

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com