Hasta La Gadget!

The Mio Alpha made a bit of a splash on Kickstarter earlier this year when it promised a heart rate-sensing watch that didn’t use chest straps or similar encumbrances to measure your exertion. They went $200,000 over their goal of $100,000 and just started shipping in time for pre-marathon season.

The watch offers two basic functions. You can tell the time, obviously (but not the date) and you press the right button to toggle heart rate mode. You can set a target heart rate by holding down the left button. You end your workout by holding down the right button again.

The real trick is how the device senses your heart rate. Rather than sensing using EKG technology, the watch uses a pair of LEDs to sense blood volume under the skin. The green LEDs light up and another LED begins pulsing when it grabs a reading. Compared to a Polar EKG watch I’ve used, the heart rate reading was accurate. The Alpha is rechargeable and includes an oddly-shaped USB dongle that snaps into the bottom of the watch. The battery lasted about two weeks of semi-regular use but your mileage may vary.

The watch also transmits data via Bluetooth so you can connect the Mio to a smartphone for more precise recording. Users of EKG watches will immediately see the benefits: you get a continuous readout without having to wear anything around your chest and the watch itself is light and comfortable so you will barely notice it. Could it have more features? Sure, a timer and stopwatch would be nice, but as it stands at $199 you’re getting a very solid heart rate monitor. The Nike+ GPS watch, for example, costs $169 and tracks distance but the monitor is $70 extra. Better heart rate watches from Suunto and Polar can hit the $300 and higher range, so this very basic watch is just about all you need if you’re only looking for accurate heart rate measurements without much fuss.

The Alpha is surprisingly light and simple to use which makes it great for folks who don’t want a huge watch strapped to their wrist while running. While there is something to be said for a wrist computer that can tell you pace, distance, age, weight, number of mailboxes passed on your run, and lucky lotto numbers, something like the Mio is refreshing in its simplicity.

BitTorrent has announced that it’s working on its very own file-synchronization app — and it’s already looking for a limited number of test subjects for its pre-Alpha stage. So far, the premise is to offer identical copies of your files on all machines, all sounding pretty similar to how you use iCloud, Skydrive or Dropbox, although there would be no cloud-caching. According to GigaOM, files will be protected by 256-bit encryption, with native test apps for Mac, Windows and Linux (alongside NAS integration) already in testing. There’s no mobile version just yet, but BitTorrent has stated that it’s “committed to mobile across the board,” and, well, it’s still pre-Alpha. If you’re up for trying another file sync service, the company is recruiting willing participants over at the source.

Filed under: Software

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Via: TNW

Source: GigaOM, BitTorrent

We reported not too long ago that Sony was rumored to be working on a mysterious new camera and that the company was expected to debut new Alpha cameras at CES 2013. The folks at Sony Alpha Rumors are back with another tip and this time they claim that according to their sources, Sony has three new full frame camera prototypes in the works. Instead of each prototype being deviations of each other, their sources have informed them that each prototype is completely different and are not three versions of the same concept. We’re not sure if all three prototypes will make it to a possible announcement at CES 2013, but it seems that some lucky photographers have already begun testing it in the field already, with one of the cameras tentatively being named the A1x. In any case this is merely a rumor at this point with not much to go on, so do take it with a grain of salt but with CES 2013 only a couple of months away, we guess we won’t have long to wait to see if it pans out.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Nikon D400 and Sony A77 cameras to feature 25Mp crop sensor?, Sony Officially Introduces Three User-Friendly DSLR Cameras + Accessories,

Sony’s NEX-7 may be fast approaching its first birthday, but that doesn’t mean the company’s ready to give up on pushing out updates. The camera’s first new firmware version, 1.01, should be hitting today, bringing with it the ability to disable the Movie Record button to avoid accidental taps (finally!), boosted image quality with a wide-angle lens, improved audio playback and expanded EV bracketing. An option to disable the EVF eye sensor doesn’t appear to be included with this revision, unfortunately. Other updates hitting at the same time include E-mount lens firmware v.01 that’ll enable NEX-5R/NEX-6 Hybrid AF functionality with older lenses, A65/A77 firmware v1.06 and A37/A57 firmware v1.03, both of which deliver the ability to enable/disable the movie record button while also adding a variety of lens compensation options for select Alpha optics. All of these updates should now be live — head over to the source link below for the hook-up.

Filed under: Cameras, Sony

Sony Alpha firmware updates bring record button disabling on NEX-7, DSLR lens improvements originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When we first got our hands on Sony’s full-frame compact camera, the Cyber-shot RX1, we were allowed to touch it, but we couldn’t use it for its stated purpose. Today, however, we got to put its 35mm image sensor and Zeiss Sonnar T* 35mm f/2.0 fixed prime lens to the test at a Sony event in San Francisco. Join us after the break to see a bit more of the City by the Bay and learn how the RX1 performed shooting stills and video.

Continue reading Sony Cyber-shot RX1 sample images and video

Filed under: Cameras, Sony

Sony Cyber-shot RX1 sample images and video originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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