Hasta La Gadget!

At first look, $150 seems a ridiculous price for a Bluetooth dongle that lets you control your SLR from your cellphone, but digging into the specs shows that it ends up as quite a bargain. But first, what does it do?

Named the BlueSLR, the little box plugs into your Nikon SLR via one of its ports (there are three identically priced models with different plugs) and talks to your phone via Bluetooth. From a companion app, you can control the camera’s focus, shutter speed, and self-timer, or fire remotely from “up to 300-feet away” (that must be some powerful Bluetooth in there).

That alone might be worth it for some pros, but we tend to ask a little more of our gadgets. The BlueSLR also has a GPS unit to geotag your photos, writing the GPS data directly into the RAW of JPEG file. Given that GPS-only widgets go for around the same price, the BlueSLR starts to look cheap.

Right now the device is Nikon and iOS-only, with support for Canon, Android and Blackberry (!) coming soon. The iOS app is a free download. Wow. I think I just sold myself on this thing…

BlueSLR product page [BlueSLR]

BlueSLR app [iTunes]

See Also:

• DSLR Camera Remote HD for iPad
• Remote Display Lets You Use Camera from 500 Feet
• Downgrade Your Camera With The Gigtube Remote Viewfinder
• Unleashed: Bluetooth GPS for Nikon Cameras

We know, that headline makes it seem like the Plantronics Voyager Pro UC is going to seduce you, and well, after spending sometime with the headset yesterday at D: Dive Into Mobile we’re thinking it may actually be pretty hard to resist. While it’s not as snazzy as the Jawbone Icon or the Jabra Stone, its ear piece and ear hook contain capacitive sensors that know when you’ve got the device on your ear or in your hand. So, not only can the headset automatically switch a call or song from your phone to the headset when you put it on, but even if it’s paired it won’t ring the headset unless it’s actually on your ear. That means if you’ve got it paired but have it in your pocket or across the room, you’ll be able to pick it up on your phone without a problem.

On top of that, the Pro will come with a USB dongle and Voice Alerts software, which integrates with Microsoft Outlook. When configured, the software will read the subject line of an email sent by certain specified contacts into your ear. We told you it was seductive! Sadly, the Voyager Pro UC won’t actually be out until early next year and we don’t know anything on pricing yet, but in the meantime check out some more pics of the device below.

Plantronics Voyager PRO UC senses your Bluetooth wants and needs, softly whispers in your ear originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Looxcie, the ear-mounted, sci-fi styled video-camera now works with your iPhone. The Bluetooth camera is like a Tivo for your real life. When running, it is constantly filming. When something happens that you might want to keep, you hit a button and the last 30 seconds of video are dumped into your iPhone.

The only problem is the quality, a rather poor 480×320 at just 15fps. This is no Canon 5D MkII. But that’s hardly the point. The idea is that you don’t have to sit back and observe. You can join in the action and shoot clips after they happen.

The companion app, which first cam to Android, can be grabbed at the App Store. With it you can view the live video streamed from the Looxcie, and organize, edit and upload clips. This is the part we like the most: why carry yet another screen around when you already have a perfectly good one. The Looxcie also doubles as a Bluetooth headset, although really you should never use one of those anyway.

The app is designed for the small-screen of the iPhone, but you can also use, pixel-doubled, on the iPad. That makes this one way to add a camera to Apple’s tablet.

The app is free, on Android and iOS, and so it should be: the camera itself is a crazy $200.

Looxcie product page [Looxcie]

See Also:

• Wearable Camera Not Quite Ready For Its Close-Up
• Looxcie, A Futuristic Wearable Bluetooth Camcorder
• Concept Case Adds Camera to iPad

Curious timing, no? Just last month, Google’s own Eric Schmidt revealed that the Nexus S (manufactured by none other than Samsung) would have “NFC features,” and he even went on to proclaim that this kind of technology would eventually supplant the tried-and-true credit card. Today, Sammy itself has revealed a new near field communications (NFC) chip with embedded flash memory, and we’re told that this guy remains active for mobile payment even without battery power. Of course, we’re still waiting for a confirmed price and release date for the aforesaid smartphone, but could Samsung’s NFC mass production date of Q1 2011 be the clue we’ve been yearning for? Fingers and toes crossed, okay everyone?

Continue reading Samsung cooks up its own NFC module, destined for the Nexus S?

Samsung cooks up its own NFC module, destined for the Nexus S? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Good news for Mac-loving accountants, software-pirates and data-entry clerks everywhere: this standalone numerical-keypad will sit aside your svelte aluminum Bluetooth keyboard and (almost) match it perfectly.

The wireless pad adds in the usual numbers, forward delete and extra function keys, comes in the same finish as the Apple keyboard, tilts to the same angle and also requires a pair of AA batteries. It even comes with a rather clunky female-female plastic clip to join the two together.

But for Apple users, accustomed to a level of fit-and-finish high above the average, one thing will drive you crazy: the font. Look carefully at the numbers and you’ll see the typeface doesn’t match the one on Apple’ ‘board. The giveaway is in 3,5 and 8: the bottom is bigger than the top of each number, whereas on the original they are equal.

The radio-powered pad has just popped up in the FCC’s database, so while the pad could be near to shipping, we have no launch date or price just yet.

Finally, a number pad for Apple’s Wireless Keyboard [Wireless Goodness via Oh Gizmo!]

See Also:

• Razer Nostromo Gaming Keypad Is Not For the Office
• Keypad Gives Gmail Addicts Colorful Shortcut Keys
• NumberKey Turns iPhone into Numeric Keypad