Hasta La Gadget!

LAS VEGAS –Remember Fitibt, the cute fitness tracker for adults that logs your every move? Now seniors have their own version of the device. Wellcore is a monitoring system that offers automatic fall detection, a web site where you can input data to track your activity and rest patterns and send text alerts.

But it is not being pitched as just another fitness tracker. Instead Wellcore executives are playing up the device’s emergency alert system. Wellcore has motion detection and pattern recognition so if the wearer stumbles or falls, it can automatically send an emergency service, a caregiver or a family member an alert.

“Traditional personal response systems require users to push a button to activate it,” says Vijay Nadkarni, CEO of Wellcore. “They have also been marketed in a way that makes it embarrassing for many to buy it. We are combining the idea of fitness and an emergency response system.”

Monitoring your lifestyle through data and data analysis is becoming increasingly popular. New devices such as the Fitbit and the DirectLife from Philips are trying to automate self-tracking. Wellcore tap into that idea but adds a feature that should get the attention of seniors.

The Wellcore system, designed by Hartmut Esslinger, founder of industrial design firm, Frog Design, has two parts. It has a base unit that acts as a charger and a clip that can be hooked on to your belt or pants. The waterproof hardware costs $200 (every additional belt clip costs $100) and the emergency monitoring service will set you back by $50 a month. The system will be available for pre-orders starting February 18 through the company’s website.

Wellcore also includes features such as an automatic reminder sent through the device’s base unit asking to be worn. If the sensor is left unworn for an extended period of time, an email message is sent to a designated caregiver or family member, so it’s a good way to remind mom or dad to use it.

The password-protected online dashboard measures the numbers of steps taken everyday and charts patterns from the data offering activity graphs that indicate if its average or above average for the user. Users can also check their daily, monthly, or 90 day progress.

While the other fitness trackers can do more, they also aren’t designed for senior users. Wellcore attempts to bring the same idea to an older group by throwing in a few services that will sweeten the idea for them.

See Also:

• Review: Fitbit Fitness and Sleep Tracker
• Entrepreneurs Find Gold in Gadget Startups
• Know Thyself: Tracking Every Facet of Life, from Sleep to Mood

Photo: Wellcore system

Keeping up the torrent of digital imaging announcements, Samsung has now updated pretty much every cam in its range, and we’ve picked out the highlights for you:

• The C20, C24 and M20 are a trio of ultra-stylish handhelds, carrying on the C-series lineage, which regrettably means a scant 720 x 480 resolution to go with your Touch of Color. The less fashion-conscious M20 gets a CMOS sensor that stretches all the way up to 1920 x 1280/60p, while all three share Samsung’s famed Active Angle Lens.
• The F40, F43 and F44 bring a super duper 52x optical zoom, but again record at a disappointing 720 x 480. Really Samsung?
• The H200, H203, H204, and H205 offer 1080/60i credentials and HDMI output, augmented by SSD choices (up to 32GB) on the higher models and 20x optical zoom. Optical image stabilization and a 2.7-inch touchscreen LCD make these appealing, particularly if you expand the internal storage with a few jumbo-sized SDHC cards.
• The S10, S15 and S16 collectively occupy Samsung’s top tier, sporting a backside illuminated 10 megapixel CMOS sensor outputting 1080/60i video. Built-in SSD storage stretches up to 64GB, and there’s also a 15x optical zoom, WiFi connectivity, and a 3.5-inch touchscreen running a 3D GUI.

Most of these new shooters will be landing in February and March, with the S-series joining them later in the spring. Slide past the break for galleries of all the models and more info.

Continue reading Samsung overhauls camcorder line, has something for everyone

Samsung overhauls camcorder line, has something for everyone originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LAS VEGAS — Human eyesight is pathetically slow and sadly lacking in powerful telephoto magnification.

Enter the latest addition to Casio’s lineup of high-speed digital cameras: The EX-FH100, which combines high-speed photography with a 10x zoom lens in a compact body.

Last year, Casio wowed us with its high-speed burst mode photos that were capable of capturing 1,000 frames per second. Nice, especially if you want to shoot slow-motion video or capture a still of something that’s happening really fast. And while it’s not the same tech used by professional slow-mo video makers, 1,000 fps is pretty damn good for a consumer camera.

But what if said fast-moving object is far away, in the end zone perhaps? That’s where Casio’s 10x zoom lens comes in.

“You can take powerful images of crucial moments that are too fast for the human eye to see,” said John Homlish, executive vice president for Casio America, showing a slow-motion video of a Little League-r hitting a baseball.

The EX-FH100 (shown above) will be available at the end of March for $350, Casio officials said.

Casio also announced enhancements to its “Dynamic Photo” feature, which lets you create kitschy composites of movies and still images — or, now, superimpose two moving images on top of one another. The demonstration showed a woman jogging along an urban path, beckoning to an animated clip art doggie behind her.

The Dynamic Photo feature will be included in three new models: the EX-H15 (a compact camera with a 10x zoom lens), the EX-Z2000, and the ultracompact EX-Z550.

Casio also announced a new line of Digital Art Frames, which are just like other photo frames except that they now allow you to convert your photos to make them look like oil paintings, watercolors, pointillist paintings, or even Fauvist art (plus four other themes).

With filters like that, who needs Photoshop?

Photo: Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com

Casio‘s just outed four new Exilim point and shoots. The High Speed Exilim EX-FH100 is a 10.1 megapixel, high speed affair with a wide-angle 24 mm 10x optical zoom, and it can shoot at 40 shots per second for still images, and up to 1,000 fps video recording. The other three, the 14.1 megapixel Exilim EX-H15, EX-Z2000, and EX-Z550 all boast Casio’s new Exilim Engine 5.0 and the Dynamic Photo function, which allows you to cut images of a moving subject out and paste them into a different background — sounds like some hijinks are in store for owners of these bad boys! The EX-H15 features a 3-inch, high resolution LCD, a wide-angle, 24 mm 10x optical zoom, and a 1,000 shot battery life. The EX-Z2000 has a 26 mm, 5x optical zoom and the EX-Z550 has the same, with a 2.7-inch LCD. All four models will be available this spring. The FH100 will run $349, the Z550 will be $169, the Z2000 will be $199.99, and the H15 will be $299.99. The full run down of specs on all four cams is in the press release after the break.

Continue reading Casio busts out updated Exilim point and shoots

Casio busts out updated Exilim point and shoots originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alright, we got a chance to check out iGUGU’s Gamecore setup, and we’re simultaneously impressed and disappointed. The fact that for $80 you can get all the hardware necessary to beam your PC video to your TV wirelessly and control games with a full QWERTY wireless controller is just plain great. We also love the form factor of the controller, since it’s basically a clone of the Xbox 360 controller — a little shameless, but our hands and fingers don’t seem to mind. Unfortunately, the drawbacks are many. First and foremost, iGUGU’s software is pretty abysmal, and for all its seeming attempts at simplifying access to games and media in a “TV friendly” manner, it only serves to complicate such actions. The second problem is that we’re just not sure a trackball could really serve to satiate the desire of most PC games for a mouse control. We tried out a FPS and would’ve much preferred a joystick nub for aiming the camera, and while there’s an accelerometer built into the controller, it felt overly sensitive in the racing game we tested — and has rarely been proven to be much beyond a gimmick in the console world outside of very specifically targeted software. That said, the Xbox-style triggers and shoulder buttons are great, and the QWERTY keyboard is uncomfortably cheap but very usable. Perhaps for lower-impact games that don’t involve the precision of a shooter or a racer we could see this working, but we’re unconvinced we’d really enjoy the majority of the “27,000 available PC games” at this thing’s disposal. Check out a video of it in action after the break.

Continue reading iGUGU Gamecore hands-on

iGUGU Gamecore hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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