Hasta La Gadget!

[CES 2014] When it comes to stylish audio products, Bang & Olufsen (B&O) comes to mind. To date the company has managed to produce some pretty stylish look audio products, with some of them looking practically alien in design. Now for those who are looking to get in on B&O’s products but want it in a more compact design, such as a pair of headphones, the company has recently announced at CES 2014 its new headphones, the Form 2i. If you’re wondering why the name sounds so familiar, it is because it is actually an update to its Form 2 headphones that was launched quite a while ago, meaning that it is about time that the product was given a refresh. (more…)

B&O Form 2i Headphones Announced original content from Ubergizmo.

[CES 2014] Looking for a camera with zoom? There are a few options that you could explore. One of them involves getting a DSLR and a huge and chunky zoom lens that will probably set you back a couple of hundred, if not a few thousand dollars. Alternatively you could opt for something a little more compact, and while compact zoom cameras might not necessarily have the same level of control and quality one might expect from a dedicated zoom lens, we guess it will do in a pinch, especially if you’re shopping on a budget, which is exactly what Canon had in mind when they unveiled two new compact cameras with optical zoom lenses: the Canon PowerShot SX600 HS and the PowerShot ELPH 340 HS.

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Canon PowerShot SX600 HS And ELPH 340 HS Unveiled original content from Ubergizmo.

Livemap, a Russian startup on-stage today at our CES Hardware Battlefield, aims to make GPS navigation more accessible to motorcyclists in the form of a new kind of helmet.

After all, CEO Andrew Artischev noted that if you’re riding a motorcycle, interacting with a GPS touchscreen interface isn’t exactly safe or convenient, and even looking at it means taking your eyes off the road. Livemap’s Motohelmet, on the other hand, is inspired by fighter pilots, who have “heads up” displays showing them important information directly in their helmets.

Similarly, Livemap plans to build motorcycle helmets that display navigation information directly in your field of view. The helmets will use an Android operating system with Nuance-based voice control and NAVTEQ mapping data. As for the display itself, Artishchev said it employs “a beaming scheme.”

“That means it doesn’t contain a display that could hurt the user’s eye or make obstacles for his view,” he said. “The image is beamed on the clear visor, is not visible from outside, is transparent, [and] all elements of the beaming system are hidden inside the helmet in a safe way.”

The Livemap team argues that there are no direct competitors — in other words, no other companies building this technology into the helmet itself. What GPS companies like Garmin and TomTom are doing to address this market is building navigation devices that can be mounted on motorbikes, can be shock-resistant and waterproof, and can be connected to headsets via Bluetooth.

But those features don’t fundamentally address the issues mentioned above, because you may still have to physically interact with the navigation device, and it might not be directly in your field of view.

Livemap’s approach has also been compared to Google Glass, and Artishchev discussed Glass as a potential competitor, saying his company will offer better image quality and won’t force users to look at “the upper right corner of the human field of view.”

The team previously demonstrated a full-face helmet using this technology, but now they say they’ve found a way to build the technology into a modular helmet that’s smaller and more convenient. (It also has the benefit of allowing Livemap to go into production with existing helmet shells, which is more affordable.)

While they have yet to build a full helmet prototype (an expensive process) for the modular helmet, Livemap has focused on the key components of the technology, which the team brought to CES. They showed me the actual display that motorcyclists would see while riding, and it was transparent as they claimed — so I could imagine seeing the directions without having my view obscured. They also showed me the voice-controlled navigation application running on an Android phone, and it was able to give me accurate directions around San Francisco.

Part of the Livemap team comes from Sukhoi, a Russian company that has been developing heads-up displays and optical systems for military helmets over the past 50 years. Through a combination of grants, debt, and Artishchev’s own money, Livemap has raised $1 million in funding, and it’s looking to raise another $10 million now. He said it’s been a challenge to get money from Russian venture capitalists who are more interested in backing hardware than software, particularly clones of services that have been successful elsewhere. (At the same time, apparently it’s thanks to financial support from Igor Agamirzian of the Russian Venture Company that the team was able to attend CES.)

“If we speak about my motivation, I want solve to real problems, not invented ones, not social networks for dogs or cats,” he said. Ultimately, Artishchev argued that this could “save the lives of motorcyclists on the road.”

The company has already made deals with the key manufacturing partners, he added, and it plans to start selling the helmet in the US and Canada in the last three months of 2014 for $2,000. The Motohelmet is available for pre-order now at a $500 discount, and you can also get updates by following the company on Facebook and Twitter.

[CES 2014] Back in December 2013, we reported that there was a chance that Sony could debut a new virtual reality headset at CES 2014, and sure enough it looks like Sony did not disappoint as they have unveiled the HMZ-T3Q. The device is actually a follow-up to last year’s HMZ-T3W, with notable upgrades of course. According to Sony, the new virtual reality head mounted display has a virtual screen which reaches up to a whopping 750-inches, and will be worn like a pair of pair of goggles (pictured above), enveloping you in your own private cinematic world.

Designed for entertainment purposes, such as movie watching and gaming, the HMW-T3Q is aware of your head movements as well, so if you were to turn your head, it will take note of that and allow you to focus in on that particular scene. Also given that the headset is portable, Sony has suggested it can be used in place of other portable entertainment devices, such as laptops, tablets, or smartphones, while at the same time affording its wearer a degree of privacy. Could Sony’s own virtual reality headset prove to be stiff competition for the Oculus Rift headset? That’s hard to say, but given Sony’s reputation and experience, it certainly lends them that edge. Unfortunately for those of you looking to get in on the VR experience, Sony has not mentioned anything about pricing or availability just yet.

Sony Unveils New Virtual Reality Headset At CES 2014 original content from Ubergizmo.

After months of waiting and watching for the Omate TrueSmart smartwatch to appear in the wild, it’s finally appeared here at CES 2014. What we’ve got here is a smartwatch … Continue reading