Hasta La Gadget!

When you’ve got a design for a watch as ubiquitous as the Casio G-Shock on the market, you’re allowed to be late to the new technology party. This year Casio’s … Continue reading

Bad posture is collectively turning the desk-chained workforce into a mass of unhealthy hunchbacks. The Lumo Lift is a magnetic shirt pin that delivers gentle buzzing nudge whenever it senses poor posture. It’s a reminder “to keep your shoulders back and down and your head lifted,” explains Lumoback Founder, Monisha Perkash.

Because Lumoback collects all the user data on their servers, they actually know that it’s consumers are changing their posture over time. Many of “our users report significant improvement in days or weeks,” says Perkash.

The Lumo Lift is also relevant for folks with a Standing desk, since proper posture is important while standing or sitting.

Perkash revealed to TechCrunch an even cooler feature of Lumo Lift that’s on their product roadmap: Yoga poses. In our CES 2014 interview above, she demonstrated how an upcoming version of the Lumo Lift software will make sure our cobras and downward dogs are top notch.

The Lumo Lift will be available for around $79, launching in the Spring.

One of the best parts of CES are the devices that companies show off that are more or less conceptual, and may or may not ever even get made. One such gadget is the Toshiba 5-in-1 tablet, notebook, media player, drawing slate, etc. It’s sleek looking in pre-production solid aluminum, and also has a lot of potential as a flexible hybrid with a form factor that’s tailor-made for Windows 8.

As explained by Toshiba, the device isn’t yet ready for production, though it does exist as a fully functional prototype. And really it isn’t too far off from existing devices like the Lenovo Yoga line of notebooks. But this Toshiba concept has some unique elements, like the dockable keyboard which is usable on its own with any other Bluetooth-enabled hardware, and the battery that lives in the display for fully independent tablet-style usage.

Windows 8 is a bit of an odd duck for many PC OEMs: It’s not something that necessarily works with traditional device designs including notebooks and desktops, and yet it’s also an OS that’s made to take advantage of existing Windows software, which isn’t optimized for touch-based interfaces.

It’s rare that concept devices displayed at CES make it to market fully intact, but Toshiba’s got something good going on with its industrial design, as well as the basic concept behind this 5-in-1, so hopefully it doesn’t get too watered down before hitting store shelves.

You may or may not recall Google TV. That was Google’s first attempt at an operating system aimed at the TV. The biggest product to use that Google TV was was the Logitech Revue, which failed miserably and was retired. At CES 2014, a company called Hisense is showing off a device called the Pulse Pro.

While its not claimed to be running Google TV, C|NET reckons the version of Android that the Pulse Pro is using is the next iteration of Google TV. The device connects to your TV like other set top boxes and has a nice looking interface that is easy to use.

You can clearly see icons for surfing the web, Google Play, and other streaming services. The motion-sensing remote is said to be much easier to use than your typical Google TV remote. The little remote lacks a full keyboard and looks more like a remote from other home theater devices. The remote even has a mic and responds to voice search queries. Other features include integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

It’s unclear when the Pulse Pro will launch or how much it will cost, but it looks like an interesting device.

[via C|NET]

Qualcomm showed off some of the magic powers of its latest mobile processors at CES this year, and many of the new features on display had to do with mobile cameras. The Qualcomm 805, announced back in November, will offer smartphone shooters some powerful new tools once it starts making its way into shipping phones later this year.

The most impressive new feature is the ability to select focus after a picture is captured. You can either put everything into sharp focus for incredible depth of field, or choose one point and throw the rest into attractive, soft focus for pleasing bokeh. You may recognize this tech; it’s similar to how the Lytro light field camera works.

The Lytro captures its images differently, however, which accounts for its elongated design. Qualcomm has managed to do all the heavy lifting by capturing multiple exposures in rapid succession, using existing camera hardware. That means it’ll be simple to build it into upcoming smartphones.

Besides focus selection, Qualcomm’s chip can also power intelligent lighting and exposure correction, as well as help with making sure that flash photos don’t appear too washed out or unnatural looking. All-in-all, Qualcomm is doing a great job bringing to market tech that seemed to be many years out only just recently, and it’ll be great to see how OEMs employ this tech in their products in 2014.