Hasta La Gadget!

Trying to lower your utility bill? Maybe it’s time you talked to a motor company — Ford is on the warpath to reduce energy consumption. In a collaborative effort with SunPower Eaton and Whirlpool Ford is trying to show the world how it can drastically lower its electricity bills through the use of technology. The effort is called MyEnergi Lifestyle, and according to a model cooked up by the Georgia Institute of Technology, its energy-saving tricks could reduce the energy costs of an average single family home by as much as 60-percent. If every home in the U.S. got with the program, Ford explains, it would be like taking every home in California, New York and Texas off the grid.

The team’s ideas incorporate a wide range of technology — though much of it works around using utilities during off-peak hours. Dishwashers and water heaters that are programmed to do most of their high energy tasks at night, for instance, or Ford’s Value charging system, which leverages a cloud database to charge electric vehicles when utility rates are at their lowest. Solar power and other renewable energy sources can augment off-peak use too, further reducing energy costs.

For now, it’s a lot of talk and computer models — but the companies involved are ready to put their money where their mouths are. In order to create a real-world model, MyEnergi Lifestyle is planning to launch a contest awarding one lucky family an energy efficient home makeover. Details on the promotion haven’t been announced yet, but winners would presumably be outfit with enough technology to recreate the Georgia Institute of Technology’s model on a real power bill. The team plans to showcase some of its ideas at CES throughout the week, but you can get the gist of it now by skimming the press release after the break.

Continue reading Ford teams up with Eaton, Whirlpool and SunPower to create MyEnergi Lifestyle, hopes to reduce everyone’s CO2 footprint

Filed under: Misc, Transportation

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BlueAnt offers up its 3rd iteration of the Q-series of bluetooth headsets at CES 2013: say hello to the BlueAnt Q3. Packed in the new Q3’s curvier shell are all the niceties of a modern Bluetooth headset including Siri support, Google Voice actions — using free downloadable app — wind noise protection up to 22mph, wideband audio and the promise of 7 hours talk and 100 hours standby time. Like the Q1 and Q2 before it, the Q3 will launch shortly after its launch here at CES but unlike them the introductory price of the headset will be $30 less at $99. Look for the BlueAnt Q3 to begin shipping in either black or platinum in March this year.

Continue reading BlueAnt announces Q3 Bluetooth headset

Filed under: Wireless

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A simple idea thoroughly executed is sometimes best, and that’s what Plair is aiming for with its new, self-titled streaming video adapter. The golf wedge-shaped device grafts on to an HDMI port and receives video over WiFi from custom apps for Android, iOS, OS X and Windows. While we’ve certainly seen wireless device-to-TV solutions before, it’s Plair’s sheer diversity of sources that makes the difference: along with local content, it includes the near-obligatory internet portals like YouTube and CollegeHumor ,as well as access to a deluge of video from traditional TV sources. We saw NBC intenret clips piped to a TV in remarkably good (though not broadcast) quality. The iOS app we looked at looked reasonably intuitive, to boot. Black, magenta and teal versions of the adapters should ship in late January for $99; given the diversity of material on tap, that just might be a fair price.

Michael Gorman contributed to this report.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Plair

One of the more colorful — in the literal sense — announcements during the CES build-up was the new line of Bluetooth speakers from JBL. Here at Pepcom we spotted them out in the wild, so thought we’d take the chance to go hands- and ears-on. The little guy, aka the Charge, was the first of the bunch we heard pumping out some tunes, and our inability to hear the company reps telling us more about it is testament to how loud it is for such a small device. The design of the Charge also looks — objectively — even better in real life. The modern design and materials work really well with the vibrant color schemes, and while we didn’t have time to test out that 12-hour battery life, everything else looked pretty solid to us.

The middle baby of the trio — the OnBeat Mini — is much more demure, with the low-profile unit sitting discreetly on the table top, just quietly — or loudly, rather — getting on with pumping out the jams from the iPad mini perched on top of it. This, of course, puts Lightning connectivity center stage, and despite its diminutive form (the connector, not the iPad) Apple’s mini tablet felt securely housed within the dock itself. Our favorite of the bunch would possibly be the Rumble — not just because the name sounds like it means business, but also because the bold design and impressive, weighty sound seem fitting of the name. The whole front of the unit has the classic speaker grille-style finish, and despite looking like a heavyset piece of kit, it’s surprisingly light, yet solid feeling. More pictures of the whole family can be found in out gallery.

Sean Cooper contributed to this report.

Filed under: Home Entertainment

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IOGEAR really needs to start naming its products something other than stockroom codes and long-winded yet vague descriptions of what they do. After checking out the company’s new Wireless 5×2 HD Matrix, we cast our eye over the GWAVR — a little black box which plugs into your display via HDMI and functions as a wireless access point for streaming. It’s intended to receive 1080p video and 5.1-channel audio from mobile devices and computers, welcoming content broadcast via WiDi, Miracast or DLNA from up to 30 ft away. A button on the side of the “dongle” switches between those three standards, and it’s as simple as that.

In addition to the GWAVR, we briefly handled the GUWAVKIT4, the latest version of IOGEAR’s simple screen-sharing solution which now supports all PCs and Macs. Plug the USB dongle into your computer, and it’ll show your screen on whatever the accompanying box is plugged into (said box has HDMI and old-school VGA outputs). The GWAVR is due for release in March, and will cost $79.95. The GUWAVKIT4 goes on sale a little earlier — in February — for $149.95.

Continue reading IOGEAR wireless access point and computer-to-TV streamer refresh

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Wireless, HD, Mobile

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