Hasta La Gadget!

Corsair is very much associated with devices that need a physical connection to work, whether they’re thumb drives or memory sticks. It’s looking to cut the cord in style through its new Voyager Air. You’ll have seen some of what it does with a predecessor like Kingston’s Wi-Drive, with media streaming to Android and iOS devices, a WiFi repeater mode and USB 3.0 support, but Corsair’s drive goes the extra mile by serving as network attached storage through a gigabit Ethernet link. The 7-hour battery life when completely wireless certainly helps its prospects, at least among its immediate rivals. Corsair plans to ship the Voyager Air by early February in a 500GB version for $199 and 1TB for $229 versions; either price sounds reasonable for a home media server that ultimately doesn’t have to stay at home.

Continue reading Corsair outs Voyager Air with WiFi storage, NAS, USB 3.0 and repeater all in one

Filed under: Storage, Networking

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Source: Corsair

Extreme Reality‘s technology revolves around gestures, and its latest effort is to bring that movement to the masses: its Extreme Motion developer kit turns just about any off-the-shelf webcam or built-in camera on common platforms, including Android, iOS and Windows, into an almost Kinect-like system capable of tracking 3D motion. Despite missing depth cameras or other additional sensors, it’s theoretically quite accurate — the software tracks joints across the body in every frame, although it’s not quite so sensitive as to track fingers.

This author had the chance to make a fool of himself in front of a laptop’s camera to see how well Extreme Motion works. In short, reasonably well: while it wasn’t in perfect sync, it recognized with less-than-elegant moves in a Dance Central-style demo title and flagged whether a shimmy was right on target or evidence of two left feet. Of course, this experiment was conducted in a brightly-lit hotel ballroom, where body detection is ideal, so take the experiment with a grain of salt. It’s still adept enough that the developers who will have access to the (currently free) toolkit can produce motion games we’d be sincerely interested in playing.

Michael Gorman contributed to this report.

Filed under: Gaming, Software

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Source: Extreme Reality

So, you’ve been monitoring virtually every aspect of your athletic performance and tweeting it to the world, but not your heartrate or other basic performance factors? Apparently that just won’t do, sport-o, so 4iiii has announced the chest-worn Viiiiva monitor. That’ll let you add those indicators to sportwatches like those from Garmin or Timex through the ANT+ interface, or iPhones and iPods using Bluetooth. To lighten your training load, you can record the data with the Viiiiva alone, then sync it up later and record, plot and analyze your stats with a clutch of iOS fitness apps like Strava or Training Peaks. You’ll be able to pick one up soon for $79 on at 4iiii’s site (see coverage) and select retailers, so head to the PR after the break and feel the burn.

Continue reading 4iiii unveils Viiiiva heart rate monitor that wirelessly links to your iPhone or smartwatch

Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables

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We’re seeing a lot of retailers and restaurants using technology-based point of sale systems these days, and Griffin wants to be the one that they turn to before anyone else. This week at CES 2013, the company has announced two new point of sale solutions for restaurants and retailers alike. Griffin has decided that iOS is where its at when it comes to POS systems, with both of these new offerings using the iPad in some way, shape or form.

First on the list is the company’s new Kiosk Retail, which features the iPad 2 or the iPad third-gen at the heart of everything. With Kiosk Retail, the built-in card reader has been outfitted with TDES encryption and DUKPT key management to keep things safe. While those are meant to keep data and sensitive financial information safe, the “impact-resistant” housing will keep the iPad itself safe from damage.

Anyone can stick a card reader onto an iPad and call it a point of sale solution though, so Griffin has taken it one step further and partnered with ShopKeep POS and POSiOS, two apps that have hit it big in the mobile POS space. Both apps will have support for Kiosk Retail’s hardware implemented starting February, and Griffin says that the system will be available for $299.

Griffin also announced AirStrap Retail today, which is a new version of the company’s original AirStrap. This time around, there is built-in structural support for the iDynamo credit card reader, which means users will no longer have to worry about damaging the iPad or its connector. The Airstrap Retail system also benefits from grips that make it easier to hold the iPad with one hand while keeping all of the ports free and open, and it will be available sometime this month with a price tag of $49.99

Griffin launches two iOS-based POS platforms is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Putting in the effort to get healthy can’t usually be described as fun, and when you add that to the fact that it can be difficult to track everything you should be tracking, you have the recipe for a bunch of goals that never get completed. Luckily, CES is here and Withings has just introduced a pair of new products that can track almost every health-related statistic you can think of. If you’ve been struggling to get in shape, these products might be worth a look, if only because they should make the process of tracking your progress a bit easier.

We’ll start right off with the Smart Body Analyzer, a new scale that measures your weight, body fat, and heart rate. These statistics are then stored in the Analyzer’s companion iOS or Android app using the scale’s built-in Wi-Fi or Bluetooth modules. This means that you can use the app to share your progress with your doctor, or with the social media world if you’re feeling a little brave.

What’s interesting about this scale is that it’s meant to be put in your bedroom, instead of the bathroom. The reason for this is because the scale also monitors the air quality of the room, measuring temperature and CO2 levels. By measuring the air quality, you could potentially get a better night’s sleep, which in turn leads to better health. Position Control will help you make sure you’re using the scale properly, while the app is compatible with a number of third-party health tracking services, which means you can have all of your statistics in one place.

Then we have the Smart Activity Tracker, which will keep track of your “number of steps taken, strides run, distances covered, calories burned, and quality of sleep,” in addition to providing pulse tracking. Of course, this also syncs with Withings’ Health Monitor app, which can then alert you if you’ve spent too long a time being inactive and can even differentiate between moderate activity and vigorous activity.

The Smart Body Analyzer will be available in Q1 2013 and will sport a price tag of $149. No specific release date for that one yet, and unfortunately we aren’t sure when the Smart Activity Tracker will be launching and how much it will cost. Keep it tuned here to SlashGear for more from CES 2013!

Withings introduces Smart Body Analyzer and Smart Activity Tracker is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.