Hasta La Gadget!

A few months ago we heard about a supercapacitor designed by a high school student that could lead to quick charging and longer lasting mobile phones. The Blueshift Helium speaker gives us a taste of that future. It also uses supercapacitors instead of rechargeable batteries to drastically reduce charging times.

Blueshift claims that its Helium speakers can be fully charged in just five minutes and last up to six hours while playing at its maximum volume. That’s a huge improvement over practically any speaker in the market. The supercapacitors will also supposedly last up to 500,000 charges, compared to the hundreds or thousands of cycles for most rechargeable batteries. The Bluetooth speakers also have a bamboo case and one or two 4″ full-range drivers (there are mono and stereo versions).

Pledge at least $350 (USD) on Crowd Supply to get a Blueshift Helium speaker as a reward.

[via Damn Geeky via Design You Trust]

Winamp, the AOL-owned mp3 player of yore, will close up shop for good on December 20th, which means you have exactly one month from today to use the service — if you’re still using it, that is. In addition to shutting down Winamp.com, AOL and co. will no longer offer downloads of the media player. It’s hardly a surprising announcement, but it’s a slightly glum one considering Winamp’s popularity in the late nineties and early aughts. Go ahead, you have our permission to get nostalgic for a moment or two.

Filed under: Internet, Software

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Via: Ars Technica

Source: Winamp.com

If you’re looking for a cheap e-reader and/or handheld Amazon consumption device, today is your day. Amazon has announced a one-day-only price cut on a few of its Kindle e-readers. It’s all in celebration of the fact that we won’t …

Like many people out there, I’m a big fan of the video streaming service Netflix. It’s a great place to find something to watch when nothing is on TV and I can use it to catch up on TV series that I might’ve missed seasons of in the past. Back in September, word surfaced that Virgin Media in the UK had agreed to offer Netflix on its set top boxes to subscribers. At the time, I wished Netflix would do the same thing in the US and apparently they’re in negotiations right now to do just that.

Word surfaced that Netflix is currently in talks to make its streaming service available on US cable providers’ set top boxes. Making Netflix available on those boxes would mean that users wouldn’t need to switch inputs or launch an application on different device to watch Netflix streaming video.

Netflix has reportedly been in talks with several pay-TV providers in the US. Reports indicate that these talks are in the early stages but two of the providers said to be in talks with Netflix are Comcast and Suddenlink Communications. One thing delaying the negotiations according to some reports is the fact that Netflix is insisting the cable providers use its technology designed to improve the delivery of streaming video. Netflix believes this to be a critical component of service to allow viewers to get the best quality possible.

While one might think that cable and satellite providers would see Netflix as a major competitor, offering the service through their delivery channels could increase the likelihood that customers will stick around instead of just going for a raw bandwidth provider.

[via WSJ via AppAdvice]

As the old adage goes, “practice makes perfect.” I had a coach in high school that was fond of a different adage it went something like “perfect practice makes perfect”, because if you practice something incorrectly, you’ll learn it incorrectly. With that little fact in mind a company called Zepp Labs has unveiled a 3D motion sensor to help improve your game in three different sports.

The company behind the GolfSense swing sensor has announced Zepp Tennis, Zepp Baseball, and Zepp Golf – which all share the same sensor tech -designed to track statistics about your swing and help you learn where and how to improve. The sensor connects via Bluetooth to sports-specific applications running on a smartphone or tablet. The application is available for Android and iOS devices.

Each sensor has a mount specifically designed for the sport you’re playing and captures 1000 points of data per second when you swing. The sensor has an internal ARM procuessor, multiple motion sensors, and of storage for up to 200,000 swings depending on the sport. The sensors will be available next month for $149.99(USD) each.

[via Engadget]