Hasta La Gadget!

Its amazing how much things evolve and develop in the tech world. How quickly yesterday’s “oh wow!” becomes “so-what?” Even the same items can become cooler, more option filled and easier to use. Case in point? Check out the i’m Watch, sure we’ve reported on it before, but its changed into something else, a bit more versatile, and much more stylish. Welcome to the next generation…

The i’m Watch let’s you leave your phone in your pocket and still brings you all kinds of communication and entertainment availability right there on your wrist. i’m Watch actually exchanges info with your smartphone so you will always know who’s calling, who left a message, read your texts, check on e-mail and, with tons of specialty apps, you also have games and music along with applications that are useful in both your business and social settings.

The software that controls the new generation i’m Watch takes a bit of  the best technologies and melds them together. Now, with a single gesture, you can open and close your applications, receive your (very important) social networking updates and read your e-mails. You can reject calls with a simple shake of the wrist, and, if you walk away from your actual phone, an alarm will sound to let you know. Pretty handy.

So if a mini organizer that you wear on your wrist that can remind you of your appointments, tell you the weather, play you music, give you real time Facebook updates, can communicate with your phone and tells you the time, sounds like fun to you, check out the next generation i”m Watch. Available in all kinds of new colors and materials, starting at around 300 bucks. See imsmart.com to buy it, or just to learn more.
[ i’m Watch – The Next Generation copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

There are a lot of things you can do that can distract you when you’re driving. I get the reasons why they have made using your phone against the law, but what I don’t get is why eating, smoking, putting on your makeup and reading is still okay. I don’t know how to help get dolled up or have a snack more safely, but I did find something that might help you stay in touch with the outside world, all while cruising the open road.

Check out Apps on Toast’s newest offering, the completely voice controlled, Car Dock. The Car Dock is designed to help you keep your eyes on the road, and your little hands on the wheel (at 10 and 2 o’clock!)  while making phone calls and texting your heart out. Apps on Toast Car Dock lets you send texts by voice and call anyone without even touching the phone, and you can start or stop music and navigation, just by speaking.

Think of it, no matter what kind of car you have, when the Car Dock is running your incoming calls will be announced and you can simply speak aloud your decision to answer the call or kick it to the curb, or you can opt to simply respond with a text. Incoming sms text messages will be read aloud to you, and you can send your response without ever looking at your phone. You can speak navigation instructions, or make calls, all without distraction.

The Ultimate Car Dock has a speedometer option, is designed for Android smartphones, and you can try it for free for seven days, or you can buy it right now on Google Play. So now life would be almost perfect if I could just find an app that would feed me a handsfree burger and fries and then touch up my lipgloss.
[ Apps on Toast – Helps you keep your Eyes on the Road copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

When it comes to cases for your smartphone, you know for sure that these are dime a dozen out there in the market. The thing is, how do you get a smartphone case that stands out from the rest of the crowd? The GoCuff could very well fit the bill perfectly – it is the first iPhone and Android fitness case of its kind that offers you complete and unhindered access to your phone with but a simple glance or touch. In a nutshell, the GoCuff is the new and improved sport cuff that will empower you to quickly and easily engage with your smartphone without missing a beat. It will be different from all of the other traditional armbands that you would come across, where placement at your wrist and its touch-sensitive screen would pave the way for a more natural method of accessing it when using fitness apps, GPS navigation, answering a call or even checking out the most recent text message.

Touted to be anatomically and ergonomically engineered for majority of us humans out there, it would not restrict your movement at all, since it allows for a full range of motion at the wrist, ranging from running all the way to pushups. Apart from that, it will also let you access your phone’s capability and data regardless of the activity that you are involved in via a PVC touch-sensitive screen. It does not matter if you are jiving with the iPhone, a handset from Samsung or HTC – they will all play nice with the GoCuff.

Should it actually gain enough financial backing from the masses, it will arrive in a trio of sizes – namely small, medium and large. Not only that, it will play nice with Strava, MapMyFitness and Nike+, while you can preview GoPro video and photo instantly using the appropriate app. The GoCuff will also be able to track elevation gain and GPS while you ski or snowboard, while doing away with the need for supplemental GPS on a motorcycle to boot. Should its Kickstarter goal be met, the production timeline for overseas markets would occur sometime in mid-Sept to mid-Oct 2013, and Kickstarter backers would ideally be able to receive their respective GoCuffs in early November.

Kickstarter Page
[ GoCuff smartphone fitness case copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

When it comes to high end smartphones, you can be sure that there is quite a fair number to choose from. Sony has their flagship Xperia Z, while Samsung rocks on with the fourth iteration of the Galaxy S series in the form of the Samsung Galaxy S4. As for HTC, the company might not be doing too hot in the past few quarters, but this does not mean that they are left behind the race. In fact, their HTC One has made quite an impressive splash in recent months, and there is also LG with the Optimus G Pro, Nokia with their Lumia 1020, while China-based Oppo has their high end Find 7 model. While these tend to have a camera which works pretty great, so much so that they can even double up as a replacement for your regular digital camera under most casual circumstances, the front-facing camera does capture decent self portraits, but they aren’t enough when it comes to the amount of pixels. ThL of China hopes to deliver far better looking self portraits, with the Monkey King ThL W11 touted to be the first 13-megapixel front camera smartphone in the world.

Just what kind of hardware can we find underneath the hood? Well, the Monkey King ThL W11 will run on the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system for starters, where it will be powered by a quad-core 1.5GHz MT6589 processor, sporting rendering speeds of up to 357MHz, a 5” Full HD IPS display, 2GB RAM, 32GB ROM, and a 2,100mAh battery.

Sure, the front-facing camera might sport a whopping 13-megapixels, making this up the ante by a whole bunch, but the back at 13-megapixels is not going to impress anyone since smartphone cameras these days do come with a pretty high sizeable count. Still, it is enough to take more than decent photos, although we do hope that the quality of the software to process the images taken will be up to par. There will be no LTE connectivity with the Monkey King ThL W11 however, as it maxes out at 3G. No idea on pricing or availability, though.

Press Release
[ Monkey King ThL W11 is first 13-megapixel front cameraphone in the world copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Every single company would do well to release a flagship device of their own – it is not only a matter of technological achievement, but one of pride as well. After all, what is the point of tooting your trumpet if you do not have a flagship that is capable of duking it out with the best of the rest out there? HTC knows that they have a winner with the HTC One on their hands in the recent past, where it has picked up mainly rave reviews from the masses as well as the press, but still, the HTC One was unable to help HTC deliver a stellar quarter when it comes to earnings. Having said that, this has not stopped HTC from moving in the right direction, and they have just announced the HTC One mini, keeping in vein with the “mini me” theme that smartphone manufacturers, Samsung especially, just love to play with these days.

The HTC One mini is said to be HTC’s ultimate 4.3” smartphone, after all, it does come with HTC BlinkFeed, HTC Zoe and HTC BoomSound, all features that are available on their HTC One flagship, too. The HTC One mini would continue in the same iconic design flow of the HTC One, where you will find that the 4.3” display is easy on the eyes, while a powerful dual-core 1.4 GHz processor helps run proceedings from underneath the hood. Not only that, it will also be powered by the most recent version of the Android operating system, where it will be accompanied by HTC Sense.

Coming in Glacial Silver and Stealth Black colors, the HTC One mini boasts of a striking aluminum unibody in a slim profile, looking premium regardless of which angle you’re starting it down from. Not only that, there is also HTC BoomSound, which is HTC’s dual frontal stereo speakers that deliver less distortion and finer detail, and headphone lovers will love the Beats Audio integration that delivers immersive audio to the next level. It remains to be seen just how much the HTC One mini will sell for, but it is tipped to arrive in select markets from August onwards, before a global rollout in September.

Press Release
[ HTC launches HTC One mini copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]