Hasta La Gadget!

After months of rumblings about a standalone slate, Wacom finally unveiled not one, but two tablets back in September. On paper, the Cintiq Companion may be the more compelling mobile workstation, just because it runs Windows, but first, we’re taking a long, hard look at the Cintiq Companion Hybrid. Whereas the other runs Windows, this one is powered by Android and packs a top-of-the-line Tegra 4 chip to help you get work done on the go. Of course, when tethered to a laptop or desktop machine back in the studio, the unit also serves as a traditional pen display like the Cintiq 13HD — but with multitouch gestures.

Creative types are already familiar with Wacom’s prices, but the real question is whether the ability to use it as a mobile device is worth an even higher premium. With a stablemate that’s capable of running a full version of Photoshop, is the Hybrid worth the added investment over the similarly sized 13HD pen tablet? Or are you better off paying more for the Cintiq Companion with Windows instead? %Gallery-slideshow122586%

Filed under: Peripherals

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We love when we find new ways to bring our toys together. The Automatic Link does just that: it connects your iPhone to your car’s computer, using Bluetooth Low Energy as a bridge to the On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) interface that’s been standard in most cars since 1996. Coupled with a free app, you can log various stats from your road trips, including how aggressively you drove and how much gasoline your car consumed. Basically, it’s sort of like a quantified-self tracker, but for your vehicle. So, does this $100 driver’s assistant deliver? Let’s see.%Gallery-slideshow121856%

Filed under: Peripherals, Transportation

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If we’ve crossed paths in the past week, there’s a pretty good chance I’ve scanned you. This extends well beyond the human race, into the realms of animal, vegetable, plush toy and fruit bowl. Some subjects were too small to be scanned, some too fidgety and, in the case of my attempted 3D selfie, not nearly flexible enough. Such issues were mere roadblocks in my strange one-man journey to 3D-scan the world. I may have a problem. I admit it. For starters, I’m not completely sure what I plan on doing with all these scans, but while such questions are entirely logical, they’ve yet to curb my enthusiasm for the device. Sense is one of those propositions that seems too good to be true: a user-friendly, (relatively) portable 3D scanner capable of capturing objects up to 10 feet by 10 feet, and at a fraction of the price of the competition.

If the product is indeed what 3D Systems claims, it could fill a major hole in the consumer 3D-printing market. In recent years, 3D-printing companies have largely focused on the printers themselves, which have gotten cheaper and easier to use. At the same time, the race to dominate the category has often caused companies to ignore the question of how those without extensive CAD experience can create 3D files in the first place. MakerBot unveiled its solution back at SXSW: the $1,400 Digitizer, a rotating, desktop scanning bed capable of capturing objects up to eight inches by eight inches. 3D Systems’ Sense takes a wholly different approach: This is a $400 handheld scanner that can digitize an entire human being.%Gallery-slideshow123207%

Filed under: Peripherals

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Sam Cervantes didn’t stand on his new printer when he brought it by our offices the other day. He thought about it for second, a nice reprise of the day he introduced us to its predecessor late last year, but, well, he’d only just pulled that first unit out of the box for the first time, and he didn’t want to scuff up its finish or dent the new enclosure. As to whether the new 3D printer could sustain the weight of a full grown man, he certainly thinks so. It’s still got that steel structure, after all. Maybe we can convince him to put on a show at CES in January.

Structural integrity questions aside, the latest printer from Solidoodle is a nice looking thing, certainly. As the Brooklyn-based company began looking to expand its sales footprint beyond enthusiast-based direct marketing, it no doubt realized that it would have to produce a product that could live on store shelves comfortably next to, say, a laptop or an HP printer. It sounds silly, sure, but big box stores aren’t particularly interested in stocking products that look as though they might have been built in someone’s garage. For all its charms, the Solidoodle 3 had a certain home-brewed quality to it. The new printer goes firmly in the other direction, with a metal enclosure that wouldn’t look too out of place in a lot of homes.%Gallery-slideshow122778%

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It’s easy to worry about internet privacy these days, but it can be a pain to set up a Tor connection that keeps the snoops and thieves at bay. Pogoplug wants to simplify the process with its newly available Safeplug adapter. The peripheral connects to most any internet router and uses Tor to anonymize all web requests that pass through, saving the trouble of launching a special browser every time you want to keep your data secret. It can also join the Tor network to help safeguard others’ information, if you’re feeling generous. While the Safeplug won’t be much help when you’re away from home, it’s relatively cheap at $49 — a small price to pay if you don’t want anyone tracking your web surfing habits.

Filed under: Peripherals, Networking

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Source: Pogoplug