Hasta La Gadget!

My pal Edwin recently reported on the Pac-Man IR Racerson Firebox.com. So UK folks are set. I’m happy to let you know that ThinkGeek has them in stock as well too. Included are the same Pac-Man, and Blinky plus joysticks.  Imagine the look on the dogs face when he sees them. US fans – get your Pac Man on ThinkGeek for $39.99.

[ Pac-Man RC In US Now copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Just how far do you think that the Angry Birds franchise is able to go? Some folks figured out that they still have plenty of mileage left, and if you are part of that particular group, you can always check out the £21.99 Nikko Angry Birds Infrared Control iRacer. At least this is not an app that will help you kill time while waiting for the train or bus, but rather, it helps you bond with your kid or friends as you cozy down at home.

The Nikko Angry Birds Infrared Control iRacer are more than ready to wreak a path of destruction, being “real life” versions of its digital counterparts. Built to last and cut across the air, the bird can be catapulted thanks to the slingshot-remote which also doubles up as the charger. Once you have sent the Angry Bird “flying”, you are able to control it by using the slingshot remote. There is some work to be done before you are able to enjoy a “real life” game of Angry Birds, as you will need to cut out the green pigs artwork from the giftbox beforehand, piling them up with other collapsible things. Make sure you have a ready supply of AA batteries to keep this game going.

[ Nikko Angry Birds Infrared Control iRacer copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Colored LED lighting that could be remotely controlled used to take professional installation and thousands of dollars; now, Philips’ new hue system makes it as easy as screwing in a bulb. On sale on Tuesday – initially exclusively through Apple Stores – the hue bulbs screw into a regular ES fitting and are remotely controlled from iOS or Android apps over a ZigBee connection, either locally around the home or (handy if you’ve left the lights on while you’re on holiday) anywhere with an internet connection. They’re hardly a cheap replacement to a standard incandescent bulb, though, so we spent some time with Philips to find out why hue is special, and how the system could actually make us happier or more productive.

The starter box – containing three bulbs and the base station – is priced at $199/£179, while individual bulbs are priced at $59/£49. That might seem expensive on the face of it (though Philips has high-end white LED bulbs in its range that are $50-60 alone) but, in comparison with the LivingColors lamps which come in with an RRP of £159 apiece, it starts to look more reasonable. If you’ve already bought any LivingColors models, incidentally, you’ll be able to use them with the hue system too (with one or two limitations).

Installation is simple: screw in the bulbs, plug the ZigBee base station into a spare ethernet port on your router, and hook it up to the mains. A pairing button on the base station allows you to link up any other hue bulbs, while three LED lights show system status including whether there’s an internet connection for remote access. Since ZigBee is a mesh system, each hue bulb can talk to each other: bulbs can be a great distance from the base station itself, just as long as there are other bulbs spanning the intermediate distance (though lag increases the more mesh-points the signal needs to hop through).

Philips hue official demo:

The bulbs themselves use 8.5W at most, and – at 600 lumens – are equivalent to 50W traditional bulbs. They also use a special internal coating that, coupled with the shape of the glass, projects light more evenly around the bulb, meaning there isn’t a dead-zone to your lamp. Officially, up to 50 can be paired with a single base station, though Philips told us that in fact that’s more of a quality-assurance guarantee; in fact, the company has had 250+ bulbs paired with test systems, and had no real issues with them. Bayonet fitting versions are in the pipeline.

Control is via smartphone and tablet app, with iPhone, iPad, and Android versions available at launch; up to ten devices can be linked to control any one base station. The software itself is surprisingly comprehensive. At its most basic, you can adjust the color of any one bulb across the spectrum, including adjusting brightness and color temperature, from a rich red, deep blue, bright white, or anything in-between. You can link up two or more bulbs into a group, and control them all simultaneously, and create preset scenes which each have their own icon on the app’s homescreen.

However, there’s also color sampling to be played with. Philips includes a number of photos in the app – scenes like beaches or mountains – and by dragging pointers linked to each lamp, you can recreate the color of that point in the image. Again, custom setups of multiple lamps tied to different points can be saved, or you create a random arrangement by physically shaking the tablet or iPhone.

You can alternatively pick out a photo from your own photo gallery – or take a new photo, within the Philips hue app – and select colors from that instead. Each of the scenes, whether basic colors or based on photos, can be set to timers, either turning them on or off; you can also have them gently fade in or out over a period of several minutes, helping you to gently wake up or drift off to sleep. Of course, you can also shut off all the bulbs with the tap of a single button.

Finally, though, comes Philips’ splash of science. The company preloads four “LightRecipes” – relax, read, concentrate, and energize – which adjust lighting to specific shades and brightness levels based on research into how those scenarios affect the human body. Philips says testing in schools showed students did better in tests, were calmer, or read faster and more accurately, depending on the different setting active at any one time. It’s worth noting that older LivingColors lamps won’t work with these new LightRecipes, as they don’t have the settings baked in like the new hue bulbs do.

There are some sensible tweaks and decisions Philips has made along the way to the hue system overall. An override feature automatically lights the bulbs up to a regular white “lamp light” default if the physical power switch is used, just in case of emergency, and you can easily deactivate a phone or tablet from the control group in case it’s lost or stolen (or if your kids insist on triggering a mini disco in your room at 2am every day). At launch, the Android app will lack the out-of-house remote control feature, though Philips says it’s coming; if you have any existing remotes from the LivingColors line-up, the company confirmed to us that they, too, would still work, useful for the less tablet-savvy in the household.

Perhaps best of all, it’s all designed to be open. Philips’ base station works as a regular ZigBee hub, and so will function with any other ZigBee devices that conform to the standard, while the individual bulbs are compliant with the ZigBee Light Link standard and so can be integrated with wireless home automation setups you might have already. The company is also opening up its app to third-party developers, in the hope that they’ll step in and augment the functionality. Suggestions included flashing the lights when you get a VIP email, synchronizing color changes with musical playlists, or geo-location so that the lights automatically turn on when you get home, and off when you leave. Individual users will be able to use the site to swap color scheme presets.

At sixty bucks apiece, hue bulbs aren’t cheap. However, the popularity of recent Kickstarter campaigns for WiFi-enabled bulbs such as Lifx – which raised more than 13x of its goal – has shown that there’s a consumer interest for more flexible, smarter lighting. Unlike fund-raising projects, though, Philips’ hue system ships from tomorrow, not sometime next year, and comes from a company with a long history in lighting. We’ll be putting hue through its paces soon, to see if the promise lives up to the price.

Philips hue iPad-controlled LED lightbulbs hands-on is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Over the years, I’ve seen more than a few remote-controlled toys that use the iPhone or other smartphones as their controller. Several of these little devices have come from a company called DeskPets. DeskPets is back with another cheap remote controlled toy that uses Android or iOS devices as the controller.

The new toy is called the CarBot and it is available in four different colors including red, blue, green, and yellow. Each of the different colors operates on its own infrared code allowing up to four of the cars to be used at one time. The car features a battle mode that lets players challenge each other and even fire virtual rockets at each other to take down their opponents.

The CarBot also has a maze mode that allows players to set up a maze for the toy to navigate precisely. It also has a personality mode with sounds and lights as well as a mute button for noiseless play.

The little CarBot is able to race at up to 2 feet-per-second, and recharges using an integrated USB connector. It takes 40 minutes of charging for about 15 minutes of play. The CarBot can be purchased now at Brookstone, Best Buy, and Toys “R” Us stores for $29.99 (USD).

Desk Pets is a company that makes all sorts of small remote-controlled toys. Some of the first products offered from the company were shaped like little bugs. The last product we talked about from Desk Pets was the TankBot that we reviewed late last year. The company is back with a new toy called the CarBot that is now available.

Desk Pets has announced that the CarBot can be purchased in retail stores, including Brookstone, Best Buy, and Toys “R” Us. The company calls the new toy the world’s first micro-robotic toy car, and the little car is available for $29.99. Like most of the Desk Pets toys we’ve seen, the CarBot is controlled by an app running on Android or iOS devices.

The car has some interesting special features, including a battle mode that allows multiple players to battle using infrared sensors. The car also has a maze mode allowing players to set up a maze that the toy can navigate on its own. CarBot also has a personality mode with sound and lights as well as a mute button to play in silence.

When the car is placed in Drift ‘n’ Race mode, the little toy can reach a speed of 2 feet per second. The car has an internal rechargeable battery and charges via a retractable USB charger built into the product. Forty minutes of charge time gives users 15 minutes of play time. There are four different colors of the car, including red, blue, orange, and green each operating on their own frequency allowing up to four to be played with at one time.

Desk Pets CarBot now available for $29.99 is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.