Hasta La Gadget!

Even wireless earbuds have wires, let’s be honest – they have to, in order to link one earbud to the other. It’s been an impossible barrier to cross in headphone design, with some exceptions that generally cost a whole lot of cash. Enter the Split, a new Kickstarter project that wants to untether one earbud from the other forever.

The Split isn’t bulky like previous designs, and it doesn’t require any fancy transmitters. Each unit is a contained piece of gadgetry, with its own battery built-in, and they’re only just slightly larger than standard earbuds, with bits that stick out slightly from either ear. They each have their own memory chip and processor, too, and they sync playback between one ear and the other (something founder Marco Scandurra says isn’t likely to fall out of sync, barring physical damage to the devices).

The biggest problem with these earphones is that they work independent of any devices, however. That means they only play locally stored music, uploaded to the Split buds themselves –which currently tops out at a max of 256MB – and can’t connect to your iPhone or Android device via Bluetooth or any other protocol.

While there’s not currently any workaround in sight to bring Bluetooth connectivity to the Split, there is a plan to make it usable with mobile devices in the early stages of development.

“There are plans for next year to make an app that is compatible with iOS and Android phones,” Scandurra explained. “With that app you will be able to manage and upload songs onto Split, and we are also planning on developing an adapter that can support Lighting connectors on iPhone and iPad devices, while the regular USB port will just need to be converted to mini USB to work with Android devices.”

Memory on the device is limited, and a means of loading it with songs which requires frequent shuttling of content back and forth isn’t going to work for most people. Scandurra says they’re working with their supplier to double space on the device to half a gig by next year, so that’s something at least. And if you’re an athlete looking for a completely tangle-free solution, you’re probably going to be decently happy with enough content to run a simple playlist or two.

Now of course, if you’re like me you’re terrified at this point about what the Split is doing in terms of radiating your brain. But the headset uses around 1,000 times less radiation than a Bluetooth headset, according to Split. And how do you control a music player that’s only an inch deep and resides inside your ears? With bites, of course. Each one has an accelerometer within to detect jaw motion for play/pause, volume control and track skipping.

Honestly, this is an extremely niche product that’s at least a little crazy looking. But Scandurra has a PhD in high-energy physics from the University of Leipzig in Germany, and held a post-doc position at MIT in the Physic Department so if he’s crazy, he’s also at least got the creds to make these real. The team behind Split is looking at December as a ship date, and backers can pre-order for only $29, which means you don’t have to be soft in the head to get on board. This is definitely an early version of experimental tech, but it could also be the ground floor for something big.

While there are plenty of enterprise mobility and device management companies, they may not go deeply enough in controlling the end-user experience for an employee or a customer.

Many of these enterprise mobility startups use standalone apps that a tablet user can switch in and out of to the browser. That might be a security risk for restaurants that, for example, want to let their customers order from an iPad or a distraction for teachers that want to manage attention in the classroom.

Anfacto, a startup with talent from Google and an earlier company called 3LM that Motorola acquired, is building custom versions of the Android OS that let enterprises offer single-purpose devices for the workplace, conferences or the classroom.

“This is a level of control you can’t have with an application,” said CEO Hristo Bojinov.

Anfacto’s Android variant called FleetOS could let customers like UPS give their drivers Android tablets that they can use exclusively for tasks like scanning packages.

“The idea is that we can lock down the experience from a user standpoint,” Bojinov said. “The customer can go in and decide what applications and features can be run.”

He said a conference could give away tablets to attendees and push applications to them while they’re roaming around the event. Or a company like TaskRabbit or Uber could give their contractors phones specifically for managing errands or drives. Or they could partner with a hardware maker that wants to make tablets exclusively for kids with only specific, child-friendly apps.

The company is already profitable through a few early contracts, and took some strategic funding from DoCoMo Capital. They say FleetOS competes against expensive legacy solutions in the older Windows PC market.

Bojinov said he got the idea for the company because so many hardware makers were asking for it. Their solution has a policy server where an IT administrator can set the rules for what’s allowed or disallowed on their devices. They can also manage graphical resources like wall papers to offer a more customized or personal experience.

The company has 12 people on its team, with most of them in Palo Alto. They’re also opening an office in Bulgaria, where Bojinov grew up.

If you’re anything like me, you spend way too much of your day seated, at your desk, hunched in front of your computer. During busy days — especially once firmly planted “the zone” — it’s easy for a few hours to fly by without leaving a sedentary position. For this reason, I’m probably not the only one who could use a gentle reminder, just a little, “Hey Rip, you’ve been sitting for two hours, how about standing up, ya lazy bum?”

Well, my friends, your Fitbit can remind you that you’re behind on your steps, but what if your desk could remind you to stand up, or take a break? Thanks to Stir, a Los Angeles-born startup founded by former Apple, Disney and IDEO employees, now you can buy a smart desk that will do just that.

The Stir Kinetic Desk, the startup’s first product, which launches today, combines the health-tracking software of popular wearables like FitBit and Up with connected-hardware and machine learning to create a work experience that actually promotes movement — and, in so doing, your health.

Stir Founder and CEO JP Labrosse was one of the first 35 employees to join Apple’s iPod Division, where he led engineering development teams on two early iPod projects. It not surprising, then, that the Kinetic Desk borrows a bit from familiar Apple designs and interfaces, including built-in touch screen, which has a very iPod-type size, shape and look to it. It’s this touch interface that acts as the desk’s main “control panel,” allowing users to change the configuration and height of their desk, or to go from sitting to standing (and back) just by double tapping.

Not only that, but the screen displays graphs and visual representations of a user’s movement, so they can quickly see how long they’ve been sitting and what their work habits and usage looks like. The desk contains a thermal presence sensor and computer outfitted with its health-tracking software, allowing it to track your movement and display that data through its touch screen.

While it may sound almost uncanny, not to worry, the desk isn’t yet outfitted with Siri’s voice or any sort of personal assistant. While Labrosse was willing to admit that the Stir Kinetic Desk could incorporate some Watson or HAL 9000-like features down the road, for now, the desk is meant to work in concert with the Internet of Things, not to try to commandeer it and dominate your office.

In fact, the desk tracks and adapts to your personal routine in such a way that’s meant to optimize health and productivity. The desk will display how many calories you’ve burned, time spent standing versus sitting — and your answer to “who is the most beautiful desk of them all?” of course.

Labrasse, echoing Harvard Business Review’s recent study, called sitting “the smoking of our generation,” which is probably a little overdramatic, but it’s true that in our overworked, over-connected modern work environment, we do spend more time in chairs than on our feet. While your Kinetic Desk won’t remind you to eat, shower, finish coding and go outside or be a better friend, it will help keep you upright and mindful of the healthier routine that’s right around the corner.

The desk also contains a setting called “active mode,” which you can activate by hitting a button on the front of the desk, which will put it into “Whisperbreath” mode — meaning that the desk prompts you to move after you’ve been sitting for too long with a gentle, one-inch rising and falling motion. You can then double tap to change positions.

Stir’s new smart desk also comes with built-in AC and USB ports (eight and four, respectively), connected to a single power cord you plug into the wall, and comes with Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, which the CEO hopes will eventually allow the desk to integrate with third-party fitness and wellness devices. To think: Your desk could be come your fitness and wellness graph itself. Imagine that. The team will also eventually release a web-based dashboard to allow you to view your work and health data on the go.

The Stir Kinetic Desk has a hardwood surface, comes in white, espresso and four underside colors, and will retail at an expected $3,890. It’s not cheap, but, hey, you can’t put a price on good health, people, especially when it’s your office furniture that’s keeping you healthy.

Labrasse and the Stir team were kind enough to let us take their new health-conscious desk for a spin, and you’ll find our video below. Find the Stir Kinetic Desk at home here.

The human body wasn’t meant to sit. Chairs are an invention of our own laziness.

That said, UpDesk is here to swoop in and give you a nice, comfortable desk to both sit and stand at without a whole lot of extra effort on your part. The UpWrite is quite similar to UpDesk’s Standing Desk, which has an electronic lifting system and three preset heights, ranging from 25 inches to 50 inches.

However, the UpWrite also comes with a nice white surface, which just so happens to play nice with dry erase markers. Artists, obsessive planners and list lovers should get a kick out of this thing.

But what do John and I think?

John has previous experience with UpDesk, and believes that this is possibly the smoothest running and best looking model yet. Still, he’s not convinced that the dry erase surface is quite necessary.

I have to side with him, knowing in my heart of hearts that my drawings would soon end up on my forearms and shirt sleeves.

The UpWrite costs $1,149, plus $129 shipping within the U.S., but it’s simple to assemble and get cracking. It’s a high price to pay, but it should pay off in the long run. Using a standing desk has made me feel generally more energized throughout the day, and if possible, my posture might even be improving.

It’s a long-term investment, and that’s why we both give the UpDesk UpWrite a fly.

iCracked, the Y Combinator company that has quietly built up an empire on repairing broken iPhones and iPads, is launching a way to call someone up on demand to buy your old phones back.

With the new iPhone 5s and 5c out this week, it’s an opportune moment for the 30-person startup from Redwood City. iCracked basically started out of a dorm room at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where co-founder AJ Forsythe gained a reputation on campus as someone who could fix iPhones on the cheap.

He parlayed that skill into a business that’s on track to do eight figures in revenue this year by selling repair kits and deploying contractors or “iTechs” to fix or buy back devices on the spot. They have more than 400 of these skilled contractors throughout the world.

To date, they’ve had a buyback service where you can mail in your phone. But that business is relatively small with a few thousands devices sent in each month.

But today, they’re launching a way that you can call up someone on-demand in the next few hours to take iPhones or iPads off your hands. Depending on the storage, condition and model of the device, they’ll pay up to a few hundred dollars for the latest iPhones or iPads. It’s available in the San Francisco Bay Area now, but they’ll widen out the reach of the program later on. They’ll expand to Southern California next month, then New York.

The hope is that by lowering barriers, they’ll get many, many more consumers to trade in their phones or tablets for cash.

“The problem with most of the competing buyback programs is the amount of friction it takes to get paid,” said Paul Iliya, the company’s chief commercial officer.

So the way it works is, you go here. You share a little bit about your device — is it an iPhone or iPad? What model is it? How much storage does it have?

Then you fill out your location, and share your contact information. An iTech will later contact you to set up an appointment. They’ll get dispatched in the next few hours, take a few pictures of your device, check the IMEI number (or unique serial number) to make sure it isn’t stolen, then you’ll sign away the device.

The coolest part is that iCracked will hand you a branded debit card carrying the value of the device. The company spent a year working on this because they didn’t want the financial risk of having contractors walk around with hundreds or thousands of dollars in cash. When an iTech accepts a device, they can load the debit card with money on the spot and hand it over.

Then you can use it like a regular debit card from your personal bank by taking out cash at an ATM or buying goods at a store. The whole in-person transaction should take 15 minutes at most.

The new service ties into iCracked’s ambition of being the ‘AAA’ for people’s devices.

“We just want to create this business where no matter you are in the lifecycle of your device, you can call on iCracked for whatever you need, whether that could be repairs, buybacks or warranties,” Iliya said.

iCracked has just taken seed funding from Y Combinator, its affiliated Start Fund, and other angels like Elad Gil and Roger Dickey.