Hasta La Gadget!

To the untrained eye the evolution of technology can appear to be a rather futile oscillation. We had laptops. Then we threw away their keyboards and worked only on a screen. Then we decided touchscreen typing on tablets was annoying, so brought back a physical keyboard and added supports to hold the screen at that trusty old laptop screen angle that made so much sense… All of which probably says a lot more about human nature than technology evolution but no matter. Meet Modus III: it’s a home for your iPad that promises to iron out tablet productivity niggles by giving your slate a laptop/desktop-esque workstation to live in.

Modus III is currently only a prototype. Its creators are looking to raise $95,000 on Kickstarter to make this laptop-recreating portable workstation a reality — a distant goal at this early stage in their campaign which runs for another 31 days. Aren’t there already plenty of keyboard cases for iPads? Yes, there are. But Modus III does include some additional features that make it stand out. Or rather stand up. Using Modus III, it is apparently possible to position the iPad screen in the following, possibly more ergonomically friendly configuration (if you’re concerned about your typing posture inducing neck-ache. You may, however, get arm-ache reaching up to tap the screen):

(Looking at that get-up it’s hard not to wonder what Steve Jobs might have said if he was still around to cast his eye over the Modus III.  Probably something like this.)

The Modus III workstation supports a 180 degree range screen viewing angle. Your iPad is housed in a custom, clip-in module that then clicks into place in the workstation, which includes a built in Bluetooth keyboard, iPhone/smartphone dock (so your phone can double as a miniature second screen), a space for your charger cables and presumably a few other bits and pieces like the rear stand bracket required to hoist the workstation into the above position.

Isn’t Modus III rather large? The case dimensions are: 1.2″ x 11.5″ x 15.75″. So yes, if you want a portable keyboard case to carry around with you, Modus III does look like a fair bit more luggage than if you just took your iPad and threw a Bluetooth keyboard into your bag. Or used one of the smaller, dedicated keyboard cases on the market. (Or — what the heck — just used a MacBook Air.) So really this looks like something that’s better suited to staying at home on the desk. But maybe that’s exactly the kind of workstation you’ve been looking for? The basic configuration is at least relatively little additional weight (2.4 lbs) to carry around if you do want to move it, being made of an aluminium frame and plastic casing.

The tablet clip-in system is modular, which means it can accommodate different slates. Modus III’s creators say they plan to add support for Android and Windows tablets in future. The launch workstation will be compatible with the iPad 2, 3 and 4. Backers can also choose an iPad 5 module at no extra cost. It will also accommodate all iPhones and micro USB Android phones.

The Modus III’s price-tag is currently $169 for early Kickstarter backers. If you want more fancy case materials to clad your slate, options include carbon fiber, wood burl and MSRP but fancier finishes push the price up — in some cases considerably.  You can even choose a custom pattern if you’re willing to stump up an eye-watering $999. But there is, as they say, no accounting for taste.

Let’s not kid ourselves: We don’t control the Internet, the Internet controls us. Any notions to the contrary are foolish at best, but a new Kickstarter project called Circle wants to help families fight back against the Internet’s omnipresence with hardware and software that allows individual control of devices connected to a local network.

Circle isn’t a router, like the Skydog, which was created by the Xerox PARC company PowerCloud Systems and is based on a similar concept. Instead, it’s a network device that can communicate with your router, and with all of your connected devices, offering up a filter between your existing gear and the unfiltered Internet, allowing you to set limitations for kids’ devices based on age, time, ad content and more. You can receive notifications about different types of Internet activity to your own device, too, and get reports about both “negative” and “positive” browsing, Circle claims.

In other words, Circle makes you the NSA PRISM program for your own household, but with a little bit of China’s Great Firewall thrown in the mix. You can schedule timed access to different categories of site, so that Facebook or YouTube time doesn’t get crazy, cut off access temporarily via Pause mode, turn off access once it’s time for bed, and even block ads entirely on devices that your kids use. All of this is managed via an app for iPhone.

Circle says their solution is better because it doesn’t require setting up user profiles or installing nanny software on every individual device, and because it works with your existing router, you don’t need to get an expensive replacement or change any network settings.

The team behind Circle includes Tiebing Zhang, a former network security engineer for the Department of Defense, and Honeywell Wi-Fi control systems engineer, as well as Jelani Memory, an entrepreneur with experience in design, sports, business development and much more besides. Circle definitely manages to look the part, thanks possibly to founder and Product Designer Sean Kelly, but whether it can back up those good looks with performance remains to be seen.

Circle is $150 to pre-order via Kickstarter pledge, with an anticipated delivery date of August, 2014. Nice to see a hardware startup give itself a reasonable amount of time to deliver. The startup is also looking for roughly $250,000 in total funds to make the project work, which will take the working prototype that currently exists and make it production-ready.

Google today launched the latest beta of Chrome for desktop and Android. This release marks the first time Chrome for Android supports WebGL by default. Previous versions of the beta for Android already made WebGL the standard for rendering interactive 3D and 2D graphics in the browser, available behind a flag. It’s now enabled by default on all mobile devices that feature a relatively high-end GPU, including those found in the Nexus 4 phone and Nexus 7 tablet.

While virtually every modern desktop browser already supports most aspects of the WebGL API (with the exception of Internet Explorer, which will support it in the next version), mobile browsers have mostly lagged behind. While the BlackBerry 10 browser, Opera Mobile and Firefox for Android now support it, the mobile web is only now starting to catch up with WebGL. iOS for Safari still doesn’t support it, but the popularity of Chrome on Android will likely give more mobile developers the confidence to start experimenting with it.

If you have a compatible phone, give WebGL a try with this demo.

New Swipe Gestures

Google is also bringing a number of new swipe gestures to Chrome. You can now, for example, swipe horizontally across the top toolbar to switch between tabs and drag vertically down from the toolbar to enter the tab switcher view.

With today’s update, Google is also introducing the device motion part of the Device Orientation API in the Chrome for Android beta channel. That sounds pretty dry, but it allows developers to get information about the device’s acceleration and rotation rates. This feature has long been part of the API, but it looks like Google only got around to implementing it now. You can give it a try here.

The only other major new feature for developers is support for the MediaSource API in the beta channel for devices running Jelly Bean or higher. This, Google says, makes it easier to enable adaptive streaming and time-shifting live streams in the mobile browser.

Chrome Apps are also getting some goodies in today’s update, including APIs for webview.request and media gallery write and download support. Chrome Apps, Google says, will now also be able to use Chrome Web Store managed in-app payments.

Chrome 30 Beta For Desktop

The desktop version isn’t getting too many new features, but Google is now making it easier to search for a given image right from Chrome. Just right-click on any image on the web, select “Search google for this image” and see Google’s search results within a second.

The other interesting new features on the desktop is support for the WebRTC Device Enumeration API, which allows users to switch between microphones and cameras (just like in Skype) without having to restart the WebRTC call.

The folks at MakerBot have been teasing their Digitizer desktop 3D scanner since this past March, but now they’re just about ready push it out the door. For $1,400, you too can scan all the little knick-knacks in your life and turn them into 3D schematics to print or share with others.

In case you haven’t been keeping tabs on the Digitizer, here’s how the thing works: you place an object on its central turntable and fire up the device, at which point a pair of lasers (for greater accuracy, naturally) will scan the object’s surface geometry and turn that cloud of data points into a 3D model. MakerBot says the whole process takes about 12 minutes, after which you’re able to push the file to a 3D printer of your choosing and have a grand ol’ time.

There are, of course, some limitations to be aware of. The turntable can only support objects that are 3kg (or about 6.5lbs) or lighter, and you should ideally use the thing a very well-lit room. And while the Digitizer promises to be fast and easy, at $1,400 it’s not exactly impulse buy material.

When we visited MakerBot’s new 50,000 square foot factory in Brooklyn, CEO Bre Pettis referred to the Digitizer as a “game changer” for the 3D printing movement and it’s not hard to see why. For the past two years now, MakerBot’s efforts have largely been about making the process of 3D printing as accessible as possible. With a little bit of tinkering (and some patience for the occasional screw-up), 3D printing novices can get a feel for turning the contents of pre-produced files into actual physical objects.

It’s the other half of that equation that’s so tricky — if you wanted things to print you either had to trawl Thingiverse in hopes that someone had already modeled the thing, or figure out a way to model it on your own. To put it mildly, that’s a fair bit of work. With the advent of scanners like the Digitizer though, the barrier to creating those 3D blueprints and disseminating them to the world is almost nil… as long as you can afford it.

Of course, MakerBot isn’t the only company making it easier to turn physical objects into printable data — hackers and startups have harnessed Microsoft’s venerable Kinect to do just that, there’s a sea of crowdfunded hardware projects that aim to put their own spin on the experience. Still, MakerBot is easily one of the best known proponents of the 3D printing movement, and a device like Digitizer may just be what the movement needs to make 3D printing a fixture of the mainstream.

Google has a patent application published today (via Engadget) that would make the standard system of unlocking a device much more intelligent, using a smartphone’s built-in sensor to change your security settings on a sliding basis depending on where the phone finds itself. This would allow a user to make it easier to unlock a phone while in the comfort of their own home, while making it more difficult when the device is in a public place.

The invention is clearly designed to make it harder for a stranger or unwanted intruder to access your phone and its data when it may be easily lifted from your pocket or bag while in transit or at a public location like a cafe. In the end it’s a convenience feature, more than a security one, since the most secure option would be to use the most intrusion-resistant method of screen locking available at all times. But making things easier to access at home makes a lot of sense, in terms of decreasing friction and potential displeasure with the general user experience.

The patent as described also contains a provision that would allow for a third authentication method to be set for a second so-called “familiar area.” This would allow for a number of different possibilities, like setting different levels of security for home, work and the rest of the world, for instance. It’s a handy and noteworthy wrinkle in the patent app, since it could also make it possible to essentially set up a specific security profile required in professions where on-site security of data and mobile devices is paramount.

There are a lot of ways this could potentially be useful, in fact, and it’s one of those context-based features that Google seems to be focusing on with Google Now and recent updates to apps like Keep. In the future, you have a different phone depending on where you go, and that’s something most of the tech giants seem to be working on.