Hasta La Gadget!

Get ready for the next generation of playing with your balls.

Sphero, the robotic ball out of Orbotix that can be controlled with just a smartphone, has now grown up a bit, with the company launching Sphero 2.0 today.

Sphero 2.0 is twice as fast, rolling at a clip of about seven feet per second, and it’s three times as brightly lit as the first generation ball. According to co-founder Chief Software Architect, Adam Wilson, the second-gen robot isn’t just faster and stronger, it’s actually smarter.

Sphero 2.0 is now equipped with a different user interface, letting you “level up” as you get more and more control over the ball. When you start, you’ll be at a somewhat limited speed. The more you level up by completing challenges (such as driving for a whole minute without hitting anything), the faster your Sphero will roll, and the more LED colors you’ll have access to.

Even with other Sphero games, such as tag, you can level up and get more speed.

Along with the upgraded robot, Sphero 2.0 also comes with an inductive charger and two little ramps right out of the box, so you can work on getting some air.

As an added accessory, you can also pick up something the Orbotix guys are calling a “Nubby Protector,” which is a little rubber cover that gives the Sphero some extra traction, especially when you’re playing around in the pool. Covers come in red, clear, blue or yellow.

But Sphero 2.0 isn’t the only robot rushing around — Orbotix is also introducing Sphero Revealed, an Apple-exclusive version of the device that has a partially clear shell so users can see the inner-workings of the robot.

Sphero 2.0 is meant to reach a new demographic. Obviously, nerds and tech geeks lean toward the Sphero considering it’s one of the more advanced consumer robots available on the market. But Orbotix wants to reach younger kids, who automatically seem to enjoy the idea of leveling up and giving their Spheros an identity.

Plus, getting on board with a younger demographic allows for more educational opportunities with the Sphero.

Sphero 2.0 is currently compatible with up to 25 different applications and games, along with the standard Sphero app.

According to Wilson, the two-year break between new models is about what we should expect from Orbotix moving forward, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t working on other things. Wilson revealed that the company has things in the pipeline, including stuff to show at CES in January. So there’s plenty to look forward to.

If you’re interested in getting your hands on a Sphero 2.0, which costs $129.99, pre-order begins today with in-store availability starts on August 31. And if you’re really excited about seeing the guts of a Sphero, hold out until September 4 and you can pick up a translucent Sphero Revealed in Apple Stores.

The original Sphero will also drop down to $109.99 at retail.

Thalmic Labs has picked up some heavyweight senior talent in its quest to bring the MYO gesture control armband device to market. Both are ex-BlackBerry, and both bring a lot of experience in the management of a consumer devices company, and in the supply chain for producing said devices.

Thalmic’s newest employees are Mike Galbraith, former SVP of Operations at BlackBerry, and David Perston, former Senior Director of New Product Introduction Outsourcing at the smartphone-maker. Galbraith becomes CFO of MYO, and Perston takes on a role as VP of Manufacturing. Given that arguably the two biggest challenges facing hardware startups are working out finances and managing the supply chain and production process, having some folks with experience in those roles is likely a good thing.

Galbraith comes direct from BlackBerry, which is just the most recent example of corporate shake-up and high-level departures at BlackBerry. BlackBerry just lost three executives last week, in fact, according to a report from the CBC confirmed by the company. As Chris reported at the time, BlackBerry seemed to be framing the departures as part of its aggressive reorganization and turnaround plan, but the recent announcement that it’s looking for suitors as well as considering going private offers good reason to believe top talent is leaving of its own volition.

“What really attracted me to Thalmic Labs was the innovative solution that Stephen, Aaron and Matthew are creating that has the potential to take human computer interaction to a whole new level,” Galbraith offered when asked why he chose Thalmic for his next destination. “I firmly believe there are boundless opportunities with MYO’s unique position within the dynamic wearable computing space.  I was also impressed with Stephen, Aaron and Matthew’s vision for MYO and beyond, in developing integrated solutions to enhance how we engage with things in our world.”

Perston, who left BlackBerry back in 2011 after nearly 15 years at the company, said that his “first love is startups” and cited the team and the product itself as his main motivation for joining. In both cases, it seems clear that Thalmic has gained from BlackBerry’s misfortunes of late.

The new hires and rapid growth of the Thalmic team, which is on track to surpass 50 employees by the end of the year, reflects the unintended bounty that could befall the Kitchener-Waterloo region as BlackBerry continues to struggle. It’s likely there will be a lot of talent injected into the market for the growing startup scene in the area to take advantage of, and that’s something investors are taking note of.

The all-seeing iDoorCam is a pretty ingenious little gadget. Designed to work with your current doorbell setup — it connects to the transformer that powers most in-home doorbells — this simple button replaces your current doorbell and allows you to see who is at the door and even turn off your doorbell when the baby is asleep or you just need a little peace and quiet. It even transmits video and audio to your cellphone so you can deal with visitors while away from home.

The project comes to us from the team of Andrew Thomas and Desiree Mejia, two product designers from California. They have built hardware for Apple and they’ve taken their skills and expertise to corner the doorbell market. They are looking to ship in October.

The doorbell costs $127 for early adopters, and they’re looking for a pledge of $100,000 to complete the first batch. It will cost $150 retail when it officially launches.

Sadly, unlike the Lidless Eye of Sauron, lieutenant to the Dark Lord, Morgoth, the iDoorBell will not allow you to take over the minds of weak-willed hobbits who may come by your hole for elevenses. However, you can carefully explain to the UPS guy that leaving a huge package under your doormat is not actually “hiding it.”

I suspect that you spend quite a large percentage of your life typing. Before work over email, on your smartphone during your commute, on your main computer at work, after work trying to find something on Netflix, and so on. It’s part of our daily flow, week in and month out.

Given that the thing we touch more than anything else is a set of keys that we must press thousands of times per day, having a well-designed keyboard is a worthy investment. Too many people execute their toil with bad hardware. My general preference rests with large, mechanical gaming keyboards, as they sound lovely and you can really fly on them.

There is a rival school of thought for power typers: ergonomically shaped keyboards. You’ve seen them with their middle humps and spread keys. They are the opposite of Apple’s vision, for example.

However, ergonomic keyboards are generally somewhat plain affairs. Plain in the sense that they are not pretty. But there is something to be said for keyboards that are designed to fit your hands and the natural bent of your arms: They feel great.

Preamble aside, Microsoft has a new keyboard coming out in two days that is quite nice. I rarely get my hackles too raised over forthcoming peripherals, but in this case the Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop keyboard (we’ll just call it the Sculpt) is something that I found attractive and a pleasure to type on. I never expected to put aside my Razer Blackwidow, but here we are. Moving from a straight keyboard to the flexed Sculpt, I regained the ability to bang right along on the new set of keys in under an hour. There are still occasional mistakes at the fault of my mind slipping back into old patterns, but that is a small issue.

A Microsoft glamour shot of the machine:

And an iPhone snap from this morning (sorry, Biggs):

The Sculpt is wireless, but doesn’t lean on Bluetooth, so you won’t have that particular nightmare.

When it goes on sale later this week, the Sculpt will retail for $129 as part of a three-part bundle: Mouse, keyboard, and detached num pad. The num pad is simple enough to not warrant notice, The mouse is a bulbous affair, designed to raise your hand off the desk — thus preventing you from resting your inner wrist on the table — and rotating your hand to a more natural position.

However, as you likely expected, it’s the keyboard part of the package that is worth noting. During a meeting with Microsoft I dubbed it the Macbook Air of keyboards. I’m not sure they’ll pick that up as its tagline, but I’d recommend it. The keyboard will also be sold outside of the bundle for around $80.

The Sculpt does have a single drawback: It doesn’t have the key action that I am accustomed to. By that I mean that the action of pressing a key doesn’t make you grin, as it does with a proper mechanical keyboard (ask your local nerd to play with their keys, you will then understand).

During the early days of the Surface project, that Microsoft was becoming an OEM was big news. Big news that was slightly wrong. It has built peripherals since time immemorial. And the Sculpt keyboard is its best keyboard yet. I’m going to main it for a few days, and then switch back to my mechanical setup for a direct comparison. Still, I’m not in a hurry to send it back to Microsoft and revert to my former setup.

Microsoft is a company in transition, growing new business units as its core Windows work slips in a slowing PC market. The peripheral team, however, is ticking right along.

Top Image Credit: xlibber

Clothing brands have begun using body-scan data to tweak their clothing sizes and to help customers find the right fit. But a new Kickstarter campaign is taking this method further by creating sizes from the ground up. With 50 different sizes modeled after body scans, Stantt wants to provide a quick and cheap alternative to custom-tailored clothing.

Stantt founder Matt Hornbuckle started by scanning the bodies of more than 1,000 men ranging in age from 25 to 35. Each scan was composed of about 200 body measurements. He narrowed these down to three main measurements that would determine how well a shirt would fit: chest width, waist width and arm length. Using the data collected, Hornbuckle created each new size from digital models of various body builds.

Right now, several stores use personal body scans to find or manufacture a size. The difference with Stantt is it uses already collected data to predict potential body types. Instead of taking your own body scan, you can measure yourself at home and enter in the three numbers. Stantt also already has sizes constructed based on these measurements, so you won’t need to wait for the actual production of the shirt. To order a Stantt shirt, customers enter their measurements, and the corresponding size will ship right away.

After comparing his data to popular brands, Hornbuckle says he found that standard small, medium and large sizes only fit about 15 percent of men. But Stantt isn’t looking to take on large consumer brands.

“If you look at some of the big stores out there where a lot of guys shop, their casual shirts have 50 different styles, with six to seven sizes, and those numbers add up in a big way.” Hornbuckle tells me. “What we’re focusing on is a line of being really simple and straightforward. We’re going to focus on just the essentials.”

Hornbuckle also faces competition from startups who are making custom-tailored clothing much more accessible and affordable. For example, Trumaker sends “outfitters” to take 12 personal measurements, determine the right size and deliver a custom-made shirt. Another company, Vastrm, makes custom-fitted polo shirts, based on height, weight, body type and waist size. After trying on some sample shirts, you can tweak the fit online and then start ordering.

Both these options are able to offer more styles and customization options for cuffs, pockets, colors and more. But they also take time and effort to finesse the fit. Hornbuckle says his solution makes shopping easier for men, with measurements they can take themselves and no waiting for clothes to be custom manufactured.

Hornbuckle says he recognizes that supplying shirts in 50 different sizes to ship immediately is a lot of hassle for production. That’s why he is starting the Kickstarter off with five simple options: a standard button-down shirt for $98 in three colors and a polo shirt for $68 in two.

Stantt is planning to offer other styles and garments based on demand. You can check out their campaign here.

Stantt Kickstarter from Stantt on Vimeo.