Technology’s so great. All this communication capability can put you in touch with your friends and family, no matter where in the world they are. Which blows a giant hole through most of the movie and TV plots written up until, say, the late 1990s. What’s your favorite storyline that would never exist in a world with cell phones and internet?
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It’s hard to say, looking twenty to thirty years into the future, just how different the digital landscape will look. Semantic
Technology, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Web 3.0 are presently only toddling along in their infant stage. What they will look like in the next few decades is only
guesswork on our part.
Philips today announced that it is adding yet more products to its popular Hue line of wireless-controlled LED lamps. Three new products were introduced, including a less expensive white-only bulb, a wireless switch, and a line of 3D-printed lighting fixtures.
The Hue Lux works just like other Hue LED bulbs, but it only outputs pure white light. This allows you to add more remote-controlled bulbs to your network in rooms that just don’t need mood lighting. Philips hasn’t mentioned what color temperature the bulb will output, but I’m assuming it will be pleasing to the eye based on Philips’ other LED bulb products.
The Lux bulb is also $20 cheaper than the standard Hue bulb, selling for $39.95(USD). A starter kit will also be available with two Hue Lux bulbs and a Hue Bridge for $99.95. The Hue Lux will ship sometime “after Summer 2014.”
The Hue Tap is perfect for those times that you don’t have your smartphone readily available, or if you want family or guests to be able to control the lights. The small switch can be wall mounted, and lets you turn lights on and off, and can store preset scenes from the Hue app as well.
While you can currently approximate similar functionality by purchasing a LivingColors lamp and reprogramming its remote like I’ve done, it’s nice that Philips is finally addressing this need with a dedicated product. Incredibly, the Tap’s switch requires no batteries, it gets all the power it needs from the kinetic energy captured from your finger taps. Hue Tap will also be available later this year for $59.95.
Perhaps the most interesting addition to the line-up are the new 3D-printed luminaires. These dramatic lighting fixtures were created in collaboration with the design teams of WertelOberfell and Strand+Hvass, and they are in a word – stunning. The lamps offer the full wireless control found in Hue bulbs, casting colorful shadows through their complex geometric structures.
Unfortunately, the 3D-printed luminaires are extremely expensive, with the pendants going for €2,999 (~$4113 USD) and the table lamps going for €2,499 (~$3427 USD). Philips will be taking pre-orders for the lamps starting on March 31.
Imagine having a search engine at your disposal that allows you to enter your own picture as its query. WIth Huiiz — an upcoming, innovative facial recognition search engine — you can do just that. Simply drag and drop an image yourself, and you’ll be presented with all the places you face has been plastered on the web — places you may not even be aware of.
Watch out Clapper; there’s a new switch in town. iOn is a capacitive switch that lets you toggle lights and other devices simply by waving your hand in front of it. You can even extend the switch’s coverage or hide it altogether by putting a conductive object on top of it.
Like most smartphone touchscreens, iOn uses capacitive sensing to work. Think of it as a much simpler theremin. Aside from waving your hand to toggle a device on or off, you can also keep your hand in front of iOn to gradually dim or brighten a light source. Apparently you’ll also be able to control the switch via a mobile app. Finally, as I said earlier, you can also turn a conductive object into a switch by placing it on top of the iOn. iOn fits over standard US switch boxes and can replace most mechanical switches out of the box.
Wave to your browser and pledge at least $40 (USD) on Kickstarter to get an iOn switch as a reward. The switch is both practical and cool, but I hope it doesn’t consume a lot of electricity, or at least has a power saving mode.
Wearable technology is a burgeoning fiscal force in South Korea and the Korean government is pushing for K-Glass innovations. What is K-Glass? What advantages to Google Glass does it offer to lovers of wearable technology in general and head mounted displays specifically? Read on for some interesting answers.
Facebook’s unprecedented recent $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp helped bolster the social networks’ stock price 158% over the past year. In my recent blog post, "WhatsApp With Facebook’s Stock?…"
FB moved from $25 in February, 2013 to $70 one year later on February
26, 2014. However in acquiring the virtual reality software startup Oculus Rift
this week for $2 billion, not all analysts agree that the stock market is pleased with. . .
Sony has announced that it has a new software update for the PS Vita game system that is available to download right now. The update brings the portable to software version 3.10. The update adds some new features that PS Vita gamers will really appreciate.
Once the update is applied, the home screen of the portable console will support more than 100 applications on the screen. Gamers will be able to get up to 500 applications on the home screen at one time. A calendar application has also been added to the Vita that can be synced with friends Google calendar as well.
The big feature of the update is the ability to manage content on a memory card using the content manager application. Players will be able to view data on the memory card and delete content and application. The messages application also gains the ability to send and receive voice messages.
A company called Geek Ammo may have come up with the hacking community’s best buddy since the original Arduino. The MicroView is a chip-sized Arduino compatible computer with a built-in OLED display. Its size and built-in screen are a one-two punch for versatility.
The MicroView is basically a smaller version of the Arduino Uno, except for its 64 x 48 OLED display. Geek Ammo’s sample projects that use the MicroView include controlling a small robot (with relevant stats shown on the display), monitoring a Raspberry Pi, displaying the weather and serving as an interactive pendant.
Pledge at least $45 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a MicroView as a reward. $95 will buy you the MicroView with a USB-serial programmer, and educational materials to help get you up and running.
Today Quora launched verified profiles, allowing well-known individuals to verify that they are the face behind the digital profile. The first person to get a verified profile on the website … Continue reading
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