Hasta La Gadget!

One of the most irritating things about the new iPhone 5 and iPad mini is that Apple ditched the 30-pin connector and went to the new Lightning Connector. That change was annoying because it meant that all of the accessories you had for all those years for your Apple gadgets would no longer work natively with your shiny new toys. If you’re a musician, Griffin has announced a new accessory that it claims to be the industry’s first music creation accessory with a Lightning Connector.

The StudioConnect was previously only available for 30-pin Apple gadgets, but the new version supports the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini. The system is designed to provide connectivity for guitars, stereo audio, and other input sources and offers a Lightning charging dock in one device. The device also has line-level RCA stereo output and a stereo headphone output with a separate volume control.

The device is designed to work with GarageBand and allow musicians to create their own music on the go. The device offers audio inputs and outputs as well as MIDI input and output, so you can connect external instruments, sequencers, and other electronic gear. The new StudioConnect will sell for $149.99(USD) and the updated version will be available this spring.

Compared to the rather sloth-like USB 2.0 port, the current USB 3.0 ports found on some computers and notebooks on the market today are insanely fast. The original USB 3.0 port support data transfer rates of up to 5 Gbps. The original USB 3.0 data transfer rate was enough to keep the lust for speed of your typical computer enthusiast sated for a while, but as with all things, now we all want more.

The USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced at CES 2013 that a new specification is in the works that will double the performance of the existing USB 3.0 port. Using the new specification, a USB 3.0 port will be able to transfer data at up to 10 Gbps, about the same as single-channel Thunderbolt.

Along with twice the data throughput, the new specification also offers improved I/O power efficiency. The improved spec is backwards-compatible with existing USB 3.0 software stacks and device class protocols. That means that the port will work with existing 5 Gbps hubs and devices as well as older USB 2.0 products. The new port specification is up for industry review during Q1 of this year, and hope to start releasing products that take advantage of the improvements later in the year.

While many newer vehicles have built-in tire pressure monitoring systems which alert you when you have a low tire, they’re not always that great. In my supposedly schmancy 2011 Mustang, the TPMS can only tell you that some tire is low, and not even by how much. How useless is that? Well now that know about this new aftermarket tire monitoring system, I might just have to order one.

The TireHawk Bright+ TPMS Kit works wirelessly with your iOS or Android phone to communicate the exact tire pressure and temperature of each of your vehicle’s tires in real time. And you can configure it with your optimal settings to alert you if your tire is over or under its limits.

The kit includes a set of four sensors which sit on the valve stems of your tires, along with a compact wireless gateway which you can plug into your car’s cigarette lighter or USB jack and acts as a bridge between the 433Mhz sensor network and the 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi network.

There’s no word on pricing or a release date for the TireHawk system at this point, but it did just hit the FCC for approval, so I imagine it will be released very soon.

Under the heading ‘Be careful what you wish for,’ the inventor of the take-a-walk-on-wheels motorized Segway, Dean Kamen,
has applied for a patent for a pump that removes a portion of the food
you’ve just eaten from your stomach. Partners in this patent are members
of a company called Aspire Bariatrics.  Here’s a brief description of
how the stomach sucker works….

Do you ever worry about losing your luggage when you travel? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to know exactly where you bag was all the time? Well thanks to a nifty new gadget, you can spot the location of your checked bag from your smartphone.

Announced just in time for CES 2013 by GlobaTrac, the Trakdot is a small tracking device you slip into your luggage, and can view city-specific information on the location of your bag using your Android or iOS smartphone, via SMS or E-mail. You can also just surf to Trakdot.com to view the location of your bag. There’s also an app which can alert you as your bag gets close to the carousel at the airport – a common source of frustration for travelers.

The Trakdot will be available this March for $49.95(USD), although there will be a $8.99 activation fee and a $12.99 annual fee per device for using the tracking service. Unfortunately, that price is per device – hopefully they’ll offer a discounted rate for tracking multiple TrakDots at some point.