The
ease of access to medical information has increased our health IQs
greatly from pre-Internet days. But if doctors aren’t exasperated with
their know-it-all patients just yet, a
Silicon Valley startup called Scanadu is about to change the
practice of medicine altogether with smart gadgets that give you the
tools to test and analyze your own vitals and body fluids. And you
don’t need a prescription, or a fortune, to buy them!
Razer has pulled the covers off something a bit different for it at CES 2014. The new product isn’t a gaming mouse, keyboard, or headset. Rather the Razer Nabu SmartBand is a compact wearable device meant to interface with your smartphone and more.
The device will provide notifications from your smartphone on its small OLED screens. The outer public icon screen shows the user incoming calls, texts, emails, and app updates via notification icons. The private message screen on the inside of the wrist gives detailed info on texts emails, and more that only the user needs to see.
The Nabu also has advanced sensors for data tracking with location information, bio data feedback for steps and more, as well as sleep data. One of the more unique features of the Nabu is that it allows band-to-band communication capability to find nearby friends and other users based on settings that are defined by the wearer. Razer plans on offering the Nabu to developers first to see what sort of innovative apps they can develop for the device.
The Nabu supports Android and iOS smartphones. The developer price for the Nabu is $49(USD) with the retail price to be set later.
At the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), voice recognition specialist Nuance unveiled Dragon Assistant, a voice-activated personal assistant for Intel-powered computers and laptops running Windows 8. It’s not as smart – or sexy – as Samantha from Spike Jonze’s Her, but it’s a start.
Dragon Assistant works a lot like Siri, Kinect and other voice-activated assistants. To start using it, you just have to say “Hey Dragon.” From that point you can then use everyday language to open applications, search online and of course dictate text. The program’s voice can be set to either “British Butler” or ”American Female.” Aww man, no German Shepherd?
See that? Now we’re all Dragonborn. Nuance says Dragon Assistant is already available on various Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo laptops, ultrabooks, tablets and all-in-one computers, with ASUS and Toshiba computers to follow suit this year. Like other voice assistants, you’ll need an Internet connection to use all of Dragon Assistant’s features, although it can still execute certain commands even when you’re offline. Check out the Dragon Assistant support page for more on that.
[via Nuance via Gear Diary]
You may or may not recall Google TV. That was Google’s first attempt at an operating system aimed at the TV. The biggest product to use that Google TV was was the Logitech Revue, which failed miserably and was retired. At CES 2014, a company called Hisense is showing off a device called the Pulse Pro.
While its not claimed to be running Google TV, C|NET reckons the version of Android that the Pulse Pro is using is the next iteration of Google TV. The device connects to your TV like other set top boxes and has a nice looking interface that is easy to use.
You can clearly see icons for surfing the web, Google Play, and other streaming services. The motion-sensing remote is said to be much easier to use than your typical Google TV remote. The little remote lacks a full keyboard and looks more like a remote from other home theater devices. The remote even has a mic and responds to voice search queries. Other features include integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
It’s unclear when the Pulse Pro will launch or how much it will cost, but it looks like an interesting device.
[via C|NET]
Some say that the future of data storage lies in cloud computing. But until high-speed Internet access is available on a global scale, we’ll still need ways to store data locally. Wouldn’t it be nice if instead of bulky external hard drives and USB sticks we had paper-thin flash devices instead? Industrial designers Aditi Singh and Parag Anand think so, which is why they came up with dataSTICKIES.
Singh and Anand dream of dataSTICKIES as paper-thin flash memory devices. They based their concept on graphene, a carbon allotrope that exists in layers that are only one atom thick. Aside from being insanely thin, graphene is also durable and conducts electricity well. In theory at least, it can be used to make electronic devices that are way better than the ones that we have today, including data storage devices.
Singh and Anand imagine dataSTICKIES would be like sticky notes. You could write on them and stick them to practically any object. They even thought of a foolproof way to connect the concept device to computers. Instead of traditional connectors, dataSTICKIES would simply stick to a transparent data transfer surface located in a practical position, such as along the perimeter a monitor or on the back of a mobile device. You won’t even have to worry about running out of “ports” because you can stick multiple units on one data transfer surface.
Like sticky notes, dataSTICKIES would also make it easier to associate data with the physical world. For example, you could use posters with tear-off strips of dataSTICKIES to distribute vast amounts of information. Or spam. Or malware. Okay I’m starting to hate that poster idea.
Singh and Anand’s concept was honored at the 2013 Red Dot Design Award. It’s certainly a great idea, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing anything like it soon. Stick a browser on your computer and head to the dataSTICKIES website for more on the concept.
[via Gadgetify]
New Year’s is little more than yester-week’s memory, serving as the landing pad for millions who spent the last day of 2013 celebrating. For one Alaskan town, the New Year … Continue reading
A few days ago we found out that some, if not all SD cards actually contain computers. At the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Intel unveiled an offshoot of those flash devices. The Edison is a computer that looks like an SD card and can be read by SD card readers.
The Edison has an x86 dual-core 400Mhz Quark processor as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity. It also has LPDDR2 RAM and flash storage, though Intel has not yet revealed how much of either is in the tiny computer. It runs Linux by default but can be loaded with “multiple operating systems to run sophisticated high-level user applications.”
Intel made Edison as part of its bid to stay relevant in the emerging class of wearable devices, but the company also said that the Edison can be used in pretty much any project that needs a low-power and small computer, similar to Arduinos and the Raspberry Pi.
As you saw in MAKE’s video, Intel collaborated with Rest Devices to create prototype smart gadgets for parents, all of them powered by the Edison. The onesie monitors a baby’s “respiration, skin temperature, body position, and activity level”…
… and can supposedly trigger this baby bottle warmer to activate when the baby is awake and hungry…
…or help this coffee mug inform parents about their baby’s status using embedded LEDs.
Intel also promised that Edison “will be compatible with accessible developer tools used by the maker community”, although it did not yet provide a release date or price for the computer. With its size and capabilities I highly doubt that it will be as cheap as the Raspberry Pi, but I’m sure lots of tinkerers are still keen to get their hands on one.
We recently saw Razer’s concept for their newbie-friendly modular desktop computer. ZTE is also mulling taking a similar approach to mobile phones. The company presented its idea at the 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). ZTE calls its concept device the Eco-Mobius, a smartphone with swappable core components.
Eco-Mobius is almost exactly the same as Dave Hakkens’ Phonebloks concept as well as Motorola’s Project Ara prototype, two ideas that went viral late last year. The goal is to separate a phone’s major parts – CPU, RAM, GPU etc. – into modules that users can remove and replace on their own. In ZTE’s design, the modules will be held in place by magnets. As with Razer’s Project Christine, ZTE also thinks they can enable users to install multiple units of the same hardware, such as multiple storage devices or even multiple cameras.
Macmixing spoke with a ZTE spokesperson at CES about the Eco-Mobius:
I’d love for all of my gadgets to be modular and customizable. I wish I was modular. My eyes and back badly need an upgrade.
[via ZTE, Red Dot Design & Macmixing via CNET]
My daughter has this penchant for installing apps on my iPhone that let her take care of virtual pets and cook virtual treats. The games are irritating for a couple reasons. One, they seem to constantly notify me that I need to do something. The other is that it seems each time an update comes is have to delete apps, screen shots and pictures to make space for her new games.
If you have a problem with too many pictures on your iPhone 5S or iPhone 5, mophie has a new product worth a look. The product is called the space pack and it has an internal battery like most cases from mophie. The case promises to double the run time of your phone.
That is very nice on its own, but the case also adds up to 32GB of additional storage. The case also comes in a 16GB version. You use an app that is available free to drop any files, photos, and video you want from the iPhone onto the space pack to free up internal storage on your iPhone, while preserving your data. The case will ship in March for $149.95(USD) for the 16GB version and $179.95 for the 32GB version.
A couple of years ago we saw a pair of taser gloves made with everyday items. But both gloves had to be in contact with the target in order for them to deliver a shock. GreekGadgetGuru’s stun glove lets you ward off attackers with just one hand.
The metal spikes on the glove are wired to the stun gun on his wrist. GreekGadgetGuru made it so that the polarity of the fingers are alternating. This means he only has to touch something – or someone – with two adjacent fingers for the current to flow. He also incorporated what appears to be a flex sensor into the glove’s switch, enabling him to toggle the flow of electricity just by flexing his hand.
Send GreekGadgetGuru a message on Facebook if you want to know how he made the stun glove. Then send a message to all the jerks who – nope. Just kidding. Breathe. Easy.
[via GeekTyrant]
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