Hasta La Gadget!

There are plenty of activity trackers around to get the job done to track physical activity, and most of them aren’t cheap. For the more budget-conscious, there’s the newly released Fitbug Orb, which looks like it could be a good option.

The Orb is quite discreet. You can wear it on your wrist, belt, a lanyard, or have it clipped on. It works as a pedometer, tracks aerobic steps, time, distance, calories burned, speed, and even sleep.

Up front, the Fitbug Orb costs less than half than the more costly alternatives, however after the first 12 months, you’ll have to spend $3.99 a month if you want to keep using the online tracking service at fitbug.com and access their coaching plans. Of course, in 12 months, the next hot fitness gadget might be out and you will have gotten a year’s use for under $50 total. Not bad.

The model that will be released works only with iOS devices, at least for now. The Fitbug Orb retails for $49.99(USD) and is available for pre-order for late 2013 delivery.

Here’s another device that could be vying for space on your face in the near future. A company called Avegant is making what they call a Virtual Retinal Display. The thing is, it doesn’t actually have displays. Instead, it uses “an array of two million micromirrors” to project light directly to the retinas of the wearer.

Avegant hasn’t revealed a lot about its technology, but it did let journalists use some of its prototypes. Apparently, the Virtual Reality Display causes much less eye strain compared to LCD monitors and other head-mounted displays. As for how good it is, Engadget claims that wearing the display’s  image quality “blows everything else out of the water”, even though the prototypes max out at just 1280 x 768 for each eye. They said that it even made a 360 x 160 video “look great.”

If it’s such a great way to show video, why have we not seen more of these “retinal displays”? According to CNET, other companies have indeed dabbled with the technology. Even Google tested it for Glass. But apparently the retinal displays need to be precisely aligned to the wearer’s face and eyes to work, which is why it’s not great for a one size fits all headset. To solve that problem, the Virtual Retinal Display will have highly adjustable frames and optics.

All these 3D and head-mounted displays coming out are making me hate my monitor. And my sunglasses. As Avegant CEO Ed Tang told CNET, the Virtual Reality Display should be available by the first quarter of 2014.

[via CNET & Engadget via Digital Trends]

Gadget and arms enthusiasts rejoice! The Russian Arms Expo recently unveiled some of the most innovative military technology the world has seen. Here are a few of the creations that may soon be used around the world.

Earlier this year word got out that NASA is funding mechanical engineer Anjan Contractor to develop a food printer, which the space agency hopes can be used to feed astronauts during long distance space travel, such as on a trip to Mars. At this month’s SXSW Eco Anjan showed off a prototype of his printer making simple and tiny approximations of pizza.

According to Texas news channel KXAN, the printer uses cartridges containing powdered ingredients that can be kept for years. I’m not sure how the powdered ingredients turn into liquid, but in the video below you can see the printer piling cheese and tomato sauce over a layer of dough. The heated plate adds the finishing touch to the cutting edge pizza. The prototype can make one of this… pizza-ish thing in 12 minutes. Skip to 0:46 in the video below to see the printer at work:

Contractor and his company have yet to earn the approval of the FDA, so it might be a while before Dominos starts offering instant in-home delivery from these things.

[via KXAN via WebProNews & Popular Science]

Smell-o-vision is real, and you can now experience it firsthand with Scentee. In case you haven’t heard about it yet, Scentee is a small smartphone attachment that gives you a whiff of real-world scents and smells at the push of a button (or rather, with a tap on the screen.)

Various scent cartridges for the Scentee already exist, such as coffee, corn soup, apples, and cinnamon rolls.

The latest addition is the Hana Yakiniku, which adds the delicious aromas of grilled short ribs, beef tongue, and buttered potatoes the growing catalog. Just fire up the accompanying app, choose which meat you want to smell, and breathe deep…

Unlike what the promo video suggests, I don’t think this can substitute for eating actual meat. But hey, you’re welcome to follow what they instruct in the video – just let us know how it goes for you.

[via BitRebels]