Hasta La Gadget!

Apple has been dabbling in wearable tech, at least when it comes to the U.S. Patent Office, and a new application uncovered Thursday by AppleInsider adds to that growing category. Apple has filed for a patent covering so-called “smart shoe” systems which feature sensors that can track wear and usage and tell you when you need to replace them, charting your progress on a companion app for a mobile device, or via built-in LED lights, speakers or displays.

In its description of how this would work, Apple suggests embedding the processor and other electronics in the shoe’s heel, where there is plenty of room to house such components. Sensors can be housed in the sole, heel, and all along the shoe at points where detecting where provides a good indication of how worn out a shoe is getting. The sensors could include simple pedometers, activity or motion detectors that can translate any kind of motion into a timed unit of use (which can tell a user if they’re past the 500 hours recommended for a walking shoe, for instance), or a body bar that can detect weight and resistance to give more of a qualitative measure to use.

The power for the sensors can either be supplied by a built-in battery, or from a generator that uses the actual motion of walking to recharge an energy store. Why not harness kinetic energy when the whole point of what you’re making is to track movement to begin with?

Apple has applied for patents related to shoes before, like the one it was granted last January for embedded sensors in clothing that could inform your workouts. The idea is that the best way to craft workouts to actually help people achieve their goals is by monitoring their actual activity as reported by the garments closest to their bodies, rather than through depending on individuals to report their own habits accurately. Today’s shoe patent filing isn’t focused on health quite as directly, but it could be used in tandem with that kind of system to provide a holistic view of workout and activity habits, including how fast and often you’re wearing out your footwear.

While many companies are looking at wearable computing in the form of smart watches or glasses-based heads-up interfaces (Apple included), there seems to be a background current at Apple devoted to more subtle and invisible incarnations of on-body tech. As with any patents, there’s no guarantee we’ll ever see these inventions ship, but wearable computing is bound to be a growing concern for any major consumer electronics maker in the next few years.

Now that the Jawbone Up and Nike+ Fuelband have paved the way for wrist-worn fitness monitors in the market, Fitbit has announced their own lightweight exercise monitoring writstband.

The Fitbit Flex allows you to track your fitness with ease. The compact device will track your steps, distance traveled, calories burned, active minutes, and the quality of your sleep. All of this data syncs up with your iPhone or Android device via Bluetooth.

There’s even a vibrating alarm function that you can use to wake you up discreetly, which is perfect if you get up at a different time than your bedmate.

The Fitbit Flex will be launched this Spring in a variety of colors and will cost $99.95(USD).

[via Uncrate]

Bluetooth accessories that let you keep tabs of your stuff aren’t exactly new, but few are as charming and well-designed as hippih’s hipKey, at least from our initial impressions. Created and designed in Denmark, the tiny crescent-shaped device made its US debut at CES 2013 after a couple of very successful months abroad — it apparently sold out just five days after it was available through Apple Online Europe. It connects to any iOS device with Bluetooth 4.0, where you can either use the hipKey to keep track of your iPhone or iPad or use a handy iOS app to keep track of the device itself. Just hook it up to your precious belongings and you’ll know where they are via vibrations or an alarm. You can also use “Child Mode” to record what a child was wearing in case you lose him/her in a crowd. Additionally, there’s a patent-pending Safe Zone feature that lets you create alarm-free locations so you don’t accidentally set it off when at home or the office.

We had chance to try the hipKey out in person, and were impressed by its small and discreet size. Made out of anodized aluminium, it’s incredibly pocket-friendly and only has a couple of buttons so the controls are easy to comprehend. The alarm goes as loud as 90db and the vibrations seems pretty easy to detect. We only had a second or two to try the app out, but that appeared quite intuitive as well. It’s difficult to say whether this will be that useful in real life, but we’ll need to test it out for an extended period to find that out. According to a hippih spokesperson, the hipKey will be available from the Apple store in the US starting January 15th for $90 each.

Continue reading hippih’s Bluetooth-powered hipKey keeps your iPhone close, your precious things closer (hands-on)

Filed under: Cellphones

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Source: hippih

Yesterday, we told you about StickNFind, a nifty electronic sticker that lets you locate anything you tack it to, and MeterPlug, the smartphone-compatible power monitor with cost estimates and realtime consumption readouts. Now, the folks that brought you those Bluetooth-enabled tools have a new connected toy to share. It’s called BluTracker — a “StickNFind on steroids,” according to its creator. Both devices are tasked with sending location information to a smartphone app, but BluTracker adds GPS and a whole lot of power, offering a range of 2,500 feet or more outdoors, or a few hundred feet if you end up with some walls in between you and the compact rechargeable device. Inside the water-resistant housing, you’ll find a Bluetooth module that “uses WiFi chips” to boost the range, along with GPS for providing realtime location information and a battery that can reportedly keep the device powered for at least two months.

This isn’t a tracking device in the traditional sense — while it provides location info, it doesn’t retain coordinates, so you can’t pop this on a vehicle to see where your kids really go after school. It will help you find your dog that’s wandered a bit too far from the front yard, though, assuming he’s still within a half mile or so (like walls, trees can get in the way of the signal, too). An onboard motion sensor can trigger an alert on your smartphone, letting you know that whatever you’ve tagged is on the move, so that bicycle thief won’t get far before you’re on the trail. We tested the device indoors — located near a window, it picked up a GPS signal easily, and transmitted its location to a map within the iOS app even as we walked 100 or so feet away, past several walls. That figure may not be terribly impressive, but we didn’t exactly push the BluTracker to its limits during a quick Manhattan office demo. The device just hit Indiegogo with a $69 “pre-order” price and an estimated April ship date, and it’ll likely retail for just shy of $90. Check it out now in the video after the break, then hit up the source link to get your name on the list.

Continue reading BluTracker lets you locate your stuff within 2,500 feet, we go hands-on (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Mobile

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Source: BluTracker (Indiegogo)

It seems that a court has slapped a pair of parents with a stalking order, after discovering that they have been stalking their daughter’s phone. In this particular case that concerns 21-year-old Aubrey Ireland, who happened to be musically talented and hence, headed to the University of Cincinnati to further her studies, although without getting any scholarship money. Her parents footed the bill, and they were paranoid enough to leave her alone some 600 miles away from their hometown in Kansas so much so that it ended up with them dropping by unannounced to visit their daughter.

Aubrey claims that her parents would then harass her and throw accusations of her of living a sex-and-drugs-filled life, in addition to sharing those “claims” with her university officials, touting that she has mental problems and requires treatment. Not only that, it seems that they installed tracking software on Aubrey’s phone and computer to gain full access to her communications as well.

This led Aubrey to file a civil stalking order against her parents in September 2012, and for one whole year, her parents cannot come into contact with their daughter. Even the university has hired security to help Aubrey live a normal life as far as it is possible. We hope that her parents would be less paranoid and let their little bird “fly” now that she is an adult.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Nokia Lumia 610 To Get Angry Birds?, First Tizen Device Gets MWC 2013 Debut,