Hasta La Gadget!

Most stoves produce heat that far exceeds the temperature necessary to boil water, but TES NewEnergy has found a way to convert that excess energy into power, which can subsequently be used to charge your USB gadgets. Released yesterday in Japan, the Hitochaja HC-5 USB power pot can generate up to 400mAh of juice — enough to charge your iPhone in three to five hours. Considering it needs a constant heat source to generate electricity, the ¥23,000 pot (about $285, before tax) is even less practical than last week’s C-type battery laptop charger, but if you want to expand the service offerings at your local soup kitchen, this double-duty cooking vessel may be the solution you’ve been looking for.

USB power pot uses excess heat to charge your gadgets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 11:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple threw quite the wireless party by introducing PC Free and iCloud at yesterday’s WWDC keynote, but it seems that the engineers in Cupertino may have even more tricks up their sleeve. Judging by a recently filed patent application, the company’s hoping to add charging to its list of cord-cutting services. Specifically, the patent describes building a NFMR (near-field magnetic resolution) power supply directly into your iMac so it can charge your iPhone, iPad, or even peripherals — such as a keyboard or mouse, when equipped with a special antenna — without the assistance of your ol’ trusty charging cords or batteries. Sporting a somewhat mature iMac that’s operating sans NFMR? Pop a special USB dongle in that bad boy and presto, you’re good to go. The patent points out that the range is limited to one meter, though there may be ways to install repeaters in peripherals to extend that distance further. Of course, patents won’t guarantee we’ll be grabbing the scissors to cut our cords anytime soon, but at least we won’t have to rely on these things for the rest of eternity.

Filed under: Wireless

Apple patent app sheds light on wireless charging dreams, NFMR love affair originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Jun 2011 09:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Gemini’s FirstMix USB DJ controller now available for novice mixers

Gemini’s FirstMix USB DJ controller now available for novice mixers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FirstMix lets you play DJ, without the big, back-breaking bag of records

Apart from being a handy way to sneak friends’ drugs into a club, a DJ’s box of records is increasingly pointless. Why lug all that vinyl when you can just rock up with a computer, or even an iPad? Tactile feedback, you say? Good point. And Gemini DJ has you covered with its new FirstMix USB controller.

Even schlepping the FirstMix and a laptop weighs less that even a modest bag of records (the unit weighs 1.62 pounds, or 0.74 kg). You won’t even need a power cable, as the controller runs off USB bus power. You hook it up to a PC with the companion MixVibes Cross LE software installed and you’re back in the land of old-school deejaying: The unit has a pair of turntables flanking a mixer with crossfader, and knobs to control gain, treble and bass.

It also has some handy software features, like beat matching, or you can use it as a controller for other DJ apps like Traktor, Virtual DJ and Algoriddim’s DJAY. Finally, the mixer will play M4A, AIFF, WAV, MP3, FLAC and OGG files.

The FirstMix is also cheap, coming in at just $100. The only downside? There’s no hidden compartment for your stash. Available now.

FirstMix product page [Gemini. Thanks, Mark!]

See Also:

• Gadget Lab Notes: USB DJ Controller Offers High-End Features For …
• DJ Mix Table Resembles Giant, Broken iMac
• DJ App Makes Your iPad as Dope as Dre

Piano Maestro’s flashing lights guide your fingers and teach you to play

Piano Maestro will turn any piano (or keyboard) into a teaching device. It is also incredibly simple and — compared to the price of your piano — cheap.

The device is little more than a long bar with LEDs on the front and a USB socket. You place it atop your piano’s keyboard and hook it up to your computer. Then you fire up the companion software, load in some music (MIDI) and you’re off. The sheet music is displayed on-screen, along with a small representation of a keyboard. As the notes are played by the software, the LEDs light up next to the keys to show you which ones to hit.

The Piano Maestro has 48 LEDs, which are designed to line up with keys on a standard-sized keyboard (with an octave span of 164mm). Should you want to use all of the keys on your piano, you can move the bar up or down and just tell the software where you have put it.

The Piano Maestro costs $170, and the software will work with Windows only. That’s fair enough, as everybody knows that musicians never use Macs (</sarcasm>). The gadget is available now, so go dust off that piano.

Piano Maestro product page [Piano Maestro via Red Ferret]

See Also:

• iPhone App Digitizes Sheet Music, Teaches You Piano
• LED Piano Player Will Light Up Your Day
• Pocket Piano, A Beautiful, Hand-Made Circuit-Bending Synth …