New E-Paper watch from Sony turns page on a new chapter

Sources have discovered that Sony is working on a new smartwatch that focuses on fashion over function. The watch is going to be constructed out of a new e-paper display from Sony that spans not only the watch face, but the band as well. This means users will be able to change the appearance with a tap or two. The smartwatch is not only unique in eschewing functionality – it only provides the time and date – but development of the device has revealed a new business unit within Sony that is part of an effort to get the company back on track financially and in terms of innovation.



The new watch is actually out in the public already, but no one realized it until recently. Sony created a new division called Fashion Entertainments and their first product is the FES Watch, which turns out to be the Sony e-paper device. This new division within Sony reports directly to CEO Kazuo Hirai so that new, innovative products can be fast-tracked to market.

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Hands-on with Parrot’s fun new $499 Bebop Drone

Earlier this week, Parrot announced its latest drone, the Bebop, and the Android-based Skycontroller remote. Here are our impressions from our brief flight time with the gadget, which goes on sale in early December. Parrot is probably best known for its AR.Drone quadcopter. While the the device has been one of the best-selling drones on the market, it has remained on the low-end of the market while companies like DJI take over the mid- to high-end. Bebop costs $499 as a standalone device and $899 with the Skycontroller. That’s a sizable jump up from the $399 price of Parrot’s AR.Drone...

The Bebop creates a WiFi network that you’ll need to connect to when piloting. From an iOS and Android device, you’ll have up to 300 meters of distance for the drone. The Skycontroller lets you fly up to 1.25 miles away. Still, I can’t really imagine flying the drone that far, as it’d be impossible to see and steer with your own eyes by then.

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SnapJet: A Slim, Portable, Open-source Instant Film Printer

Note: This project funding is in early stage. As of now (20th Nov 2014) it receives only 0.10% of their target.

SnapJet: A Slim, Portable, Open-source Instant Film Printer

SnapJet's innovative optical system allows you to perfectly replicate the image on your smartphone's high quality display. Image scanning and transfer system has a theoretical resolution limit of 1200 dpi. That means that if you upgrade your phone, SnapJet's print quality gets even better!

All you need to do is put your phone on top, and push a single button to print beautiful photos.
But don't let SnapJet's simple interface fool you. Also included an OLED display, USB, and BLE connectivity. So all the tinkerers and photographers out there can control exposures, hack, and reprogram the SnapJet.


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Motorola Keylink, a keychain for finding your phone

Keylink is a small device that you attach to your keychain. Using the Motorola Connect app on your phone, you can connect your keys to your phone in case either tends to wander off. * If your phone decides to play hide and seek with you, you can press a button on Keylink to make it ring up to 100 feet away. Or if your keys get a similar idea, you can use the Motorola Connect App to make Keylink ring.

The great thing is Keylink is compatible with Android and iOS devices. Simply download the Motorola Connect app from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store today to get started.

If you own a Moto X (2nd gen.), Droid Turbo or a phone running Android 5.0, Lollipop, you can use your trusted device settings to enable the added ability to keep your phone unlocked when your keys are nearby. This way you don’t have to enter your password to use it. Just enable trusted devices by going into settings and then security.

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Huawei TalkBand B1 comes to the U.S.

You probably have heard about Huawei TalkBand B1 that was announced in MWC 2014. Yeah, it’s a great piece of hardware and innovation. Who could have thought you can wear the same thing on your ear as you do on your wrist. Indeed, an out-of-the-box yet successful thought. Chinese brands as opposed to their previous...


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Hush | The World's First Smart Earplug

Hush as a piece of silence, a small, portable, yet powerful device to enjoy quietness anywhere, anytime. If you want to sleep you should be able to sleep and stay asleep regardless of the noise around you. Hush combines sound eliminating foam with noise masking to isolate you from your surrounding environment.

Hush connects wirelessly with your smartphone so you can fully power off with the peace of mind knowing that you'll be woken up when you're needed.

As a wireless miniature device that has to play sounds and stay connected to the phone for over 10 hours, battery life was one of our biggest concerns. To do this, we had to design everything with low power in mind. By using Bluetooth Low Energy and playing back locally stored audio files, Hush is able to surpass this requirement on a battery that other wireless in-ear products exhaust in two hours.
 


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Blooky: Wireless Bluetooth Password Key

Note: This project funding is in early stage. As of now (13th Nov 2014) it receives only 0.10% of their target.

Blooky Is The Solution To The Password Problem.

Blooky is a wireless Bluetooth password key that remembers all your usernames and passwords, so you don't have to.

Blooky stores your usernames and passwords on an encrypted physical key that you can deactivate at any time if it's lost or stolen. The encrypted data stored on your Blooky is unreadable after your Blooky has been deactivated.

Blooky is a universal solution that works with all the devices you already use, including Macs, PCs, iPhones, iPads, and Androids, as well as all the major browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. If your computer doesn't support Bluetooth 4.0, we're offering a tiny Bluetooth LE USB Dongle that will allow Blooky to connect to your computer.


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AmpliTube for Android is here (but only for Samsung devices)

There has yet to be a formidable solution on Android for a guitar amplifier simulator. The big reason for that is because the operating system has not been too good at handling sound.

With Android 5.0 Lollipop, that all changes and AmpliTube is here following success over on iOS. IK Multimedia, the company behind AmpliTube, worked with Samsung to bring it exclusively to the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge first. At some point, it seems like AmpliTube will open itself to additional Android devices.

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Samsung announces new Advanced S Pen

Not happy with just having a boring old stylus for it’s smartphones, Samsung just announced a new S Pen with its own SDK.

The new Advanced S Pen has double the sensitivity of the current S Pen, recognizes speed, tilt and rotation and features advanced editing. It will also understand and renders life-like strokes so your handwriting looks like your handwriting. For artists, this could make the Note line a better mobile drawing device. In addition to the hardware, Samsung announced an updated S Pen SDK so developers can support the new features of the stylus. The Advanced S Pen...



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Sony SmartWatch 3 now available through Google Play

If you’ve been waiting to purchase a Sony SmartWatch 3 through Google Play, then your wait has come to an end. The Sony SmartWatch 3 is now available through Google for $249.99 and it’s estimated to ship within 1-2 days. Coming amidst a wave of new Android Wear devices, the Sony [...]



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Hands on: Striiv Touch fitness tracker

n a crowded market for wearable fitness trackers today, the Striiv Touch appears like just another one of them. Indeed, the device looks not very different from many other rivals.

After trying this fitness tracker out this week, I’d say it works as advertised and doesn’t try to outdo its rivals in terms of features.

The Striiv Touch tracks your movements, telling you roughly how many steps you’ve taken, as well as your sleep patterns. It also connects to your Apple or Android phone via Bluetooth to notify you of incoming calls, text messages and meetings.

Nothing new, you say. What sets the Striiv Touch apart perhaps is its light weight and small size.

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Samsung Gear Circle Bluetooth headphones now available in US in limited quantities

The Samsung Gear Circle is definitely an interesting accessory, and it’s finally out in the U.S. The Gear Circle is a set of Bluetooth earphones that are designed to magnetically clasp together at the ends and become a necklace for easy carrying. And to warn you that you’re getting a call, the piece on the back of your neck will vibrate to warn you to put them on.

As for music controls, it uses a mix of touch controls and a play/pause feature that works when you clasp and unclasp the earphones from each other. You can also control your phone using voice commands, as you can with most earphones. The battery will last for 9 hours of music listening and 11 hours of talk time, which really isn’t bad for such a small set of earphones.

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Jawbone introduces its most advanced activity trackers yet

If you want to wear something that can provide a rough estimate of how active you are each day, there are no shortage of options. Now Jawbone is giving consumers two more. The company has announced a couple of activity trackers that it hopes will appeal to different types of people, with one of them showing off some rather advanced tech.

For starters, we have the $49.99 Up Move, an entry-level alternative to Jawbone's fitness bands. It's a circular device that fits into a clip, which you can then tuck somewhere along your belt, pants, or bra. The Up3 has features comparable to the company's Up and Up24 bands, so buyers can still sync it up to the same Android app. The Up Move's LED lights can display your progress towards a particular goal, and Jawbone says its replaceable battery should last up to six months.

As for colors, there are five to choose from, with bands coming in purple, black, yellow, gray, and red.

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Nexus Player Review: Google Just Brought A Stick To A Gunfight

Android TV, and by association Nexus Player, are the evolution of Chromecast. It essentially eliminates the need to use a middleman device like a phone or tablet if the user chooses, and allows them to interface directly with the device and TV in many cases. While it still retains all the functionality of Chromecast, a dedicated box allows for a much more robust and feature-rich system, as well as more room for future enhancements.

The Nexus Player is Google's first real go at a set-top box, and the first Android TV box available on the consumer market. It's the most Google-centric of all the set-top boxes, offering access to essentially all services El Goog offers, like Play Movies, Play Music, Play Games, YouTube, the Play Store, and more. This should be the box for those of us who are heavily invested in the Android ecosystem.

That said, the Nexus Player is still very new, and as a result it has a few...quirks. Some things just don't work as they should right now, and others simply need to be improved. But we'll get into all that as the time comes.

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Fizzly: the first creative smart tag to enhance your world

A Bluetooth LE smart tag you can wear or plug to make your objects smart, enrich your everyday activities and have fun! - [currently $2,293 (5%) of $49,000 goal]

Fizzly is a stylish smart tag that detects movements, events and actions: just wear or place it on anything you like and pair it with your smartphone or tablet, then choose one of the Fizzly apps on your device and step into a totally new experience.

Fizzly will track motion while an app on your smart device will do the rest, creating new amazing kinds of interactions.

Imagine, for example, to track your skateboarding tricks and share your score and achievements with friends. Imagine to be alerted when important things or people get too far from your range. Imagine inventing your own mobile game, playable just waving your hands, like you would do on a Wii®. Fizzly lets you do that. As you can see, Fizzly is not just a smart tag: it is the first creative device that offers you limitless possibilities!




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