Daily Digest Coolest Gadgets for 12/12/2012

The latest and coolest gadgets daily digest Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Dec 12, 2012 09:52 am | Alison Kid-Friendly Kindle Environment The Kindle has revolutionized the world of reading. Most of us probably had that "nah, I like the feel of a book" notion at some point. But we obviously got over it. Younger generations certainly take to e-reading easier than us old folks. Kids navigate like pros. It is scary to think that younger generations may know nothing but e-reading. Yet not many of us are opting to buy a full Kindle for the kids yet. If they could only share ours but have their own content. Amazon just announced a new service to encourage kids to electronically read, while offering a great service to parents. Kindle FreeTime Unlimited offers a subscription service in which children get unlimited access to books, games, educational apps, movies and TV shows on a Kindle Fire or Kindle Fire HD  (and HD 8.9″ soon). Essentially it is the convenience of Amazon Prime Unlimited Instant Video. But it offers more than video and only offers content applicable to ages 3-8. No more parents having to guess what game the kids want to play. The voracious reader can keep reading with thousands of titles. If the kids get bored of the movie, no problem. Let them pick another! Profiles can be created for up to 6 children on one device, enabling their own personalized folder of content. Restrictions on types of content and usage time can also be set. And kids can't log out of their own profile without the password. Pricing for the subscription is based on the number of children in the house. Amazon is offering a free one month trial to all Fire and Fire HD owners. It will come as a software update and users just log in before the middle of January to take advantage. Pricing for Prime members after the free trial is $2.99 a month for one child, $6.99 for up to six. Non-Prime users pay $4.99 for one child or $9.99 a month for up to six. So all you Kindle Fire users out there with kids using the device – let the kids have their own environment and access unlimited content with FreeTime Unlimited. And save yourself the headache of buying books, movies and the like and always have plenty of options. [ Kid-Friendly Kindle Environment copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Dec 12, 2012 08:48 am | Edwin Logitech Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboard for Mac announced Logitech has a couple of goodies announced for Mac users, and one of them would be the Logitech Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboard for Mac, while the other is the Logitech Rechargeable Trackpad for Mac, but we will look at the former in greater detail for now. The Logitech Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboard for Mac will boast of Logitech Easy-Switch technology that is not different from the extremely popular Logitech Bluetooth Illuminated Keyboard K810, allowing you to switch from typing an e-mail on your Mac to taking down notes on your iPad, in addition to replying to a text on your iPhone, all through the simple press of a button. This sure as heck beats reconfiguring the different devices mentioned so that it will play nice with your Bluetooth enabled keyboard. For instance, the Logitech Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboard can pair with up to three Apple devices simultaneously, and it will sport all of the familiar Mac layout features of the keys any Mac fanatic would expect, and they definitely include Command, Brightness and Mission Control. With a sleek aluminum design that matches the Apple style, it will not look out of place whether placed beside the Mac, iPad or iPhone. Apart from that, it has an attractive design (so that your Mac loving friends won't look at it like a pariah peripheral), where this keyboard was specially built to maximize usability and power. Sporting a bright illumination of its backlit key characters, it is extremely easy to read in low light conditions or at night, making it a snap to type in just about any other environment. The keyboard will be able to turn on its illumination whenever your hands approach, while it has a light sensor that helps it automatically dim or brighten based on the amount of light in the room. The Logitech Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboard will arrive in the US and across the pond sometime next month, meaning this is not a good candidate for Christmas 2012, retailing for $99.99 a pop. Press Release [ Logitech Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboard for Mac announced copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Dec 12, 2012 08:14 am | Edwin OPPO Find 5 unveiled Now here is a smartphone that you might want to check out in greater detail if you are all for Full HD displays on your primary, day-to-day communications device – the OPPO Find 5 that hails from China. Yes sir, that part of the world has its very own house brand that sports specifications which are more than enough to make sure its Taiwanese and South Korean rivals sit up and take serious notice. The OPPO Find 5 will come with a 5" display that sports Full HD resolution – keeping up with the Joneses in a sense, coupled with a rather nifty 13-megapixel HDR camera among others. I know that megapixel count is not the end all and be all, but it still looks impressive on paper. The OPPO Find 5's 5" 1080p IPS display comes with a whopping 441ppi pixel density that would definitely send the iPhone 5 scurrying away under whatever Apple leaves to cower, where your eyes will surely appreciate the crystal clear clarity and realistic colors. Thanks to OGS technology which merges touch sensors with display, colors are said to be more vivid and lifelike, and you would feel as though the screen contents are floating right on its surface. Do not be taken aback by its phablet-sized display, as the OPPO Find 5 is not hard to hold, courtesy of its extremely slim 3.25mm bezel. Whenever the display is turned off, the front ends up as a borderless sheet of pure black, delivering an aesthetic feel unlike any other. Tipping the scale at just 6.3 grams for the front frame (which takes four hours to craft, mind you), it has gone through an extremely demanding process to make sure that the screen remains as durable as possible against impacts, as well as contributing to the overall look and feel. The OPPO Find 5 will also come with the most advanced 1/3.06-type 13-megapixel camera sensor available on the market, boasting market-leading Stacked CMOS technology, while delivering an f/2.2 aperture, 4-layer coating and blue glass filters. In front lies a 1.9-megapixel shooter. Other hardware specifications include NFC functionality, Bluetooth connectivity, Wi-Fi Display and DLNA support, Dolby 3D surround sound technology, and a quad-core Qualcomm APQ8064 1.5GHz processor, running on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Press Release [ OPPO Find 5 unveiled copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Dec 12, 2012 07:35 am | Alison Emotion-Detecting Smartphones? I love HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey.  His calm computer voice, ability to understand humans, total control of the ship. Well I loved him until he tried to kill everyone anyway. After all  we can't let these computers get too smart.  Which leads me to wonder – when will smartphones become too smart? Researchers at Rochester University are conducting experiments to determine if a phone may be able to someday determine our emotions. Face it, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand when people are happy or sad simply based on their voice. By measuring and analyzing 12 different features of speech like pitch and volume, their prototype program was able to accurately identify 1 of 6 emotions 81% of the time. The more complex the analysis gets perhaps the more emotions a device could detect. So where could this come in handy? For one in the world of psychology, where interactions are constantly analyzed. But maybe someday your boss will be able to understand that what he perceives as happy the rest of the world perceives as grouchy. Or maybe you will be able to remind your spouse that their expression of excitement is undetectable to others. Wendi Heinzelman, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Rochester University admits the project is in its early stages. But some day an app may be able to identify moods that we do or do not perceive.   Thanks: LiveScience [ Emotion-Detecting Smartphones? copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Dec 12, 2012 04:30 am | Edwin The Compact Elliptical Trainer So, the year's about to draw to a close, and it is time to whip out that New Year's resolution list that you compiled at the turn of 2011 into 2012. I am quite sure that there must be at least a single fitness goal in that list, no? Well, for those who have always wanted to find a way to exercise this year, but somehow or rather had the little gremlins in life bog you down, perhaps it is not because of the lack of will, but rather, not having the proper equipment (yeah right, this is just an excuse, but it works well to soothe that ego). How about changing things with just less than 20 days left in 2012 with the $169.95 The Compact Elliptical Trainer? Yes, we've seen the Hideaway Elliptical Trainer in the past, and I don't suppose that the Compact Elliptical Trainer would be somewhat similar in nature, albeit having gone through a rather rigid shrinking process. This full-motion elliptical trainer will be able to be stashed away easily in a closet once you are done, making it the ideal piece of fat burning equipment at a small home, or at the office, where space is limited. With a footprint that measures just 20″ x 12″, it comes with a foam-covered handle that can be adjusted up to 49.5" in height, locking into place with a tension knob for a secure handhold during your workout. Armed with non-slip pedals, you will have footing as stable as a mountain goat, especially during those forward and backward elliptical movements. [ The Compact Elliptical Trainer copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Dec 12, 2012 04:00 am | Edwin Outback Battery Heated Mittens You know when the bitter chill of winter falls upon us, we would do our darndest best to keep warm. Wearing layers of clothing might help, and sometimes, it certainly pays dividends if you were to "invest" a little bit more by forking out more money for your choice of winter clothing, as the more expensive ones are lighter and thinner and yet display an amazing capability of keeping you nice and warm. Well, if you are part of the modern day technology revolution, you might be interested to hear of the £27.99 Outback Battery Heated Mittens, being the perfect winter accessory whenever you choose to brave the outdoors in winter. The Outback Battery Heated Mittens work as advertised, sporting a battery pack inside each of the mittens, where they are heated up to 39 degrees Celsius with a single flick of the On/Off switch so that they can power up. The asking price is not too much either, and is certainly far less than the crazy money you pay for Arsenal's season tickets and yet watch them perform dismally. I suffer when I say this, as I am a Gunner's fan. But I digress – the Outback Battery Heated Mittens will be able to remain toasty for up to half a dozen hours with a quartet of AA batteries per mitten. I'd highly recommend rechargeable batteries to use with the Outback Battery Heated Mittens in the long run. [ Outback Battery Heated Mittens copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More In This Issue Kid-Friendly Kindle Environment Logitech Bluetooth Easy-Switch Keyboard for Mac announced OPPO Find 5 unveiled Emotion-Detecting Smartphones? The Compact Elliptical Trainer Outback Battery Heated Mittens Recent Stories A Grill and Then Some Coming Soon: Black Cabs with Wi-Fi ROCCAT Isku FX Multicolor Gaming Keyboard iPhone Powered Personal Fan

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