Daily Digest Coolest Gadgets for 01/30/2013

The latest and coolest gadgets daily digest Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Jan 30, 2013 12:18 pm | Alison A Smartphone's Sensing Companion Ever run into a product and just say "I wish I was smart enough to think of that"? Yep, found one. Aside from lacking any knowledge about the topics, experience with NASA and a doctorate in who knows what, perhaps you or I could have come up with this innovation. But George Yu and Variable Technologies beat us to it. As our smartphones continue to control and guide more parts of our lives it makes sense to incorporate necessary job functions and even life-saving functions into the phone's capability. Meet NODE, a device that enables its attached, state-of-the-art sensors to communicate with your phone. Via conditional Bluetooth or Bluetooth 4.0 Low-Energy, information from the variety of sensors available is sent to a NODE app or – down the road perhaps other likeminded apps – on your device. Six different options exist for what you can measure with NODE and its modules: Kore ($149): required for any module, it serves as the heart of NODE. KORE contains a accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope to measure motion and space. Chroma ($75): color matching and sample collecting module. Therma ($75): measure temperatures at a distance or where you are via IR. Clima ($50): Senses barometric pressure, ambient light, temperature, and humidity. Luma ($25): Use up to 8 LEDs provide a flashlight or even a camera flash. Oxa ($149): Provides an industrial grade Carbon Monoxide gas sensor. Other gases can be requested. The professional and personal uses of NODE and the modules are really endless. Quality control on a production line can be aided by confirming the proper paint color of your product. Maybe you conduct house inspections. You could easily measure temperatures and humidity to detect faults. If you are a hiker or biker stop to read the climate and understand if adverse conditions are coming. Check CO2 levels even in your own home – while switching modules to make your picture hanging a level process. There are plenty of professions that require a variety of these measurements too. With NODE plus the applicable modules you save yourself multiple devices. I think you get where I'm going with NODE.  Presently, NODE is compatible with iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch 5th Gen, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Mini, Macbooks and Android devices. Yu made it a point to leave the possibilities out there with open firmware & open API. And they will provide Arduino source code as well as iOS & Android source code so programmers can then create the applicable app for the measurements of their users. NODE is rechargeable via micro USB and is FCC and CE certified. Sure, it may be more expensive if you only have a need for one particular sensor. But I think most of us could easily find uses for NODE in a variety of places in our lives. [ A Smartphone’s Sensing Companion copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Jan 30, 2013 05:30 am | Edwin Pen Sized Scanner You know, the scanner is one computer peripheral that you wish you had purchased when you didn't need it, only to find yourself ringing up a mate late into the night, asking him whether he could open up the doors of his home so that you can drop by and perform that necessary scan. Older scanners of yore tend to be large, bulky and noisy – not to mention slow, of course, but it is a good thing that modern day technology has ushered in the age of miniaturization, shrinking down what was once rather large scanners into a pocket-friendly form factor. Case in point, the $124.95 Pen Sized Scanner. The Pen Sized Scanner works as its name suggests – this is a ballpoint pen which allows you to leave your John Hancock on important documents, while also being able to laser-scan documents in a jiffy. The scanning bit is handled by a high-precision auto-focus lens, where it is accompanied by a 5-megapixel sensor that has been integrated into the pen itself, letting it scan letters, recipes, or important documents at 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution. Whenever you press the shutter button down halfway, a visible red laser will be projected to frame a document, as it focuses on the image automatically before snapping a photo. Sporting 1GB of internal memory, it is good for up to 1,000 scanned pictures in JPEG format and also being able to hold 1,000 1-minute voice memos in WAV format. A single hour's charge offers up to 300 scans if you're interested. [ Pen Sized Scanner copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Jan 30, 2013 05:00 am | Edwin Egreat rolls out Android 4.0 TV STICK H5 So you have more or less run out of stuff to watch on telly, and you are bored with your collection of Blu-ray discs which are starting to gather dust. Well, here we are with an alternative which you might want to consider – the Android 4.0 TV STICK H5 from Egreat of China. Yes sir, this is another PC-on-a-stick model that Egreat hopes to be able to spread its wings to all countries worldwide. Just what kind of hardware specifications does the Android 4.0 TV STICK H5 pack underneath the hood? First of all, it will plug itself into any available HDMI port on your TV, where the dual-core 1GHz Cortex A9 processor will be able to chug along just fine, where it is aided by 1GB RAM, and will carry 4GB of storage space for a slew of apps and content for you to enjoy on your big screen TV. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is the operating system of choice here, and the Android 4.0 TV STICK H5 will also play a host of video and audio files while delivering support for a range of online TV channels. Your ears will also appreciate the integrated FLAC lossless compression music player, while Full HD video transmission via HDMI ensures you will always be able to enjoy mind blowing visuals. No idea on pricing just yet, but TV Sticks do seem to have a place in our future. Product Page [ Egreat rolls out Android 4.0 TV STICK H5 copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Jan 30, 2013 04:30 am | Edwin Apple refreshes fourth generation iPad to include 128GB memory Regardless of whether you love or hate the iPad, I am quite sure that you have crossed paths with it at least once in your lifetime. For those who fall under the latter category of feelings, well, perhaps this bit of news might irk you more, but for Apple fans, this is definitely pleasant news that will send you scurrying back to your piggy bank, wondering whether there is enough inside to help you make the jump to an upgrade. I am referring to the fourth generation iPad with Retina display which has just been announced to receive a bump to the total amount of storage space – it has basically doubled from 64GB to hit the 128GB mark, making it an Ultrabook alternative when you think about it. All you need now is a wireless keyboard accessory to hook up to the 128GB iPad and you're good to go. The 128GB version of the fourth generation iPad with Retina display will be made available for the iPad with Wi-Fi and iPad with Wi-Fi + Cellular models, and with double the storage capacity of its predecessor, this would mean you are able to stash away even more valuable content ranging from photos to documents, projects, presentations, books, movies, TV shows, music and apps among others. Sure, this is not exactly a quantum leap when it comes to hardware, but still, 128GB of storage space would make the iPad all the more desirable if you have yet to pick one up from Apple. Just to recap, the fourth generation iPad will come with a 9.7-inch Retina display, where it runs on the Apple-designed A6X processor, accompanied by a FaceTime HD camera with iOS 6.1 as the operating system of choice. Expect the new 128GB models of the fourth generation iPad to be made available before Valentine's Day, starting on February 5, where it will come in black or white colors. The asking price? $799 and $929 respectively, for the iPad with Wi-Fi model and the iPad with Wi-Fi + Cellular model. Press Release [ Apple refreshes fourth generation iPad to include 128GB memory copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Jan 30, 2013 04:00 am | Edwin Samsung announces Galaxy Express smartphone Samsung does seem to be hell bent on occupying just about every single strata of the smartphone hierarchy, ranging from entry level to mid-range and high end models. I guess they are beginning to be the new Nokia, dominating the Android smartphone market just like how Nokia used to be the final word in featurephones. Of course, the smartphone landscape is a whole lot larger compared to just Android, as there are other contenders jostling for space such as iOS, Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10. Having said that, we come face to face with a new mid-range Android smartphone from the South Korean conglomerate, namely the Samsung Galaxy Express. The Samsung Galaxy Express has been touted to be a feature-rich multimedia powerhouse which will offer 4G LTE speed to just about everyone and anybody. Being a value-driven 4G LTE smartphone that was specially designed for the young social explorer, it will also be accompanied by the unique AllShare Play feature which allows a device-to-device remote sharing, letting you share and play content freely across Samsung Smart TV and Smart mobile devices. Apart from that, there is also the inclusion of S Beam, which lets you share and transfer whatever files you want from your Galaxy Express over to another compatible device so that you can enjoy sharing in real time. Mobile High Definition Link (MHL) functions as a simple mirroring interface so that you can hook up your smartphone directly to any HD display for convenient and comfortable viewing, while Near Field Communication (NFC) paves the way for auto-transfer of text or data wirelessly to other NFC enabled devices. As for the other hardware specifications of the Samsung Galaxy Express, they would include a crystal clear 4.5" Super AMOLED Plus screen, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean as the operating system of choice, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, 1GB RAM, 8GB of internal memory which can be further expanded via a microSD memory card slot, all running on a 1.2GHz dual-core processor. There is no word on pricing or availability as at press time. Press Release [ Samsung announces Galaxy Express smartphone copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More In This Issue A Smartphone's Sensing Companion Pen Sized Scanner Egreat rolls out Android 4.0 TV STICK H5 Apple refreshes fourth generation iPad to include 128GB memory Samsung announces Galaxy Express smartphone Recent Stories Grill – Come Rain, Shine or Snow Who Is At the Door? Check Your Phone. Clarity outs Amplified Captioned Telephone Brolly Rain Umbrella GammaTech Durabook TA10 Tablet

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