Daily Digest Coolest Gadgets for 03/19/2013

The latest and coolest gadgets daily digest Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Mar 19, 2013 10:03 am | Alison Let Your Car Talk To Your Phone Do you know where your OBD port is on your car? All cars in the US (since 1996) and EU (since 2004) are required to have On-Board Diagnostics port enabling the car to point you or your mechanic in the right direction when something is awry. Maybe it will identify a Transmission problem or maybe an emissions issue or something else. Some smart people finally realized that with today's mobile technology and this OBD port your iPhone can now help communicate car problems – and more Automatic Labs, Inc. are producing Automatic Link, a device for your car to communicate with you via your smartphone. Plug the gadget into your OBD port and download the Automatic App to your phone. Between the link and its low energy Bluetooth® connection, the app, your phone and its GPS you will enable a number of activities. First, if something goes wrong with your engine and the 'check engine' light comes on Automatic will tell you via push notifications. The app even shows diagnostic codes which will help when calling your mechanic. If the issue is minor you can even clear the light. If the Automatic Link accelerometer detects a crash it will contact 911 (where accessible) with your whereabouts and name. It will also text 3 people of your choosing. Automatic Link and App also help you drive. How? It helps you track your mpg and identify things that may help improve it like rough braking, speeding and rapid acceleration.  This friend is tapped in to local gas prices to show what you are spending too. And of course if you can't find your car Automatic Link and App will guide you. Link units in multi-driver cars can support each person, but each car needs its own device. You can place a pre-order for Automatic Link on their website for $69.95 – a bargain considering what some onboard systems cost to do the same thing. Initially launching in the US, iPhone 4S and 5 versions ship in May with Android options shipping this Fall. Perfect timing as a thoughtful gifts for Mother's Day, Father's Day, birthdays or Christmas or just to treat yourself. [ Let Your Car Talk To Your Phone copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Mar 19, 2013 08:30 am | Edwin Google Chromebooks hitting new countries I am not quite sure about you, but have you actually taken a Chromebook out for a ride before? And by that, I do not mean a ride in your car or motorbike, but rather, whether you have used it before, doing some work as well as surfing mindless sites for images of kittens in weird poses. You know, nothing heavy duty, as the Chromebook was not meant to be a high powered computing device in the first place. Well, as we all jolly well know, the mid-range tier of products and its intended market tend to be the largest segment in most bell curves, and hence the Google Chromebook would fall under this category nicely. It is nice to know that if you happen to live in places like Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands, you should be able to pick up a Google Chromebook. Better late than never, or so the saying goes, and for folks living in the US, you might have noticed that the Samsung Chromebook has remained at the top of Amazon's best-selling laptop list for 149 days ever since it was launched, and for folks who live across the pond, Dixons claims that Chromebooks comprise of over 10% of laptop sales in Currys and PC World stores. From today onwards, you will be able to pick up Chromebooks from the likes of Acer, HP and Samsung, especially if you happen to stay in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. Not only that, Google wants to do their bit to improve computing for organizations, as the Internet search giant is rolling out its fair share of Chromebooks to businesses and schools alike, too. Folks living in the US have something else to look forward to – the Chromebooks will be introduced to more than 1,000 Best Buy stores nationwide, which virtually doubles the number of stores Chromebooks are presently sold in, although this is set to happen within the coming fortnight and not immediately. Any potential Chromebook owners reading this? Press Release [ Google Chromebooks hitting new countries copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Mar 19, 2013 07:52 am | Edwin Toa Mata Band is the first LEGO band ever The power of imagination certainly has no boundaries. When you give a kid a box of Lego bricks, leave him or her alone, and after some time, you would most probably end up with something totally new and never thought of before. Recently, I saw an ad that went somewhere along the lines of "boys will never grow old of their toys", but rather, they just change them. Italian music producer Giuseppe Acito is no longer a boy, but he still has use for Lego bricks, and his ingenuity has come up with what he has called the "Toa Mata Band", where it is comprised of a handful of small, robotic Lego figures that have been programmed to play a range of musical instruments, no less. You can more or less say that each “member” of the band has been constructed from Lego Bionicle pieces, and these have been rigged with rubber bands as well as pulleys. Their arms were controlled by an Arduino Uno that has been hooked to an iPad that runs Nord Beat, which is a MIDI sequencer app. These small robots will be able to "perform" a MIDI sequence as they go around hitting the instrument that they face whenever prompted. Acito has managed to use a range of different synthesizers and drum machines to date, where among them include a fair number of vintage equipment to eke out tunes that will help you shake your booty. The way the bots have been set up allow them to perform a pre-programmed song, or to even play live with a human operator that is capable of sizing up the situation, before throwing in more commands to the MIDI sequence in real-time. Unfortunately for the rest of the world, Acito has come up with just a single prototype at this point in time, making this truly a one-of-a-kind. Source [ Toa Mata Band is the first LEGO band ever copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Mar 19, 2013 05:30 am | Edwin +10 Electronic Dice Barbarian Gauntlet DId you grow up playing RPGs (Role Playing Games), or some of those Fighting Fantasy books that used a pencil, and eraser, a couple of dice, and of course, plenty of your imagination as you make an attempt to complete a particular quest in the book? Surely you would be familiar with some of the workings of RPGs as well as book-based games like the Lone Wolf or Fighting Fantasy series. Having a +5 or +10, with 2D6 being familiar terms to you, here is something in the flesh that might just make you shed a tear or two of nostalgia – with the $69.99 +10 Electronic Dice Barbarian Gauntlet. I guess you can call this the invisible dice, where it relies on barbarian magic (or rather, modern technology) that lets you roll electronic dice with but a flick of your wrist. After all, your wrist wears the +10 Electronic Dice Barbarian Gauntlet, and you can opt to roll 1 or 2 dice simultaneously, choosing from d2 to d4, d6, d8, d12, d20 and d100. Not only that, the +10 Electronic Dice Barbarian Gauntlet will also come with stopwatch, timer, dual counter, and clock modes. The "magic" stops when it runs out of all 4 AAA batteries. [ +10 Electronic Dice Barbarian Gauntlet copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Mar 19, 2013 05:12 am | Edwin Pivot Power Flexible Power Board While I strongly hold on to the belief that all men are created equal, surely not all extension cords are equal. Case in point, the £29.99 Pivot Power Flexible Power Board. Most of the power extensions that we know of either come in a straight row with a long cable, or it is one of those roll-'em-up models, with just one outlet. Well, the Pivot Power Flexible Power Board works differently, as it is fully flexible and comes with half a dozen outlets, allowing you to maneuvre it into tight places, letting you fit a large plug in each outlet to boot. No longer do you need to worry about larger plugs that certain devices have not fitting in a row. As for the cable of the Pivot Power Flexible Power Board, it measures a good 6 feet in length, and is accompanied by an easy off/reset button. You also need not fret about the safety of your devices, since it is accompanied by a surge protection of up to 672 joules. Measuring 44cm x 3cm x 7cm, the Pivot Power Flexible Power Board might just be the ideal purchase for the geek in your life who wants something unconventional. [ Pivot Power Flexible Power Board copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More In This Issue Let Your Car Talk To Your Phone Google Chromebooks hitting new countries Toa Mata Band is the first LEGO band ever +10 Electronic Dice Barbarian Gauntlet Pivot Power Flexible Power Board Recent Stories New Mobile Theme for Coolest Gadgets HD Video from Your POV Netatmo Urban Weather Station Ticker Watches tell the time in style Cap Zappa Launcher

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