Technology & Business
Run your favorite devices for 2 weeks without plugging it into the wall
We love our smartphones, tablets and media players but the one limiting factor to all of these is the battery. If you are a frequent business traveler, you know the frustration of running out of juice right when you need it the most. The current solution has us running around with backup batteries but these are heavy and only offer 2-4 device charges before needing to be plugged in. Now Lilliputian is making a bold promise. It is offering its pattented electicity generation technology to the general public via a small and easy to carry device called Nectar.
Fitbit Flex wristband announced
Fitbit has just announced that it will be releasing a new device (bringing their total device count to 3) called the Flex. It is a waterproof wristband that clearly competes with the Jawbone UP 2. It tracks activity but unlike it's other products, the Flex does not measure altitude (aka number of steps climbed). It then connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth to upload data back to the Fitbit mothership. It also tracks your sleep but unlike the other Fitbit devices, it doesn't have a button to engage sleep mode.
SoundGecko let's you listen to your favorite website
SoundGecko is a service that takes in web content you are interested in and makes it available as a downloadable audio track. In simple terms, it converts the content you want into spoken word so you can listen to it while driving, running errands or anytime you can't read. There are clients for IOS, Windows Phone and Android. How it works You sign up for a free account and then go to the SoundGecko page. you enter your registered email address and add the URL of the content you want read.
Withings Smart Activity Tracker
About 6 months ago, Fitbit released the Aria WIFI scale scale which competed directly with Withings. It seems Withings isn't about to play dead and has announced the Smart Activity Tracker as a direct assault to the Fitbit Ultra. This is a crowded field and this newcomer will have to compete with the liked of the Nike Fuelbank, Lark Life, Misfit Shine. An interesting new feature the Smart Activity Tracker brings to the table is monitoring of your pulse. The device has a tiny sensor on the back that you push your finger against and within seconds, it will detect and record your heart rate.
New Smart Body Analyzer measures Air Quality and Heard Rate
Withings has announced that its new Smart Body Analyser scale will incorporate new features "never before seen in a scale". In addition to measuring your weight and body fat, it will also check your heart rate. All of this information is logged in the Withings site and can be seen via its smartphone app. This ups its game against the Fitbit Aria. In the evening, (every 30 minutes) it takes a CO2 measurement in your room. They believe this measurement will allow them to create a room air quality score you can use to improve your health.
Your cloud service is shutting down. Now what?
2012 was an interesting year where more services were moved to the cloud and at the same time we saw the risk of cloud services shutting down. In the case of MegaUpload.com (the notorious filesharing site shutdown by the FBI), the government seized all of the hosting servers and made all the information on them unreachable. Even legitimate users ,like the XDA developers, end up losing their information (over 200,000 XDA files were hosted on MegaUpload – all legal).
The best Android keyboard for super fast text entry
As I started exploring Android for the first time (switching from IOS), I wanted to find a fast way to enter text. The IOS method of a screen based keyboard is ok but very slow (and therefore not efficient). I realized that there are dozens of great Android keyboard alternatives. Some of these keyboards are weird and won't actually improve your text entry speed (Slice is a great example of this). Slice for Android If anything, Slice for Android may actually slow you down ;-)
WhatsApp processed 18 billion messages on December 31 2012
The King of Instant Mobile Messaging. Whatsapp had its busiest day yet with 18 billion messages being send over its network on December 31 2012. On Dec 31st we had a new record day: 7B msgs inbound, 11B msgs outbound = 18 billion total messages processed in one day! Happy 2013!!! — WhatsApp Inc. (@WhatsApp) January 2, 2013 WhatApp charges IOS users 99 cents per year. Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry users get the first year free and then are charged 99 cents per year thereafter.
First peek at the Samsung Galaxy S IV
SamMobile, a Samsung only blog, has posted an image it claims is the world’s first look at the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S IV smartphone. They say the image was provided courtesy of a Samsung insider and that because of its look (similar to the SIII) it may be real. There have been some rumors about the Samsung Galaxy S IV and some have even said it will merge their smartphone and phablet lines creating a new flagship phone. Other rumors have said it will keep its 5” screen but bump pixel density to 441ppi.
Corning Gorilla Glass 3 50% thinner and more scratch resistant
Corning is the purveyor of fine screen glass for many a manufacturers (ipod, ipad, iphone, Nexus, etc). It has now announced the creation of its next generation product, Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3. It will be thinner, stronger and more scratch resistant than its predecessor. It will retain its magical strength even when scratched (which is rarely the case for glass). Gorilla Glass 3 will be showcased at CES and should make it into your favorite 2013 gadget. Stronger, more scratch resistant glass is always a good thing for the road warrior business person.