Geek News Central Special Media Feed

Todd Cochrane interviews Jim Kidd of Humanscale, an ergonomic furniture manufacturer. Todd and Jim discuss the need for and health benefits of ergonomic office furniture. Humanscale’s product line includes sit/stand desks, seating, keyboard systems, monitor arms and lighting. Humanscale’s adjustable sit/stand desk products are designed to easily be mechanically raised and lowered with minimal one-handed effort. Their task chairs are designed to automatically adjust to the individual weight of the person sitting in them each time. Humanscale also offers a seating ball called Ballo priced at $329. Ballo encourages low intensity activity while in a seated position. Humanscale’s sit/stand desk solutions are priced from $829 to $1,999 depending on size. Humanscale’s task chairs are priced from $319 to $1,169 depending on selected model. Become a GNC Insider today!

There are all kinds of fitness and sports trackers coming onto the market, from the generalists like Fitbit through to the specialists for single sports, like basketball or baseball. Digital Ski is in the latter category, bringing specialist sensors to both downhill and cross-country skiing. Dr Hermann Schindler of HS Innovations shows Jamie and Nick what’s possible with two sensors instead of one. Unlike most sports trackers, Digital Ski uses two intercommunicating sensors, one for each ski. The dual sensor approach brings the benefit of better motion analysis as with only one tracker, it’s not always easy to see if a motion was cause or caused. Impressively, the sensor information is reported in real-time to the skier’s (augmented reality) googles which can show the skis’ movements and forces while in motion. There’s a German language video here which shows it off to good effect. Of course, there’s an app too for post-race analysis. For runners, there’s Run Rockets, which uses a similar dual sensor strategy to provide data while on the hoof, as it were. Digital Ski isn’t available for purchase yet but those interested can register on the website. Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic and health journalist. Nick DiMeo is a video producer at F5 Live: Refreshing Technology. Become a GNC Insider today!

Todd Cochrane interviews Josh with Catalyst, a leading provider of waterproof cases for the iPhone and Apple Watch. The Catalyst line of waterproof iPhone covers have an IP-68 rating and every individual product is tested before the sale to a water depth of 16.4 feet. The Catalyst iPhone cases are also two meters drop proof. Catalyst also offers phone mounts that fit their waterproof iPhone cases. The phone mounts are priced at $45. The iPhone cases are priced at $74.99 for the iPhone 6S+, and $69.99 for the smaller iPhone 6S. The waterproof case for the Apple Watch is priced at $59.99. All Catalyst products are available now. Become a GNC Insider Today!

Todd Cochrane interviews Ronald Kim from BenQ. They discuss BenQ’s new line of Zowie line of competitive gaming accessories. BenQ brings in professional gamers to help them validate their gaming accessory designs. Ron shows three models (they offer a total of seven models) of gaming mice that are specifically designed to give the end user the best possible gaming performance. They include the ZA Series, the EC-A Series, and the FK Series mice. Top-level professional gamers still prefer wired mice over wireless mice for the best possible lag-free performance. BenQ Zowie mice offer the ultimate in adjustable precision. The mice are all priced at $59.99 each and are available now. The BenQ Zowie mouse pads are priced from $25 to $45 dollars on Amazon. Become a GNC Insider Today!

Improved home security is one of the benefits often cited by proponents of the smart home, but setting up everything can be technically daunting and require a little DIY. The team at BeON have taken a different approach, developing home protection that can easily be installed without any geek or DIY credentials. Jamie and Nick learn more about this original thinking from Alexei Erchak, CEO of BeON. The BeON Home system is a set of smart LED lightbulbs (or lamps) that screw in to replace existing lights. How are the bulbs smart? To start with, they learn the lighting patterns in the house so that when the building is unoccupied, the lights mimic the normal activity. Next, they learn the sound of the doorbell, so that when the doorbell rings, the lights will come on as if the householder is answering the door. Similarly, the BeON Home bulbs learn the sounding of smoke detectors and will automatically turn the lights on if a fire is detected in the building. Finally, the bulbs come with a backup battery which keep the lamps on even if the power fails. All-in-all, it looks a pretty neat solution providing a deterrent to intruders and enhanced safety for the home-owner and family. The BeON Home is available now and a starter kit costs US$199. Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic and health journalist. Nick DiMeo is video producer at F5 Live: Refreshing Technology. Become a GNC Insider today!

Normally a wireless NAS unit wouldn’t merit a second look, with plenty of choice from big OEMs like Seagate to small crowd-funded efforts. But when this wireless NAS unit is the size of a matchbox, holds 2 TB and weighs 4oz, it’s definitely worth another viewing. Marlo and Nick examine this miniature marvel with Luke Malpass from Fasetto. The Fasetto Link is a small waterproof cuboid just 48 mm by 23 mm, yet holds a 2 TB SSD along with 802.11ac wireless connectivity. Able to connect to 20 devices at the same time, it can stream to seven of them at once. It has a write speed of up to 1.5 Gb/s so it’s entirely feasible to have multiple wireless action cameras recording simultaneously to the Link. If that’s not enough, it uses Qi wireless charging to recharge in less than an hour. Now this doesn’t come cheap – the 2 TB version US$1,449 but the price does fall with the capacity and a 256 GB version is only $349. The Link will be available in Q4 2016. Marlo Anderson rounds up the latest technology news at The Tech Ranch and Nick DiMeo is a video producer at F5 Live: Refreshing Technology. Become a GNC Insider today!

Keyboard players have had a wide range of options for creating all kinds of sounds for years, thanks to MIDI (musical digital instrument interface). MIDI takes input information from a control device, such as the keys of a keyboard, and translates it into audible sound, usually by triggering sounds in a sample bank. If you’ve ever played an electronic keyboard or synthesizer, then you’ve experienced MIDI in action. And while using a keyboard to play MIDI notes makes sense, it’s always been a challenge to transfer MIDI control to other instruments, such as guitar. Jamstik is working to change that. Chris Helle, Senior Music Product Specialist at Jamstik, stopped by the TPN booth to meet with Jamie and Nick. Chris showed off the latest version of Jamstik and demonstrated how it uses Bluetooth to wirelessly connect to an iPad. Jamstik can be used to control apps on iOS, Mac OS, and soon Android wirelessly. Jamstik uses infrared light to track a player’s movements on the fretboard, sending the data in near real time to the host device. This allows for fast responses, perfect for all kinds of musical performances. Jamstik is currently on the market for $299. Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly which can be found at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic, and health journalist. Nick DiMeo is an audio engineer and show host at F5 Live: Refreshing Technology.

Headphones may seem simple enough on the outside. But to discerning ears, a set of headphones’ ability to accurately reproduce sound is crucial to the enjoyment of the material. Sure, a cheap set of earbuds might be fun for consuming audio during a bus or train trip. But when you really want to feel the audio you’re listening to, you go to that trusty set of big headphones that sound great. Many companies have produced high-end headphones over the years and microphone manufacturer Blue is the latest to enter this space. John Maier from Blue stopped by the booth to talk with Jamie and Nick. John showed off the new Blue Lola headphones. Lola headphones are ergonomically designed to have a great feel. They use a custom 50mm driver to provide full audio performance. The headphones’ physical design was inspired by a Formula One racing car’s suspension so the ear cups stay level regardless of the size/shape of the wearer’s cranium. Blue’s Lola headphones are expected to retail for $249. Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly which can be found at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic, and health journalist. Nick DiMeo is an audio engineer and show host at F5 Live: Refreshing Technology.

Hand tremors can be a very disabling condition for sufferers as the tremors affect the ability to feed oneself and simply, food won’t stay on the fork or spoon. For the afflicted, this either ends up in unremitting frustration or a considerable reliance on others. Fortunately, products are coming to the market which dampen and stabilise the cutlery (flatware) allowing those suffering from hand tremors to feed themselves with dignity. Jamie and Nick find out more about the new utensils from Kang Ren of Gyenno. The Gyenno spoon is designed to work with a wide range of tremor conditions and the spoon uses built-in sensors and machine learning to control two independent motor systems for spoon stabilisation. In addition to keeping the spoon still, the sensors record data which can be passed to healthcare professionals to monitor the on-going condition. The spoon is available from Amazon and is currently priced at US$312. Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic and health journalist. Nick DiMeo is a video producer at F5 Live: Refreshing Technology. Become a GNC Insider today!

The internet can be a dangerous place if you aren’t careful. There are ads that contain malware, phishing websites, and other dangers. People who aren’t very tech-savvy might be unaware of the dangers or how to protect themselves, and their families, from them. CUJO provides a simple, yet sophisticated, smart firewall that can be easily used and understood by everyone. Jamie and Nick spoke with VP of Technology of CUJO Smart Internet Security, Robert Beatty, at CES 2016. He explained how CUJO works. It is a plug-and-play device that you plug into your router. There is no configuration required. CUJO will automatically take over from there. The CUJO team checks to make sure that your computer (and other devices) are not talking to things like virus command and controller centers or phishing websites. For SSL, they check to make sure that no “man in the middle” attacks are happening. They can also check to see if IoT devices are suddenly talking to a website other than their manufacturers. Once something has been identified as malicious, the team behind CUJO sends a signal to your CUJO device with a specific rule from that device in particular to whatever rogue server is communicating with it. Only that communication is stopped. Family members who are not tech-savvy can glance at the CUJO device and get a quick idea of how things are going. CUJO’s “eyes” appear to be smiling when everything is good. When CUJO’s “eyes” are round, it means that it is filtering something. CUJO is available for preorder via the CUJO website. The device is priced at $99.00. It comes with a subscription. The first three months are free. After the free trial is over, the subscription costs $8.99 a month. Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly which can be found at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic, and health journalist. Nick DiMeo is an audio enginner and show host at F5 Live: Refreshing Technology.