Geek News Central Special Media Feed

New parents have a lot of stress. It can be difficult to know if you are doing the best thing for your baby. How much should you feed your baby? Are you overfeeding? Has your baby’s caregiver fed him or her while you are working? BlueSmart can provide the answer to these questions with a product that is easy for everyone to use. BlueSmart Mia helps make you a better parent. Marissa spoke with Gisela from BlueSmart Media at CES 2018. They talked about the adorable Mia product. It is a sleeve that can fit over any bottle. The sleeve is made of the same texture and material that is used for pacifiers. The technology for Mia is hidden in a cradle underneath the sleeve. Both parts are washable. Mia connects to a phone app through Wi-Fi. It keeps track of when the baby was fed and how many ounces the baby drank. Use the app to keep track of your baby’s milestones, height, weight, diaper changes, and much more. Share the information in the app with caregivers, family members, and your pediatrician. Mia is on the market now and is priced at $149. Marissa Schiereck is a contributor to F5 Live: Refreshing Technology.

Digital assistants make our lives a little bit easier. They can conveniently save you some time. One problem with digital assistants is that your environment isn’t always ideal for accessing them. PH Technical Labs solves this problem with Jinni. It makes Alexa always available. Marissa spoke with Rebecca and Ram from PH Technical Labs at CES 2018. They talked about the multitude of things that the Jinni can do. Jinni is an ultra-portable device that you can use to connect with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri from wherever you are. Push a button on the device to interact with Alexa. Press another button to access Google. It is also possible to press a button on Jinni to connect it with your smartphone or the IoT of your home. You can clip Jinni onto your shirt, or attach it to a keychain. If you have a car mount, you can mount Jinni in your car. Jinni is waterproof, so you can stick it in your shower and listen to music or find out how long your drive time will be. Jinni is the smallest Alexa device that is currently on the market. PH Technical Labs is looking at an April time frame to launch Jinni. Marissa Schiereck is a contributor to F5 Live: Refreshing Technology.

Stainless steel insulated water bottles are commonplace today and have largely taken over from the glass vacuum flasks – the latter are just too delicate, especially for camping and hillwalking. And while the steel bottles are good are keeping stuff warm, the liquid has to be hot in the first place….or does it? Cauldryn Fyre bottles have a built-in heating element which not only keeps liquids warm, it can actually boil water. Colten and Joe have a quick Americano. The Cauldryn Fyre water bottles feature a modular design, offering a 16-ounce, stainless steel, vacuum insulated bottle with the revolutionary Fyre heating element. The standard Cauldryn Fire is powered from AC but the Fyre Mobile features a rechargeable battery to heat the liquid and keep it hot all day. The mobile base has a couple of USB charging sockets too. There’s a DC base available for heating from 12V / 24V. The Cauldryn Fire system is modular. Want a smoothie? There’s a blender attachment. Need a light? Snap in the rechargeable battery. It’s even got integration with Ok Google. Seriously, I want one of these. The Cauldryn Fire is shipping now. The standard Fyre is US$69.99, Fyre Mobile is $129.99 and additional battery units are $69.99. DC base $9.99. Colten Clymer is one of the team at GeekNewsCentral.com. Become a GNC Insider today!  

Fibaro are one of the bigger names in smart homes with a wide range of products from simple light switches to complex controllers. Originally based around Z-wave, their accessories now work with Apple HomeKit, and integrate with other systems like Philips Hue. Allante and Rich take a quick spin through some of Fibaro’s new products. First up is a smart power plug with a USB charging port and a coloured LED which changes colour according to the amount of power being drawn through the socket. Although the colour-changing is fun, the measured power can be used within a smart home to initiate other actions or send a warning. Should the iron have been on for a hour? Next is the big The Button which is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a big red button, though it does come in seven different colour. Press it and stuff happens. What happens is configurable by the user – turn on the lights, sound an alarm, play music. All the products are on sale now, priced between US$49 and $59. Allante Sparks is a video producer at PLuGHiTz Live Special Events. Become a GNC Insider today!

We all know what it feels like to go to work after a night where you had poor quality sleep. REM-Fit has created the perfect pillow for everyone that can help you improve your sleep. The ZEEQ smart pillow can stream music, analyze your sleep, and even stop snoring. Marissa spoke with Miguel from REM-Fit at CES 2018. He explained all the wonderful things that the ZEEQ smart pillow can do. It was created to help people fall asleep. ZEEQ has speakers inside it so you can listen to music right through the pillow. Choose from music created by REM-Fit, or pick something else that you find soothing. After you fall asleep, ZEEQ starts analyzing your sleep and will give you a score on the quality of your sleep. REM-Fit sends your sleep data to HealthKit and Google Fit, making it easy for you to access what ZEEQ found whether you use iOS or Android. Do you snore? Your sleep partner might be bothered by your loud snoring. ZEEQ can solve that problem for you. There is a microphone in the ZEEQ Smart Pillow that is tuned to listen to the specific Hz range of snoring. When it hears snoring, it will make the pillow vibrate. This is done to encourage you to change position, and stop snoring, so both you and your sleep partner can get good quality sleep. You can purchase the ZEEQ Smart Pillow from the REM-Fit website. It is priced at $149.99. Marissa Schiereck is a contributor to F5 Live: Refreshing Technology.

It’s always been easy to find text and even video-based information on the web. But for some reason, using search engines to find audio-based content is not as efficient. Countless outlets are posting podcasts and/or providing internet radio to millions of potential listeners every day. But the only way to find anything amongst all that media is to pull up your favorite podcast or streaming-radio app and hope you’re lucky enough to find something you really want to hear. Assaf from Audioburst stopped by the booth to speak with Marissa. He talked about how Audioburst is working to create a searchable index of audio content. Audioburst’s index can then be used by third-party platforms such as connected radios or speech-activated assistants to provide playlists that are based on users’ interests. Audioburst identifies the audio sources that users like, which makes it easier for the platform to automatically provide similar content of interest. Audioburst is primarily a business-to-business service. The company is working to be included in as many platforms as possible. Marissa Schiereck is a contributor to F5 Live: Refreshing Technology.

Panoramic cameras are interesting because they can record in ways that other cameras cannot. The Pilot Era is a professional level panoramic camera from Pisoftware. They estimate it will be priced at approximately $3,000 after it becomes available. Don spoke with Adler, and with William, from Pisoftware. They discussed the Pilot Era panoramic camera. The device they brought to CES 2018 was a prototype. Those who are interested can request a trial of Pilot Era. There is potential you will be selected to test the Pilot Era panoramic camera. The Pilot Era can provide 8K panoramic video and image, at a quality that works quite well with VR goggles. It is an all-in-one machine. You don’t need a PC to do the post-staging of your video. Instead, you can interact directly with the camera through the screen. Your video finishes inside the camera. There are four cameras on the device, one on each side. They are slightly tilted up so they can see what is above them. The lenses stay in focus. The Pilot Era does real time live streaming with 4K or 6K stitching. Don Baine is the Gadget Professor and gives lectures at TheGadgetProfessor.com

When it comes to PC computers, there are basically two styles to choose from: a plastic box, or a flashy case with LED lights for gamers. What if neither of those two options fits your personal style? Monkey Bidouille has an aesthetically pleasing solution for you. Don spoke with Antoine from Monkey Bidouille at CES 2018. The company is made of just two people. They have created a PC case that is made of wood and aluminum. It uses noble materials, and is handmade in France. Their PC case is designed to sit horizontally. You can put whatever components you want to inside the case. Monkey Bidouille brought a prototype of their PC case to CES 2018. They launched a Kickstarter shortly before CES 2018, with a limit of 50 units. Their plan is to eventually make it possible for people to customize the design of the PC case when they place their order on the website. The wood can be screen printed, in a similar way to how the designs are placed on skateboards. Don Baine is the Gadget Professor and gives lectures at TheGadgetProfessor.com

Our shoes protect our feet from the environment. E-Vone has created a smart shoe that can provide a different kind of protection. These shoes send an alert when the wearer has fallen down and enables a rescue team to find that person. Don spoke with Anne from E-Vone. They have created a smart shoe with technology that can detect when the wearer has fallen. The shoe instantly sends an alarm through the secure cloud to a rescue team. After that, the smart shoe vibrates to let the wearer know that a rescue team is coming to help them. The shoe was designed for more than one population. There is a version designed for workers who work in isolated situations. This shoe is durable and has a steel toe. Another version of the shoe was designed for older people who want to stay in their own homes instead of in an assisted living situation. E-Vone makes comfortable smart shoes in styles for women and styles for men. To make this work, E-Vone is selling a service. It requires a service fee (of 30 Euros a month). The person pays for the service and leases the shoes. They receive a new pair of smart shoes each year. E-Vone will start selling this service in France and Europe in September of 2018. They intend to release the service in the United States and Japan in two years. Don Baine is the Gadget Professor and gives lectures at TheGadgetProfessor.com

Mobile gaming is fun, but there are limitations. While some video games are specifically designed to be played on a smartphone or tablet, most are not. This leaves gamers with the frustrating problem of trying to play a game that doesn’t function very well with touchscreens. Gamevice solves this problem by turning your smartphone into a console device. Todd spoke with Rob from Gamevice at CES 2018. Gamevice is the name of the both the company and the product. Gamevice is a controller that hooks onto the lightning port on your smartphone. It gives immediate feedback on any game you are playing. It turns games that are really poor on a touchscreen into games that actually have a chance to be played on a mobile device. Gamevice lets you easily play Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto, MOBA’s like Lineage, Street Fighter, and more video games on a mobile device. They have about 1,000 games in their catalog. Gamevice can be tightened up in the back. It fits anything for a iPhone 6 to an iPhone X, is compatible with Android phones, and can be used on iPads and iPad minis. You can purchase Gamevice for $79.99 at Apple, Costco, or Best Buy. Todd Cochrane is the host of the twice-weekly Geek News Central Podcast at GeekNewsCentral.com. Become a GNC Insider today!

Geiger counters are great for detecting and measuring ionising radiation but their biggest flaw is that they can’t discriminate between the different types of radiation; alpha, beta or gamma. Icohup‘s Rium detector addresses this with a compact and stylishly wooden unit. Allante and Billy discuss the benefits of radiation detectors without mentioning a single nuclear disaster. Winner of a CES Innovation award, Icohup’s Rium uses scintillation spectrometry technology to not only detect levels of ionising radiation but also the type. This means that the Rium can determine if the radioactivity is natural or industrial, or if it’s a Cobalt, Uranium or Cesium source. The Rium unit is about the size of a packet of biscuits and is tastefully made of wood. Not sure if there’s a scientific reason for this, though it looks good anyway, and the small size means that it can be carried by a drone to record radioactivity in potentially hazardous areas. Data is collected and displayed by a nearby smartphone and with geotagging of the radiation information, maps can be built easily to show radiation hotspots. The data can be transferred either by Bluetooth or by USB. The Rium will be available shortly from Icohup for €399 (about US$500). Allante Sparks is a video producer at PLuGHiTz Live Special Events. Become a GNC Insider today!

The popularity of craft beer has ensured a steady stream of smart gadgetry that helps ferment and brew the perfect pint. Here we have the HOPii personal microbrewery which successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter in the autumn raising US$380,000. Allante drinks it in with Jong, CEO of HOPii. The HOPii advertises itself as a one touch brewery – put the ingredient pods into HOPii device and press START. HOPii does the rest and brews the craft beer for you at its perfection. The HOPii beer pack contains all the ingredients needed – a three-litre bottle of wort, some dry hops and other flavors plus a pack of yeast. The pre-prepared wort gives the HOPii a bit of a headstart, as it were, and the smart features of the HOPii control the internal environment to develop the best beer. If you want to do your own thing, HOPii has a special “Brewer’s Mode” so you can ferment your own personal craft beer with your specific ingredients. You can put in your own custom recipe into HOPii and ferment your own wort, dry hop, flavours and once ready, set it to the beer’s best drinking temperature or your personal preference. Although the Kickstarter has finished, it’s now “InDemand” over at Indiegogo for US$399 and delivery in June 2018. Cheers! Allante Sparks is a video producer at PLuGHiTz Live Special Events. Become a GNC Insider today!

Often there can be no outward signs of mental health illness but some people exhibit unhealthy behaviours such as hair pulling, skin picking and nail biting. The team at HabitAware are helping address these physical symptoms of mental health issues with a wearable device that picks up on these cues. Allante tries it out with Aneela. The HabitAware Keen is a wrist-worn wearable that’s very similar in style to a fitness tracker. The Keen uses gesture-detection technology to recognise when the wearer is engaging in behaviours associated with poor mental health. For most people, biting their nails is just a bad habit, but for many with mental health issues, it’s a symptom of something much more serious. The way Keen works is by initially training the device to recognise problem behaviours. Using a smartphone app (iOS and Android), the wearer replicates his or her behaviours for a short period. So if it’s hair-pulling, this is simulated for around 15 to 20 seconds. Once Keen has been trained, it vibrates when the behaviour is detected and alerts the wearer to their subconscious habit. The wearer can make the decision to stop and overtime, retrains the brain away from negative behaviours. The Keen bracelet is available now from HabitAware priced from US$149. Allante Sparks is a video producer at PLuGHiTz Live Special Events. Become a GNC Insider today!

Being “in the zone” reflects that total mental focus and clarity that comes to people concentrating hard. For athletes and professionals, it can take years of practice and hard work. For us mere mortals, BrainCo offers a way to learn how to focus. How? Professor Don gets all brainy with Max. The idea behind BrainCo is to use their Focus One headband with gamification to improve mental concentration. The BrainCo band reads small electrical impulses in the wearer’s brain and picks up on changes in the frequency and amplitude of the impulses (EEG). As everyone’s brains are different the band establishes a personal baseline and works on changes from that baseline to understand when the person is relaxed, focussed or distracted. While wearing the Focus One headband, the owner plays a smartphone game which takes information from the headband and responds as the wearer mentally focusses. Simply, the person has to focus to do well in the game. Overtime, the person learns how to focus their mind. The BrainCo Focus One reinforces good mental behaviour and this can be especially useful for children who have learning difficulties such as ADHD, but it also has application in ensuring that teachers are engaging with their students. The FocusOne isn’t yet available to buy but if you are interested, you can register on the BrianCo website for an early bird discount. Don Baine is the Gadget Professor and gives lectures at TheGadgetProfessor.com. Become a GNC Insider today!

OWC is one of the stalwarts of the Mac world, bringing enhancements and accessories to Apple devices year after year. Let’s be honest, this is the team that gives you back the ports that Apple takes away. This time round, OWC is expanding its range of Thunderbolt 3 products. Don finds out what’s new with AJ from OWC. Incredibly, OWC is celebrating its 30th anniversary: the company started when Apple launched the iMac – remember the ones with the fruitcoloured cases? Today, OWC offer products for both Windows and Mac, and in particular, there’s a new Thunderbolt 3 dock out with support for both OSes. The new dock “offers 12 ports including dual Thunderbolt 3, five USB 3.1, Gigabit Ethernet, S/PDIF, combo audio, Mini DisplayPort, SD Card Slot, and supports laptop charging”. Sadly, there’s no Firewire but if you need that, check out the older version. Available in Q1 2018, it’s priced at either US$279 or US$299. Video says one, press release says the other. Also of interest to speed freaks is the ThunderBlade v4, which is the fastest external drive on the market today, shifting an astonishing 2800 MB/s read and 2450 MB/s write. It’s pricey with MSRP from US$1,199 (1 TB) to US$4,999 (8TB), but you get what you pay for and I’m sure it’ll be in demand from video producers. Again, there’s a difference in price between video and press release. Don Baine is the Gadget Professor and gives lectures at TheGadgetProfessor.com. Become a GNC Insider today!