Information - Geek News Central

MWE Lab Emperor 1510 Compresses an Office into One Object

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 12:45 AM on February 8, 2012

MWE Lab has taken all of the elements of an office and compressed them down into one ergonomic object. MWE stands for Modern Work Environment and they spent about three years designing the Emperor 1510 to make it a place that, according to their spokesperson, a worker can spend 10-12 hours without feeling any fatigue. That’s a strong statement, so what do they have that makes this so special?

It starts with contoured chair that works like a futuristic recliner with buttons to control it’s angle and tilt. There is a tray around in front of the user and hold the keyboard and control buttons. There are three LCD screens arrayed in front of you that can also be angled to whatever the user’s preference is. Buttons on the arm of the chair also control the volume and pretty much everything else. There is even a drink holder for that finishing touch.

You can see a demo from MWE Lab rep Gianni in the video below. The Emperor 1510 is available now for U.S. $6,200. You can order directly from their web site, but they are hoping have U.S. distributors in place soon.

Interview by Jon Wurm of F5 Live.

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Tags: Emperor 1510, Ergonomics, MWE Lab, Workstation

Posted in ces, Information

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Cinefy Bring Cool Hollywood Special Effects to Your Home Movies

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 10:38 PM on February 4, 2012

Cinefy One of the things that make Hollywood movies fun are the great special effects. Soon with the help of Cinefy by Chairseven you will be able to add branded special effects to the home movies you make on your iPhone, iPad and Android device. Right now there are over 50 effects packages with 120 animations. Everything from robots to dinosaurs to fairies to war scenes, just to name a few. So now can you make that great robots take over the world movie you have always wanted to. Not only do you get some great effects, but you also get access to the Friendly Music catalog and over 500,000 copyright cleared songs. Friendly Music scores music for shows like Entourage.

Once the app is downloaded you can choose the effects packages you want to download. You can download them over 3G, but WiFi is recommended. All downloaded packages are available to you no matter where you are. The Friendly Music catalog is only available when you are connected to the Internet. You can add any music that is already on your device to a Cinefy Video. The app itself will be $2.99. The effect packs will vary in price and size, at the time of release they hope to have at least 30 effect packages for free with over 70 animations. Cinefy has been in development for over a year and Chairseven is looking to launch it on iOs in 4-6 weeks and on Android in 6-8 months. Chairseven is looking into a desktop version, but they want to have the mobile version up and going before starting on it. They are in the process of signing agreements with various media companies to have access to their special effects packages. At CES 2012 they signed an agreement with MTV to have access to Death Valley Zombies. Cinefy was also a Mobile App Showdown Finalist at CES 2012. I can’t wait until this app becomes available, I am looking forward to all the great YouTube videos that people make with these special effects.

Interview by Andy McCaskey and Courtney Wallin of SDRNews for the TechPodcast Network.

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Tags: Cinefy, home movies, special effects

Posted in Information, Special Media, video

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The High End of Sound with California Audio Technology

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 8:34 AM on February 3, 2012

California Audio Technology, known as CAT, work with third-party hardware vendors in the home theater field to produce some of the best sound quality available. They were recently at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas showing off their latest top-of-the-line 2 channel audio speakers. These aren’t speakers for the feint of heart. Each tower weighs in at 120 pounds.

CAT makes more than simple tower speakers though, they precision-make each speaker and can design them for almost any installation, including hidden in-wall speakers. Their custom-made speakers can be found anywhere from homes, to music studios, to mega yachts. All of that massive weight comes in handy to prevent any speaker vibration, which is a common issue in cheap speakers.

To really understand everything that goes into these speakers you will really need to watch the video below for an in-depth explanation of how they are milled and how they work. You can visit them at their web site. CAT speakers are on the market now, but if you have to ask the price….well, you know how that saying ends.

Interview by Nick DiMeo of F5 Live.

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Tags: audio, California Audio Technology, CAT, sound, speakers

Posted in audio, ces, Information, Special Media

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Burg Watch Phone

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 9:18 AM on February 1, 2012

Burg Watches One time there was a very popular comic strip in the 1930 of a detective known as Dick Tracy, one of the coolest gadgets that Dick Tracy had was a watch that was also a phone. Now over eighty years later the Dick Tracy watch has become a reality in the Burg line of watches.

The Burg Watches come in a sports and a children models. The basic Burg Watch will just make phone calls and do SMS messages. With the high end models you can make phone calls, send SMS messages, play music, take pictures and organize your data. It has 3.2 mb of memory and a USB connection. You can also record calls, and view images. The background can be changed to any photo you have on file on the watch. They do not connect to social networks, such as Twitter or Facebook at this time, but the company hopes the new models coming out in April will. You change from a regular watch to a phone by turning the dial. To access the menu on the higher end watches you simply push a button on the side of the watch. To get access to a specific section of a menu you simply tap on that section. These are stand alone phones and can be used with a Bluetooth headset.

I didn’t see any price I the Web site but there was one model available on Amazon for a little over $60.00. These would be great for a someone like a child who needs to have a phone with them, but is constantly losing theirs. The watches also have GPS in them so you can keep track of them easily.

Interviewed by Allante Sparks Host of F5 Live

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Tags: Burg, phones, watches

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Zipbuds

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 9:15 AM on February 1, 2012

Do your headphones get tangled up in your pocket or purse? Are you frustrated by having to spend time untangling them everytime you go to use them? Then you may want to take a look at Zipbuds. Zipbuds are headphones where the cords zips up like a zipper and so the two cords become one and doesn’t get tangled up. Zipbuds come in two styles in ear and over the ear. The over the ear style has two models a lower end model and a higher end one. The lower end model comes in five colors and the higher end model comes in three colors. The earbuds come in eight different colors. They are made of PET plastic and aluminium and are environmentally friendly. They are available thru the Zipbud Web site and Amazon starting at $20.00. They have gotten great reviews on Amazon as far as how they sound and work. So if you are in the market for headphones that don’t get all tangled up you may want to take a look at some Zipbuds.

Interview by Courtney Wallin of SDRNews for the TechPodcast Network.

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Tags: audio, headphones, zipbuds

Posted in audio, ces, Gadgets, Information, Special Media

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Prize Monkey

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 9:13 AM on February 1, 2012

We all like to get prizes, especially if we don’t have to do much. That is the concept behind Prize Monkey. Prize Monkey was being shown off at CES 2012, when Nick Dimeo, host of F5 Live stopped by to find out what it was all about.

Prize Monkey is a kiosk, but instead of working like a normal kiosk, it interacts with your phone. A monkey ask if you want to play, if you answer yes then it sends a message to your phone. Hit the right answer and the Prize Monkey kiosk produces a prize. There is no application to download or install. Each monkey acts a little differently and can be programmed for a specific demographic. It is being marketed toward social campaigns, promotional campaigns, loyalty programs, product sampling and more. Managers can build the campaign they want based on the demographic they are going for with the dynamic campaign tool provided. It has in-depth metrics and analytic tools built right in. Prize Monkey is an example of a product that is shown at CES that is being marketed toward businesses and not directly toward consumers.

I am curious to know if anyone has seen or used a Prize Monkey Kiosk? How well did it work, was it fun to use? If you are a business or social group who installed a Prize Monkey kiosk did it work for your business?

Interviewed by Nick Dimeo, Host of [F5 Live]((http://www.plughitzlive.com/radio/1-f5-live-refreshing-technology.html)

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Tags: marketing, Prize Monkey, prizes

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Pioneer Releases New Line of Car Stereos

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 8:56 AM on February 1, 2012

Pioneer is probably most famous for A/V receivers and car stereos. At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show they talked primarily about their new line of car audio devices. It consists of in-dash CD players, DVD players and even navigation systems. All are what Pioneer refers to as “connected devices”. There are even in-dash devices with capacitive touch-screens.

The new devices can replicate your phone’s interface, or reasonably so, allowing you to control the stereo from the touch interface in your dashboard. The stereo will use your mobile handset’s connection to access services like Pandora and others. In addition the new devices can use apps like those that help you find parking spaces or even navigate.

The new line of Pioneer in-dash stereos will also work with Android, in addition to the previous support for iOS. There’s a lot more to these stereos than just what I have touched on here, but you will have to watch the video below. You can also visit the Pioneer website.

Interview by Andy McCaskey of SDR News.

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Tags: audio, ces, pioneer

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I’m Watch SmartPhone

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 8:42 AM on January 31, 2012

I'm Watch I’m Watch is the worlds first smart phone on your wrist. It tethers to your smart phone by Bluetooth. Now almost everything you do on your smartphone you can do on your wrist. No need to mess around in your purse or briefcase looking for your phone when you get a call. Simply tap on your watch and start to talk. The I’m Watch is based on Android 1.6, it has 128 mb of ram and 4 GBs of memory.

With normal use it will last about 8 hours. You can fit three applications on the main screen and you get to choose which ones. To get to the other applications you simply swipe to go into the library. Right now the applications available for the watch include; phone, address book, notifications, weather forecast, i’music, i’mage, appointments, multitasking, i’moticons, i’m Tweet and news just to name a few. There is a headphone and microphone jack on the side and also built-in speakers. The SDK has been released to developers so anyone can create an application for the I’m Watch. If you are a developer and are interested you can go to their developer Web site. It has a 1.54 inch display with 240×240 pixel resolution.

The watch comes in ~~[three models starting at $49.00]~~ six models starting at $329.00. They are currently taking preorders and the watches should ship in about a month. They hope to have them in retail stores within the year. I’m Watch was an Innovation Winner at CES this year. It looks like a stylish watch and a cool concept, can’t wait to see how they work in the real world.

Interview by Courtney Wallin of SDRNews for the TechPodcast Network.

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Tags: I'm Watch, smart watch

Posted in ces, Gadgets, Gear, Information, Special Media

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Never Forget Your Charger Again with Perch

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 12:36 PM on January 29, 2012

Have you ever forgotten a charger at a hotel or coffee shop, my bet is you have at least once in your life. Buying new chargers can get expensive if you do it enough. There is not only the expense to you as an individual but also to the businesses who have to dispose of the chargers and to the environment. Most chargers will continue to draw power even if nothing is plugged into them, this is known as vampire power, which is an additional cost.

Perch has developed a product that will help solve this problem. It is called the Perch Alarm. The Perch alarm is simple to use, you simply plug the charger into the Perch Alarm and then both into the outlet. Connect your device and you are charging as normal. When you are ready to leave if you try to disconnect the device and leave the charger behind, you will hear a chirping sound reminding you to take the charger with you. There is a home mode so you can turn the alarm off. Perch was a semifinalist of the Last Gadget Standing Award at CES 2012. They hope to release the product within 60 days and will be $9.95 one-third the cost of a replacement charger which cost around $29.95.

I really like the concept behind this product, but I do see a couple of problems with it. One of the problems with this devices is it another thing for people to carry and people complain enough already about the stuff they have to carry with them. Another problem is its size, it is actually fairly large, hopefully they can get it down to a smaller size, so it doesn’t take as much room up. Despite these complaints, I think the Perch Alarm is a great idea.

Interview by Courtney Wallin of SDRNews for the TechPodcast Network.

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