Monthly Archives: January 2014

Tapping to Music

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Next up at CES and in your smart house: blast your music with a simple tap. It’s an elegant little dial on the wall, kind of like the Nest thermostat we reviewed a while back. It’s linked with almost anything you want it to be, such as your Spotify and Apple accounts, and they call it the Bang & Olufsen BeoSound Essence.

You might be thinking “All that is great, but what’s the big deal?” Well, the big deal is this little circle doodad links via low-energy RF to the central control box which in turn links to your music source using a wi-fi connection. The whole setup is attached to speakers via proprietary Bang & Olufsen RJ-45 jacks (limiting you to only Bang & Olufsen speakers, but if you’re already dropping the $995 for the Essence, you’ll probably have the liquid assets to back that up).

The Essence uses your phone as a source, but the objective is to have you pull out your phone less and less, turning on the music the same way you’d turn on a light.

What Sparks Our Fire: Another smart elegant, kind of prohibitively expensive product from CES, but it’s a sign of where technology is headed.

Do you think listening to music needs this kind of upgrade?

Optikal Illusion

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Live from CES, another innovative product that may or may not be a little invasive. Eyewear startup Innovega unveiled its prototype offering, a combination of headset and contact lenses they call iOptik.

The set comes in two parts, the contacts and the glasses working in tandem. The contacts allow increased focusing ability, basically allowing the user to access an area of ocular perception far outside the normal human ability. The lens lets you focus on the minutia of your fingertips held right up to your eye, when normal vision couldn’t focus on something so small. Add to this the glasses, which display data, and you have Google Glass-Super eyes.

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The two-tier solution is what makes the iOptik unique. Google Glass and other products like it look more like goggles or headsets than actual glasses. By separating the components, the glasses look more like actual glasses and are purported to be much more unobtrusive. As well, for the myopic among us, the contacts can be fitted with a prescription.

What Sparks Our Fire: In our continuing coverage of CES and “The Internet of Things”, iOptik seems like the next logical step in wearable technologies.

Do you think this product or something like it will eventually replace smartphones?

It Sees You When You’re Sleeping.

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CES and Sleep Number may have just given you a very expensive reason to ditch the 17-year-old box spring you are currently sleeping on.

Their offering is called the x12 and it is a voice-activated bed that monitors sleep and sleeping habits. Simple commands adjust all manner of features, including firmness, height and massage-giving. Sure, it’ll set you back about eight grand, but when was the last time your mattress gave you a decent shiatsu?

The buzzword early this year is integration, as the “internet of things” is extended to your sleeping arrangements. Other technologies are similar to the x12, but most beds don’t have an Android-supported web browser that pretty much gamifies your nightly eight. So, yeah, you may end up competing with yourself on how good your sleep last night was compared to other nights, but we don’t judge. You’re the one who can afford the $7,999 price tag.

What Sparks Our Fire: The integration of life-improving technology into our daily lives. Or, again, Skynet.

Would you want a smart bed?

Finger Lock

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Bio-recognition is the lock of the future. Computers, phones and other electronic devices are able to be unlocked or de-passwordified with the use of your fingerprint. And now, with the iFingerlock High Security padlock, you can secure your non-digital materials and never lose the key again…at least not easily. The lock has the ability to store up to 10 different prints, so you and your friends can share the same gym locker without losing the key.

What Sparks Our Fire: The digital home is making huge strides and this is another step down that road.

Would you trust your valuables to your fingerprint?

Snap Yourself Out of a Problem

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If you’ve been paying attention, you know that recently a great deal of the private information kept by the social media app Snapchat was compromised by hackers and posted on the internet. If you use this app and are worried that your information has been stolen, there is a tool you can use to check if that is the case.

Two developers, Will Smidlein and Robbie Trencheny, built a tool called GS Lookup – Snapchat on Wednesday to “help the public quickly understand if they were affected so that they could take the appropriate actions,” according to Smidlein. “My biggest fear with leaks like this are that malicious [tech-savvy] people have access to the SQL file, but a ‘normal’ consumer doesn’t necessarily understand what that means.”

To use the tool, follow the link and type your screen name into the text box, and you will receive information based on whether or not your information was leaked. It’s a very easy process.

The developers added they were not responsible for the leak, merely using the information that has already been released.

What Sparks Our Fire: Making the process of checking for data leaks.

Were you one of the unlucky ones?