Imagine waking up, reaching for the tablet on your nightstand, and turning on your coffee maker from bed. You catch a few more winks before it alerts you that your hot java's ready. If Qualcomm's concept Wi-Fi coffee maker ever goes into production, your mornings may never be quite the same.
The coffee maker, however, is just one of many odd and unusual gadgets on display at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.… Read more
If you've been hesitant about using an online storage service because of the privacy risk or cost, you might be interested in what Pro Softnet has to offer via its IDriveSync service.
The online storage provider unveiled today a Private Key Encryption option for those signing up for a new IDriveSync account.… Read more
Making an understated appearance at Qualcomm's stand at Mobile World Congress, the machine is a standard coffeemaker that the processor company has hooked up to one of its Atheros 4100 chips.
To control it, Qualcomm's put several of its own platforms to work. Using Vuforia augmented reality tech, you wave your tablet's camera in front of the coffee machine until it's recognized, at which point you'… Read more
One feature on the beleaguered Boeing 787 Dreamliner is its electrochromic dimming system that lets passengers make windows on the aircraft more or less opaque at the touch of a button.
Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) says that while these smart windows can take about 30 seconds to change, it has a new stick-on window film that can go from reflective to see-through in only 5 seconds.
The switchable mirror device can change states when a low voltage is applied. … Read more
I have lived my life blissfully unscathed by boy band phenomenon One Direction. Until now. Arm & Hammer has released two new Tooth Tunes musical toothbrushes featuring two-minute clips of the chart-topping songs "What Makes You Beautiful" and "One Thing."
The $9.99 toothbrush runs on AAA batteries. The "Music in Your Mouth" technology is described as working by streaming sound vibrations through the brush's bristles into the teeth, making it one of the more bizarre applications of bone-conduction music delivery.… Read more
Being the person in charge of the Networking category, I've received many e-mails asking what my current personal router is, and how often I change it.
Even though I've worked with many routers -- in fact, I have reviewed most of the existing Wi-Fi routers on the U.S. market -- I don't change my home router very often. This is mostly because programing a router can be a tedious task, and I use a lot of different applications and services with many clients, all of which require different settings in the router's firmware.
That said, since the Wireless-N (802.11n) standard was introduced in 2007, I've used just about five Wi-Fi routers. Most of them them have served me very well over the years and I still have them all, except for one that was broken during a move.
The following is the list of those routers and how they've worked out for me.… Read more
Some folks are naturally neat-freak morning people. They wake up on time, feeling perky, bounce into the bathroom, and scrub their teeth first thing in the morning. Others need a little extra encouragement. That's where the Wayki alarm clock/toothbrush hopes to come in.
David Hawkins was having trouble dragging himself out of bed in the mornings. He decided he needed a two-part push. Half of the Wayki sits next to the bed, behaving like a regular alarm clock. When it goes off, the only way to silence it is to get up, take it into the bathroom, plug in the toothbrush portion, and trigger a 2-minute brushing timer. Before you know what hit you, you're up and scrubbing your teeth.… Read more
Thanks to smartphones, tablets, and Windows 8, touching and swiping are commonplace ways to interact with TVs, computers, and mobile devices. But what if you want to do the same without touching the screen at all?
That's exactly the experience EyeSight Technologies, an Israel-based company that focuses on digital interaction, announced today that it's found a way to provide with its new fingertip tracking technology. The company calls this the "world's first commercial gesture technology to allow users to control digital devices with a fingertip" -- remotely, that is.… Read more
British tech firm Dyson is best known for its high-end vacuum cleaners, bladeless fans, and Airblade hand dryers, that last having become a staple of airport, restaurant, and hotel bathrooms. That's not enough for Sir James Dyson and pals, however, who have introduced a brand-new invention: a bathroom tap that dries your hands.
At first glance, the Airblade Tap looks like a regular faucet that's collided with a set of handlebars. A central stainless-steel cylinder dispenses water when you wave your hands under it, then you move your paws under the two side bars, which blast the water … Read more
My handwriting these days is atrocious thanks to all the hours I spend with a keyboard instead of pen and paper. I look at my grocery list when I'm out shopping and think, "Huh? What did I write there?" Perhaps I should invest in a Lernstift pen when it hits the market.
In case you couldn't tell by the name, the Lernstift is the creation of a German entrepreneur. Falk Wolsky's young son was learning how to write and making mistakes in the process. His wife Mandy suggested the idea of a pen that warns when you make a mistake. And so an invention was born.
The Lernstift will follow along as you write and vibrate when it detects spelling or grammatical errors. In calligraphy mode, it will vibrate if a letter is written wrong or illegibly. That's the mode I need to make my grocery lists readable.… Read more
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CNET's Galaxy S4 giveaway spectacular!
CNET's publishing another supercharged e-book. "Mastering the Galaxy S4" is almost here, so we're celebrating with a huge S4-related giveaway.
