Take a Leap in May with motion control Video

Take a Leap in May with motion control Video Transcript

It's time to control your computer like a Jedi. I'm Bridget Carey and this is your CNET Update. In just a few months, you'll have the opportunity to control your computer just by waving your hand. I'm talking about a motion sensor called the Leap which sits below your computer monitor and senses your hand and finger movements so you can interact with the computer without using a mouse, a touchscreen or stylus. The Leap will work with programs in a special Leap app store. The Leap will be sold online and at Best Buy stores in May for $80 and pre-orders are being taken now. And there are other ways to control a computer with a wave of a hand at the Mobile World Congress Trade Show in Barcelona. STMicroElectronics is showing off technology that can sensor movements near a touchscreen. There's nothing special about the touchscreen itself, rather it's all in the chip that manages that screen. In monitors, the electric field that the screen gives off and when an object gets within 2 inches of the field, it registers. It has a touch. This tech is not available right now but the chip-maker is trying to sell this technology to manufacturers. Here's another new feature coming in May. Samsung smartphones will have an app called Wallet and it's pretty much the same thing as Apple Passbook App. Wallet will let users store barcodes for event tickets, boarding passes, membership cards and coupons all in one place. And like Passbook, the Wallet will send push notifications to alert you when you're near a place that can use one of your coupons or a ticket. Samsung Wallet will not be supporting NFC Technology, so there won't be integration when it tapped to pay at least for now. If your Facebook friends post good news such as getting a new job, you'll start to see button near the post that nudges you to give them a gift. Facebook says, this is a test of a new gift-giving feature and it looks for particular keywords in your friend's post. Facebook recently acquired the gift-giving app Karma which did the same thing. It monitored your friend's Facebook feeds for good and bad news and if Facebook follows all of Karma's feature, you might even see the option to give a gift to cheer someone up on a bad day. Calling all creative types, Sony need some help naming its Pink Balls and it's holding a contest for people to come up with names for this Bluetooth speaker. There was also a black and a white version of the ball which cost $70 and comes out March 5th. The finalist with the best names gets free balls. And that's your tech news update. For more details on Sony's contest and the other stories mentioned in this video, head to the blog cnet.com/update. From our studios in New York, I'm Bridget Carey.