Gadgets — Page 4

Satechi Ventie car vent mount for your smartphone

January 3, 2016 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

When you hear Ventie, the first thing that comes to mind is a mega cup of Starbucks coffee. But this Ventie has a slightly different spelling and has nothing to do with the caffeine fix; what it can do is make your smartphone hands-free by giving you the option to easily mount it to the air vent in your car.

The Ventie Mount by Satechi is a clever little accessory. It has a spring-loaded head designed to grip any smartphone that measures between two and three and one-half inches wide. It could also be rotated to accommodate a number of GPS models or even your smartphone if you prefer to orient it in landscape mode.

In fact, the grip head is mounted using a ball-and-socket joint and swivel arm system giving you some decent flexibility in positioning the mount to give you the optimal viewing angle from your driver’s seat. Read more…at Canoe Tech Blog.

Filed Under: accessories, Canoe Technology, GadgetGreg, Going Mobile, Hands On, New Product, Review · Tagged With: accessories, Gadgets, New product, product review, travel

Last minute family friendly holiday gadget gift ideas

December 23, 2015 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

EDMONTON, AB, Dec. 23, 2015/ Troy Media/ – Gadgets make great gifts and many seem to fit in the personal technology category. It’s nice to know that you can find some this holiday season that expand the personal to the entire family.

Family Printing

First up is the Epson Expression Premium XP-830. It’s a small versatile compact family five-cartridge inkjet all-in-one printer that also copies, scans, faxes, and more but won’t break the bank.

What’s cool is that it’s wireless, so no cables are required to print and you don’t even need to be hooked up to a computer. You can also print from a USB drive or SD-Card and, through Epson’s Connect software, you can print directly from your iPhone, iPad, and most other smartphones and tablets. Read full post at Troy Media.

Filed Under: accessories, GadgetGreg, New Product, sound, Troy Media · Tagged With: Gadgets, gift ideas, holidays

Review: Latest Kindle Paperwhite right for you?

December 22, 2015 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

As an avid iPad user, I never thought I’d ever have a need for an e-reader until I actually spent some time with one. I love books, all kinds of books, physical print books and e-books and when I need to read the latter, I always have an iPad or iPhone within arms reach. But after spending some time reviewing the newest Kindle Paperwhite, I realize it doesn’t have to be one or the other; this e-reader can certainly find a home alongside your favourite tablet.

For those familiar with the Kindle Paperwhite, the revamped 2015 model, replaces the original 2013 offering. Physically, the changes are hardly noticeable. The new incarnation still features a 6-inch greyscale display with e-ink, but it’s now 300 ppi (pixels per inch), up from 212 ppi with a resolution of 1430 x 1080, twice the number of pixels than before. They’ve also doubled the storage memory to 4GB. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Books, Canoe Technology, GadgetGreg, Hands On, Product review, Review · Tagged With: Books, e-books, e-readers, Gadgets, gift idea, Kindle, reading

Original elfLight takes hassle out of hanging Christmas lights

November 30, 2015 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

EDMONTON, Alta. Nov 29, 2015/ Troy Media/ – Originally, the Elf Light was either a beam of light from the sky reflecting off shiny ornaments or the glow of Rudolph’s red nose. But today, the Original elfLight – a gadget designed to make your annual holiday light hanging agony virtually non-existent – provides whole new meaning.

Rather than a string lights outside your house this Christmas, the Original elfLight laser-light projection system simulates a sea of coloured bulbs onto your home, patio or garage. Better yet, the system means the ladder never has to leave your garage this Christmas.

The Original elfLight’s sealed, sturdy metal alloy housing is designed to be both weatherproof and, to an extent, shockproof. You just have to prop it up by attaching it to the adjustable spike stand and sticking it into the ground or mounting it to a wall using the adjustable flat base stand (new for 2015) that comes with mounting screws. The elfLight is also suitable for use indoors.

It runs on standard AC power and comes with a corded transformer that connects to a long extension cord, giving you a good eight metres (25 ft.) of cable to work with. READ FULL POST at TROY MEDIA.

Filed Under: accessories, GadgetGreg, Product review, Troy Media · Tagged With: Gadgets, holiday, Review

Slate – World’s 1st portable nutritional smart scale

October 28, 2015 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

A Calgary company is weighing in on the health market by looking at bringing to market, through a crowd funding campaign, Slate Scale, the world’s first portable smart scale for nutrition tracking. Slate Scale is battery operated and designed to pair with your smart phone and when partnered with its companion app, becomes your personal dietitian.

The concept is simple. First you weigh your food (up to 1 kg) on the stainless steel scale. Then, you enter into the app what it is, or in some cases you may be able to use a barcode. The system then taps into a nutritional database, which determines the food’s macronutrients, and in turn it logs the item’s weight along with its calories, carbs, proteins and fat content. Read more…at Canoe Tech Blog

Filed Under: Canoe Technology, GadgetGreg, New Product · Tagged With: Canada, Gadgets, health, nutrition

Misfit Shine fitness tracker now easier to tap

October 18, 2015 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

The developers of the Misfit Shine have finally found a way to deliver 50% more sensitivity to the Shine without sacrificing its six-month battery life. This was achieved without a physical hardware upgrade, but rather by creating a more responsive tap detection algorithm.

Read more… at Canoe Tech Blog.

Filed Under: accessories, Canoe Technology, GadgetGreg, In the news · Tagged With: fitness, Gadgets, update

Less to carry around with Celluon Epic laser projection keyboard

September 25, 2015 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

Don’t mind a virtual keyboard but prefer not to have to tap on your screen? Sounds a little strange but it’s now totally possible to create a keyboard on virtually any flat opaque surface with the Celluon Epic Laser Keyboard.

You enable the virtual keyboard by placing a palm-sized (20 mm x 35 mm x 70 mm) gadget on a flat surface, like a table or a countertop. Then, you pair it wirelessly to almost any Bluetooth 3.0 compatible device and using a red laser diode it projects a full-sized English QWERTY keyboard pattern (sans numeric pad) onto the surface. (It can also project a German QWERTZ keyboard pattern as well)

And it’s fast. According to the specs, it’s capable of recognizing 350 characters per minute. That’s a lot faster than I can type – seriously! Read more…at Canoe Tech Blog.

Filed Under: accessories, Canoe Technology, GadgetGreg, Signs of the Times · Tagged With: Gadgets, keyboard, projection

Fathers Day gifts for gadget-loving Dads

June 17, 2015 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

It’s that time again finding the right gift for dear old Dad. If you’re looking for some funky socks, you won’t find them here unless they’re water-cooled or have embedded sensors, in which case I really should “get me a pair”. But fear not, there are certainly some really cool gadgets for Dad most of which I’m sure he’d be happy to share with the family.

Galileo Motorized Robotic Platform

If Dad loves to take pictures and capture video then Galileo by Motrr might be just the accessory he’s looking for. I wouldn’t call it a droid, but a closer description might be an app controlled motorized robotic platform. Galileo will allow Dad to not only prop up his iPhone or iPod touch or even GoPro but also help him zoom, pan, tilt and rotate up to 360 degrees remotely. This can be from either a nearby Bluetooth enabled handheld device or from the other side of the world through the Internet. You can also program Galileo with pre-programmed movements; face tracking and one touch panoramas. Imagine the incredible shots and virtual tours Dad could make. He could also use it for cool Google Hangouts or even a remote security camera. READ Full Post at CanoeTech Blog.

Filed Under: accessories, Audio, Canoe Technology, GadgetGreg, New Product · Tagged With: accessories, father's Day, Gadgets, gift ideas, new products

Backyard summer travel tech six pack – CKUA MUSE w/ Tony King

May 28, 2015 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

I had another cool opportunity to be a guest on CKUA Radio MUSE a new radio program hosted by Tony King. On this episode, I spoke with Tony about three cool gadgets and three apps (plus one bonus app), that can help you take a travel right from your backyard pool. Original air date: May 24, 2015. (06:37)

Filed Under: Apps Alive, Audio, Media Appearance, Radio, travel · Tagged With: CKUA, Gadgets, travel

Last minute gift ideas: Mothers love gadgets too

May 8, 2015 by Greg Gazin · Leave a Comment

It can sometimes be an interesting exercise picking out gifts for Mom for Mother’s Day, but time has proven that Moms love gadgets too, so you can never really go wrong taking this route. Of course, the challenge is finding her just the right one. So here are just a few ideas to ponder on – but not for too long as the big day is right around the corner.