"Gadget" Greg Gazin Demystifies Tech & Life in a useful, fun & practical way!
Every Mother is unique and sometimes finding the right gadget or gift can often be a challenge. So here’s a small selection of last minute Mother’s Day gift ideas from HP, Epson, nonda, CTA Digital and Stojo that might just put a huge smile on her face on her special day.
Read about all the gadget gift ideas for Mom at Canoe Tech Blog.
Have you ever had an opportunity to do a pitch or presentation at a business but it took longer to get all set up than to do the presentation? Maybe it was the wrong cable, the Wi-Fi too slow or locked down or your laptop wouldn’t boot up and oh well, so much for first impressions. Enter WeKast, a pocket-sized plug and “cast” solution. It’s designed to eliminate all the fuss and complexities and help you get to what you need to do – make that presentation. You don’t even need a computer; you can present wirelessly, right from your smartphone or tablet.
Plug and Cast
How WeKast works is really slick. It has a female VGA connector on one end and a female HDMI connector on the other. (HDMI M/M extender included in case you need it). You simply plug one end into your projector or TV and WeKast then acts a mini Wi-Fi router that wirelessly connects to a compatible iOS or Android. Using the WeKast companion, grab a presentation that you can easily pull from your DropBox or Google Drive and it’s quickly pre-loaded onto the WeKast device. The app then allows you to run your slides automatically or manually control with a swipe. There’s even a place to tap to see your slide notes. Read full Post at Canoe Tech Blog.
I certainly enjoy having a pint of draft now and again especially when it’s hot and sunny outside. But I’m sure you’ll agree that depending where and when and what kind of beer is on tap the brew experience can sometimes be hit and miss. And that’s not a good thing, so Heineken is introducing a beer they claim is as fresh as the day it left the brewery in Amsterdam. No, it’s not a new beer, but rather a new revolutionary draft dispensing technology called BrewLock that’s allowing them to make those claims.
“Canadians can experience Heineken just like in Amsterdam, without having to go to Amsterdam,” said Laurens Raven, Global Draught Master at Heineken. “This is a new chapter in a long history of innovations driven by Heineken and it will set the bar for how draught beer should taste. BrewLock provides a brewery fresh taste, the way the brewmaster intended it to be.” Read more…at Canoe Tech Blog.
The Dyson Supersonic was just unveiled in Tokyo and with no doubt; the name immediately stirs up imagery of an ultra high-speed vacuum or fan. And while I’m sure some of their existing technology is in this new product, James Dyson and his crack team of 100+ engineers and 30 in-house motor specialists have come up with what they think is the ultimate fast, focused and intelligent hair dryer and the answer to all hair drying problems.
“Hair dryers can be heavy, inefficient and make a racket. By looking at them further we realized that they could also cause extreme heat damage to hair. I challenged Dyson engineers to really understand the science of hair and develop our version of a hair dryer, which we think solves these problems,” says inventor and company founder James Dyson.
Read more…at Canoe Tech Blog.
If you think 3D printers are cool, then how about a pen that allows you to draws objects in 3D that’s truly cool? It’s called CreoPop from a Singapore-based company of the same name originally funded through Indiegogo. The pen uses specially designed ink made from photopolymers that flows freely from the pen and solidifies when exposed to LED diodes.
Cool in More Ways
Now when I say cool, I mean it in multiple senses of the word. Yes, it is cool – very funky; imagine you can draw almost in thin air. It’s also cool because of the types of inks it uses (more later) and again cool, since the ink that flows from the pen is more or less cool to the touch. Read more…at CanoeTech Blog.
Apple announced today an update to the 12-inch MacBook. Apple’s silent and sleek unique unibody golden child that hovers in size between the two MacBook Air models has been upgraded with new processors, better battery life and one new colour addition.
Under the hood of the MacBook will now be 6th generation dual-core Intel Core “m” processors up to 1.3 GHz, with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.1 GHz, peppier 1866 MHz memory and faster flash storage. It will also include the latest Intel HD Graphics 515 processor offering up to 25 percent faster graphics performance. Designed to be your all-day Mac, battery life is also up, now claiming up to 10 hours of wireless web browsing and up to 11 hours of iTunes movie playback. Read more at CanoeTech Blog.
Who doesn’t like to play air guitar? If you do, then you may be interested in AirJamz a new wearable by Zivix, the creators of jamstik+ that takes those moves you got so good at and turn them into music.
AirJamz is being brought to life through the company’s latest Kickstarter campaign. It’s app-enhanced, Bluetooth enabled and sits on your wrist like a watch or an activity tracker like a FitBit and connects wirelessly to an iOS or Android device. Read More at CanoeTech Blog.
Protecting your data from prying eyes is more important than ever before. Still, we often forget to lock our computers when we walk away or purposely don’t bother because it’s too much of a pain to retype in a password every time you move to and fro. For this, Untethered Labs created Gatekeeper, a key fob sized wireless “lock and key” for your computer that automatically locks your computer when you walk away from it and unlocks it when you return.
It’s a pocket Bluetooth 4.0 enabled system that consists of a small rectangular coin-cell battery-operated key fob, a USB dongle and a companion app. The company’s latest model, Gatekeeper 2.0, which we’re reviewing here today, is updated and redesigned; At 45 mm x 25 mm x 6 mm and weighing 10 grams, it’s lighter and 20% thinner and with better range detection. The new sleeker fob has a rubberized matte finish, so it won’t slip from your hands with a built-in loop to secure it on a safety keychain attachment or lanyard – both included. The USB lock or dongle is half the size and now has a metal shield. The Android and iOS apps have been updated as well as the software for Windows and Mac although the Mac version is still in beta. Read Full Review at G4TV Canada.
If you live in Alberta and receive a call from your next-door neighbour showing an 825 Area Code, don’t be alarmed; it’s not necessarily a spoofed call. This past Saturday, April 9th, the new area code prefix was put into place to meet the growing demand for phone numbers in the province.
The new Area Code according to the Western Telecommunications Alliance (WTA), a partnership between major telcos and industry associations across Canada, will open the floodgates to seven million new phone numbers bringing the number of area codes in Alberta to four. Read more…at CanoeTech Blog.
Regardless as to how meticulous you are the floors in your house need to be mopped once in a while. It’s no secret, mopping up is one chore that most of us hate doing, so it’s great news to hear that iRobot has added a complementary cleaning gadget to go along with the Roomba robotic vacuum, the Braava jet 240 Mopping Robot, a compact high-tech hard surface cleaner.
More than just a mop being robotically dragged around the floor, iRobot’s latest creation incorporates a smart vibrating cleaning head and a jet sprayer.
Braava jet is designed to work with three types of specially designed pads to cover a wide variety of wet and dry cleaning needs. The Dry Sweeping Pad is perfect for picking up some simple dirt like dust, pet hair, and dry coffee grounds from hard surfaces.. For everyday dirt, or for cleaning tile and stone the Damp Sweeping Pad adds a little moisture to help ensure the dirt is cleaned up. For more heavily soiled or stained floors the Wet Mopping Pad is likely more appropriate. Both the damp and wet pads contain a water-activated cleaning agent to help loosen the dirt for better cleaning. Read more…at CanoeTech Blog.
Also available via AMAZON
