"Gadget" Greg Gazin Demystifies Tech & Life in a useful, fun & practical way!
Tennis, as we know it, has been around since 1875. Today, a new door opens up in Canada asBabolat (based in Lyons France), the inventor of the natural gut string racquet (or racket if you prefer), over a century-ago, introduces Babolat Play Pure Drive in Canada offering our country’s first connected tennis racquet.
Read more…at Canoe Tech Blog
I don’t usually find it a challenge to come up with a headline for a story or review, but while tossing around a couple of ideas, this one certainly made me want to have a “beverage”. And so it should, that is, for the simple fact that when staring at it the entire face looks somewhat fuzzy, the hour and the minute hand appearing somewhat blotchy and none of the numbers visible with the exception of the “5”.
Now I know what you might be thinking – that I’ve already decided to partake in the human ritual known to many as Happy Hour which begins around 5 “ish” and that I’ve already had a few too many. Others might nod their heads in agreement, because after a long day, Happy Hour is the only time that matters. But truth be told, I haven’t had a sip – yet – and that’s the way the watch was designed – really! Read full article At G4TV Canada
For most of us, a USB hub is not something that you would call sexy or exciting, but when you need one to be fast, reliable and functional that’s when you really start to pay a little more attention to it.
That’s exactly what happened to Waterloo, Ontario inventor James Morrison when one day, he needed a professional grade USB Hub that he could rely on. So he decided to take action and went out and designed his own. He also also believed that while the hub needed to work just the right way, there was no reason why it couldn’t also be sleek and fashionable.
His invention, a 7-port USB 3.0 SuperSpeed hub called the araHUB. Morrison and his company ARA Innovation are trying to bring this to market and make it a reality through a Kickstarter campaign
Read more… AT CANOE TECH BLOG
In the past, unless you were a vocalist, it would have been pretty tough to create music without your hands. Now iRing, a new nifty little product by IK Multimedia, changes all that. It uses motion-tracking technology to control music apps that will allow you to create musical masterpieces with your iOS devices using simple hand gestures and without even touching your screen.
iRing is a cleverly designed reversible double-sided wearable ring that you wear between your fingers rather than on a specific finger that acts as a real-time wireless motion controller for your iOS device.
It’s powered by hand gestures that can control three parameters simultaneously on each of the two rings (six parameters in total) through the simple process of moving your hands in front of your device in specific motion patterns.
Read more…at CANOE Tech Blog
Pyle Audio’s latest speaker system is like a ghetto blaster on steroids. Looking more like a rocket engine than a speaker, Street Blaster is a true stereo boombox that packs 1000 watts of power. You can stream music to it via Bluetooth using any iOS or Android device plus connect via NFC (Near Field Communication) if your device supports it.
Read more… at Canoe Tech Blog
We can use Home Automation devices to monitor our homes, keep us secure and turn our lights on and off. So why not use technology to help monitor and control the energy used to heat and cool our homes? The Nest Learning Thermostat can do just that – on its own- via the web and also through an app. Nest isn’t totally new, but the latest version, the 2nd generation model, is certainly much improved and you don’t have to be a geek to make the most of it. Great news if you’re a resident of Alberta, you may have an opportunity to get one free from Direct Energy.
The biggest thing to appreciate is that Nest is more than just a programmable thermostat – setting the device to turn on and off at predetermined times. It knows when you turn it up and knows when you turn it down and even knows when you’re away. It monitors usage and learns your habits, when you want to be toasty warm and when you want it a little cooler. It does this for about a week or so after installation and then it programs itself. When you configure it upon set up, you also give it your postal code, so it knows what the temperature is like outside so it can also learn vis-a-vis your actual environment.
Read more… AT CANOE TECH BLOG
More homes are not only getting more secure, they’re also getting much smarter, thanks to the availability of affordable and easy to set up security and home automation systems like Canadian-invented Piper.
Piper, which got its kick-start through crowdsourced funding on Indiegogo, is the brainchild of Ottawa-based BlackSumac (just acquired by California based iControl Networks earlier this week). The Piper solution revolves around a multipurpose camera unit and a multifunction downloadable app which together provide an all-in-one home awareness hub rather than just a typical security camera.
The Wi-Fi enabled camera shoots 1080p HD video. It’s equipped with a fish-eye lens that offers an impressive extremely wide 180-degree field of view. The 10x digital zoom supports pan and tilt functions giving you the ability to zoom in and look around the room. It also has an infrared motion detector to detect intruders (up to 10m), a built-in microphone and a piercing 105dB siren – loud enough to almost rival a chainsaw. More than just acting as your eyes and ears, it also has four additional sensors that measure indoor temperature, ambient light, and relative humidity. You’ll see why the last four are not just “nice to know”.
Read more…AT CANOE TECH BLOG
No matter where we go we always need to have some sort of USB cable nearby, whether it’s to charge up our gadgets or sync with another device. The truth is, carrying them around can be somewhat of a pain. They can be too bulky, cumbersome or we have nowhere to put them. Well Nomad has come up with a solution – in fact two of them, ChargeCard and ChargeKey.
Technically, ChargeCard and ChargeKey are not really cables at all; they are connecting devices and work like cables but look like a credit card and a house key respectively. They both allow you to charge up your device when connected via USB and full-fledged data transfer when syncing to a computer or other compatible device.
Both ChargeCard and ChargeKey come in two models, one for Lightning connector compatible devices, like the iPhone 5, 5C & 5S as well as any iPad, including iPad mini and iPad Air. The other is a micro USB version that will work with most Android and Windows phones as well as your BlackBerry.
Tired of the same old plastic bumper case for your iPhone? Have you ever thought of getting one made from wood? But not just any wood. How about an Eastern Hardrock Maple or Oregon Walnut, so you have both coasts covered?
Read more… At Canoe Tech Blog
At first glance the Dyson DC62 Animal doesn’t look like much of a vacuum; in fact, it looks more like a metal detector than a vacuum cleaner. The first thing that came to mind was how such a small handheld unit, especially a cordless one, could do the job of a full sized vacuum. Fortunately for me, for today anyway, I live in a very dry area, almost back on to a transit station and have a significant amount of carpeting in my home, so there’s never any shortage of testing material – dust, sand and other sediment – that needed to be sucked up.
Read more…AT CANOE TECH BLOG
Also available via AMAZON
