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Goji: More than a Smart Lock – A Smart Access Point with Security Features

CES 2014, Home, , , , , , , ,
Goji Keyless Access
Goji Keyless Access

We were joined by Gabriel Bestard-Ribas of Goji Access to the CES TPN Live broadcast. Goji is making key-less electronic locks with built in camera and other security features. A photo is sent so you can confirm who is at the door. Further, you can send a personalized greeting to whoever is at the door. The smart lock starts taking photos before the person approaches the door.

Goji can do more than just allow someone in. If you have a cleaning person come twice a week, you can control the access schedule. It will also make you aware if its not the regular cleaning person.

The Goji unlocks in three ways – Bluetooth LE, smartphone app and through keyfob. The keyfob can be programmed for multiple doors (front, back door, summer house, etc). The base unit also has an accelerometer so if someone knocks on the door, the system will alert your phone.

As each person access Goji, the information will be available in a spreadsheet you can access from your phone. Complete with access time and photos.

The smart lock runs on 4 double-A batteries and there is no special install or cuts made. You can replace your standard lock with this one. The smart lock is set to withstand 85 to -25 degrees. Best part is if the batteries run out, you can flip the door and use the key access.

The smart lock is not available just yet, but you can sign up for an early bird special over at gojiaccess.com Prices will start at $278 for the basic model. Availability will be in March 2014

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Interview by Jeffrey Powers of Geekazine and Don Baine of The Gadget Professor

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Cerwin-Vega XD 3, 4 and 5 Studio Monitors

CES 2014, Home, , , ,
Cerwin Vega XD3
Cerwin Vega XD3

Carlito Cobos of Cerwin-Vega joined the TPN CES live stream to talk about their new lines of speakers, including the XD3, XD4 and XD5 speakers. Legendary loud bass speakers are their signature.

This year, Cerwin-Vega has a new SL series as well with active and passive speakers. You can tell by the red soft-domed tweeter. The new passive line in 8 different styles of speakers. Connect to your home theater or studio.

The new XD3, XD4, and XD5 speakers has balanced inputs in the back, and auxiliary in. With a Cerwin-Vega bass on option, you can get your music, games and more through these speakers. With the XD8 sub, let your favorite movie sound great!

More at CerwinVega.com

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Interview by Jeffrey Powers of Geekazine and Chris Montera of Health Tech Weekly

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FLIR Imager attached to a iPhone

CES 2014, Gadgets, Home, Mobile, Video

flirFlir appeared at Showstoppers, a pre-CES show that helps to kick off the Las Vegas electronics show, and we caught up with them to see what was new. It turns out, the company now has a case for your iPhone that can work a bit of optical magic, transforming the handset into a thermal imaging device.

The product goes a bit beyond just thermal though, as it combines it with the visible spectrum to produce a nice high-quality image. There are a lot of features added to this, and the user can choose the type of image seen. This technology does come at a cost, though. Retail pricing is slated for $349, and the release is planned for this spring. You can head to Flir to find out more.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network.

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PeoplePower’s Presence App Turns Old iPhones Into a Security Cameras

Accessories, CES 2014, Gadgets, Home, Video

PeoplePowerLogo

Todd and Don interviewed Gene Wang, from PeoplePower, at CES about their iOS app called Presence 2.0.  Presence turns your spare iPhone or iPad into a free remote camera to monitor your home or office from anywhere in the world (Wi-Fi or cellular).  Select Presence Motion Detection to receive free Presence Video Alerts and see what happened just moments ago. Or select Video and Audio Streaming to enable convenient 2-way conversations, and even the ability to remotely control robotic viewing stands. Supervise and control your energy consumption before your eyes with Presence, too. Turn lights and appliances on and off from your smartphone with Presence-controlled smart plugs. Automate your system with simple and powerful Presence Rules, helping you design an automated motion detection and energy plan for home or office.

Presence is available now from the iOS App Store for FREE!  (hardware accessories are extra)  See peoplepowerco.com/products/ for more information.

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Interview by Don Baine, the Gadget Professor and Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network

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Korus Portable Wireless Speakers

CES 2014, Gadgets, Home, Wireless

a href=”https://geeknewscentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/korus-logo.png”>Korus LogoTodd and Don interview Nortek‘s Rob Halligan about the new wireless speaker system called Korus, which instead of using wifi or Bluetooth, uses SKAA, a wireless hi-fi audio standard that won CES Innovation awards in 2010 and 2011. The benefit of SKAA is low latency and greater range, but the downside is that it’s not built-in to any smartphone, tablet or media player. This is solved via a dongle, the Korus Baton, a SKAA transceiver which comes in USB, Apple Lightning and Apple 30 pin variants. Plug it in to the PC, Mac or Apple device and you are good to go. An Android version is expected later in the year.

Using SKAA rather than wifi or Bluetooth also means that there’s no faffing around with SSIDs or pairing with PINs; it’s simply a case of pressing a button on the wireless speaker and the speaker locks onto the nearest Baton. Press the button again and it moves onto the next.

Korus currently have two speaker units for sale, the V400 and V600, priced at a penny shy of US$350 and $450 respectively on the Korus shop at www.korussound.com.

Interview by Don Baine, the Gadget Professor and Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network.

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StickR TrackR Helps You Track and Find Your Lost Stuff at CES

CES 2014, Gadgets, Home

stickr-trackr-keysChris Montera, the Geekymedic, checked out some of the products and services at CES Unveiled including the StickR TrackR from Button-Trackr.com. If you lose things around your house or office frequently the Stickr Trackr might just be the perfect gadget for you.

StickR TrackR enables users to locate any lost item in seconds using their iPhone or Android smartphone. Attach the coin-sized StickR TrackR device to any commonly misplaced item such as keys, purses, wallets, and more. The app automatically tracks where your items are so you can stop stressing about staying organized and stop wasting time looking for lost items.

Best of all, you can home in using the app and cause the TrackR on the device to chirp so it’s easier to find. The app will also tag the last known location on a map and notify you if it is moved. And, lost or stolen items can be found even more quickly because the lost item will show up on other’s smartphones with the app installed, notifying them that the object has been reported lost.

You can find more at Button-Trackr.com and get your own StickR TrackR for your valuable stuff!

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Find more segments from CES 2014 both here and at Health Tech Weekly with host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic.

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Full Featured Pinball For the Home from Stern Pinball at CES

CES 2014, Home, Toys & Gaming, , , , , , ,

StarTrekPro_pinballPinball machines are making a huge resurgence in both arcades and home game rooms. They are also a great example of a healthier gaming experience since you play them standing up. Health Tech Weekly host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic got the chance to stop by the Stern Pinball booth and chat with founder Gary Stern about the latest offerings from his company.

Pinball games associated with popular entertainment properties like the Avengers, Star Trek, and Spiderman make the gaming experience more fun for the player. For the home enthusiast, the Stern Pinball company now offers not only a full line of commercially operated pinball games for arcades, bars and other businesses, they also have a full line of home-based machines. These large sized home pinball games offer many of the features from the larger machines including a full-sized playing area, professional bumpers, flippers, sling-shots, and more!

Find out more about how you can get one of these awesome machines for your home game room or entertainment center. Visit the folks at SternPinball.com for more information and pricing.

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Find more segments from the Digital Health Pavilion at CES 2014 both here and at the Health Tech Weekly podcast site with host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic.

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Nest Protect Remakes the Venerable Smoke Detector at CES

CES 2014, Health, Home, , , , , , ,
Nest Protect CO Smoke Alarm
Nest Protect CO Smoke Alarm

Nest, known for its groundbreaking interactive thermostat and mobile device app for controlling your home heating and air-conditioning, is now following up this success with a new device called the Nest Protect. The nest protect is a high-end combination smoke detector and carbon monoxide (CO) detector. But, as we expect from Nest, this home safety and wellness device is also connected to the Nest mobile app, sending you an alert when the device is activated and what kind of emergency is detected.

There are other user friendly features built in to the Nest Protect. The Nest site says it all – “Safety shouldn’t be annoying.” When alerting to a potential emergency Nest Protect gives you an early Heads-Up telling you what the danger is and where it is. If the problem is that you just burned something on the stove, no problem. No need to swing towels or get up on chairs. Silence nuisance alarms, like burning toast or bacon, with a wave of your hand. And the typical annoying battery-low chirps of other smoke detectors is a thing of the past. Nest Protect will send a message to your smartphone if the alarm goes off or if the batteries need replacing.

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Find more segments from the Digital Health Pavilion at CES 2014 both here and at the Health Tech Weekly podcast site with host Jamie Davis, the Podmedic.

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HD HomeRun for All Your Screens in the Home

CES 2013, Home, ,

HDHomeRunLogoThe distribution of HD content within the home has been a problem – if you want to preserve video quality. HD Home Run is an established product that permits you to have the output of up to three tuners converted to broadcast quality MPEG-2, and then distributing it through the wired home network. However, as soon as you add a device like a smartphone or tablet, you will find that the on-board devices are just not able to keep up with the decoding task. Plus, the bandwidth on the home WiFi network is not going to be able to keep up. Networking of video in the home, using Conditional Access you are able to stream video to any connected device – wired, or wireless Android or iOs.  The new HD Home Run system takes up to four separate video streams and does a real time transcode of the MPEG-2 to H.264 that can be carried over WiFi, and easily decoded by the processor in the tablet or smartphone. The new system is fully compatible with Windows8. TPN Interview by Andy McCaskey, SDRNews .

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More Mileage From Your Old iPad

CES 2013, Home, ,

d-red logoMounting an older iPad in a customized frame is a great way to extend the life of the device and at the same time provide a toddler with a unique toy that builds all sorts of skills. Building skills in numbers and letters, learning to draw, or just having fun, this is a sure fire way to keep little kids engaged for hours of constructive play. d-Redshop has developed an entire family of custom apps for the iPad that can be built into the frame, and then connected via Bluetooth. The company has a number of iOS based products. The toy applications are found at MyLearnToys.com.
TPN Interview by Andy McCaskey, SDRNews and Daniel J. Lewis, The Audacity To Podcast.

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