Tag Archives: CES2016

Lego Education Builds a Future Through its Famous Blocks

March 13, 2016CES 2015, Gadgetsces, CES2016, f5 live, gadgets, techPLUGHITZ Live

Ideas and inventions, like those shown off this year at CES, need people to first come up with the concepts that will be brought to life. There is a good chance that future presenters may have had their minds shaped by Lego Education.

Out to show that the simple building blocks can be used for more than just constructing a simple car or a complex castle, Lego Education announced at CES its WeDo 2.0, which is designed to bring science to life in the classroom through robotics. According to senior segment manager Leshia Hoot, WeDo 2.0 was put together with elementary-age students in mind and teaches them the basics of things from coding and programming to working with motors and sensors. The concept was kept simplified to make it accessible to both students and teachers, with easy-to-use software that is icon-based drag and drop.

According to Hoot, the core set of WeDo 2.0 retails for about $160 and comes with several projects, access to the software and a curriculum guide with 40-plus hours of activity. More information can be found at legoeducation.us or legoeducation.com if you are outside of the U.S.

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Interview by Nicholas DiMeo of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology

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Best Picks of Day 2 at CES

February 28, 2016CES 2016, Gadgetsces, CES2016, gadgets, picksTodd Cochrane

It’s the end of day 2 at CES 2016 and Jamie Davis, Todd Aune and Todd Cochrane review the sights and sounds of the day. Their picks include:

In&Motion, a smart ski airbag vest for ski racers that detects unavoidable falls and inflates in less that 100 ms to protect the body before impact with the ground.

Seal Shield, for their tablet and smartphone UV sterilizer for hospitals, health centres and other medical environments.

Focalmax and their after-market auto HUD (heads-up display) with GPS navigation and built-in dash cam.

Synology’s new wireless router with advanced parental controls to keep children off the Net when they’re supposed to be asleep!

Note: the prize contests are not valid.

Todd Aune bridges the technology gap with the The Elder Divide, Todd Cochrane is the host of the twice-weekly Geek News Central Podcast at GeekNewsCentral.com and Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic and health journalist.

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The CTA and the Changing Trends of CES

February 28, 2016CES 2016ces, CES2016, CTATodd Cochrane

The Consumer Technology Association, aka CTA, is the organisation behind the biggest tech event in the world, CES. Starting way back in 1967, it’s been the scene of major new product announcements, including the VCR, CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray and HD TVs. Today’s CES has over 170,000 visitors and nearly 2.5 million square feet of space. Jamie Davis and Todd Aune look to the future with Bronwyn Flores from the CTA, and talk about the changing trends at CES.

Todd Aune bridges the technology gap with the The Elder Divide and Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic and health journalist.

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The Smart Home Talks Z-Wave at CES

February 28, 2016CES 2016, HomeCES2016, home automation, Z-WaveTodd Cochrane

If there’s any kind of smart home device in your house, there’s a very good chance that it communicates using Z-Wave. The protocol is oriented to the residential control and automation market and designed specifically for low power and low data rate communication, making it ideal for battery powered devices. Todd and Jamie find out more on this largely unknown wireless technology from Mitchell Klein, Executive Director for the Z-Wave Alliance.

Develop in the early 2000s, Z-Wave is now supported by over 300 manufacturers producing over 1500 certified devices for the smart home, from simple door switches and sensors to central heating and security systems. Operating in the 900 MHz frequency, Z-Wave has a theoretical range of 100 m, but typically this is much reduced by the density of building construction materials. However, unlike Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, Z-Wave uses a mesh network with devices acting is intermediary nodes, passing on messages. Consequently, interoperability is key to Z-Wave and all Z-Wave devices will work with other Z-Wave devices.

Mitchell talks about the current state of the Z-Wave market and discusses some of the future possibilities for the technology, including interacting with systems like Amazon Echo.

Todd Aune bridges the technology gap with the The Elder Divide and Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic and health journalist.

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Cobra Dash Cams and Detectors at CES

February 28, 2016Auto, CES 2016Auto, ces, CES2016Todd Cochrane

Cobra Electronics are well-known for their radar detectors and other automotive products. Here at CES, Cobra won the TWICE Picks Award for one of its flagship units, the CDR 855 BT Drive HD dash cam, so Todd Aune finds out more about the latest devices from Mark Karnes, VP of Marketing at Cobra.

On the table are two relatively new devices from Cobra, the CDR 855BT dash cam and the world’s smallest DSP radar detector, the DSP 9200 BT. Starting with the dash cam, it’s a connected device, pairing via Bluetooth with a smartphone to acquire GPS co-ordinates which are then sync’d with the video footage. On top of this, the dash cam can work with Cobra’s iRadar app on the smartphone to know the location of cameras and provide alerts to the driver. The app is shared with the radar detector, so as the detector finds cameras, these can be reported back to the app and then up to the cloud to keep the camera database up-to-date for everyone through the iRadar Community. That’s pretty neat.

Not to be outdone, the radar detector was a CTA Honoree Award for an Intelligent Vehicle Device. The trick in this radar detector is to use digital signal processing to tell the difference between signals from the new collision avoidance systems and law enforcement speed guns. A range of radar and laser signals are presented to the driver as detected, with both visual and audio warnings, and the unit also benefits from alerts provided from the iRadar app on a connected smartphone.

Both devices are on sale now for US$349 for the radar detection and US$149 for the dash cam.

Todd Aune bridges the technology gap with the The Elder Divide.

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Philips Introduces an Inexpensive Trio of Headphones

February 27, 2016CES 2016, Gadgetsaudio, ces, CES2016, f5 live, gadgets, headphones, music, philips, techPLUGHITZ Live

Philips is set on keeping their customers satisfied with new products this year. They are targeting different consumer needs from a durable active-wear to high quality fashion headphones.

Philips is making an active lifestyle easier and more convenient for customers by creating their new sports headphones, Wireless Freedom. This product is purely Bluetooth and gives the user a sense of running freely without feeling like they are wearing headphones at all. While being light weight, they are still extremely heavy duty and robust. Wireless Freedom has a long lasting battery life that lasts up to 4 and a half hours of playtime. Philips cares about the health and fitness of their customers and wants them to perform their best while working hard.
Philips is also targeting people who want to look glamourous while listening to their music and they can with the new Everlite Headphones. It says it right on the box, “Streamlined to shine, clear and crisp.” They are quality sounding headphones, made with a convenient built in microphone. The Everlite comes in an attractive rose gold color while looking great and sitting comfortable. They are even compact and easy to put away.

If you are more into listening to music with no distractions, the Active Shield Pro is for you. Philips took noise cancellation by storm with a new and unique headset that eliminates 99% of background noise. The Active Shield Pro offers a no pollution, clean sound without having to crank up the volume to distract yourself from the outside world. You can enjoy them wireless or not with the ability to use the Bluetooth capability. Without a wire, the battery life can last up to 15 hours with Bluetooth and noise cancellation but also comes with a wire to plug into if the battery is too low so the music continues to play.

These products are already available for purchase at Philips.com with the Wireless Freedom on sale for $69.99, the Everlite for $49.99, and the Active Shield Pro for $169.99.

Interview by Daniele Mendez of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology

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Tuning It Up a Notch with Gibson 2016 Guitars

February 27, 2016CES 2016audio, ces, CES2016, f5 live, gadgets, gibson, guitars, music, techPLUGHITZ Live

Gibson Guitars is excited to release their new High Performance Series based out of Nashville, Tennessee with the most innovative electric guitar they have ever made. This series has generated a lot of excitement and interest at CES. New features from this series include a unique contoured neck heel called the Soloist Neck. The Soloist Neck allows players to hit the highest notes on the neck board comfortably. This series also includes a height adjustable titanium nut that gives the player access to adjust how high they want their strings.

Gibson has also updated their G Force self-tuning system with the ability for alternate tuning. The updated system is faster and more accurate than ever before. You could tune a guitar with just the press of a button and a strum of the strings. It is also the first time that Gibson has released a self-tuning acoustic guitar in the Progressive Series due to the feedback from acoustic players who also want to use the easy access G Force system. These acoustic guitars are hand crafted in Bozeman, Montana and are made of solid wood.

These guitars are available for purchase now at any local Gibson authorized dealer like Guitar Center, Sam Ash, or Amazon. The High Performance Series starts at $1099.99 or if you aren’t interested in the self-tuning system, you could purchase an electric guitar from the Traditional series starting at $739.99. The Progressive Series acoustic guitars starts at $1499.99.

Interview by Daniele Mendez of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology

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CogniToys Introduces a Connected Device for Kids

February 27, 2016CES 2016, Gadgetsces, CES2016, cognitoys, connected, f5 live, gadgets, ibm, iot, tech, toy, watsonPLUGHITZ Live

Connected devices are an interesting idea for kids. Many parents will give their kids a tablet or smartphone with educational games and videos, but there is a problem with that: these devices are designed for fully developed adults.

CogniToys is a new connected toy designed especially for growing kids. Powered by IBM Watson, this toy can listen for questions and commands and respond with answers, stories, jokes and more. Using Watson’s machine learning, the toy is able to learn and grow along with the child. Most importantly, it is designed specifically to help the child learn, with vocabulary, math and more.

CogniToys are available for preorder for $119 right now.

Interview by Aylee Nielsen of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology

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No Reception is No Excuse for No Communication Thanks to goTenna

February 27, 2016CES 2016, Gadgetsces, CES2016, communications, f5 live, gadgets, gotenna, radio, techPLUGHITZ Live

If you’ve ever been to CES, you know the pain of limited or no reception in one of the halls. That certainly makes it difficult to communicate with the rest of your team to keep your agendas synced. This is also a common issue at music festivals, camping and more.

goTenna is a product that allows you to communicate in a peer-to-peer method without the need for cellular connectivity. Simply carry a goTenna with you and let it communicate with other users of the device. You can do much of what you can do with a cellular connection, only limited to the broadcast radius of the goTenna and the other users.

goTenna is available now for $199 for a pair.

Interview by Aylee Nielsen of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology

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Know Just How Much Time You Spend With Your Friends With Concepter

February 27, 2016CES 2016, Gadgetsces, CES2016, concepter, f5 live, gadgets, tech, trackingPLUGHITZ Live

Have you ever had a friend or significant other who complained that you didn’t spend enough time with them? How about a friend you feel you spend too much time with? Most of us have been in these situations, and so were the creators of Concepter.

This little devices allows you to keep track of exactly how much time you spend around others who also have one of these devices. Now you and your significant other have actual evidence that you spend a lot of time together, or you have proof that you really do spend too much time with your friend.

You can get one of these devices soon for $29.

Interview by Nakia Mann of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology

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