| Activocal: turn on lights with the power of your voice Posted: 31 Jul 2014 09:04 AM PDT Using voices to make things happen is no longer the domain of politicans and the Dragonborn, as anyone can now brin smart bulbs to their home.
What you see here is Activocal’s very own Voice Activated bulb adapter. This little plug and play gadget connects to any bulb light socket, and then turns it into a voice activated light. That is exactly what it sounds like: users get to turn lights in any room on or off by speaking the right words, because, who needs wall switches anyways? The wall light switch obviously still works, if you care about it, and the new bulb is easy to install, so no professionals are required. Furthermore, the gadget syncs with an app for iOS and Android, and enables your phone to control the lights too. Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Rolomotion app that brings console gaming to Apple TV, and Apple's rumored content deal with Time-Warner and ComCast.  |
| The Darth Vader stove is too hot for the Force Posted: 31 Jul 2014 06:00 AM PDT |
| Portable Bluetooth SSSSSpeaker Collapses to Make Different Sounds Posted: 31 Jul 2014 05:30 AM PDT The quality of sound can be easily altered by changing the shape of the source. Kiev-based aiia took advantage of this concept and introduced a portable Bluetooth speaker SSSSSpeaker (the manufacturers probably assumed that the more they emphasize the first letter, the better the product is ) has quite an unusual design, being more similar in shape to a suction cup, then to a speaker. However, it’s exactly the silicone cone defining its shape that gives this item a specific versatility. Depending on how much it’s collapsed, the SSSSSpeaker can reproduce sound in three different ways. Have I mentioned that this portable Bluetooth speaker also doubles as an anti-stress ball when needed? That’s probably a useful feature when you don’t like the music that’s being played. On Kickstarter, SSSSSpeaker raised a bit over $20K, out of the $30,000 goal that aiia set for this campaign. At press time, there were 8 more days to go, and with proper advertising, the campaign could be a success. Should the project be funded, anyone who pledged $16/19 or $21/26 will get their wired or wireless SSSSSpeaker, respectively, this September. For $5,000 or more, people have the chance of attending an individual workshop in Kiev, a 3-night stay at a 5-star hotel and a distributor starter’s kit. In other words, for that kind of money, you can become a partner of aiia and have your say in the future development of this product. Believe it or not, someone has already pledged $5,000 and will benefit from all these things, even though going to a country where there’s a civil war at the moment may not be the best idea ever, regardless of the business opportunities.
The ones who are not satisfied with the default speaker can choose to have it customized with their name or logo right where the aiia logo is placed, in front of the speaker. Bear in mind that SSSSSpeaker is already available in three different bright and joyful colors, so the degree of customization is pretty high with this product. aiia had also set some stretch goals for the Kickstarter campaign, but seeing how the project performs, it’s safe to say that those goals won’t be reached. Who knows, if this crowdfunding campaign fails, maybe the developers will find a way to make SSSSSpeaker even more appealing. Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Dubstein Bluetooth speaker mug that brings together drinks and wireless music, and this annoying Dalek that packs the world’s largest Bluetooth speaker.  |
| Samsung UHD TV: from flat to curved in just one command Posted: 31 Jul 2014 05:00 AM PDT Sadly, the only way to having the best of both worlds (curved and flat) when it comes to TV is to have the two of them… or that was the case until Samsung came along.
We’re not exaggerating when we call the Samsung team absolute geniuses at what they do, but this might be one of their best projects yet, and we’re running dangerously low on adjectives. TVs have been promoting new features such as 4k and curved frames as the next essentials, but some things just look better on a regular screen. Samsung solved the issue creating a bendable TV that will release in Korea on august 1st. An 85-inch (wow, that’s HUGE!) was shown last January at CES, but these commercial units will be 78-inches instead. The cost hasn’t been made public yet, but we can assume it’s not gonna be cheap. Regardless, this comes as part of Samsung’s very own arms race with LG, who showed flexible OLED TVs at CES, and are now competing by releasing 105-inch (just wow…) Ultra HDTVs. Well, I know what I’m going to want as soon as one of these becomes commercially available and not ridiculously expensive… Source: Engadget Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories at Next-Gen Apple TV's Launch Gets Postponed for 2015 and Facebook App Gets Audio Recognition for Music and TV Shows.  |
| Driverless Cars to Hit Public Roads by January in the UK Posted: 30 Jul 2014 01:59 PM PDT The Brits seem to be developing an inexplicable attraction for unusual vehicles. First, UK’s government plans to get Tesla Model S as their official car, and now they’re announcing the debut of self-driving cars on public roads by the beginning of next year. Currently, driverless cars are allowed in the UK only on private roads, but things are about to change. Assuming that these cars enter mass production by the beginning of 2015, and that the UK knows something that the rest of the world doesn’t, such cars should be seen on public roads at that point in time. There’s going to be some competition in this field, as Google is no longer the only search engine interested in making a self-driving car. Baidu, China’s most important search engine, expressed its interest in developing a highly autonomous car (mind you, not a driverless one!) that keeps humans in the equation, and the result shouldn’t take long to appear. Last year, the Department for Transport announced that trials of self-driving cars should start on public roads by the end of 2013. In December, the Treasury got involved in this matter, as well, and suggested creating a plan so that a town or city would be awarded £10m to test these cars. Business Secretary Vince Cable and Chancellor George Osborne are firm supporters of the legislation that will allow self-driving cars on public roads. Their wish is to make sure that “the UK is the right place to develop and test driverless cars.” All this was hinted at when the Technology Strategy Board, an entity backed by the UK government, sought to establish test sites for robotics and autonomous systems (RAS). Even though the self-driving cars are part of these systems, the Board did not specifically mention them, thus leaving a bit of room for interpretations. I’m happy to see the UK, Europe’s main tech hub, embracing such innovations. The support offered by politicians makes all this even more worth of applause. While not yet of manufacturer of driverless cars itself, the UK is open to this change that will affect all of us dramatically, someday. Hopefully, self-driving cars will put an end to road police, car crashes, driving schools and all that! Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the driverless cars that were tested in the UK last year, and the first solar-powered family car.  |
| Next-Gen Apple TV’s Launch Gets Postponed for 2015 Posted: 30 Jul 2014 01:33 PM PDT The eagerly anticipated next generation of Apple TV won’t launch this year, even though it was rumored that it would make its debut this year. Apple CEO Tim Cook made a habit from teasing the company’s fans with a “exciting new product categories” list that fails to impress, as of late. Apple TV does not exactly qualify as a new product, but most people assumed that it will get redesigned in order to include new functionality, and that the new version will hit the market sometime this fall, along with the iPhone 6 and the will-it-ever-get-launched iTime smartwatch. In their sessions of wishful-thinking, Apple fans hope that the company will integrate gaming, audio and video streaming, as well as third-party apps. The Information claims that such a device won’t be ready for launch this year. Sources familiar to the matter pointed out that the Apple engineers who are designing the product have been told by their superiors to take their minds off a possible launch this year. Just to pass the ball around, Apple bosses said that the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger and the cable companies are at fault for this delay. It looks like Apple’s partners are hesitant as to the real potential of the device and service, the biggest problem being the great number of rights Apple should acquire in order to offer the things it teased the world with. The Information‘s Jessica E. Lessin and Amir Efrati elaborated on this matter: “On the content side, cable executives and TV programmers say Apple has bit off more than it can chew and deny they’re the holdup. They say Apple needs permission from multiple types of rights holders to create the service it wants to offer.” Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Rolomotion app that brings console gaming to Apple TV, and Apple’s rumored content deal with Time-Warner and ComCast.  |
