StickNFind – the evolution of smart ‘things’

Sticknfindinhand575There’s a cool project over on Indiegogo now called StickNFind, that creates small bluetooth-enabled ‘tags’ you can attach to objects.  A smartphone app can measure signal strength to approximate distance (it cannot tell you what DIRECTION the tag is in, though), which is nice, but what impressed me more was the ‘leash’ function and the ‘find it’ function.

The ‘leash’ will alert you on your phone when a tag has moved a set (approximate) distance away from your phone.  I can see this being useful for kids in crowded areas, pets, etc.

The ‘find it’ function is pretty neat too.  Imagine a tag out of range.  When it is back within range, your phone will alert you.  Lots of possible uses for that!

The campaign closes in 11 days, and they’ve already exceeded their funding goal…so time is limited if you want to get in on it.  Check it out here.

Review: Tenergy 9V battery charger

Tenergy 9V battery charger
Tenergy 9V battery charger

In my quest to live a more sustainable life,  I’ve transitioned to rechargeable batteries wherever possible (read more here), and have finally tackled the remaining piece of that puzzle – rechargeable 9V batteries.  I found these to be surprisingly rare, and settled on one of the few options from Amazon, the charger and batteries from Tenergy.

I suppose there’s not much to say about the batteries…and that’s a good thing!  As for the charger, well, it works and charges the batteries, but I was disappointed by the quality.  Tenergy used cheap white plastic that lets a lot of the light through, giving this charger a pink glow when charging (as the attached photo shows).  It doesn’t cost much more to use a more opaque plastic in manufacturing, yet this is something companies need to really fight for when dealing with Chinese manufacturing, at least from my experience.  You can spec out an awesome Lexan from Sabic (formerly GE) that will block like like this, but the factories will want to substitute a cheaper, more readily available one….which I suspect is what happened here.  It doesn’t affect the charger performance so it’s not really a big deal, it’s more of an annoyance of mine to see products built less than optimally.

If you’re looking for something like this, you can find the charger here at Amazon, and a 10-pack of the batteries here.  Don’t think you need a 10-pack?  Take a walk around your house and count the number of smoke detectors you have (should be one per bedroom plus in the common areas of the house), and the CO detectors.  You might be surprised at just how many 9V batteries you need!

Intel working on a TV solution, also

It seems every hardware company is working on creating a better TV experience (Apple, Google, and Samsung being the big ones).  Intel is now joining the mix with a set top box, but they’re encountering the same problem that has kept Apple’s TV in the labs instead of your living room.  Namely, they are up against content owners who like things the way they are and don’t want to change.  This ‘head in the sand’ approach is simply not going to work…technology will advance and change is inevitable.  This is much like the music companies resisting change to their business model, until file sharing services like Napster came along and forced change.  TV will eventually face similar pressure…if the TV content owners act now and partner with the tech companies, they can help shape the future of TV…rather than sit on the sidelines and watch it be shaped for them.

TV: a dying business model

TV, as we have known it, is dead…the industry just isn’t willing to give up and is doing its best to keep it on life support.  The best example of this is commercial-skipping technology.  ReplayTV was sued and ultimately put out of business largely due to this feature, and the latest lawsuit targets Dish Networks for similar technology, that automatically skips over commercials in recorded shows.

Does this technology impact studios’ bottom line?  Probably.  But the invention of the horseless carriage affected horsewhip makers everywhere…and this alone is not a reason to hold back progress. The technology is here to give the viewers a better viewing experience, but studios are doing everything they can to block change.  Apple has been rumored to be working on a TV, though building the hardware is the relatively easy part…it’s the software and user experience that is the most challenging to fix….here’s hoping they can pull it off in 2013.

As for me…I cut the cord over a year ago, tired of paying so much for so many channels I just didn’t want.  I replaced our DirecTV subscription with a combination of purchasing shows via iTunes, and recording free over-the-air broadcasts from the major TV networks.  My iMac records those broadcasts using an EyeTV tuner, with the free software plugin comskipper automatically going through and marking commercials for deletion (I still like to review that manually as it often leaves some in there).  A simple click then exports it directly into my iTunes library for viewing on any of our AppleTVs.  It’s really not that hard…just imagine how awesome the user experience could be if the studios embraced technology instead of fighting it every step of the way.

TV’s business model is obsolete…it’s time to reinvent it.  If anyone can do it, it’s Apple.  My AppleTV prediction – voice and gesture control.  Face recognition tied in with parental controls to limit what kids can watch without an adult present.  An aluminum enclosure, very similar to the latest iMacs.  Sales in the billions.

Gravity-powered lamp

GravityLight is a new LED-based lamp that is powered much like a cuckoo clock…a bag of sand (or anything weighing about 20lbs) is pulled down by gravity, generating electricity to power the LEDs for about half an hour.  It’s a neat idea for developing countries.  The project is being funded via indiegogo, and have already surpassed their funding goal (with 33 days left in the campaign).

 

(read more at FastCompany)

Making fuel from air

A British company is working on a process which makes a hydrocarbon fuel out of CO2 and water.  Cool idea, but at this point it’s a lab experiment and nothing more (though they’ve produced about five liters in the lab, so it’s proving itself).  The big question is, is it scalable, what’s the efficiency, and what’s the source for the energy required to power this process.

The most important point here though, is that this is just one of many such projects in the works, trying to find more eco-friendly fuel sources.  If just one of these can be successful, it can make a real impact on the sustainability of our lifestyle on this planet.  Our current fossil-fuel-dependent lifestyle is most definitely NOT sustainable and we need to transition to an alternative quickly.

Read more here.

Introverts vs. Extroverts, explained

This is a really cool video that helps explain introverts versus extroverts.  In a society where extroversion is the ‘norm’, introverts can feel out of place when in reality it’s society that needs to change, not the introverts (can’t change who you are!).  This video is a good one for introverts to watch as it helps you understand why you don’t fit in, and it’s good for extroverts to watch to better understand introverts.

(In case you’re wondering, I’m very introverted…and once I came to understand and accept that, life become so much better!)

Plastic light bulbs

Scientists at Wake Forest University have developed what appears to be the ultimate light bulb.  Made from plastic, it’s shatterproof, as efficient as LED bulbs, are completely quiet (no humming like some CFL), no hazardous chemicals, and they produce a light of comparable color to natural sunlight.  They accomplish this by running electricity through a conductive ploymer that’s been doped with carbon nanotubes.  They’re expected to be cheap to make, and if all goes well, will hit store shelves sometime in 2013.

More on this over at Extremetech.

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