Gadgets Blog » New Gadgets

There’s been a spree of tablet-related news here on the Smarter Gadgets blog, and with good reason. As the holiday season approaches, developers are putting the final touches on their gadgets in time for the high-consumption period after Thanksgiving. Apple’s iPad has clearly set a bar that is quickly being chased down by rival electronics companies. But while the iPad and its imitators have taken aim at general consumers, and Amazon’s Kindle has taken aim at the paperback, is there anything else that can fit into the increasingly crowded market for tablet computers?

The answer could very well be yes. Introducing the Kno, a tablet computer developed specifically for students. The Kno is an impressive gadget that is intended to provide a valuable resource to students. Developed in partnership by a Princeton professor and an electronics entrepreneur, the tablet computer is intended to integrate all elements of the learning process for a typical student, creating a handy device that displays textbooks in electronic format, while also providing a workspace for students to take notes and on-board tools for in and out of the classroom.

The iPad may hog the limelight as the most visually impressive gadget, but in the world of tablet-style computers, Apple’s creation is nowhere near the top. E-readers have been around since before Apple ever brought iPad to the market, and in that regard, Steve Jobs & Co. have some catching up to do.

The most prominent e-readers on the market come from less likely companies. Barnes & Noble has found great success with their Nook, but the most successful e-reader stands the Amazon Kindle. Now entering its third generation, the Kindle and its tie-in with Amazon’s reputation as a book distributor have made it a breakthrough product for Amazon.

The Third-Generation Kindle stands as the latest and greatest in this line of gadgets from Amazon. It boasts a number of new elements that are likely to bring even more consumers over to the Kindle brand, first and foremost being the screen. The screen for an e-reader like the Kindle suffers from slightly different demands than other electronic gadgets. The Kindle has been built with traditional books and long periods of use in mind. The e-ink technology that has been used provides a solid medium for reading. The realm of visibility is one of many features that Kindle has looked to upgrade. While a bright light will still wash the screen out, brightness is not the issue it once was.

If the world of modern electronics has taught us anything, it’s that social norms and standards are liable to shift at any given point in time. Telephone calls used to be a private action, e-mail and texting were considered impersonal, and putting personal information online seemed a risky endeavor. Today’s gadget, the Looxcie (which I’m assuming is a play on “look-see”), challenges another social norm, that being recording everything you do with a video camera is done only by weirdos and creeps. This bluetooth enabled camera is mounted on your ear, documenting your every move.

Its an interesting concept, one that is bolstered by the Looxcie’s innovative design. Just a bit larger than a typical bluetooth headset, the camera has a bright light that goes on when its recording. Using a foam-based clip, the unit latches onto either you left or right ear. The camera can record for up to five hours of video before it doubles back to the beginning and starts writing over the start of your clip. The battery life is impressive to allow for such a thing, but this is perhaps understandable when you look at the video quality: it’s only 480 x 320 with 16 fps.

Wireless technology may be all the rage in our current generation of electronics, but it’s been present in our living rooms long before it made the trip to our computers. The television remote control is arguably one of the most iconic items of the 20th century, a clear-cut sign of technology being put to practical application. No longer would couch potatoes need to stand up to change the channels on the TV. Combined with the ever-complex array of buttons required to operate a modern television, and it’s no wonder a high percentage of the population struggles with such a deceptively simple device.

TiVo’s new remote is not likely to change any of that. The remote itself has become an endangered species, as online services such as Netflix and Hulu have begun steadily endangering television as we once knew it. The frustrating act of finding a specific program to record on a traditional remote has been a major inconvenience, which explains TiVo’s innovation. Styled much like a cell phone, a QWERTY keyboard slides out from the bottom of the remote, allowing the user greater flexibility with entering information into their TV receiver.

The Slide, as it has been dubbed, isn’t a universal remote, only working with TiVo-enabled devices. While this can be a great asset for someone with this type of device in the first place, it doesn’t solve one of the biggest problems with television remotes: the sheer number required. With each device requiring its own unit to operate, the buildup of three to five remotes in a typical living room has become the norm.

The tablet wars are in full swing. Even though Apple beat competitors to the punch with their iPad tablet, the rest of the field has quickly reacted to their latest product, with companies like Toshiba and Dell creating new devices as quickly as possible. This week, a new challenger to the tablet market was announced, one coming from a mobile pedigree that could boost its presence in a big way. The Blackberry Playbook, developed by the company behind Blackberry, RIM, boasts a number of features that could make it an excellent option on the market.

The specifications are impressive to say the least. A seven-inch screen boasts high-definition images, with vivid colors that pop right off the tablet. The Playbook supports 1080p video, meaning even the most high-definition films look great on its display. Other multimedia options only enhance the experience with the tablet. Dual cameras, one on the front and one on the back, allow for both picture taking and video-chatting via apps like Skype. HD video capture is possible on both cameras. In an exciting twist, an HDMI port on the side of the tablet allows you to play back pictures and images on a larger screen with ease.

The hardware inside the tablet is a lot to get excited about as well. With 1GB of RAM and a 1GHz dual-core processor, the Playbook packs some serious punch on the processing side of things. The processor supports true multitasking, enabling the user to operate multiple programs at the same time. Additionally, web browsing on the Playbook will come with the full support of HTML5 and Adobe Flash, enabling access to virtually every website on the Internet. All of the user’s favorite sites, multimedia, and games will be accessible on the Playbook.

A few years ago my wife and I invested in one of those $2,000 high definition video cameras to capture the precious moments of our lives. It would have been a great investment if we could have converted it to DVDs, connected to the Internet or would not have been obsolete in a year.

Instead, we got an incredibly beautiful picture that could only be run from the camera and we had no way to convert it to any other medium. We currently have about 30 digital video tapes of our children growing up and of that camera ever breaks we’re screwed. “Hey little one, this tape we can’t play is your first birthday.”

When we decided to get something a little more user friendly, we looked at all the expensive video cameras with DVD recording, yada, yada and yada. A quick perusal at the local department store revealed this little handheld video camera called a Flip. At less than $150, it was compact, had HD video and plugged directly into the computer. We bought and I still had enough left over to buy and Xbox 360 and a few games. BONUS!

Today’s topic fits right in with the rest of my activities for the day. Fall semester is finally starting up at Claremont Mckenna College, meaning I have to go to class and (ugh) start reading new material for the sake of learning. Students all across the country are returning to the classroom, and regardless of how excited they are, there’s no doubt they’re going to come in contact with a vast number of books. Companies like Amazon and Barnes and Noble have given e-readers to the world, compact little gadgets that are capable of containing hundreds of books, and today’s news story brings a serious new contender to the e-reader arena, as Sony announced their latest and greatest, the “Reader.”

Chief among the features boasted on this gadget is the already-successful E-Ink display. Both Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s Nook have adopted this technology, which was designed for periods of prolonged use. Easier on the eyes than traditional electronic displays (such as the one on the iPad), both the Reader Pocked Edition and the Reader Daily Edition feature the latest in E-Ink technology, the Pearl display system. The organic features of these particular displays have been one of the selling points for rivaling E-Readers, making it a great decision for Sony to follow suit.

This being the 21st century and all, isn’t it time that computers and robots performed all sorts of meaningless tasks for us? Everyday activities like tooth brushing and drying hands following a dip in the sink have seen gadgets improving their efficiency. This week’s clever news story, however, occurs at ground level. Nike, the world’s most successful shoe and athletic wear company, has proudly patented a gadget that laces shoes, enabling us to save precious seconds of our life. The gadget, which will adorn a stylish pair of high-top sneakers, seems straight out of the Michael J. Fox movie Back to the Future 2.

They secret is in the robotic motor located in a band on the top of the shoe. The motor has two positions, loose and tight, which are switched between by pressing a button. The user steps into the shoe while in the loose position, presses the button, and the motor tightens the laces to a comfortable fit. According to the patent itself, “the automatic lacing system provides a set of straps that can be automatically opened and closed to switch between a loosened and tightened position of the upper. The article further includes an automatic ankle cinching system that is configured to automatically adjust an ankle portion of the upper.”