True confession time. I am a killer. I kill plants. I try to grow them indoors and outdoors with the same results. Poor little green friends. It may be that they dry out (oops! Forgot the water!). They have come too close to the radiator too. And outdoor stuff seems to suffer a variety of deaths: lack of sun, weeds, neighborhood cat deposits. I really DO enjoy having plants around. But how to keep them alive?
Time to incorporate the smartphone in keeping greenery alive. Parrot – more famous for electronics like their R/C AR Drone – plans on launching Flower Power in 2013. They call it "the most advanced plant sensor" and after researching it I believe them! These two pronged gadgets easily slide into any pot or planter or bed to measure critical plant stats. Via Bluetooth they transmit data to your smartphone's Flower Power app. Parrot consulted botanists to ensure they measured the right stuff so you will get information on soil moisture, humidity, sun exposure, temperature and fertilizer. And of course the app can alert you when any of the plant's "vitals" are out of whack. So for people like me…growing plants becomes easy! You can track up to 6,000 plants, errr sensors with the app. One AAA battery is required per sensor but you will get months of life from it. Parrot has not announced a launch date or time. But in all of the press they received at CES they insisted it will be out this year. Popular Mechanics and Stuff magazine both liked Flower Power so much they gave it a CES award. If they experts like it you, like me, probably will too.
January, sweet January. That time when we all feel the holidays around our waistline, gym membership sales skyrocket and many of us set our list of ways we will try to improve our health. Giving up the pasta, breads and sugar can be a challenge. What if you could pump it out? Gorge yourself and take it out of your system. Sounds crazy, but Aspire Bariatrics developed AspireAssist which does exactly that. Currently available in parts of Europe – this weight loss tool literally allows the user to pump food out of your stomach.
Sure, AspireAssist may not be for the average Joe looking to drop a couple lbs. But face it. The amount of gastric bypass surgery in the US is on the rise. Obesity exists as one of the biggest challenges in fast moving, quick preparation, fast food world. And the conditions that obesity contributes to (diabetes, heart conditions, etc) are enough to make docs and patients realize that immediate weight loss is a critical stop on the road to healing. AspireAssist is a minimally invasive, outpatient process that threads the pump device and, ummm…exit point(?) into your stomach. Wait 20 minutes after you eat and about 30% of the stomachs contents can be pumped out. By not digesting the calories the body can't absorb them and add to weight gain.
Ok, pumping your stomach may be extreme – but where the device is finding success stories is overweight patients who continually have problems maintaining weight loss. And for some whose health become so impacted by weight gain I would think that AspireAssist may provide a legitimate solution. [ Avoid Obesity. Pump Your Stomach? copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
When it comes to making sure that your entire bunch of keys remain where they are always, there are some inexplicable moments in life when you just simply forgot where you put your keys, or for the life of you, swore that it was last put at the place you normally keep it, but for some reason or another, it is no longer there. Perhaps what you need is some novelty to ensure that something like this never happens again – and Thinkgeek's $24.99 Magnetic Light Switch Covers ought to step in to help.
Basically, the Magnetic Light Switch Covers is pretty much self-explanatory – not only does it function as a light switch cover, it also allows you to store your keys on the light switch. Powered by neodymium magnets that ought to be able to get the job done just fine, the Magnetic Light Switch Covers are a snap to install as all you need would be a screwdriver. It will feature a nickel-plated key ring that can hold up to 27 keys, which should be more than enough for the average home.
When you add the prefix "Super" to anything, and rest assured, expectations on the performance of that particular noun would be sent to sky high proportions. So when we came across the $119.95 Super WiFi Antenna, there was this naughty bit in me that wanted to tear into all that the Super WiFi Antenna promised but could not deliver, but just to give the benefit of the doubt to First Street Online, let us see what this device touts.
For starters, it claims to be so powerful and amped up, that it is capable of picking up available WiFi signals from up to a mile away, how about that? All you need to do is plug it into an available USB port on your notebook or computer, and you're good to go. For it to be weather and UV resistant would mean the Super WiFi Antenna is rather hardy, and I strongly suspect that the notebook it is plugged into will not be that adventurous to remain exposed to the sun for long hours on end, let alone the user unless he/she is in need of a tan. Of course, this is great only if you have a free WiFi network to connect to, but otherwise, it could be put to good use when you want to work from your yard under the sun.
Security of your precious data is often one of the priorities to have right at the top of your computing list, and even more when it comes to giant corporations. Well, there are many ways to leak out data (unwillingly or otherwise), and here is a potential solution for those who want to enjoy private and restriction-free browsing – with the iTwin Connect. The iTwin Connect will also be able to offer the wonders of remote file access and access to the home/office network (i.e., functioning as a personal virtual private network or VPN), coming in a simple and highly portable device form factor.
Basically, the iTwin Connect will comprise of two identical halves. In order to install, all you need to do is plug the device into a USB port on the home/office PC, detach one half of the device which will then be designated as the iTwin Connect "key", and carry that detached bit along. Whenever you are on the move, plug this key into a notebook and a secure VPN tunnel will magically be created to the home/office PC.
For the non-techies out there, there are some obvious benefits to reap from the iTwin Connect, where among them include 'Teleport Me', a feature that lets you browse privately and without being tied down to any restrictions. All Internet traffic will be directed via the secure VPN tunnel and the Internet is thus accessed via the home/office PC's Internet connection.
Not only that, 'Teleport Me' will also provide private access to the Internet via iTwin's dedicated network servers in US, Europe or Asia/Pacific. This bit comes across as useful should the home/office PC be in a position where it cannot be left on, and also should your browsing sessions require an IP locale that is different from that of the PC.
Now, I know that social networks are very different from what we normally serve up here, but this news is a wee bit too popular to not talk about – with Facebook announcing their very own social network search capability that comes in the form of Graph Search. Basically, Graph Search would empower Facebook users to have the relevant tools in order to map out their relationships with the people and things they care about. It is a living, breathing graph, and Facebook claims that right now, with over a billion people, it translates to over 240 billion photos and over a trillion connections. Truly mind blowing figures, and these are set to grow in time. Imagine how it would be like when one day, Facebook breaks into the China market.
Graph Search will kick off by being in beta, as all great enterprises start off. Originally, Facebook required folks to browse around, learn stuff about others and purposefully make new connections. Graph Search will return to such roots, although life will be a whole lot easier as users are now about to use the graph to make new connections.
Graph Search will come across as a bigger search bar at the top of each page. Whenever you perform a search, that search will determine the set of results pulled up, and it also doubles up as a title for the page, now how about that? You are then able to edit the title and in the process, create your own custom view of the content that you and your friends have shared over on Facebook.
Graph Search is a very different animal from web search, where the latter will take in a set of keywords (for example: "hip hop") and deliver the best possible results which match those keywords, while Graph Search helps you combine phrases (for example: “my friends in New York who like Jay-Z”) and retrieve a similar set of people, places, photos or other content that’s been shared on Facebook. How has your Graph Search experience been so far?
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