Gadgets

By Darrell Etherington Sony’s SmartEyeglass Attach! is something it debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show this year, offering up a smart display module that adds connected intelligence to any kind of existing eyeware, be they optical frames, protective goggles or sunglasses. The concept design is very similar in practice to Google Glass, so it might…

By Natasha Lomas Scarab is a wearable device in the works whose makers are aiming to build a comprehensive environment monitoring device which contains 16 sensors to gather all sorts of environmental data-points such as UV exposure, noise levels and other pollutants. Read More …read more Source: TechCrunch Gadgets

By Juan Martinez When it comes to smartphones, all conversations should start with the HTC One M8 ($649, £549 and AU$899 off-contract) and the iPhone 6 (starting at $199 on-contract, £539 and AU$549 off-contract). Attempting to enter the arena of the big dogs, Asus’ new Zenfone 2 (starting at $200, £120, AU$210 for 2GB RAM)…

By Juan Martinez When it comes to smartphones, all conversations should start with the HTC One M8 ($649, £549 and AU$899 off-contract) and the iPhone 6 (starting at $199 on-contract, £539 and AU$549 off-contract). Attempting to enter the arena of the big dogs, Asus’ new Zenfone 2 (starting at $200, £120, AU$210 for 2GB RAM)…

By John Biggs As a longtime lover of all things Fitbit, I’ve missed the good old days. The bright, readable displays and the little tidbits like a slowly growing flower to indicate progress were a real joy back in 2008 when the company launched onstage at Disrupt. Now, seven years later, after multiple styles and…

By Darrell Etherington Windows 10 is coming this year, and a Technical Preview came out today. The Preview is limited in terms of devices it can run on, and in terms of features it offers, but it’s a start, and a first look at the next generation of Microsoft’s mobile OS. I loaded it onto…

By Kyle Russell I’m at the W Hotel in San Francisco to hear Xiaomi CEO Lin Bin and VP Hugo Barra give their pitch to Silicon Valley. We’ve been told we shouldn’t expect an announcement of the company bringing its products to the US, so the impression is that this is about explaining what Xiaomi…

By Darrell Etherington Microsoft has decided to make my job just a bit harder by naming all variants of Windows 10 clumsily, but if you have a phone that runs Windows Phone 8.1 and you want to try out the next generation, ‘Windows 10 Technical Preview for phones” is now available to download for Windows…

By Darrell Etherington Apple’s touch-based devices have changed the way we interact with computers entirely, but that hasn’t stopped users from occasionally thinking wistfully of the days when physical keyboards ruled the roost. Tactus has taken that desire to heart, and the startup’s first consumer product, the Phorm, is about to bring a tactile experience…

By John Biggs In order to prevent electrical fires, cables on a ship can’t be spliced. This means that a cable that starts at one end of the massive Quantum Of The Seas, Royal Caribbean’s latest pleasure ship, have to be over 1,139 feet long to reach the other end. That’s a lot of cable…

By Darrell Etherington Amazon today announced that its Fire TV streaming set-top box and HDMI stick now support Sling TV, the subscription-based live TV service that offers users an alternative to cable that streams via the web for $20 per month. As part of its promotion for the launch, Amazon and Sling are also offering…

By Darrell Etherington This week, join us as we discuss the plans Nvidia might have for its big GDC announcement on March 3. We speculate it could be new Shield gaming hardware, or a dedicated GRID gaming box that would allow users to stream top-tier PC games to their TVs directly using an inexpensive, lightweight…

By Natasha Lomas The U.K. telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has officially green-lit the launch of white spaces spectrum, and suggests commercial deployments making use of the freed up frequencies could go live by the end of the year. Read More …read more Source: TechCrunch Gadgets

By Natasha Lomas From gizmos to trinkets: the era of smart jewelry is upon us, with makers and businesses of all stripes and sizes busy mixing electronics and sensors with ‘fashion-friendly’ designs intended to be displayed proudly on the person. Read More …read more Source: TechCrunch Gadgets

By Matt Burns Fitbits are still causing rashes. Some owners of the new Surge are reporting that, like the Force and Charge before it, the new smartwatch activity tracker is causing a rash. Fitbit’s solution? Take the thing off occasionally. Fitbit tells TechCrunch that a very limited percentage of users reported skin irritation and the…