OhMiBod unveils next-gen wearable tech not for your face or wrist
The Consumer Electronics Show isn’t only for smartphones, tablets, computers and TVs as OhMiBod just announced the “next generation of wearable tech” that isn’t a tiny personal computer, but a sex toy.
OhMiBod, which is celebrating its fourth year at CES, just unveiled blueMotion, a wearable “massager,” that can be controller from an Android and iOS device via Bluetooth.
The New Hampshire-based company is also the creator of the original iPod vibrator, and an award-winning innovator of technology-focused pleasure products.
The massager connects to smartphones via the “OhMiBod Remote,” available free from Google Play and the iOS App Store, that allows the creation of unlimited vibration patterns.
Lghtweight and slim, blueMotion has a powerful motor that takes advantage of built-in smartphone features such as the accelerometer, touchscreen and volume controls, and can even record ambient sound up to 60 seconds.
If you’re hoping to spice up your lovelife “with complete discretion,” blueMotion will be available in March 2014 for $129.
via OhMiBod
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Huawei dials up 6.1-inch Ascend Mate 2 4G
Huawei on Monday announced the Ascend Mate2 4G, a 6.1-inch Android smartphone capable of supporting AT&T and T-Mobile’s LTE networks. Powered by a 1.6GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor, the phone boasts a 13-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front-facing camera. Juiced by a 4050mAh battery, it’s so powerful that it can be used to charge other phones. Yes, the bar is now set at 4050mAh for Li-Polymer batteries.
Although its screen size might give reason to pause, the 79% screen-to-body ratio sees that it hardly wastes the space. In terms of software, the Ascend Mate 2 4G comes with a new flavor of Emotion UI which features a simplified design, new one-handed features, and better options for controlling apps, calls and social networking.
Pricing and availability were not made clear but we expect that to flow out in due time. For what it’s worth, Huawei is reported to have pulled out of the U.S. market amid concerns of spying. With that said, you should still be able to scoop one of these up in an unlocked capacity.
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Pebble Announces Next-Generation $249 ‘Pebble Steel’ Smart Watch
Pebble today announced its next-generation Pebble Smart Watch, the Pebble Steel, which features a stainless steel body with a leather or steel band and a face covered with the ultra durable and scratch resistant Gorilla Glass used in Apple’s own products.
Along with a new metal or leather band, a deviation from the plastic band of the first-generation Pebble, the Pebble Steel features smaller side and top bezels for a slimmer, lighter profile. The Pebble Steel weighs 45 grams, two grams less than the original Pebble.
According to Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky, who spoke to CNET, the Pebble Steel is designed to be a more formal version of the original Pebble.
CEO Eric Migicovsky describes Steel as a more formal version of Pebble: “I’m going out for dinner, I’m wearing a suit, I’ve got a position that doesn’t allow me to wear a plastic watch on my wrist. How do I benefit from a smartwatch? How do I get notifications and run all the apps that Pebble offers without having to put something that I don’t prefer on my wrist. We took that as an industrial design problem. It wasn’t really a software problem…We just had to build an aesthetically different Pebble.”
The band is available in both brushed stainless steel and a matte black steel, along with black leather. Pebble Steel lasts for up to a week on a single charge and includes an LED indicator that displays battery life. Like the original Pebble, it is waterproof.
Along with the Steel, Pebble has announced that its app store will be available to users later in January. The company is also partnering with new companies to introduce a playback control app for Pandora, ESPN sports stats and box scores, and a car stats monitoring app from Mercedes.
Pebble Steel will begin shipping on January 28 for $249, a $100 premium over the existing Pebble watch. Pre-orders can be placed today on the Pebble website.
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AT&T scores exclusive Asus Padfone X
ASUS Padfone series is really famous among Android fans – as it is first of its kind tablet and smartphone hybrid. Well, the Padfone’s are around from a long time, but they never made it to the US, and if someone wanted to buy one, the only solution was to import it from overseas, but now there’s a solution. AT&T has decided to release the ASUS Padfone X in the US, and it will come with AT&T’s blazing fast 4G LTE network.
However, not much is known about the Padfone X, but it will have a 5-inch smartphone and a 9-inch tablet station with full HD display. Price and release date is unknown at the moment, but it is rumored that the smartphone will come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor, Adreno 300 graphics, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and Android 4.4 KitKat software, so we can take all this with a grain of salt.
Are you planning to grab one? Tell us in the comment box below.
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Huawei’s big Ascend Mate 2 4G can charge up your iPhone, coming to the US
Given the recent leak, Huawei’s announcement of the Ascend Mate 2 4G should be no surprise to anyone. The device is essentially an LTE Cat 4 (read: 150Mbps!) refresh of its predecessor, packing a similar 6.1-inch 720p IPS panel that seems to be of better display quality, and Gorilla Glass is here to stay. Of course, such screen resolution also means the fixed 4,050mAh battery should keep the Mate 2 going for a lot longer than its 1080p competitors. Furthermore, you can also use the Mate 2 to charge up other devices! Huawei’s rather confident of its own power-management technology, promising 60 hours of “normal use” and 12 hours of web surfing. At the launch event today, Huawei’s Richard Yu confirmed that the Mate 2 4G will have two options for its quad-core 1.6GHz SoC: one is Qualcomm’s MSM8928, and the other is Huawei’s own HiSilicon Cortex-A9 chip.
The Mate 2 also features 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, microSD expansion of up to 32GB, plus a pair of cameras — 5 megapixels f/2.4 on the front and 13 megapixels, f/2.0 on the back. This is all tucked inside a familiar 202g, 9.5mm-thick body, which feels rather nice given the solid frame and slightly slimmer screen bezel, though we’re not too fond of the glossiness on the white Mate 2′s removable back cover (for access to the SIM slot and microSD slot). On the software side, there’s Huawei’s Emotion UI 2.0 running on top of Android 4.3, so users will benefit from features optimized for single-hand usage — especially the telephone keypad that squashes itself to one side, depending on your tilt. You also get handy floating widgets like calculator, calendar, notes and messages to go on top of other apps.
Huawei has yet to provide details on pricing and availability, but you’ll hear from us as soon as we find out.
Update: Richard Yu also confirmed that the Mate 2 4G will be coming to the US, with AT&T name-dropped as a compatible carrier.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Panasonic introduces Toughpad FZ-M1, a 7-inch rugged tablet (hands-on)
At its CES press conference today, Panasonic unveiled a new addition to its Toughpad line of rugged tablets. According to the company’s North American President, Rance Poehler, the 7-inch FZ-M1 is the thinnest rugged tablet of its kind, and it’s certainly a more portable solution than the 20-inch, 4K Toughpad launched last year. (It’s unlikely to pack just as many pixels on its smaller display, though.)
The tablet’s edges are rounded, and a rubber lining is on hand to protect ports and connections. Though Panasonic touts this guy as the thinnest rugged device in its size group, that’s not saying much; it’s no Nexus 7 or iPad mini, basically. The M1′s bezel is a glossy white, as is the Toughpad way, but its build is high-quality and it shows. There aren’t many specs to share at this time, but let’s move on to the internals.
Unsurprisingly, the 7-incher is packing some serious specs under the hood; it runs Windows 8.1 Pro (64-bit) on a fanless Intel Core i5 vPro processor, and naturally it meets the requirements for shock-, drop-, and temperature-resistance. Specifically, it boasts a MIL-STD-810G rating for rough and tumble, in addition to an IP65 certification for dust and water resistance. The shell might be impressive, but the screen is no slouch either — the multi-touch display even boasts “glove touch technology,” hopefully letting you keep those mitts (or welding gloves) on. It’s also daylight-readable, and the matte finish does look like it could hold its on against some sun overhead.
When it comes to connectivity, the slate packs a USB 3.0 port and microSDXC slot, with options for barcode, MSR, SmartCard, Serial and LAN features. Panasonic’s hardened tab also sports WiFi, dedicated GPS, NFC, UHF RFID, Bluetooth 4.0 and optional, integrated LTE connectivity. Sure, it’s got an air-tight case, but the hardware still manages to handle hot swaps of its batteries. Unfortunately, that’s about all we have to share at this point — stay tuned for more info.
Alexis Santos and Zach Honig contributed to this report.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Tablets, HD, Mobile
ASUS brings PadFone X to AT&T with LTE-Advanced support and Voice over LTE
You can count the number of ASUS devices that have been carried by AT&T on two fingers, but the GSM network is ready to show off the duo’s third collaboration. Dubbed the PadFone X, this is the first in the series to be sold in the US, which ASUS CEO Jerry Shen teased to us last month. The concept is exactly the same as previous PadFones sold in other parts of the world; the hybrid setup consists of a 5-inch smartphone that docks with a 9-inch tablet shell (or “station”), and your smartphone info carries over to the tablet when it’s docked. In addition to its unique place as the first of its kind in the US, the X also boasts support for a couple of network features that haven’t yet been activated on AT&T’s network: Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and LTE-Advanced with Carrier Aggregation. Since pricing and availability for both the device and its unique features are still unknowns at this point, we have a strong suspicion that it’ll launch as soon as AT&T is ready to activate its LTE-A network.
Specs are relatively scarce at this point (AT&T tells us that we can expect more details at ASUS’ press conference shortly), but we know that the device will feature Android 4.4 KitKat, full HD displays and a “large battery” of unknown size. We’ll update the post as we hear more, and we expect to get some hands-on time with it soon.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Wireless, Mobile, ASUS, AT&T
Panasonic ups its smart TV game with the VIERA Life+ Screen, complete with voice and facial recognition
Panasonic’s taken to the stage at CES and has just revealed the VIERA Life+ Screen in an effort to “redefine what a 21st Century TV should be.” Televisions under this banner are kitted out with Xbox One-like facial recognition that will display information relevant to users on an “Info Bar” relegated to the lower part of the screen. Voice recognition has also been baked into the set along with a feature called “myStream” that helps you keep favorite channels organized. And of course, it wouldn’t be 2014 without social integration, particularly content sharing and Facebook notifications. When it comes to picture quality, the line of sets shown off today boasts a 4K LED display (which is said to look just as good as the company’s old plasma tech) and will come in 58 to 65 inches when it arrives this year, with an 85-inch — the firm’s first LED TV of that size — joining it later in 2014. Even if you aren’t in the market for a UHD TV, every one of the outfit’s 4K and 1080p sets fresh out this year will have the VIERA Life+ Screen moniker attached.
Filed under: HD
Amped Wireless outs WiFi extender that boosts wireless coverage up to 5,000 square feet
Amped Wireless continues to expand its wireless repertoire with a brand new 802.11 ac Wi-Fi range extender that’s both powerful and compact. Dubbed the REC15A, the device offers a whopping 500 milliwatts of power, four amplifiers and a high-gain dual-band antenna in a relatively small 3-inch by 5-inch package — it even fits neatly into a wall socket thanks to the built-in plug. The company claims that all of that power should result in up to 5,000 square feet of additional wireless coverage, which should be great for those of you with palatial estates or large backyards. The REC15A repeats both 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz WiFi signals and there’s an extra wired port that you can use to attach a networked device like a PC, TV or game console. On the software side of things, it also has parental controls, adjustable settings and free Android and Windows apps that tweak the coverage even more. The REC15A is available for $99.99 and you can pre-order it from Amped Wireless starting today. It starts shipping in the first quarter of 2014.
Filed under: Networking
AT&T planning to launch HD Voice sometime this year
LTE-Advanced? Voice over LTE? HD Voice? This may turn out to be a solid year for AT&T’s network. Alongside the announcement of the ASUS PadFone X at the company’s Developer Summit, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega specified that HD Voice is in the works, and we should start seeing it on devices later this year.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, AT&T
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