MoneyGram and Ripple announce partnership

Last week, we reported on a rumor that Rippple and Western Union were considering a partnership. Those rumors remain unconfirmed, but Business Insider has reported that Ripple and MoneyGram have teamed up. The project is still in its infancy, but MoneyGram hopes to use Ripple’s cryptocurrency, known as XRP, in its “payment flows.”

Companies such as MoneyGram use pre-funded accounts to handle payments, but this process is often slow and can tie up funds for longer than is ideal. MoneyGram’s Alex Holmes told Bloomberg that he was hopeful that the use of Ripple’s blockchain technology could speed up the process of transferring funds.

“Ripple is at the forefront of blockchain technology,” Holmes said. “We’re hopeful it will increase efficiency and improve services to MoneyGram’s customers.”

It remains to be seen as to whether or not MoneyGram will actually adopt XRP, but Ripple has had some success in this area before. It currently offers quick and affordable money transfers to users on different continents. Ripple’s fees are lower than traditional services and digital rivals such as bitcoin, because it employs several middlemen to expedite and simplify the process.

The full details of this plan have not yet been revealed, but MoneyGram’s partnership with Ripple highlights the changing nature of money remittance services such as Western Union and MoneyGram. Currently, so-called legacy providers remain a dominant force in this industry, but digital competitors such as Ripple are starting to catch up. One only needs to look at the fate of Blockbuster Video to see the dangers of ignoring the shifts in a changing market.

In addition to being faster than traditional services, XRP could also disrupt this industry by being more affordable. Digital-first companies have the competitive advantage of not having to pay as high costs as their brick-and-mortar rivals. They’re able to pass those savings on to consumers making them an attractive option for the money-conscious.

The longterm success of this plan remains to be seen, but the short-term has turned out well for both companies. MoneyGram saw its stock rise by 10 percent. Ripple saw an increase of four percent during the same time period.

Editors’ Recommendations

• XRP’s value rises amid rumors that Western Union may adopt the blockchain
• Former Tinder love gurus introduce Ripple, a swipe-based professional network
• Ripple’s XRP saw the strongest growth of any cryptocurrency in 2017
• Here are all the places that support Apple Pay
• What is a blockchain? Here’s everything you need to know

MoneyGram and Ripple announce partnership

Last week, we reported on a rumor that Rippple and Western Union were considering a partnership. Those rumors remain unconfirmed, but Business Insider has reported that Ripple and MoneyGram have teamed up. The project is still in its infancy, but MoneyGram hopes to use Ripple’s cryptocurrency, known as XRP, in its “payment flows.”

Companies such as MoneyGram use pre-funded accounts to handle payments, but this process is often slow and can tie up funds for longer than is ideal. MoneyGram’s Alex Holmes told Bloomberg that he was hopeful that the use of Ripple’s blockchain technology could speed up the process of transferring funds.

“Ripple is at the forefront of blockchain technology,” Holmes said. “We’re hopeful it will increase efficiency and improve services to MoneyGram’s customers.”

It remains to be seen as to whether or not MoneyGram will actually adopt XRP, but Ripple has had some success in this area before. It currently offers quick and affordable money transfers to users on different continents. Ripple’s fees are lower than traditional services and digital rivals such as bitcoin, because it employs several middlemen to expedite and simplify the process.

The full details of this plan have not yet been revealed, but MoneyGram’s partnership with Ripple highlights the changing nature of money remittance services such as Western Union and MoneyGram. Currently, so-called legacy providers remain a dominant force in this industry, but digital competitors such as Ripple are starting to catch up. One only needs to look at the fate of Blockbuster Video to see the dangers of ignoring the shifts in a changing market.

In addition to being faster than traditional services, XRP could also disrupt this industry by being more affordable. Digital-first companies have the competitive advantage of not having to pay as high costs as their brick-and-mortar rivals. They’re able to pass those savings on to consumers making them an attractive option for the money-conscious.

The longterm success of this plan remains to be seen, but the short-term has turned out well for both companies. MoneyGram saw its stock rise by 10 percent. Ripple saw an increase of four percent during the same time period.

Editors’ Recommendations

• XRP’s value rises amid rumors that Western Union may adopt the blockchain
• Former Tinder love gurus introduce Ripple, a swipe-based professional network
• Ripple’s XRP saw the strongest growth of any cryptocurrency in 2017
• Here are all the places that support Apple Pay
• What is a blockchain? Here’s everything you need to know

Google and Qualcomm are poised to put assistants in all the things

Get ready, because little digital helpers are going to be in a lot of the things you buy next year.

You know what I want? I want a microwave oven that has Wi-Fi, a really good speaker, a small touchscreen and Google Assistant. I can make my Hot Pockets while listening to some music, and even tell my little digital buddy to add Pizza Rolls to the shopping list or to turn the heat up a little bit because my feet are cold. And I think I’m going to have the chance to buy it this holiday season because new chips from Qualcomm and changes to Android Things will make it easy to put Assistant in everything.

Cheap specialty hardware and free software makes it silly to not put a voice assistant in your next product.

That’s what it takes to make it happen. Everyone is talking about Lenovo’s Smart Display Google Assistant video thing-a-ma-jig they demoed at CES, but it’s the tech you can’t see that makes it happen. You need the right microprocessor(s) with support for the right things and an operating system that can power it all without adding too much overhead. That’s what Qualcomm and other chipmakers like NXP, Intel or Broadcom and Google have quietly been doing.

Enter the Low Power Bluetooth SoC QCC5100 from Qualcomm. As you can tell from the name (who named it anyway?), it provides Bluetooth support and doesn’t use a lot of power. Two very important things for any modern electronic device. What the name doesn’t tell you is that it also has baked-in support for voice assistant services, Qualcomm TrueWireless Stereo, aptX HD audio, and integrated hybrid/active noise cancellation. This chip was designed just for headphones that use Google Assistant or Amazon’s Alexa service. Other chips in development or already for sale offer similar support for specialty products.

On the Google side, new APIs for Android Things make it easy to make a cool thing with the next generation of chips. Android Things is an operating system for small connected devices that runs fast and lean. It’s also easy to develop applications for because you use the same tools and methods that you would if you were building an app for an Android phone. And like Android “proper”, it’s free for the taking, and if you follow Google or Amazon’s guidelines on what the OS can do and what features it will support when you build it, you also get Google Assistant or Alexa for free.

Not every company is as ambitious as Samsung and wants to build their own infrastructure and service backends for a voice assistant. What companies like Qualcomm and Google are offering is a turn-key solution to building a product that people will buy. This allows a company like Lenovo to build out a Smart Display. Or a company like Nest (an Alphabet holding) to put Google Assistant in the next generation of smart thermostats. Or Xiaomi to put Assistant in a television, or Kenwood to put it in your car’s dashboard.

The closest any of us here has ever been to a Maserati.

It’s important to remember that these aren’t Google products. They are made by the companies selling them using off-the-shelf parts and a purpose-built operating system that they get for free. Companies can add a new feature to a product without much extra cost to the bill of materials in the hopes that it will be a hit and they will sell millions of them. Everyone makes money — Qualcomm sells their specialty hardware, Google gets more data for their giant advertising machine in the sky, and companies like LG and Pioneer get to keep the profit from the things they sell. It’s sort of like that Perfect Storm scenario from the movie, but with less rain and death (hopefully).

My prediction is that once you can add Assistant or Alexa to a product without spending a lot to develop it, companies are going to do it to everything. From a toothbrush that works with Google Health and Google Fit to a doorbell that reminds you to take an umbrella along as you leave the house, these products are coming. The question is, are we ready for them?

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ ventures outside Gilead in second season

The Handmaid’s Tale has been a huge success for Hulu, earning the streaming platform quite a few Emmys and two Golden Globes. The first season was based on Margaret Atwood’s novel by the same name but many have wondered what’s in store for the upcoming second season. “The biggest barrier of season two was season one,” showrunner Bruce Miller told Entertainment Weekly. “You sort of intimidate yourself. But at a certain point, you can’t spend all your time second-guessing things. Instead, you just have to remember to try and tell a good story.” Miller says he and Margaret Atwood began talking about the direction of the second season before the first was completed.

While keeping the season’s plot largely under wraps, Miller did give EW some hints as to what’s to come in season two and some stills from the show give us a look as well. Characters living outside of Gilead will definitely be a part of the season, and those include Samira Wiley’s character Moira as well as those exiled to the polluted and contaminated Colonies — a place only mentioned in the novel. You can see a depiction of the Colonies in the image above. Miller also teased a handmaid funeral scene and one still shows a bloodied Offred — Elisabeth Moss’ character.

The second season of The Handmaid’s Tale will premier in April.

Images: Hulu

Via: io9

Ben Heck’s mini pinball game: Integrating IR sensors

The team is laser-cutting, CNC-routing and designing another PCB this week. Tune in as Ben uses Autodesk Eagle to design an infrared ball detector for the mini pinball build instead of relying on mechanical detectors, which should help keep costs down. Not all the design work has gone well, though: Felix finds he has to address issues with the main control board. What PCBs have you designed? Any difficulties you’ve encountered? Let us know over on the element14 Community.

9 amazing uses for graphene, from filtering seawater to smart paint

Graphene is a single layer of graphite — also known as that soft material commonly found in pencil lead — with the atoms arranged in a honeycomb-like, hexagonal pattern. While that description is decidedly unexciting, graphene is actually emerging as one of science’s most versatile new materials.

Just one atom thick (or thin, depending on how you think about it), graphene is among the strongest materials in the known universe, with 100 times the strength of steel, an astonishing amount of flexibility, and a whole lot of other talents lurking beneath the surface.

Do you remember that classic scene from The Simpsons in which Homer is offered “wax lips,” described by the salesman as “the candy of 1,000 uses?” Well, graphene is the wax lips of the material science world. And while we don’t have time to detail 1,000 uses, here are some of the most exciting graphene discoveries made so far.

Creating the world’s thinnest light bulb

Imagine a flexible, transparent display or light strip that’s just a single atom thick. That’s something graphene could help make a reality, as demonstrated by research from scientists at Columbia (University) Engineering, Seoul National University, and Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science.

By attaching small strips of graphene to metal electrodes and passing a current through them, the graphene was shown to heat — and light — up. Columbia professor James Hone described it as “the world’s thinnest light bulb.” Finding a way to translate this breakthrough into wearables such as smart clothing would be revolutionary.

Acting as a superconductor

Graphene can also act as a superconductor, meaning that electrical current is able to flow through it with zero resistance, a discovery that was made by researchers at the United Kingdom’s Cambridge University. The effect is activated by coupling the graphene with a material called praseodymium cerium copper oxide (PCCO).

Why do superconducting materials matter? Because in the future ,they could provide a source of unlimited energy, since they don’t constantly need to be resupplied with current.

“One day, the dream is to make your computer or your iPhone work without dissipating energy,” junior research fellow Angelo Di Bernardo, one of the researchers on the project, told Digital Trends. “You’ll just charge it once and then you can forget about having to charge it again its entire lifetime.”

A better speaker system

To produce sound, regular speakers create a pressure wave in the air by physically moving back and forth. Graphene could eventually offer a different approach. Researcher from the U.K.’s University of Exeter have demonstrated how graphene can create a non-moving solid-state audio device that may one day replace your existing bulky sound system with something called thermo-acoustic sound generation.

Instead of physically moving a component, this process works by using graphene to periodically vary the temperature of the air at a very high rate — enough to generate sound at audible frequencies and much higher, ultrasonic frequencies. The result could be the ability to incorporate speakers into ultrathin touchscreen technologies, in which the screen is able to produce sound on its own. No separate speakers required.

Body armor stronger than diamonds

Ella Maru Studio

A single layer of graphene is awesome. You know what’s even more awesome? Two layers of graphene combined. That’s what researchers from Georgia Tech recently showcased with a demonstration of how two-layer epitaxial graphene film — just two atomic layers of graphite — can withstand perforation by a diamond tip.

The hope is to develop this into ultrathin body armor, as light as foil, but strong as diamond, that is capable of stopping a bullet dead in its tracks. (Interestingly, the graphene shield’s ultra-hardening effect only results when two sheets of graphene are used, with extra layers appearing to have a detrimental effect.)

Filtering salt from seawater or color from whisky

Kichigin Aleksandr/123RF

Graphene membranes can be used to create a sieve finer than one you’ll find in any restaurant kitchen. One study demonstrated that a graphene membrane can filter 85 percent of salt out of seawater, which isn’t quite pure enough for drinking purposes, but is perfectly acceptable for agricultural use.

Think that’s impressive? It’s nothing compared to recent research coming out of the U.K.’s University of Manchester, where researchers used a graphene membrane to filter the color out of whisky — leaving it as a transparent liquid.

“The absence of dye molecule permeation was apparent even from the color of the solution after filtration,” Professor Rahul Nair from the U.K.’s University of Manchester told Digital Trends. “The original dye solution is colorful, while after filtering through the [graphene oxide] membrane, the solution lost its color and became a pure solvent.”

The paint of the future

Imagine if you could paint a building with a special coating that changes color when it senses that the underlying structure is in need of repairs. That’s what researchers at Germany’s Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research achieved with a smart graphene coating that indicates breaks and fractures by changing color.

Inspired by the way that fish scales reflect light, the coating is designed to amplify particular wavelengths of light, but dull others. The graphene flakes are placed onto a surface at certain angles so that, if compromised in some way, they’ll bounce back red, yellow, and green light, while noncompromised areas will not.

Cleverly, the color of light can change according to the severity of an area’s stress, so structures could conceivably be color-coded to show how major a particular area of damage is.

Tracking our health

Tyler Olsen/123RF

It’s not just building health that graphene’s good at detecting. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have demonstrated that it can help detect cancer cells, too. In an experiment, they placed brain cells taken from mice onto a graphene sheet, and found that it was able to distinguish between a single cancerous cell (glioblastoma or GMB cell) and a normal cell.

Other researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have also created graphene-based temporary tattoos capable of tracking a person’s vital signs, such as their skin temperature and hydration.

Recharging our gadgets

Graphene can also be used to create new batteries that recharge super quickly. One Chinese company called Dongxu Optoelectronic has built a battery pack called the G-King, which has a giant 4,800mAh capacity, but can reportedly charge from empty to full in just a quarter of an hour.

The cell is also supposedly strong enough to be discharged and recharged 3,500 times — which is way more than a regular lithium-ion battery.

Creating some kickass running shoes

inov-8.com

Starting this year, you’ll be able to buy running shoes made using graphene, thanks to a partnership between the U.K.’s University of Manchester and sportswear brand inov-8. The shoes have already been put through their paces in the lab, and the graphene composite rubber outsoles (the part of the shoe actually featuring graphene) are reportedly much stronger and more stretchy than traditional materials, making the shoes more resistant to wear and tear.

Hopefully the second-gen kicks will also filter saltwater, protect you from bullets, recharge your mobile devices, and cure cancer — for good measure!

Editors’ Recommendations

• Like your whisky straight, no color? Graphene turns aged spirit transparent
• Graphene’s next trick? Creating foil-thin body armor that’s harder than diamonds
• Great balls of graphene: New Samsung tech could charge phones five times faster
• Graphene-based wearable could help save babies from ‘crib death’
• The world’s first graphene running shoes are coming in 2018

TiVo sues Comcast again over alleged patent infringement

Though TiVo and Comcast just wrapped up a round of patent infringement litigation, TiVo’s looking for another go. Yesterday, it filed lawsuits in California and Massachusetts alleging that Comcast’s X1 set-top boxes are infringing on no less than eight of its patents. “Through decades-long investment in research and development, Rovi has created innovations that delight consumers in their day-to-day entertainment experience. Our commitment to our customers and stockholders compels us to protect these valuable inventions from unlicensed use,” TiVo CEO Enrique Rodriguez said in a statement. TiVo was acquired by Rovi in 2016. The merged companies took the more recognizable name TiVo and at joining, they together held over 6,000 patents.

In November, the International Trade Commission ruled that Comcast had violated two of TiVo’s patents and ordered an import ban on X1 boxes that violated those patents. Comcast wound up disabling certain features that infringed on TiVo’s intellectual property and is in the process of appealing that ruling.

As people move more towards on-demand viewing and cord-cutting, TiVo’s products are becoming less and less relevant. Rovi was known to be litigious before it bought TiVo, and the company appears to be turning to lawsuits in order to keep ahold of the money it brings in through licensing rights. TiVo’s goal with these latest lawsuits is to push Comcast to reup an over-a-decade-long licensing agreement it had with TiVo that expired in 2016.

The patents TiVo is accusing Comcast of violating in its newly filed lawsuits are related to features like pausing and resuming programs on different devices, restarting live programs already in progress, DVR recording and search and voice functionality. TiVo says it will also file suits with the International Trade Commission regarding these patents.

A Comcast spokesperson told us, “Comcast engineers independently created our X1 products and services, and through its litigation campaign against Comcast, Rovi seeks to charge Comcast and its customers for technology Rovi didn’t create. Rovi’s attempt to extract these unfounded payments for its aging and increasingly obsolete patent portfolio has failed to date. And as we have in its other suits, we will continue to aggressively defend ourselves.”

Source: TiVo

Tag Heuer made a smaller modular smartwatch

Those of us with smaller wrists may have noticed that most of the connected smartwatches out there are, well, kind of huge. Tag Heuer’s Connected Modular 45, for example, was a lovely device with a 45mm case diameter, perfect for larger wrists but lousy for everyone else. The company has now decided to support the smaller among us with a new Connected Modular 41, with — you guessed it — a watch with a 41mm diameter for those with more diminutive extremities.

It’s not just size that matters, here, either. Tag Heuer worked with Intel and Google to create an improved smartwatch, with a brighter screen that displays in 390 X 390 resolution, giving you 326 pixels per inch. The memory capacity is up, too, with 8 GB of storage and 1 GB of RAM included. Similar to the Apple Watch, Tag Heuer’s new 41mm model has nine different straps to connect the device to your arm; you can even connect the company’s Calibre 5 mechanical watch to the bands if you like. The new smartwatch is water resistant to 50 meters and has GPS and NFC (for Android Pay) connectivity. You can connect it to phones running Android 4.4 or iOS 9 and up. The new model is set to retail starting at $1,200.00, so start saving your pennies.

Even pets got in on the action at CES with these gadgets for furry friends

From rollable OLED TVs to robots that can play ping pong, CES is always filled with mouth-opening tech — but it’s not all for humans. Every year there’s a growing list of impressive tech for our pets, from temperature-controlled beds, to a ball that can play with your dog. Here’s what we found and loved at CES 2018.

Pebby

Ever feel guilty for leaving your pet alone at home? Pebby’s a great way to make sure your dog or cat doesn’t get bored at home. Pebby is a ball that houses a camera and several sensors, but these delicate electronics are protected by an incredibly strong and waterproof plastic material — your dog will have a difficult time chewing it. You can use an app to move the ball around — even if you’re miles away from home — and the camera and speaker lets you see and speak to your pet. If you don’t have time to control the ball, you can purchase a “smart collar” that you put on your pet, and Pebby will roll around and play with your dog automatically. The collar also doubles as a basic activity tracker.

Pebby can go off in play mode for about 90 minutes, and if you need to charge it, send it towards the ramp-shaped charger and Pebby will automatically find its place and start charging. Pebby originated as a successfully-funded Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaign, but the company is finally ready to ship. Pre-orders start at $189, and final retail price will set you back $249. It will start shipping in the first quarter of 2018. You can pre-order the smart collar for $59 now, but the official price will be $79.

PetMio

PetMio wants to be an all-in-one solution to help manage your pet’s eating habits. First is the Smart Tracker, which goes on your pet’s collar and tracks activity and periods of rest. The data gathered from the tracker allows the connected app to figure out exactly how much exercise your cat or dog gets, and what needs to be in his or her diet. It’s all done through PetMio’s Intelligent Nutritional Algorithm, which is powered by machine learning. The Smart Bowl, which doubles as a scale, tells you how much food to give, as well as how long your pet is eating for, how much, and how often. All this data is uploaded to the cloud is compared to other pets using PetMio to identify trends, which the company hopes will help veterinarians preemptively identify health risks.

Best of all, the PetMio system knows how much food you ordered and how much your pet has eaten thanks to the Smart Bowl. The app will automatically send you more food when it detects you’re almost out. The company wants to make sure your pet is eating the amount they should, so each day’s worth of food is packed into individual bags — you’ll get a box filled with these individual packages. PetMio claims the food is “organic, human-grade, natural,” with responsibly-sourced ingredients. The tracker costs $80, the bowl costs $120 (a larger bowl is priced at $140). If you pre-order now, you can get both as well as a month’s worth of food for $99 (dogs and cats under 50 lbs) or $129 (over 51 lbs). PetMio originated as a successfully-funded Kickstarter campaign. It will launch in the fall, and will be subscription-based.

Petrics

Pets deserve the best place to sleep, and Petrics‘ answer is a temperature-controlled bed. The ecosystem is similar to the triple-device service from PetMio, but instead of delivering your food, Petrics is more about sleep, nutrition, and activity. The Universal Fit Activity Tracker attaches to your cat or dog’s collar and measures activity. It’s IPX7 water-resistant and has a 4-month battery life. The Smart Pet Bed has three functions: it’s a scale, it can warm up or cool down the bed, and the mattress is composed of a comfy memory foam-like material. Then there’s the app, where you can input what food you feed your pet, and get nutritional advice and recommendations.

All three work together, so when the tracker detects your dog or cat had a good deal of activity, it will cool down the bed. The activity data is sent to the app so you can see things like your pet’s “caloric burn rates.” The app can do a great deal more, like offer food based on your dog’s breed and activity; it can issue alerts when there’s been a food recall; and it can remind you about vet visits and when you need to give your pet its medications. Petrics’ products will launch early 2018, but pricing hasn’t been confirmed.

Wagz

Got more than one dog? Wagz has some nifty solutions to problems like securely letting your dog in and out of the house, or making sure one dog doesn’t eat the other’s lunch. Using radio frequency on collars, the smart feeder can detect when your dog approaches its bowl. If it’s a different dog, the feeder will close the bowl. The same technology is applied to the dog door, which opens only when your dog approaches it. The feeder and door will cost $250 each, and will be available early 2018.

Wagz also has a smart collar that track your dog via GPS, and you can add a camera to it (as a separate purchase) to get GoPro-style action footage. The connected app lets you create geo-fences that warn you when your dog leaves designated areas; it alerts you when your dog is barking unusually; and it also tracks basic fitness activity. The collar has an e-paper display that shows your dog’s name, as well as your phone number and address — it won’t fade away even after the collar’s battery dies after 72 hours. The collar costs $295 (without the camera), and Wagz will start shipping in the spring of 2018. For GPS tracking, you’ll have to pay about $10 a month.

Tractive GPS Cat

Tractive has been in the business of making GPS-connected wearables for dogs for quite some time, but at CES 2018 it finally unveiled a GPS tracker for your cat. It’s meant for people who let their cat out to stroll around the neighborhood, but it can also give you peace of mind if your cat manages to leave your house on its own. The tracker is integrated into the collar, and it also tracks activity. Due to European law, the collar has a “breakaway” mechanism that makes it fall apart if your cat gets stuck with it on. The feature sort of defeats the purpose if the collar is meant to track your cat, but it’s the same problem with most smart cat collars.

The Tractive GPS Cat will release soon this year, but it will launch in Europe first. It will likely cost around the same price as Tractive’s other trackers, which is $70. There’s a version for dogs called the Tractive GPS Dog, which is a slightly revamped version of its previous dog trackers. Its main improvement is a better collar attachment.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Your pet can sleep on its own smart mattress with Petrics
• Pebby lets you play with your pet even when you are away
• Give Google a bone — Google Photos can now identify different pets
• The Waggit fitness collar will help track and improve your dog’s health
• Snapchat is assisting your search for the perfect filter with ‘computer vision’

Even pets got in on the action at CES with these gadgets for furry friends

From rollable OLED TVs to robots that can play ping pong, CES is always filled with mouth-opening tech — but it’s not all for humans. Every year there’s a growing list of impressive tech for our pets, from temperature-controlled beds, to a ball that can play with your dog. Here’s what we found and loved at CES 2018.

Pebby

Ever feel guilty for leaving your pet alone at home? Pebby’s a great way to make sure your dog or cat doesn’t get bored at home. Pebby is a ball that houses a camera and several sensors, but these delicate electronics are protected by an incredibly strong and waterproof plastic material — your dog will have a difficult time chewing it. You can use an app to move the ball around — even if you’re miles away from home — and the camera and speaker lets you see and speak to your pet. If you don’t have time to control the ball, you can purchase a “smart collar” that you put on your pet, and Pebby will roll around and play with your dog automatically. The collar also doubles as a basic activity tracker.

Pebby can go off in play mode for about 90 minutes, and if you need to charge it, send it towards the ramp-shaped charger and Pebby will automatically find its place and start charging. Pebby originated as a successfully-funded Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaign, but the company is finally ready to ship. Pre-orders start at $189, and final retail price will set you back $249. It will start shipping in the first quarter of 2018. You can pre-order the smart collar for $59 now, but the official price will be $79.

PetMio

PetMio wants to be an all-in-one solution to help manage your pet’s eating habits. First is the Smart Tracker, which goes on your pet’s collar and tracks activity and periods of rest. The data gathered from the tracker allows the connected app to figure out exactly how much exercise your cat or dog gets, and what needs to be in his or her diet. It’s all done through PetMio’s Intelligent Nutritional Algorithm, which is powered by machine learning. The Smart Bowl, which doubles as a scale, tells you how much food to give, as well as how long your pet is eating for, how much, and how often. All this data is uploaded to the cloud is compared to other pets using PetMio to identify trends, which the company hopes will help veterinarians preemptively identify health risks.

Best of all, the PetMio system knows how much food you ordered and how much your pet has eaten thanks to the Smart Bowl. The app will automatically send you more food when it detects you’re almost out. The company wants to make sure your pet is eating the amount they should, so each day’s worth of food is packed into individual bags — you’ll get a box filled with these individual packages. PetMio claims the food is “organic, human-grade, natural,” with responsibly-sourced ingredients. The tracker costs $80, the bowl costs $120 (a larger bowl is priced at $140). If you pre-order now, you can get both as well as a month’s worth of food for $99 (dogs and cats under 50 lbs) or $129 (over 51 lbs). PetMio originated as a successfully-funded Kickstarter campaign. It will launch in the fall, and will be subscription-based.

Petrics

Pets deserve the best place to sleep, and Petrics‘ answer is a temperature-controlled bed. The ecosystem is similar to the triple-device service from PetMio, but instead of delivering your food, Petrics is more about sleep, nutrition, and activity. The Universal Fit Activity Tracker attaches to your cat or dog’s collar and measures activity. It’s IPX7 water-resistant and has a 4-month battery life. The Smart Pet Bed has three functions: it’s a scale, it can warm up or cool down the bed, and the mattress is composed of a comfy memory foam-like material. Then there’s the app, where you can input what food you feed your pet, and get nutritional advice and recommendations.

All three work together, so when the tracker detects your dog or cat had a good deal of activity, it will cool down the bed. The activity data is sent to the app so you can see things like your pet’s “caloric burn rates.” The app can do a great deal more, like offer food based on your dog’s breed and activity; it can issue alerts when there’s been a food recall; and it can remind you about vet visits and when you need to give your pet its medications. Petrics’ products will launch early 2018, but pricing hasn’t been confirmed.

Wagz

Got more than one dog? Wagz has some nifty solutions to problems like securely letting your dog in and out of the house, or making sure one dog doesn’t eat the other’s lunch. Using radio frequency on collars, the smart feeder can detect when your dog approaches its bowl. If it’s a different dog, the feeder will close the bowl. The same technology is applied to the dog door, which opens only when your dog approaches it. The feeder and door will cost $250 each, and will be available early 2018.

Wagz also has a smart collar that track your dog via GPS, and you can add a camera to it (as a separate purchase) to get GoPro-style action footage. The connected app lets you create geo-fences that warn you when your dog leaves designated areas; it alerts you when your dog is barking unusually; and it also tracks basic fitness activity. The collar has an e-paper display that shows your dog’s name, as well as your phone number and address — it won’t fade away even after the collar’s battery dies after 72 hours. The collar costs $295 (without the camera), and Wagz will start shipping in the spring of 2018. For GPS tracking, you’ll have to pay about $10 a month.

Tractive GPS Cat

Tractive has been in the business of making GPS-connected wearables for dogs for quite some time, but at CES 2018 it finally unveiled a GPS tracker for your cat. It’s meant for people who let their cat out to stroll around the neighborhood, but it can also give you peace of mind if your cat manages to leave your house on its own. The tracker is integrated into the collar, and it also tracks activity. Due to European law, the collar has a “breakaway” mechanism that makes it fall apart if your cat gets stuck with it on. The feature sort of defeats the purpose if the collar is meant to track your cat, but it’s the same problem with most smart cat collars.

The Tractive GPS Cat will release soon this year, but it will launch in Europe first. It will likely cost around the same price as Tractive’s other trackers, which is $70. There’s a version for dogs called the Tractive GPS Dog, which is a slightly revamped version of its previous dog trackers. Its main improvement is a better collar attachment.

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