GADGETS
With spring here many of us have fitness on our minds! Joonbug heard about this ultra-cool fitness band called Basis and wanted to learn more! You wear Basis on your wrist and it helps you decipher which activities burn the most calories, tracks your heart rate, and gives you insight into your fitness routine and overall health.
This lightweight, sleek, and easy to use device can be taken anywhere! For the fashion-minded there are various color options including vibrant red, black, or white. Basis serves as a fitness watch, but really does so much more! For $199, it’s the first device that has the ability to tie your movement, calories burnt, sweat, and pulse together. You gain insight into which activities burn the most calories for you and how you can alter your fitness routine for maximum results. The device can actually save you time and money, because you can see which workouts work best for you (if you've invested in a gym membership). Basis also believes that a few key concepts can help you change your overall health and mood; adding walks, getting proper rest by setting, and sticking to, a reasonable bedtime, and that it's hard to manage what you can't measure. This device has changed all of that.
Both "techies" and fitness lovers are really digging this new wave of fitness gadgets.
How many times a day do you take out your phone to check the time? If you’re like me, the answer is constantly, almost to the degree of obsession. I like to know what time it is, at all times. Rumor has it that Apple may have the answer for those of us who are time checking obsessed as they are experimenting with a wristwatch computer. Our dreams of Marty McFly’s hoover board from Back to the Future may be a few years off but we can soon be checking our wrists for bits of information just like James Bond and comic book detective Dick Tracy.
The always secretive Apple has dropped hints that they’ve been experimenting with curved glass at their California headquarters. The glass would be capable of curving around a human body. But engineering curved glass that is flexible enough to move along with the unpredictability of the human body was no easy task. After a decade of research, Corning, the maker of the tough Gorilla Glass used on iPhones and iPads, has solved that difficult challenge with the invention of Willow Glass. The Willow Glass is so thin and flexible that it’s able to “flop as easily as a piece of paper in the wind without breaking.” Now that the mystery behind the materials is somewhat uncovered there are a million and one questions that tech nerds and apple-aficionados are dying to have the answers to. Will Siri be included? Could you use the iWatch for directions in real time? Would it be a more technologically-advanced version of Nike’s Fuel Band? Would the watch be synced to an iPhone using Bluetooth making the device completely hands free? And the list goes on and on. Although Google is hot on Apple’s heels with their Google Glasses, Apple’s wristband computer will likely be a cheaper alternative to Google Glasses and will be the best way to deal with competition from other brands such as Google and Samsung. If the technology is available, which we’re sure Apple is very capable of, wearable computers may replace the Smartphone in the next decade or so.
Get it while it's hot! Jetson Bike has launched the Jetson E-Bike, the first eco-friendly and stylish electric bike. Perfect for busybodies, city dwellers, and even towns folk, this bike runs on a high grade rechargable battery -- all you have to do is plug it in, charge it up, and wheels away! The bike has the nice, sleek look of a vespa but is actually environmentally friendly. Probably the best feature of this new bike is that you no longer need to spend half your paycheck on gas and spend half an hour looking for a parking space.
Ogon Wallets
Say see ya to leather billfolds. Ogon’s forward-thinking wallets feature a secure aluminum construction, bright standout colors and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) protection that keeps your personal information hidden from today’s high-tech thieves. Choose from array of colors from Silver to Gold to Purple, Lime Green and more.
To shop Ogon Wallets click here.
MollaSpace
Mollaspace carries items by designers from all over the world to further its mission of transforming objects from mundane background-blending items into whimsical vehicles of self-expression. We’re digging the Eco Can, a reusable water bottle in the shape of a soda can.
Absolut’s NEW Drinkspiration App just recently launched and it’s no surprise to us that the mega-vodka brand has joined the era of advanced tech.
Like any great bartender, the NEW Drinkspiration App delivers personalized recommendations based on your past tastes, location, time of day, noise level and more. Not only does the App come stocked with hundreds of recommendations but it also provides recipes, how-to videos and a special large font feature that’s ideal for using while on-premise enjoyment at any bar.
No one is on top of dance music marketing quite like the Tiësto camp. The legendary producer and DJ already has a radio show, a Guess clothing collection, an iPhone app and now a line of headphones in conjuction with audio design pioneers AKG. Two of the three models - K167 TIËSTO (professional) and K67 TIËSTO (reference) - are already available for purchase worldwide. The third, K267 TIËSTO (high performance), is due out later this month.
The X Factor judge we hate to love has revealed that he's parterned up with Syco Entertainment, his joint venture with Sony Entertainment, to design a line of headphones called "X Headphones."
"I've tried all of them, literally every single one. Sony and I set out to create the best headphone in the world. We are absolutely blown away by these. With the X headphones, it's like being in the recording studio when the records are made. The sound is that clear," Cowell said in a statement. The headphones are going for a nifty $299 and will be featured throughout the X Factor season.
Check out Engadget for a detailed review.
Social media snobs you're in for a treat - a new online social network is making its way to you! Erik and Louise Wachtmeister launched Best of All Worlds, an innovative and private online community that focuses on the future. Erik states that, "So much of social media is about focusing on other people’s pasts. Best of All Worlds is about paying attention to our own future.” This invite-only platform offers relevant future-facing information instead of focusing on past events. You can access Best of All Worlds both online and through their iPhone app.
StrutType, a new iPhone app, gives both amateur and professional photographers the ability to turn their photos into turn-of-the-century works of art. iOS app developer Christine Summers of Ultimate Chemistry and media relations guru Neil Alumkal, and President of Stuntman PR, collaborated to bring this unique app to life. The app recreates dry-plate photography between 1875 and 1920. It features a range of 20 filters, black & white, gray tones, sepia, greens and cyans combined with period-specific canvases, textures, watermarking, vignettes, light-leak effects and frames. “The wood and brass Strut folding camera introduced the first portable, dry plate photography in our history. It was actually the flaws of the process that gave images of that era a character that’s been lost ever since,” explains Summers, President of Ultimate Chemistry. “The light leaks, the vignetting, the canvas, the frames, the random blurs and the tinting culminated to create a certain magic that’s almost unachievable now. This is the first time in a century where you can get that look without an extreme amount of antique shopping.”
Disney researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed new technology that will bring your plants to life. Based on the principle that all living things contain natural electric energy, scientists are using computers to tap into this energy and make it possible for us as humans to go so far as to play music with a rhododendron!
Now don't fear for the plants, these researchers assure us that the process is completely non-invasive. Simply by placing a wire in the plants soil and attaching it to the computer software, we are able to interact with the plant. The software allows the plant to detect our touch location or even estimate our frequency of grasp and contact, thus our being able to play a plant like an instrument.
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