Author Archives: TEKD

Play Guitar Anywhere with the Zivix JamStick

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Play Guitar Anywhere with the Zivix JamStackSometimes, you just gotta jam. If you love to play the guitar or are wanting to learn, the new JamStick from Zivix is a highly portable digital guitar that takes the frustration out of learning letting you play music anywhere.

JamStick is a fifteen-inch long guitar that connects with your iDevice turning your iDevice into a real musical instrument. It works by using a patented infrared sensing fret board to precisely detect the position of a fingertip and track your movements. When combined with the JamMix app, users can strum along on real strings that never need tuning. If you are looking to learn the guitar, the JamTutor app will guide you through several fun interactive lessons that you can then transition to a real guitar. JamStick never needs batteries, it contains a lithium-ion battery and is completely rechargeable using the supplied charger or through a USB port.

JamStick is designed with only the first five frets of a guitar, but as they point out, the majority of music played on the guitar only uses the first five. If a string ever breaks, they can easily be replaced with no need to tune them as they simply provide realistic tension to simulate a guitar feel. JamStick will retail for 300 bucks and if you want to get one first, check out their Indiegogo page and grab yours for 200 dollars.

Extreme Sports Metrics with the LIT Activity Tracker

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Extreme Sports Metrics with the LIT Activity TrackerMost fitness trackers can keep track of distance, direction or steps taken which is great if you are engaged in a sport with walking or running. When you are surfing, skating or even snowboarding, you might want to know hang time, maximum airtime, jumps and even g-forces.

The LIT Activity Tracker from NZN Labs is designed for action sports with unique motions. It works by using an advanced six-axis accelerometer combined with a gyroscope to sense motions other fitness trackers cannot and then applies a tailored algorithm to score those activities. With extreme sports comes extreme environments, which is why LIT is rugged, water and shock resistant and fastens securely to your wrist or is wearable just about anywhere you want to hide it. When combined with their app, LIT users can compete with their friends, share their stats on popular social sites and even keep track of previous sessions to monitor improvements.

The LIT Activity Tracker is about bragging rights and having fun in the sports you enjoy outside and even during your fitness routine. NZN Labs has an Indiegogo campaign so put up or shut up; toss them 99 bucks and challenge yourself and your friends in the extreme sports you share.

The Piq Jukebox Brings Social Music Play to Gatherings

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The Piq Jukebox Brings Social Music Play to GatheringsWhen you go to a party, everyone has to listen to the music the host chooses, and please, do not touch the stereo! Piq is going to change that making everyone in the room with a smart phone the DJ.

Piq is a small social jukebox that you connect to your music system and with a downloadable app, anyone in the room can pick, or, “Piq” their favorite song to play. Using the app is simple enough, connect to your music service or bring up your stored music, select a song and the song is added to the playlist. Here is where Piq gets very social: everyone at the gathering can vote on the songs in the playlist. Attendees can vote them up or down with the highest voted songs on the list playing sooner and the least voted playing later.

Piq currently works with Spotify and plans to add other music services as they continue development. If you are looking forward to shouting, “who Piq’d Smoke on the Water again” at your next party, or maybe you are that person, check out their Kickstarter page and show them some love, cowbell style.

Master Mixology with The Barman Drink Mixing Platform

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Master Mixology with The Barman Drink Mixing PlatformMost of us can figure out how to mix a rum and Coke but do you know how to mix a Manhattan or a Cosmopolitan? John Gallagher is about to introduce The Barman to get you on the road to mastering mixology.

The Barman is a drink mixing platform that uses differential weight to guide you through mixing any drink you desire. It uses a smart phone app that knows hundreds of drinks and communicates with the phone through Bluetooth. To use The Barman, place any glass on the platform, select a drink and follow the indicator on the front of the system which shows how much of the ingredient to add. The Barman has an indicator under the glass that turns the glass blue while you are mixing your beverage. For each ingredient in the recipe, the indicator will turn red when the differential weight has been reached; flashing when the drink is finished.

Once you have built the perfect cocktail, The Barman app lets you save the recipe as a favorite and share your creation on Facebook and Twitter so your friends can download and mix the recipe. The Barman lets you customize any drink to your tastes and if you have a cocktail creation of your own, it has a drink learn mode. You can mix any type of liquid, carbonated or not, and even sugar or other solids for when you just have to have that perfect lemon drop.

The Barman is a fun, easy to use system that puts a bartender on your countertop and makes having a drink a social event in today’s social media world.

The Siva Cycle Atom is Peddle Power for the World

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The Siva Cycle Atom is Peddle Power for the WorldEnergy spent cycling can get you around and away from it all to places where charging a device might be an issue. With the Siva Cycle Atom you can now capture that energy and turn your peddle power into real, usable power for your devices.

The Siva Cycle Atom is a small generator that securely fastens to the rear wheel axle of your bike. As you peddle, the Atom captures the energy you are expending to ride and stores it in a small battery. When you need a charge, hook your device up to the battery pack and the calories you burned biking are now charging your device. When you think of the impact a device like this could have on a global scale where access to power is very limited, a ride to home could also be the power that lights an LED lamp at night.

The Atom is lightweight, water resistant and is completely sealed to keep mud and dirt out. The generator will add some load to your peddling, however, most riders will not feel the difference.

The iLumi Full Spectrum LED Smart Light is a Bright Idea

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The iLumi Full Spectrum LED Smart Light is a Bright IdeaFinally, someone had the bright idea to make an energy saving LED light that is functional and intelligent. The iLumi smart lighting solution is a product that will, “bring your light to life”.

iLumi is a full spectrum LED light that is wirelessly controlled through Bluetooth on a smart phone app. On board each bulb is computing technology that also makes the bulb programmable through the phone, including a fast Flash processor, four megabytes of Flash memory and a real-time clock. Set up is as easy as screwing in a light bulb and downloading the free app. The bulb uses patent pending HyperLux technology to achieve the brightest, most efficient use of the multicolor LEDs, makes each bulb dimmable, and you can set them to millions of colors.

The programming aspect of the iLumi is what really makes them shine. You can set them to come on or turn off at a specific time, change color when you receive a phone call, make dynamic lighting effects for parties and even save lighting scenarios for perfect movie or dinner lighting. The bulbs can be programmed to slowly dim up making waking up in the morning easy on your eyes or slowly dim down as you get ready to rack out. The programming possibilities and applications are endless.

The bulbs come in two sizes to meet your indoor lighting needs in equivalent 100- and 60-watt powers and can be used in any standard socket. Each bulb has up to a twenty-year lifespan and will easily pay for itself in energy saving over the life of the bulb while giving your space the perfect atmosphere.