Hacker Drone to Hijack Other Drones To Take Full Control

Hacker Samy Kamkar has engineered a changed Parrot AR Drone 2.0 — which, coincidentally, can be purchased on Amazon — that may hijack different Parrot drones within the locality, taking full control of them. Basically, it is a drone that produces zombie drones.

Kamkar dubbed his creation pirate and printed a close clarification of however it are often reproduced on his journal Tues. All you would like could be a Parrot AR Drone 2.0 equipped with a little Raspberry Pi computer device, a battery, 2 wireless transmitters and Kamkar's software package.

His software package is wherever the hacker magic happens. It makes the drone fly around, craving for the wireless signals of different Parrot drones within the locality. once it finds a match, it cuts the affiliation to its owner and takes over.

For now, the hack solely affects Parrot-brand drones. however as Ars Technica points out, "the software is built in a way to easily target different types of drones that have communication systems that are similar to Parrot."

Given the poor record of non-military drone manufacturers once it involves security, this appearance to be an added obstacle Amazon can got to overcome before the Prime Air drones will become a reality.

To find out additional regarding however this drone turns different drones into zombies, cross-check the video higher than.

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An Umbrella That Can Charge Your Gadgets

Umbrella Solar Charger for Gadgets

Nowadays, mostly people cannot facilitate however keep affixed to their tablets and smartphones or other gadgets like these. Even once we try and relax outside on a sunny day, we have a tendency to feel incomplete while not our personal devices in our hands. Well the USB-Charging star Market Umbrella could be the right accent for those people of us who may would like to use their devices outdoors.

This umbrella includes four 10″ x 4 1/4″ star panels that captures solar power from any direction. The panels are woven into the umbrella’s nine foot diameter canopy and converts the captured solar power into electricity that  you can easily use to charge your devices via 2 USB ports at the base of the umbrella and just in case the weather gets cloudy, this umbrella even features a 3.7-volt/1000mA battery that acts as a backup, providing continuous power for your devices.

The umbrella’s ends makes it weather resistant and it will face up to gusts of wind or anything else like that with the flexibility to dam 98% of the sun’s harmful ultraviolet illumination rays. This beautiful lawn gadget is ideal for those gadgets lovers who want to relish the good outdoors and our tech accessory, at the same time. For those questioning users who wants to know about the price of this cool and luxury tech, well the umbrella prices a hefty 500$. Would you like to purchase it? Tell us in comments!

Livescribe 3 Pen Sends Your Handwriting To Your IPad

When I first saw an ad for Livescribe some years ago, I remember thinking just how good kids these days have it. Back in the day, we had to be creative to find out ways to jot down notes as fast as our professors in school spat out ideas. Today, students can use tablets, laptops, phones, and Livescribe pens to take care of that. And for those who actually like to write notes the old school way – pen and paper – but also appreciate the power of technology, there is the Livescribe 3 Smartpen.

The core idea is simple: you write on paper, and what you write will appear on your screen. Just like magic, huh?

Of course, the magical aspect is based on technology, and part of that requires you having Anoto-based Livescribe Dot paper. Unfortunately, you can’t just use any kind of notebook.

Right now, the Livescribe 3 pen is only compatible with the iPhone and iPad (running on iOS 7), so if you’re an Android user, you won’t be able to take advantage of this groundbreaking technology. For now. The company has said that the Android version will be available next year.

How does the Livescribe 3 send your handwritten notes to your iOS device?

It uses LE Bluetooth 4.0 (LE = low energy), giving the pen 14 hours of juice. When you run out, you’ll need two hours for a full charge.

For students who like sharing notes (or professionals who have to share – meeting minutes, perhaps), the Livescribe 3 also allows sending documents to others.

You can choose between the Livescribe 3 Smartpen and the Livescribe 3 Smartpen Pro Edition, with the former selling for $149.95 and the latter for $199.95.

[via: TechBeat]

Google Smartwatch Now Ready for Final Production!

According to the Wall Street Journal, their sources who have inside information on Google’s hardware plans have revealed that the firm is in the final stages of producing its very first smartwatch. The anonymous sources have apparently claimed that the smartwatch is nearly ready for mass production and could soon be available on the mass market.

In mid-October a report said that Google’s smartwatch would be coming “sooner rather than later” and had been codenamed Gem. Rumours had claimed that it could potentially be released at the same time as the Nexus 5 smartphone but if the Wall Street Journal’s sources are correct and production has not yet started, then it is unlikely that we’ll see them released together.

There have been no leaked images of Google’s Gem and with smartwatches being a big news recently thanks to Pebble and the Galaxy Gear, no doubt everyone is keen to see what Google will bring to the table.It is expected that it will make full use of Google Now, enabling users to keep up to date with appointments, calender entries, traffic and travel information, as well as weather reports and personal business information.

One obstacle of the smartwatch that Google are keen to overcome is the poor battery life. So far Pebble is leading the way due to the fact that it does not have a colour screen. The Wall Street Journal Sources claim that Google are working hard to extend the battery life of the Gem by reducing power consumption.

So now that we know we don’t have long to wait, the question will be whether it will live up to the hype?

[Via: techbeat]

Convert Your Feelings in Textures with Disney Touchscreen

“Rendering 3D tactile features on touch surfaces” – that’s how Disney Research describes their new creation. While many of my generation would probably think Ariel, Belle, and all the other not-your-usual princesses of our childhood, this new development will certainly catch the attention of any tech head, Disney princess fan or not. And, it does what it says on the tin: the technology will allow users to actually feel what’s displayed on the screen.

How do they do it?

It’s all about friction, that irritating force of nature that brings about a lot of complications in other applications. In this case, however, friction made it possible for the brilliant Disney minds to make this touchscreen. From the Disney Research press release:

“Our brain perceives the 3D bump on a surface mostly from information that it receives via skin stretching,” said Ivan Poupyrev, who directs Disney Research, Pittsburgh’s Interaction Group.  “Therefore, if we can artificially stretch skin on a finger as it slides on the touch screen, the brain will be fooled into thinking an actual physical bump is on a touch screen even though the touch surface is completely smooth.”

Bottom line: It’s all about tricking our brains into thinking we’re feeling things.

Applications

We don’t need to have Einstein’s IQ to see the potential of this technology, do we?

Imagine playing Infinity Blade (1, 2, or 3 – it doesn’t matter) on your iPad with its awesome graphics. Now imagine having the additional tactile feedback. Any other gaming tablet with this feature would be very welcome as well!

How about exploring a topographical map or a 3D view of a place you want to visit? Again, add a tactile aspect to that.

Then there’s the education sector, which is already a huge “fan” of using tablets in the classroom. Imagine all the applications that can be taken to the next level with this kind of touchscreen!

This is interesting, at the very least. Here’s a video for more details.

Sonos Play:1 Wireless Streaming Speaker Unveiled

The champion of wireless home audio systems, Sonos has recently launched a most compact wireless speaker. The Play:1 has the lowest price of all of the speakers from Sonos at only $199 per speaker. As a special treat to fans of the wireless speaker guru, Sonos are giving away the Sonos Bridge with each Play:1 speaker for exotically free. The offer, which will save users $50, will last until the end of 2013. 

Small Speaker, Big Sound Although the speaker is the smallest in the Sonos range at approximately 6.5 inches tall by 4.75 inches wide and weighing a little over 4lbs, the little speaker is capable of big sound. The cylinder casing, available in black or white, houses mid woofer and tweeter which has been custom designed for the job of kicking out clear sounds from the Sonos app via a smartphone or tablet. 

Each speaker delivers mono sound but it’s no difficult to add another speaker to the system to make stereo sounds. More Accessible The idea of the Play:1 is to make the Sonos system more accessible to consumers who don’t need the huge $399 Play:5 option. It’s also great for people who have the Play:5 or Play:3 versions who would like an extra speaker but not one at full size. 

The Play:1 integrates seamlessly with existing Sonos systems as well as any other audio devices around the home. Although the Sonos Play:1 speaker now falls into other Bluetooth speakers range, the Sonos technology and level of integration sets apart from this field altogether and keeps it firmly in the high-end wireless audio home system field. 

It’s worth noting that there is now a play/pause button on the speaker where the mute button was on previous versions. With a double tap of the button, users can skip forward a track. This technology will be moved over to other speakers in the Sonos range at a later date. The Play:1 is available now from Best Buy and Amazon in black or white. [Image via TechnoBuffalo]

Rideye Video Camera for Bikes

Rideye cameras will now feature twice the video history— 2.5 hours instead of the original 1.25 hours. The campaign is on track to hit quantities much higher than originally anticipated, which allows the purchase of components at a lower cost. All past and future pledges are eligible.

Cycling through heavy traffic just got a little less risky with Rideye camera surveillance, which documents bike accidents in HD, much like how black boxes are used to investigate the causes of airplane crashes.

As a mechanical engineer and avid bike rider, Cedric Bosch created Rideye to make cycling safer for everyone. After working on the project for the past year, Bosch launched a Kickstarter campaign this month to help move it into production. Initially, he became inspired to create Rideye after his best friend was seriously injured in a hit-and-run bike accident last year. Rideye's automatic video footage would identify hit-and-run drivers, and help prevent false claims.

"This is one of those products that people have been wanting for years, but nobody has made until now. People love to bike — it's an insanely popular sport — and biking to work is getting more and more popular each year. But everybody has this lingering fear that they'll get hit by a car, and the driver will drive away and never be found. Rideye solves that problem, and lets people ride with total peace of mind," Bosch told media.

Rideye' s bike-friendly features include a one-touch power button, 24-hour battery life and easy install on handlebars. If the camera is turned off at the time of a crash, accident-detection sensors will automatically begin to record, and once the camera's 4 GB internal memory or 1.25 hours of video time is filled, it will auto-delete the oldest content. With a USB plugin, camera footage can be saved to a computer.

As of Thursday, Rideye became one of the most popular Kickstarter technology projects. With over 150 Kickstarter backers, Bosch is enthusiastic that the campaign will exceed its $32,000 goal. A Rideye camera is now available for $99 to Kickstarter backers, although the retail price will eventually be $149. The campaign has until Oct. 10 to gain more supporters. Rideye plans to go into production this fall, and send shipments from November through December.

"At this point, I am targeting a new goal— $100,000 (three times the original). We have some great stretch goals that we will unveil halfway through the project," Bosch said.

Eye Tribe Tracker - Eyes Tracking Gadget

The Eye Tribe Tracker is an aftermarket eye tracker currently available for Windows-based tablets and computers and serves many functions from gaming to reading. Built to work with any Windows 7 or 8 device with a USB 3 interface, The Eye Tribe Tracker allows users to navigate, interact and actuate software running on the device, purely by tracking eye movement or by a combination of eye tracking and touch. 

The first iteration of this device comes with a Windows SDK so developers can begin to learn how to code Windows apps that use the device. Android and iOS versions of the kit are planned to follow in early 2014.

We first told you about this inexpensive eye tracking device about a week ago when they opened up pre-ordering for the Surface Pro version on September 6th. However, I had a chance to speak with company partner Sebastian Sztuk — an engineer by trade and maker of most of the company’s prototypes — at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2013. He showed me a pretty cool demo and let me know that the company’s strategy is actually larger than the external unit we tested.

If this external Tracker — which is mainly focused on developers  — is Horizon 1 for their company strategy, Horizon 2 is consumer focused and has sights set on direct hardware integration. In fact, the company is in negotiations to come out with their own tablet with built in eye-tracking software and hardware and then ultimately a spec so any hardware maker can integrate.

A prototype of that vision is shown below (created for Android OS and running on an existing Samsung tablet).

I’ll admit, just thinking about using The Eye Tribe Tracker brings thoughts of eye strain to mind. However in speaking with Sebastian, he declared that after a brief, one time calibration, their technology is really just tracking the things your eyes are already doing anyway as you interact with the tablet. So I guess there’s not much to dislike here.

The concept was obviously compelling to some other people at Disrupt because the company took home the Big Data Startup of the Year awarded by SAP, worth over $40,000 is goods and services from the software giant. — techcrunch

Wearable Baby Monitoring Gadget for Parents

Wearable gadgets are not only for adults anymore. There’s a new crop of startups hoping to give parents peace of mind and deliver more insights about young children and their sleeping patterns through wearable devices for babies. Sproutling, a new startup coming out of stealth today, is hoping to raise parenting IQs through a new wearable baby monitor that not only answers the question: ”Is my baby okay?” but also leverages the multitude of sensor data to deliver insights about babies’ sleep patterns and more.

The startup, which is a graduate of hardware incubator Lemnos Labs, is also announcing $2.6 million in funding from First Round Capital, Forerunner Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Accelerator Ventures, Lemnos Labs, BoxGroup (David Tisch) and Shawn Fanning.

Sproutling says that many of the current baby monitors sold are poorly designed with no alerts if the baby is in distress, no real data, and more. Sproutling’s offering comes with a small kidney-shaped wearable, Bluetooth-enabled device, that slips onto a baby’s ankle, a base station, a small camera and a companion app for your mobile phone. The device will not only alert you if your child stops breathing, but will track the child’s heart rate, ambient light level, temperature of the room and of the baby, and more. You access all the information on your phone — and the app will send you an alert in case there are any warning signs with the baby.

Part of tracking the other data besides breathing, such as sleep, is designed to help parents optimize sleep for their children and detect patterns to help children sleep more soundly (i.e. ideal temperature, timing and more). There are features of the app that are parent friendly such as the ability to see the video feed clearly even if you aren’t wearing your contacts.

In terms of design, the actual wearable and camera were designed by the same designers who created the infamous Rolls Royce of strollers, the Bugaboo.

The startup is still in its early days, however, and will likely not ship the system until Q2 of next year. Co-founder Chris Bruce tells us that the vision for Sproutling is to create a variety of devices and services that help use data to raise parenting IQ. This baby monitor is just the first of  a number of smart devices that will be developed.

As a relatively new parent myself, I would have loved to be able to use some of the data from a wearable to help determine optimal sleep patterns for my child. I’m not sure if it would have helped my daughter sleep through the night earlier in her development, but to me as a fledgling parent, knowledge is power.
[via: techcrunch]

The Handpresso Wild Hybrid Portable Coffee Machine

Handpresso Wild Hybrid

Taking portable coffee makers to the next level, the Handpresso Wild Hybrid Portable Coffee Machine is a must have for coffee addicts. Working much in the same way your bicycle pumps, this little contraption builds 16 bars of pressure by simply pumping. 

Add hot water from a kettle, faucet, or an insulated bottle along with your favorite ground coffee, and let the magic begin. Although it’s extremely light and easy to use, Handpresso did not sacrifice quality with the Wild Hyrbrid, building it to last. Easy to store and easy to transport. That’s all we need to know. Get yours portable espresso machine today from Amazon.

BioLite CampStove Review

BioLite CampStove

New BioLite CampStove, which promised to not only cook your wieners but also charge your smartphone using only firewood. This summer, I had a chance to take one camping to see how it worked in the wild. I took it on a road trip to northern Michigan with a friend. We were planning to camp along the way but it was a fairly civilized trip, with iPads, phones and cameras in tow. It seemed a perfect test bed for the BioLite.

The idea of the BioLite is appealing on many fronts. You don’t need to take along messy, smelly and decidedly “un-green” stove fuel since it burns only wood. It provides guilt-free USB charging of small electronics like your phone, tablet or even a rechargeable headlamp like the Light & Motion I brought along. And tools that have multiple uses are always welcome when camping and this one can boil your water while it’s charging devices. So how did it work?

Ergonomically, the BioLite is well-designed, with its components nesting into each other, and setup was a cinch: the legs fold out and the charging module hooks into place on the side of the mesh burning cylinder. Instructions were easy to follow: Build a small pile of twigs in the bottom of the cylinder (BioLite even provided a starter pack of wood), press the button to start the small fan in the charging unit and drop in a match. This last step is easier said than done. The cylinder is deep and narrow so lighting the wood required a few tries and a quick hand to avoid getting burned. But once the wood caught, the whirring turbine fanned the flames quickly.

Boiling water is as easy as it sounds. The top of the fire cylinder is not huge but was stable enough to set a pot of water on. The design of the cylinder funnels heat upwards, which is effective for cooking, but it also is fairly efficient, without a lot of heat loss that plagues many other kinds of camp stoves. The stove also heats up fairly quickly, depending on the kind of wood fuel you add. It was not long before we had a roaring fire in the cylinder, and the green light on the charging unit told me it was ready to serve double duty and charge a phone. Here’s where some of my complaints started.

Due to the relatively small size of the stove, you can only burn small twigs and wood scraps. This means that, while the stove heats up quickly, it also necessitates nearly constant stoking. Turn your back on the stove for a couple of minutes to set up your tent or fish out another beer, and your fire has dwindled and the charging system shuts down until it gets roaring again. Constant stoking also meant removing my cook pot repeatedly to add fuel. My friend and I quickly learned that running the stove to charge a device requires constant attention. It is not the kind of thing you can set and forget while you set up camp and come back to a charged iPhone for your evening’s Pink Floyd. We started with a completely discharged iPhone and it took about an hour of trial and error and scrambling around the forest floor looking for twigs to get the phone to about 8%.

Given the design of the BioLite, packing up required thoroughly cleaning out the ash and charred remains of the fire before nesting components back together. Even so, the stylish orange charging unit still ended up streaked and greasy with black residue the next time I took it apart.

Despite these gripes, there is something satisfying and magical to hearing that familiar iPhone “chirp” when charging begins merely from a fire in the woods. The key with the BioLite is setting reasonable expectations. A phone is a potential safety device and having a means to charge it even to 8% can mean the difference between an emergency text message and sending smoke signal semaphores from a hilltop. The BioLite will not power your evening’s entertainment, but that is probably a good thing anyway. - gearpatrol

Leap Motion Controller Review

Leap Motion Controller

Few products have generated as much hype as the Leap Motion gesture controller over the past couple of years; none have so miserably failed to live up to their billing. Although it’s posited as a device that allows you to control your PC with the waft of a hand, we found the Leap Motion actually delivered a fist-gnawingly frustrating experience.

In theory, the Leap Motion Controller allows you to navigate your desktop via natural pointing gestures, and to select items on the screen by poking towards them. In our tests, on a variety of laptop and desktop PCs, we did indeed find it just about possible to scroll through the Windows 8 Start menu by waving a hand in front of the screen.

Even with a steady hand, however, we found the onscreen pointer often wobbled uncontrollably, while at other times it was impossible to target items at the edges of the screen, or to locate the pointer at all. And while the Leap Motion Controller theoretically offers multiple screen support, we had the devil’s own job trying to shift the pointer from our main desktop monitor on to a secondary laptop screen. No degree of fiddling with the software’s numerous accuracy and calibration settings resulted in a satisfactory experience.

Another big problem was selecting items. The Leap Motion sensing area is divided into two zones: the “hover zone”, away from the monitor, where the device recognizes gestures, and the “touch zone”, which detects the equivalent of left mouse-button clicks. The invisible dividing line between these two zones is directly above the sensor, but we found we had to dangle a finger in the touch zone for a good couple of seconds for a “click” to be recognized. It’s a slow process, and trying to accurately select a small item – such as a link on a web page, for example – borders on the impossible.

The problem in part is that the Leap Motion Controller is quite a rudimentary device. Whereas Microsoft’s Kinect uses a combination of RGB camera, depth sensor and motorized pivot to accurately track the motion of the user’s entire body, Leap Motion relies purely on two cameras and three infrared LEDs mounted inside a static 3in box.

The problem in part is that the Leap Motion Controller is quite a rudimentary device. Whereas Microsoft’s Kinect uses a combination of RGB camera, depth sensor and motorized pivot to accurately track the motion of the user’s entire body, Leap Motion relies purely on two cameras and three infrared LEDs mounted inside a static 3in box.

The problem in part is that the Leap Motion Controller is quite a rudimentary device. Whereas Microsoft’s Kinect uses a combination of RGB camera, depth sensor and motorized pivot to accurately track the motion of the user’s entire body, Leap Motion relies purely on two cameras and three infrared LEDs mounted inside a static 3in box.

[source: PcPro]

The Sound Pillow for Music Lovers

The Sound Pillow is an incredible breakthrough in personal audio. The plush, hypoallergenic pillow has two virtually undetectable speakers buried inside and engineered for total comfort and great stereo sound. 

Simply plug the pillow’s standard headphone jack into your personal listening device like CD player, MP3 player, iPod, iPhone, sound machine, laptop etc and lay back and enjoy a restful night’s sleep.
And, the Sound Pillow is roommate friendly – you can use the pillow and not disturb your roommate or bed partner.

Want a complete sleep system pre-loaded with the best sleep music available? Then the Sound Pillow Sleep System is for you! It is our latest innovation, earning rave reviews from tinnitus sufferers, addiction recovery professionals and their clients.

The Sound Pillow Sleep System pairs the Sound Pillow with a user-friendly MP3 player pre-loaded with 18 one hour tracks of sleep-inducing binaural music, nature sounds, and white, pink and blue noise. 

The music was specifically designed to slow down the brain, helping you relax, fall asleep and stay asleep. The system is an affordable, holistic solution for sleep deprivation caused by tinnitus, past traumatic experiences, anxiety, addiction, and the stresses of everyday life.

Via: SoundAsleepPillow

Tascam iM2X Turns iPhone Microphones into a high-quality Digital Recorder

Its time to give something to your next generation, something that you did not imagine in your past. iM2X is an ideal technology gadget for iPhone especially iPhone 4/4s. Its a small but very cool and impressive gadget for those who want to make their iPhone more and more attractive. 

The iM2X packs a set of condenser mics in an XY configuration for accurate stereo recordings to an accompanying Tascam iOS app. It allows for CD-quality captures and a USB pass-through still lets you charge your phone with the dongle in place. Since it draws power from the handset, it doesn't require its own batteries either.

But if you prefer to use your own mic or audio feed instead, the iXJ2 features two mic or line inputs that can be used separately or combined for stereo recordings. It’s better suited for using the iPhone as a video capture device, when you want to be able to use lavalier mics or larger shotgun mics for better audio pickup.

Main Features

• X-Y setteing (iM2X) / A-B setting (iM2). 
• The same high-quality stereo condenser microphones as the DR-07MKII and DR-40. 
• Sensitivity up to 125dB SPL for peace of mind in the loudest settings. 
• Vari-angle structure provide ease-of-use in every environment. 
• Mounted AKM AK5357 D/A converter provides top-notch digital transference. 
• Ultra light-weight, take it anywhere. 
• Dedicated battery is not required. 

Audio performance

• Frequency response: 10Hz to 20kHz
• S/N ratio:          95dB or greater
• THD :          Less than 0.01%