• ces,  intel

    Intel Unveils Full Broadwell Processor Line at CES 2015

    January 6, 2015 /

    Today at the Consumer Electronics Show, Intel has unveiled their full “Broadwell” processor line.

    The Family Legacy Continues
    The arrival of the 5th generation Intel® Core™ processor family ushers in a new age of computing. Manufactured with Intel’s cutting-edge 14nm process technology, the premium performance of the 5th generation Intel Core processor family has the power to transform the way you interact with your PC. Power to understand your motions. Power to recognize your face. Power to respond to your voice. Power to do things you never thought possible. See what’s possible with Intel Inside®.
    The Best of Both Worlds Collide
    Intel® Core™ M processors, built on the new 14 nm manufacturing process technology, deliver exquisite PC performance for a range of ultra-mobile 2 in 1 devices. With it comes the best of both worlds: The speed and power of a laptop combined with the versatility of a tablet—all in one device. Discover the potential of ultra-mobile devices with Intel Inside®.
    The following table show’s Intel’s high-level specs on the various flavors of the new Core M processor family.
    Gamers will enjoy the new advancements in the Intel Core i7 line of processors.  But it is really the advances in the Core M processor that I’m most interested in.
    The new Core M Broadwell CPU, with it’s smaller 14nm manufacturing process and power savings, are rumored to be found at the center of the much rumored MacBook Air refresh.
    If you aren’t into rumors, you need to check out the details that Intel has up on their website so you can start plotting about what new upgrades you are going to buy this year.
    Intel CES 2015 keynote highligts page has the details you are looking for.
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  • external,  seagate,  usb 3.0

    Seagate Seven Portable Hard Disk Coming In January

    January 4, 2015 /

    UPDATE:

    The Seagate product page of the Seven now shows the thickness (length) of the drive as being 7mm, rather than the originally reported 9.6mm.  The article below has been corrected.

    Later this month, Seagate will release what I have to call the best looking portable USB hard drive I’ve seen in a long time.

    The Seagate Seven is a 7.0mm thin USB 3.0 portable disk drive in a steel enclosure that borrows the design language from the Seagate’s early internal 3.5″ disk drives.  The drive will, without a doubt, look at home on your desk next to your Apple aluminum keyboard.

    Mac uses will instantly recognize the metal case as being similar to the default Macintosh HD icon that appears on the Finder desktop.

    You can pre-order the Seagate Seven now for $99.99 and it is expected to go on sale later this month. For more information, visit the Seagate website.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcbqHM7sKts?rel=0]

    [Via The Verge.com…]

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  • amazon,  android,  fire phone

    Amazon Stock Dips in 2014, In Part Due to Fire Phone

    January 3, 2015 /

    “Shareholders punished Amazon for its free spending on projects such as the Fire smartphone and other gadgets and a widening network of warehouses close to urban centers. The company has admitted it botched the phone’s rollout, mainly blaming its price for slow sales.”

    I guess we can finally all agree that the Amazon Fire Phone, even with the heavy TV ad rotation, didn’t set the world on “Fire.”

    [Via WSJ Digits blog…]

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  • activity trackers,  fitness,  health,  jawbone up,  nike fuelband

    Jawbone UP First Impressions

    January 3, 2015 /

    A few days ago I was talking about getting a deeply discounted Jawbone UP.  After a few days of using it a alongside my Nike+ FuelBand, here are my first impressions of the UP.

    Hardware

    The Jawbone UP comes in a variety of colors.  When you buy your device, you pick your color and that’s it.  The Nike+ FuelBand SE is the same way.  If you like accessorizing, then you might want to consider a Fitbit Flex because you can put the tracker into different bands.

    Jawbone UP (left) & Nike+ FuelBand top view
    Jawbone UP (left) & Nike+ FuelBand bottom view

    The UP does not have a display of any kind or interlocking clasp.  This trade off keeps the UP band  more narrow then the FuelBand.  The FuelBand has both an basic LED display that shows basic information (Fuel points earned, calories burned, steps taken, and the time) and has a metal clasp.  While I’ve not yet been in a situation where I felt that Up band was going to fall off, it does not sit as tightly on my wrist as the FuelBand does.  The UP, being Jawbone’s most basic fitness tracker does not have any wireless radios, so the only way to synchronize the data that was collected is to plug the UP into the headphone jack on the iPhone.  While this isn’t ideal, it does work most of the time.

    My favorite feature so far, has to be the sleep tracker.  With the built in actigraph sensor, when worn while sleeping, the UP can track how restful your sleep was.  Another nice addition over the Nike+ FuelBand is a tiny vibrating motor that can be used to wake you from sleep or to remind you that you’ve been still too long and that it’s time to get up and move around a little bit.

    Software

    When you buy and UP fitness tracker, you has free access to the (blue) UP application.  (There is also a purple UP application for a different Jawbone tracker.)  The software works fairly well.  Since the UP does not have a display, the iOS (or Android) app is the only way to view and sync the data from the band to your iPhone and the Jawbone website.

    The main screen is a colorful,  linear scrolling, top down list of data from the band.  If you want to get the most out of the UP, you can also enter in additional information as exercise, your mood, what you’ve eaten, log your weight, and if you forgot to wear your UP band to bed, when you went to sleep and when you woke up.

    If you are the type that likes daily motivators, the “Smart Coach” feature will help keep you working toward your goal.  The Coach gives you helpful tips based on the additional information that you enter into the app.  This is a marked difference between the Nike+ software and the Jawbone software.  The Nike+ software only tracks your exercise and movement activity.  The Jawbone gives you a more holistic view of how your body is performing toward any fitness or health related goal you are working toward.

    Wrap Up

    Over all, I’m fairly impressed with the features of the entry level Jawbone UP.  Simply based on the hardware and the stock app, I’m considering retiring my original Nike+ FuelBand and replacing it full time with the UP. Knowing what I know now about the Jawbone UP, the UP24 and the current Nike+ FuelBand SE, I would definitely purchase the Jawbone UP24 and use it as my daily fitness and activity tracker.  At least until the Apple Watch Sport goes on sale later this year.

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  • alcatel onetouch,  handspring,  hp,  palm os,  pixi,  pre,  touchpad,  treo,  web os

    HP Sells the Palm Brand to Alcatel Onetouch (UPDATED)

    December 31, 2014 /

    According to a recent post over on WebOSNation website, HP has sold the Palm brand to the Chinese firm Alcatel Onetouch.

    “We’ve been wondering for a while what is up with Palm.com domain, and it’s looking more and more certain that HP sold the brand and trademarks to Alcatel Onetouch. The first hints of this came from the teaser when the website started redirecting to mynewpalm.com, with a looping video of the Palm logo with the text “coming soon” and “smart move” beneath. “Smart move,” as it would be, is the slogan of Chinese smartphone manufacturer Alcatel Onetouch (a brand of Chinese electronics firm TCL). That’s not exactly a lot to go off of though, but it was enough to raise suspicions.”

    The “coming soon” and “smart move” text and logo is actually a looping video file called “palm_animated5.mp4”.  Oddly, the video didn’t play on my iPhone 6 when I used it to surf to the mynewpalm.com website.  (It did work on my Mac with Safari 8.)

    As a long, long time Palm fan boy I’m hoping that something good will come of the Palm brand.

    UPDATE:

    Upon further consideration, there are a few things that are still up in the air for Palm webOS fans.

    1. I almost forgot that LG has purchased WebOS to power their line of Smart+ television sets.

    2. I wonder what impact the sale of the Palm brand on LG, the Open WebOS project, and Gram (which is still online at gram.com) might be, if any.

    3. What is to become of the HP/Palm webOS App Catalog store?  According to the WebOS Wikipedia page, the App Catalog site will go offline in 15 days on Jan. 15, 2015.

    [Via WebOSNation.com…]

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  • activity trackers,  apple watch,  fitbit flex,  fitness,  jawbone up,  nike fuelband

    Some Thoughts About the Jawbone Up Activity Tracker

    December 31, 2014 /

    I was walking through my local BJ’s wholesale club when I noticed that they are selling the Jawbone UP and UP24 for $30 and $40 off, respectively, and I thought it was time for a little experiment.

    For those who don’t know, the Jawbone UP and UP24 are fitness/activity trackers just like the Nike+ FuelBand SE (I wear the original FuelBand) and the Fitbit Flex.  Unlike the proposed Apple Watch and the Microsoft Band the Jawbone devices don’t have a traditional “display”.  On their website, Jawbone describes their UP system this way:

    “UP® is a system that takes a holistic approach to a healthy lifestyle. The wristband tracks your movement and sleep in the background. The app displays your data, lets you add things like meals and mood, and delivers insights that keep you moving forward.”

    It’s the “and sleep” part that piqued my interest in the device.  You see, my Nike+ FuelBand, while I do like it, can’t track my sleep habits because it does not have actigraph sensor.  So, for $39.99 plus tax, I’m thinking about running a little experiment on myself to learn how well I sleep at night.  (I already know that I don’t get anywhere near the recommended eight hours of sleep.)

    As you would expect, the UP and UP24 come in three sizes and a variety of colors by way of rubber accessory bands.  The default color is black/onyx. Personally, I think after two years of wearing a black Nike+ FuelBand, I’d like a nice blue, red or orange band.

    The since the UP and UP24 don’t have any display, you can only see that data it has collected once the information is synchronized.  The data is transferred by way of a Bluetooth radio for an iPhone or Android 4.0 device on the UP24.  If you are like me and are considering the less expensive UP tracker, you will need to sync the data via your 3.5mm headphone jack.  It is unclear whether or not you have to plug your UP into your smartphone, the PC or if it doesn’t matter which.  My guess is the phone.  Always bet on the smartphone.

    Once the data is synchronized, you can view and analyze the information on your iPhone or Android smartphone with the freely available app.

    On a side note, there are a few things that I’m keeping in mind.  First of all, Nike has been a little vague about the future of the FuelBand line, as seen in a report on Re/Code back in April 2014. (Since the report, Nike did release a new color variant of the FuelBank SE with the same specs the other SE devices.)

    Secondly, in my opinion, the UP represents “last year’s model” as it does not include Bluetooth connectivity.  At this point in the fitness tracking game, I see wireless connectivity as a must.  The trade of is that you can get the device for $40 and so, since I’m only playing with it from the onset, this isn’t a deal breaker.  There are other activity trackers on the market that can do more and sync wireless to your smartphone for twice as much money.

    And finally, there is the Apple Watch on the horizon.  Apple has told us a little about what to expect, but it breaks down like this – the Apple Watch is a watch, has grandiose smart device ambitions for the future, tracks your activity, needs to be charged daily and with the pricing starting at $349, the Apple Watch will be expensive.  (I fully expect that the configuration I want to be closer to $549-649 when you add in an extra band.)

    For the time being, I think I am going to stick with the Nike+ FuelBand as my “official” device.  The Jawbone UP will be the device I use to track my sleep with and to generally play around with to see what other companies in the activity tracker field are doing.  And lastly, I will wait until we have more information about the Apple Watch pricing before I make a decision about what device will be my new “every day” device.

    For more information about the UP and UP24 activity trackers, check out the Jawbone website.

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  • health,  ios,  kinsa

    Kinsa Smart Thermometer

    December 30, 2014 /

    I was just perusing the online Apple Store ahead of a trip to the mall and ran across the Kinsa Smart Thermometer.

    “The Kinsa Smart Thermometer neatly plugs into your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and takes rapid, 10-second temperature readings in conjunction with the Kinsa SmartHealth app. To make temperature taking as easy and enjoyable as possible, the app displays delightful screens that engage and calm your children.”

    Kids around the world hoping to stay home from school by faking a fever are now saddened.  The thermometer to the light bulb trick will no longer work.

    For more information, check out the Kinsa thermometer page at the online store.

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  • browsers,  internet explorer,  microsoft,  spartan

    Rumor: Microsoft is Building a New Browser

    December 29, 2014 /

    A new report on ZDNet by longtime Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley, if true, suggests that Microsoft is cooking up a new web browser that is not Internet Explorer 12.

    “It turns out that what’s actually happening is Microsoft is building a new browser, codenamed Spartan, which is not IE 12 — at least according to a couple of sources of mine.”

    Even if we ignore the “Spartan” Halo reference (Microsoft has chosen to name the Windows 8.1 digital assistant “Cortana” after the fictional computer AI character of the same name that helps Master Chief in their Halo video game franchise), this sounds like a pretty interesting move by Microsoft as Foley goes on to report that the new browser “will look and feel more like Chrome and Firefox and will support extensions.”

    So far, I’ve been a support of where CEO Satya Nadella has been talking Microsoft’s products and services.  I’ve also been running the Windows 10 Technical Preview (in a virtual machine) for some time now and really like it.

    Whatever “Spartan” turns out to be, I’m sure it will be part of the cloud services roadmap that Microsoft has been working steadily toward.

    [Via ZDNet.com…]

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