Kwikset's Kevo lets you lock your home while on vacation in Tahiti

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/04/kwiksets-kevo-lets-you-lock-your-home-from-tahiti/

Kwikset launched its Kevo Plus service today, which finally brings its number one requested feature to life: remote locking and unlocking. Launching in spring of this year, the service will enable new and existing Kevo lock owners to upgrade their systems via a Bluetooth-enabled gateway shipped with their introduction package. The Plus platform will come with unlimited Scheduled (for a home cleaning service for example) and Anytime eKeys, remote locking and unlocking and real-time monitoring. The gateway connects to your home's internet router and interacts with the Kevo lock via Bluetooth Low Energy to either track activity or activate the lock itself. Apple products are supported across the board, though Android support is currently limited to Lollipop on the Moto X, Moto G and the Nexus 6. No word on pricing for the Plus service, but with a bit of shipped hardware attached to the deal, we'd suspect it'll cost more than $20.

We're used Kevo products in the past and the demo shown at the show apes that functionality, but with a couple new icons on the app's home screen. If your connected lock is locked, that icon glows on the main page and if it's open, that icon glows. Tap whichever icon you want and the phone communicates with the Kevo Plus service that, in turn, connects to your home gateway and completes the action. We definitely see the merit in always having a handle on your home's security and the instant access to your loved ones in a pinch. As long as the security bit stands up to scrutiny, Kwikset's automated lock business has just gotten a lot more attractive.

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Parrot Zik Sport headphones do noise canceling, heart monitoring

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/04/parrot-zik-sport-headphones/

Parrot's Zik 2.0 noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones may not be ideal for workouts, but fans may want to give the new Zik Sport a spin to get a similar experience. Granted, these are actually in-ears instead of the earcup type, but Parrot and Philippe Starck still managed to tuck in eight microphones -- six for noise-canceling, two for voice calls -- in addition to a heart rate sensor, pedometers and a five-hour battery (and that's with all the features turned on). That's a very impressive package given how much smaller these headphones are.

Understandably, the Zik Sport is made out of plastic and will be coated in a chrome finish, in order to achieve the impressive 75-gram weight. What's more, it's designed with five contact points -- the top, the two black boxes (which store the battery and circuitry) and the earbuds -- with your head, so that it can be worn securely with great comfort. That's certainly the case with the prototype we played with at CES.

These headphones have a dedicated companion app that not only lets you adjust the level of noise cancellation and sound effects, but also monitors your heart rate, running speed and even finer details like vertical oscillation (the less the better) plus left and right step detection (they should be in sync). Thankfully, the fitness data can be shared with most other sports applications, but we'll hear more about that in the near future.

What remains unknown are the price and the exact launch date for the Zik Sport, so we shall keep an eye out for them later this year.

Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Wearables

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Use your feet to fly around a virtual world

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/04/ces2015-3drudder-hands-on/

Almost every time we've played around in virtual reality, be it of the Oculus Rift or Gear VR variety, we've had a game controller of some sort in our hands. It's necessary to navigate an environment, pop around and generally have a look about. The folks behind 3DRudder want to take that paddle and put it under your feet. At its simplest, the 3DRudder is an unobtrusive circular platform that replaces a D-pad on the controller. It's about 12 inches across and has a halved sphere underneath. Gyroscopes and accelerometers tucked inside track your movements via the pitch and yaw of your tootsies, and it connects to your computer via USB. According to the developers, the primary use they have in mind is for navigating 3D modeling programs like ZBrush or Maya, freeing your hands to switch brushes or change a tool while using feet to get around the scene you're making.

My demo started a bit slowly, focused on simple up, down, left and right movement. Then came the ability to spin and zoom in and out. Having each bit of navigation cordoned off felt pretty stilted, but once the leash came off and I had everything at my disposal, getting around the rough mock-up scene with walls, statues and other obstacles felt totally natural. Of course, it took me a few minutes to stop exaggerating the motions I made by tilting too hard one way or the other, but that faded away in short order as well.

But back to virtual reality. There wasn't a headset on display to use in tandem because, as founder and president Valerio Bonora tells it, there'd be too much to comprehend at once. Honestly, though, after 20 minutes of getting my feet wet (sorry), I was ready to strap on a headset and see just how well the device would work in practice. No dice. The developers also say that 3DRudder could replace an input for a first person shooter, but that's a lofty goal and it feels like it'd be more gimmicky than actually useful in practice. Even outside of competition, precision aiming and movement is key. Regardless, the gizmo is apparently compatible with existing titles.

Perhaps best of all? It won't be long before you can try the gadget for yourself and it won't break the bank, either. We're told that the device will launch this May for $110.

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Peripherals, HD

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Source: 3DRudder

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Zensorium's 'Being' is a fitness wearable that promises to track your mood as well

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/04/zensorium-being/

We've seen wearables that track our heart rate, our activity levels and our sleep, but rarely do we see one that tracks our mood as well. That's the idea behind Zensorium's Being, a wearable that promises to not just monitor the usual activity tracker data such as NREM and REM sleep, heart rate, steps, calories burnt, distance and speed, but also your mood.

And apparently it's not just a glorified mood ring. At a pre-CES event in Las Vegas, a Zensorium spokesperson tells us that the Being, when combined with an accompanying iOS or Android app, is able to tell us at what time of the day we're feeling a particular mood. The moods that it tracks are Distress, Excited, Normal and Calm (though the prototype that we saw had different moods displayed on the app). The watch apparently figures this out by monitoring both your heart rate and blood pressure -- it can be worn on the wrist or clipped onto your clothes.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to test this out because the product the company had on the show floor was a non-working prototype. I did find out a few details about the Being however; it appears to have an OLED display, a capacitive touchscreen and a battery life of "two to three days." The colored dots that you see on the display here are indicative of the mood -- blue appears to represent anxiety or "negative stress," while yellow is more indicative of excitement, or "positive stress." I was also told that the Being needs to be worn in contact with the skin in order to obtain these so-called bio-parameters for up to 72 hours. The idea is that the longer you wear it, the better it's able to track the data.

It's difficult to assess the veracity of these claims, but Zensorium does say that they've consulted with both neuroscientists and psychologists when developing the product. If you're confident enough with what Zensorium is saying here though, you can go ahead and pre-order the product for $169. Or you can wait until March, when it's set to retail for $199.

Filed under: Wearables

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Source: Zensorium

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When fingerprint scanners are hidden in your trackpad, you'll want one

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/04/fingerprint-scanners-in-disguise/

Fingerprint scanners are coming to laptops. Again. Thanks, in part, to smartphones making them, if not quite cool, then useful. Synaptics (who is the laptop trackpad leader) already told us all about SecurePad, a touchpad with a fingerprint sensor built into the upper-left corner, and now look! Here it is! While the sensor built into the prototype laptop had a raised outline, Synaptics also told us that, heck, it can make it look like anything a hypothetical PC maker wants -- even if that means making it indistinguishable from the "main" trackpad. Since last month, laptop manufacturers have been able to start embedding the tech into their PCs, although which company will strike first with the sensor remains a mystery.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

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