smart

LOS ANGELES -- At first I thought I had misunderstood him, so I made sure to reply slowly. "So you're saying Kinect is going to blast IR signals at your living room, and they're going to reflect off walls and stuff and bounce back to control all of your devices?"

"That's correct," Marc Whitten said.

"Whoa," I replied.

"Kinect has a really powerful management of that energy," he explained. "It's just light," he went on, "but it just exists in a different spectrum." I … Read more

In addition to raising $5.4 million in Series A financing led by investors Voyager Capital and Crosslink Capital, Ayla Networks announced collaboration with the Chinese online media company, Sina, in creating the Wi-Fi Weather Station. The device is designed to deliver targeted weather information for wherever one of the devices is located. Sina customers will be able to access these personal weather reports through their smartphone or other device.

It's another step forward in the "Internet of Things."

Buzzwords aside, this is a real thing.

It doesn't matter what you call it, it is happening. … Read more

Let's face it: It doesn't matter how high quality the video is. Chatting over Skype or FaceTime doesn't do a lot of good if the call is between the hearing and the deaf and only the latter know sign language.

Now, following a successful release in California in April, the SmartVP videophone by Purple Communications is available free of charge to the deaf and hard-of-hearing nationwide, and it manages to solve the signing conundrum.… Read more

The smart lock space is suddenly crowded with competitors, each of which want consumers to see their offering as the best way to use a mobile phone to replace the traditional door key.

But with the unveiling of its own smart lock, and an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, the San Francisco startup Goji may have staked out the most desirable position in the space.

Several companies -- including Lockitron, Kwikset and August -- have all announced various approaches to home door locks that can be accessed from a mobile phone. Common features include being able to tell remotely if the door … Read more

Smart Multiplication uses visualization tools to teach the core concepts of multiplication in a well-designed, but restricted educational tool. It starts off well, but quickly shows its limits in terms of menu modes, unlockables, and other features that are not immediately available to players.

The basic idea of Smart Multiplication is to visualize how it works. The classic diagonal slash method that children have been taught in school for decades is used here to show how the numbers interact with each other; and a well-designed interface, combined with well-executed tutorials, make for an easy-to-follow start to the app. The higher-level … Read more

Alongside the frankly more interesting Rove 20 tabletop PC, HP has also announced revisions to the rest of its Pavilion and Envy laptop lineups. However, included in this bundle is one product that caught our eye: an update to one of our favorite laptops.

The new HP Pavilion 11 TouchSmart is an 11-inch semi-sequel to the low-cost, AMD-powered HP dm1, a system we loved when it was released in 2011 because it offered decent, portable performance at near-Netbook prices.

The new version, also with an AMD CPU, adds a standard Windows 8 touch screen and will start at $399 (yes, … Read more

While 3D-printed guns have been grabbing most of the headlines lately, other types of firearms that make use of new technology are also hitting the scene.

TrackingPoint, a startup based in Austin, Texas, just began selling some of the most high-tech long-range shooting rifles available in the world -- they use 3D graphics, laser technology, and Wi-Fi, and allow users to live stream their exploits and post photos to social media and on personal devices.

"TrackingPoint introduces the world's first precision guided firearm -- the revolutionary new long-range shooting system that puts jet-fighter lock and launch technology in … Read more

Smart RAM Booster increases the speed of Android devices through several functions. It can stop the functions of applications running in the background with a multifunction widget or through the applications' user interface. There is also a cache cleaner that seems to speed the device up.

Smart RAM Booster installs easily. The small size allows the app to download almost instantly and there are no advanced features or registration needed. The user interface is pretty basic but the advanced settings can be confusing. For users not familiar with this type of application, some of the options may need more thorough … Read more

Biomedical engineers are unveiling a new type of fabric that, much like human skin, can turn excess sweat into droplets that simply fall away on their own accord.

"We intentionally did not use any fancy microfabrication techniques so it is compatible with the textile manufacturing process and very easy to scale up," said Siyuan Xing in a school news release. Xing is the lead biomedical engineering student on the project at the University of California, Davis.

An article in the journal Lab on a Chip describes the fabric's microfluidic platform. Multiple woven threads suck droplets of water … Read more