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Wrap It Up: Photos From Our First TC Gadgets/Mobile Meet-Up

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 12:52 PM PDT

meetup-3165-11

It’s been a long while since we had a formal Gadgets/Mobile meet-up and I’m proud to say that this one, sponsored by Samsung, was a roaring success. We had people who drank far too much, people who ate far too many Cheez-Its (there were, sadly, no hors d’oeuvres so we made do with Hackathon grub), and people who won excellent prizes including Samsung Galaxy S II phones, Samsung tablets, and other goodies.

We hope to have more of these things in the future where you guys can meet and greet TC G/M writers in your own home town and in your own special way. Thanks for making this one a roaring success, San Francisco, and we’ll see you soon.

Here are a few highlights from the shots we took; we’ll update this post with Samsung’s own photos as soon as we hear back from them. The full-size pictures can be found in this set at the TechCrunch Flickr page.

Track Your Dog With Retrieva, The Compact GPS Dog Collar

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 12:47 PM PDT

Screen Shot 2011-09-16 at 12.45.35 PM

One of the cooler gadgets we saw at Disrupt this year was the new Retrieva GPS dog tracker. Completely redesigned, this device lets you track Fido wherever he does roam and will let people know where to take him or her if lost.

The device lasts about a week on one charge and will go into sleep mode if it hasn’t been activated in a while. I sat down with the company founders and their stuffed dog to discuss the technology.

guys I was walking through Startup Alley. John Biggs here, and I met Gibby here, who's the dog, and Ryan and Sinet [sp?]that and they have a new product called Retriever which I was actually facinated by so this allows this creates a live animal out of inanimate objects. Is that right?

Yeah, exactly.

Is that how you do that?

So you just wait a few minutes.

retriever. So it's like Pet Cemetery, you bury the thing and it comes In back.

Kind of.

That's excellent. Alright. Well, thanks for. So, it is a GPS tracking advice for pets? So, the way it works is you buy the device. You put it on the dog's collar, it attaches to most collars, and then on the web or on your iPhone or Android device, you can say hey, where's my dog now? And it updates, by default, every fifteen minutes.

And you can also have virtual fences. You can say, if my dog leaves my house text message me. If the battery is low, text message me. And then on top of that we'll have you know location based deals, services, or. You know checking in, or you know, where my friends who also have this device. So there's a lot of opportunity.

Sort of like Foursquare for pets?

But they don't have the mental capacitySo, they can do Foursquare themselves. You do it.

No.

They do it with the collar around their neck.

Yes.

I see what you're trying to say. Are you trying to say dogs are stupid?

Dogs don't have an opposable thumbs so, it's hard to use an iPhone.

So this thing, this is a prototype?

Yeah, this is basically one print out of a three model. We have a couple of Alfro types that we're testing right now.

Okay.

So this is basically, this is the right size and form factor so we can test to make sure it fits and works.

All right, the obvious question here is why? Why do I need thison my dog all the time? Unless I have a runner and he's crazy and he likes to run around. Why would I need something like this on my dog?

So, one in three pets are lost and four million are euthanized every year because they can not match the owners with the pets.

And there's other solutions, like RFID, dog tags and tattoos, but those solutions do not find your pet. And in the case of RFID or microchips you you have to find the pet and hopefully you have the right, the shelter or the veterinarian has the right scanner. So in our scenario, the dog's location or the cat's location is sent to our app and you can.

It's shown on a Google map and you have turn-by turn-directions.


So, what if Fido runs away and this thing runs out of power?

That's a good point.


Can you disable the dog like LoJack?

Not really, but we do text message you if the battery's low, and we do have some our firmware and hardware will do some smart things. The battery is getting low and we know you're not charging when you go put it to sleep. And then only when you need to know when your dog, where your dog is. You can say, where is my dog right now?


What you do is put a little mini USB thing on there, so the person who finds it, can charge it. Like say hey.

Yeah.

You found my dog.

Yeah. And we're gonna put a sticker on the back and it says, "If you find this, call this number. You know, here's the ID number." And we know we can figure out

Now presumably right now this is for bigger dogs cause this is a huge thing.

Yeah so this is pretty small compared to our competitors and you know in the future we will be doing more revisions and improvements to make it smaller and lighter. It's actually quite light. It's under 1.5ounces.

Okay.

And you were talking about batteries. So our battery life on average is about seven days.

Okay.

We actually did a nationwide study, and people are so familiar or used to charging their cell phones every night, most everyone said, "Oh, now worries. We'll just plug it in every night."

All right. Super. So when is this ready to go? December 2011? That's what we're planning.

Yeah, we're planning to do some pre-sales starting in October and then we will be able to deliver product end of December.

I wish you could sell this on like Sky Mall right next to that, like, the cat toilet.

Sure.

People love cat toilets. That's your next project, the cat toilet.

That tweets.

You heard it here first. Retriever's next project is the cat toilet. This is called Retriever. What's the website?

Getretriever.com.

Getretriever.com

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CrunchDeals: Take 50% Off Everything On Belkin.com Today

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 10:04 AM PDT

dead-rising

See ya in two weeks, paycheck! Belkin.com is running a huge sale today. Everything, and I mean everything as there isn’t a minumum purhcase amount, can be yours for 50% under list today. That is if their website comes back to life before midnight tonight.

The news of the sale hit the standard deal sites this morning and then reblogged by several gadgets sites including Gizmodo. The site was up long enough to confirm the “FB50” coupon code works, but then it crashed hard. As of this post’s writing, Belkin.com is up but responding very slow. And for good reason, too. This sort of sale is rare even on Black Friday. Belkin is offering 50% off everything they sell including their just-announced iPad accessory line. Under-the-counter iPad mount. It’s $25 today. Power monitor? $15 bucks today. Keyboard folio case? $50.

Shop smart, though. Some items like the Conserve Valet USB charging station with smart power is already half off on Amazon and Belkin’s shipping seems to start at $7.50.

HTC Vigor Renamed Incredible HD, Poised for October Release?

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 09:22 AM PDT

incredible-hd-release

When the first shots of the HTC Vigor started making the rounds, I offhandedly mentioned that the funky backplate and red trim made it look like a new entry in Verizon’s Incredible series. As it turns out, that hunch may have just been confirmed, as a recently leaked release indicates that a very similar device called the Incredible HD is slated for an October launch.

According to the details in the release, the Incredible HD is a new Verizon LTE device with a 4.3-inch screen, a 1.5 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, and support for Beats audio. Coincidentally, these specs match up nearly exactly to those leaked alongside the original Vigor pictures.

The release goes on to paint a very impressive portrait of the Vigor/Incredible HD: like the Runnymede, it will reportedly ship with a pair of Beats headphones, and the device will come with a whopping 48 GB of storage out of the box (16 onboard, 32 in a pre-installed microSD card).

As compelling as the image makes the Incredible HD out to be, though, some of the details just don’t add up. The release lists the Incredible HD as having a WVGA display, which comes out to a resolution of only 800×480 — hardly what one would call HD quality.

What’s worse is the fact that the spec listing contradicts itself: it mentions that the Incredible HD sports an actual “HD resolution of 1280×720″ right after it lauds the phone’s WVGA screen. While it could be a simple typo (1280×720 is occasionally referred to as WXGA, though not usually in the context of a phone), it could also be the work of a rookie forger mixing up their jargon.

The Incredible HD, if real, looks to pack a real wallop when it supposedly ships on October 13. While it would certainly spice up the holiday season’s smartphone wars, the whole package almost looks to be too good to be true.

PAS Brace-L: Yamaha Japan’s Newest Electric Sports Bike

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 08:19 AM PDT

PAS Brace-L1

We’ve covered more than one electric bike over the years, but the so-called PAS Brace-L Yamaha introduced last year on the Japanese market is probably the nicest looking. And now the company announced [JP] an improved version of its flagship sports bike (which is, for some reason, also called PAS Brace-L).

The new model’s 8.1Ah/25.2V lithium-ion battery can be charged and discharged as often as 700-900 times, twice as often as the battery used in the 2010 model. It takes four hours for a full charge and provides an assisted travel range of 36km in standard mode, 31km in power mode and 47km in auto-eco mode.

Yamaha also used its S.P.E.C.8 system in the new bike, which tracks the driver’s riding behavior (for example how they shift gears or in which intervals they accelerate) and adjusts the level of electric assistance accordingly.

The company also claims it’s the first electric bike in the world whose LCD indicates the assisted travel range, by constantly tracking the mode chosen and battery life.

The Pac-Brace L 2011 is sized at 1,760×530mm (tires: 26 inches) and weighs 23.5kg. It went on sale in Japan today and costs $1,950.

Makerbot Releases New Extruder

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 07:57 AM PDT

Makerbot_MK7-108-10

Now this is some pretty hardcore dorkitude, but our buddies at Makerbot just released a new extruder for their building devices. Why is it special? Well, the first extruders did 3mm streams while this one does 1.75mm streams, increasing the “resolution” of the objects and question and allowing you to extrude two streams of hot plastic simultaneously.

I told you it was pretty dorky. This $199 extruder is pretty badass and is available now the Makerbot store. If you don’t know what an extruder or a Makerbot are, you may need to check out this hotness and then get back to us. It’s only the future of home fabrication, guys.



B&W C5 Review: Sound Great, Look Classy, And Strong Like Bull

Posted: 16 Sep 2011 07:43 AM PDT

mmmm B&W

It’s amazing that in 2011, roughly 1,000 years after the earbud was originally created, a model could come along that’s actually innovative. But Bowers & Wilkins actually did it. The C5 in-ear headphones debuted several weeks back and I’ve been testing a pair for a while. In short: I’m in love. Oh, it’s not just that they sound great; they’re made by B&W so I would expect nothing less. It’s their design that makes me smile.

Bowers & Wilkins has long made some of the very best loudspeakers on the planet. A few years ago they dove into the world of iPod docks with the Zeppelin and then a short while later, the Zeppelin Mini. This move frightened some in the snobby world of audiophiles, but B&W did fine job maintaining their trademark high-end feel with their general consumer line. Enter the C5 in-ear headphones.

These in-ears are not the company’s first attempt at headphones, as they also sell the over-the-ear P5s. Those retro cans cost $299 and more than hold their own at that price point dominated by hip-hop-endorsed headphones.

The C5 in-ear headphones are more of the same. They’re a great value at $179 and can easily rival in-ears costing north of $200. They don’t sound as good as the P5s, but they feel great and are much more versatile than the over-the-ear set.

Most in-ears either just rest in your ear canal or have a sort of hook that wraps around your ear, but not the C5s. The headphone wire expands through the earbud itself into the inner ridge of your ear’s outer cartilage, providing a secure and surprisingly comfortable hold. This causes just the slightest amount of pressure, but it’s on the outside of your ear, rather than inside the ear canal. The tungsten earbud itself is weighted more towards the tip, which helps further anchor them in place.

You can’t knock these things out. They’ll likely withstand bouncing on a pogo stick during an earthquake — not that I tested it as such. Still, they stayed put during a quick test involving jumping jacks, running in place, and eventually lots of heavy breathing. Unlike other so-called athletic earbuds, the C5s don’t look like they’re a Nike design experiment from the year 2050, and they even work well with glasses.


B&W clearly designed these in-ears for digital media: there’s an in-line controller and the cable is appropriately short. I can’t test a B&W product with just Pandora though — these are Bee and Dubyas, man — so I broke out the ol’ Pioneer turntable and The Beatles’s classic White Album. Using the much more expensive Beats Pro over-the-ear cans as a reference, the B&W C5s held their own with solid mid-range response and a full sound. The clarity is surprising and the low-end sufficient but not overpowering — at least with The Beatles.

Circle of Animals’ Destroy The Light vinyl turned out to be too much for the C5s. The little earbuds simply couldn’t reproduce the sustained low-pass tones or the extremely tight electronic static resulting in a much flatter sound than I’m used to hearing.

It was clear after a few more vinyl records that the C5s aren’t designed for audiophiles — not that I’ll ever claim to be one — so I turned to Rdio and the C5s started to shine. B&W managed to pack an incredible amount of sound into these little guys. They light up once they’re fed music compressed for portability. The C5s even sounded better than the more expensive Shure SE315 in-ears. The sound was fuller even though the bass response wasn’t as powerful, while the highs were much sharper. Plus, the C5s are so much more comfy.

The C5s are excellent mid-range earphones for the digital medium. I wish they featured active noise canceling, as the soft tip only cuts out some ambient noise. Still, at $179, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better sounding or fitting earphones. Buy these.

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