Home 2017 November

G-SHOCK is working on a rugged watch made of sapphire crystal

A sneak preview of G-SHICK’s sapphire crystal watch

Yesterday at Madison Square Garden in New York City, G-SHOCK celebrated their 35th anniversary. But it’s not just 35 years that they were celebrating – they also celebrated the fact that they have now sold 100 million G-SHOCK watches worldwide. That’s a hell of a lot of rugged watches on people’s wrists!

Speaking of rugged watches, the company announced that they are vehemently working on their next big thing – a watch made out of sapphire crystal. They claim that like their other watches, this one will be just as rugged. Take that Apple! We can’t wait to see this sapphire crystal watch once it materializes. 

I spoke to Mr. Yuichi Masuda, Senior Executive Managing Officer, Senior General Manager of Timepiece Product Division for Casio Computer Co. who has been working with the company since 1978. Mr. Masuda told me that G-SHOCK will continue to make incredibly rugged watches, and that their goal is for G-SHOCK to become the world standard for durable watches.

G-shock-S-series-130 for women

Of course the company had a slew of new G-SHOCK models to show off. Amongst the new line up is a new S Series 130 collection for women. This new series are actually the first G-Shock watches to include a step counter.

The Gold Tornado series

Casio also announced the Gold Tornado 35th Anniversary G-Shock Collection which resulted in wild outcries of ooh and ahh from the audience. The Gold Tornado collection features three class G-SHOCK models reinvented with gold accents. The collection includes the Master of G GRAVITYMASTER, G-STEEL and FROGMAN timepieces. All three of the watches boast a signature stamp on the watch face which reads “SINCE 1983”, and they all pack in non-reflective sapphire glass.

You can read more about Casio’s G-Shock watches at casio.com and if you want to buy one, check out the selection on Amazon.

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G-SHOCK is working on a rugged watch made of sapphire crystal originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 11, 2017 at 9:00 am.

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Tiny and Stretch are minimalist wall mounts/stands for your mobile devices

If simplicity is your goal, the stands / wall mounts from ILOVEHANDLES are products designed for you.  These stands are sleek bars of wood with holes to allow charging cables to pass through.  The Stretch (shown above) mounts to your wall to hold all your phones and tablets.  It has seven holes for chargers.  The Tiny (not shown) is the right size for a smartphone, and it can be used sitting on a desk or mounted to a wall.  It has a hole for a single charger and works with most smartphones, with or without a case.  The Tiny is $15.00 and the Stretch is $40.00.  They are available from ILOVEHANDLES.

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Tiny and Stretch are minimalist wall mounts/stands for your mobile devices originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 11, 2017 at 8:00 am.

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Now you can lick your own face AND get diabetes at the same time

Here’s a unique gift idea for the person who has everything and doesn’t take insulin. It’s a personalized face lollipop from Prezzybox in the UK. Send in a photo of your favorite person, choose a flavor from their selection of five flavors that include strawberry, passion fruit, orange, apple or tutti frutti, and let them know which features to customize like eye color, hair color, weird moles, freaky nose rings, and more.

Before you know it, a candy replica of your face will arrive in your mailbox to creep you out and elevate your glucose levels.

Each sweet treat is priced at a “no way am I paying that for a lollipop” $55. You can read more about the Personalized Face Lollipop by visiting prezzybox.com

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Now you can lick your own face AND get diabetes at the same time originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 10, 2017 at 12:00 pm.

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Want a pet but are always on the go? Sony reintroduces the AIBO

I remember back in 1989 when Sony introduced the first AIBO (Artificial Intelligence Robot) to the world, I thought wow I wish I could get one of those. Sadly after about six years and several iterations of the AIBO Sony discontinued the manufacturing of the AIBO. If you missed your chance to get an AIBO during the 90s and 2000s, Sony has announced the reintroduction of the AIBO. The new AIBO has a refined look from the older model but still functions on the same premise of learning through interaction with its owners. The new AIBO model ERS-1000 has a 64bit Quad-Core CPU, OLED eyes, 4 microphones and 2 cameras, it is also cute. The new AIBO is scheduled to be released January 11, 2018, for a price of approximately $1745.85 (¥198000) and you will need a basic 3-year service plan (this is used to update and grow the AIBO) that will cost approximately $793.57 (¥90000). If you want to check out this new AIBO hop on over to the AIBO Sony website.

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Want a pet but are always on the go? Sony reintroduces the AIBO originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 10, 2017 at 11:00 am.

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MEEM backup cable review

There are several things that I believe are givens.  Cellphones will need charging daily.  And cellphones will get lost and damaged.  And what about hackers breaking into websites, including cloud services, and stealing our information?  So what’s a gadget-geek to do?  Well, one thing you can do to solve all those problems is getting a MEEM backup cable.  It looks like a snake that swallowed a small rodent, so what is it?  Let’s find out.

So the simplified explanation is that the MEEM is a charging cable for Android or iPhone that has a built-in USB drive (the part that looks like the aforementioned swallowed rodent) near the end of the cable that plugs into your phone.  But before we dig deeper, let’s look at the specs from MEEM.

Overall cable length: 3 ft
Main Body:  L-4 inches by W-.8 inches by H-.3 inches
Weight: about 2 oz
Processor: MIPS32® microAptiv™ UC- @ 80 MHz &  MIPS32® microAptiv™ UP- @ 240 MHz
Ram: 1GB DDR3(L)
Flash Memory: SD3.0
USB: v2.0
USB BC1.2 Battery Specification
Charging Rate: up to 2.7A@5V (As per maximum charging rate of the phone)
Data Transfer Speed: 1.6 to 3 MBps (depends on the phone OS and hardware)
Memory size:  32, 64, and 128 GB
For Android:  it backs up Contacts, Calendar, Photos, Videos, Music, Documents, and Messages. Utilizes Micro USB connector, and is compatible with Android OS 4.1.2 and better.
For iPhone:  it backs up Contacts, Calendar, Photos, Videos, and Documents.  Utilizes Lightning connector, and is compatible with iOS 7 and better.
Price:  Android (32GB: $59.99, 64GB: $79.99, 128GB: $109.99)
iPhone (32GB: $69.99, 64GB: $89.99, 128GB: $119.99)

I charge my Galaxy S6 Edge+ every night.  That beautiful screen comes with a price, and I must charge every night!  And I have experienced the hassle many times of changing phones every couple of years and worrying about transferring all my information from the old phone to the new phone.  Contacts, messages, documents, photos, etc.  It’s all important, and I haven’t always had success with Verizon’s auto-backup/restore feature.  Sure, there are cloud services and apps you can use to do backups for you, but the MEEM provides a seamless way to do it all.  Charge your phone and back it up at the same time.

The MEEM does this by having built-in USB storage inside the cable and an app on your phone that automatically backs up the data from your phone to the cable.  And it’s important to note that the information doesn’t go into the cloud.  It stays right there in the cable.

So how easy is it to use?  Plug the cable up the first time and it launches your app store to install the free app.  Create a PIN# to protect the app from others seeing your data, and it automatically begins the backup.  That’s it.  You can watch the backup taking place and stop the backup if you want.  The MEEM can be used with up to 3 devices and back up all of them (assuming there is enough storage in the cable), and using the app you can transfer the backed up data from one device to another.  You can also connect the cable to your computer and use the desktop software you download from MEEM’s website to then back up the data from the cable to your computer hard drive.

When you open the app you can choose which data categories to sync to your computer and after the sync is done you can scroll through the data and see everything.  It couldn’t be much easier.

Finally, I want to mention that there is also a feature of this product called the MEEM Network. There are detailed instructions on the MEEM website about how to set it up, but the short explanation is this.  You can purchase 1 MEEM cable (in my case, the Android version) and 2 other devices on your wireless network (in my case, my Nexus Android tablet and my wife’s iPhone 6) can be backed up wireless across your home wifi network to the cable.  Regardless of which operating system they are.  It works.  And it’s pretty cool.

Bottom line

At a price between $59.99 and $119.99, depending on the amount of storage you need, this is not a cheap solution.  But it just works.  And having the peace of mind that your data isn’t being transmitted to a cloud service and is pin protected is a huge plus.  Setup was easy, you can even backup your data from multiple devices wirelessly on your home network, and it happens while you are doing what you have to do every day anyway… charging your phone.  I highly recommend this device and think you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by MEEM.  Please visit their site for more info and Amazon to order.

 

Product Information

Price: $79.99 as tested (64GB version)
Manufacturer: MEEM
Retailer: Amazon
Requirements:
  • You have to pick either iOS or Android version, depending on your device.
Pros:
  • Built-in storage
  • Wired and wireless backup capabilities
  • PC software to transfer backup to laptop
Cons:
  • Expensive

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MEEM backup cable review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 10, 2017 at 10:00 am.

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