The mJoose is a 3-in-1 phone case for the Apple iPhone 6 series and Samsung Galaxy S6 that protects the phone, extends the battery life and boosts the phone signal. Is this too good to be true? Don Baine assesses the mJoose with John Casalaspi, VP Sales.

Originally an Indiegogo campaign that was 546% funded, the mJoose is a sled-type case in matt black or bone white that surrounds and protects the phone. Embedded within the case is a 3,000 mAh rechargeable battery and an active signal booster. Unlike passive boosters, the mJoose has built-in circuitry to receive the phone signal, amplify the signal and pass it on the the smartphone. The active boost will add about two bars to the signal strength and could make the difference between making a call and not. It works across all carrier frequencies from 2G to 4G for all carriers, whether GSM or CDMA.

The mJoose will be available in the next month or so for the iPhone 6 series – it’s in the last stages of Apple accreditation. The version for the Galaxy S6 and Edge phones will arrive a little later. Pricing will be around US$149.99 retail depending on model.

Don Baine is the Gadget Professor and gives lectures at TheGadgetProfessor.com

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We all carry around, and rely on, our mobile devices. Will you have enough power to do what you need to do while you are out and about? Ventev has a line of mobile accessories that can ensure you won’t run out of juice.

Marlo and Todd spoke with Scott Franklin, Head of Marketing for Ventev Mobile at CES 2016. Ventev Mobile makes a line of mobile accessories, including back up batteries, wall chargers, car chargers, and a variety of different cables.

The powercell 6000c battery charger with lightning cable is a 6000mAh portable battery with built-in Apple Lightning cable and 1A USB. It has aluminum housing. It features an on/off button, LED battery indicator light, and provides 25 additional hours of talk time. The powercell 600c is priced at $69.99 and is available now.

Todd Aune is bridging the technology gap with The Elder Divide.

Marlo Anderson is rounding up the latest technology news at The Tech Ranch.

It’s the end of day 1 at CES and Don, Todd and Jamie get together to review the day’s events.

The TPN pick of day comes from Don and is the Panono panoramic camera with no less that 36 cameras built into ball (even if Don can’t say “Panono”). Throw it in the air and it takes a full hi-res sphere of photos.

An honourable mention also goes to the Dog and Bone LockSmart Bluetooth padlock which has some innovative features beyond simply using a smartphone to unlock a padlock.

Don Baine is the Gadget Professor and gives classes at TheGadgetProfessor.com

Todd Cochrane is the host of the twice-weekly Geek News Central Podcast at GeekNewsCentral.com.

Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic and health journalist.

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Coming from a background in home security, Essence have used their understanding of monitoring to develop a range of products for the smart home to enable independent living for those people who might otherwise have difficulty looking after themselves. Jamie and Daniel find out more from Rafi Zauer, Essence Head of Marketing.

The smart home market is exploding at the moment and there are hundreds of companies peddling hubs and sensors. What sets Essence’s SmartCare apart is a focus on unobtrusive monitoring and pattern analysis to detect when a dependent person’s daily routine changes, potentially by illness, in order to alert family members to a problem.

By using PIR motion detectors and door sensors, a pattern of behaviour is built up and deviations from the pattern can be escalated to relatives to follow-up. It’s all passive detection; there are no cameras and as such this provides an important level of privacy. Data is passed to a cloud service which in turn passes alerts to an app on a tablet or smartphone.

With an increasingly older population who want to remain in their own home, these kinds of systems will be increasingly relevant.

Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic and health journalist.

Daniel J Lewis dares you to get started in podcasting with The Audacity to Podcast.

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Syrp does motion control for time-lapse. Their consumer aimed products speed up the process of making time-lapse video and and also makes it easy for people to use. Anyone who can take a good nature photo can easily turn that into a time-lapse movie.

Jamie and Daniel spoke with Syrp Director Chris Thomson at CES 2016. Chris demonstrated how to use Syrp’s Genie mini and the app that connects to it. The Genie mini is an extremely easy-to-use device for motion time-lapse or video.

Plug the Genie mini into your DSLR camera, or use it on your GoPro. It will rotate and periodically take photos. At the end of the sequence, you compile those photos into a motion time-lapse. The device is controlled by an app that is available for both iOS and Android. The Genie mini is available now for $249.

Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly which can be found at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic, and health journalist.

Daniel J Lewis dares you to get started in podcasting with The Audacity to Podcast.

The standard acuity chart, commonly called “The Eye Chart”, is great if you are standing still. But, life isn’t static. Right Eye has leveraged the technology of tracking eye movements to create more accurate and informative eye tests.

Jamie spoke with Adam Gross, CEO and co-founder of Right Eye They have created tests that not only track eye movement, but also replace subjective, non-repeatable, cumbersome, often slow, and unavailable tests.

One example is with the case of concussions. Right Eye has digitized the “follow the tip of my finger” test that is widely used for concussion diagnoses and treatment with something more accurate. It is a 15 second test that tracks eye movement to the tune of 120 per second per eye. The test is digitized, accurate, objective, repeatable, and reportable.

The test can produce a report for a doctor or a patient. The report can help show where a patient stands and can monitor the progress of the treatment the patient is receiving. It enables health care providers to determine when the patient is ready to go back to work, when to go back into the game, or when to go back to play or school.

In addition, Right Eye was at CES Unveiled to launch their Right Eye Essential Vision, which is a core set of metrics that relate to vision, such as depth perception. At the same time, they launched their Right Eye Performance Vision. They will launch Neurovision on September 1, 2016.

Bluetooth tracking devices are fairly common but when the tags have been designed by Philippe Starck as “connected jewels”, it’s definitely worth taking a look. Lisa Despeyroux, Wistiki’s Communications and PR manager connects with Jamie and Daniel to tell them more about Hopla!, Voila! and Aha!

French outfit Wistiki have partnered with the famous designer, Philippe Starck, to create three shapes of tracking device (or Wistikis) in four colours. Hopla! is credit card shaped for wallets and purses, Voila! is rectangular for keychans and the oval Aha! dangles for pets or gear. Colour-wise, the choice is yellow, blue, orange and pink. It all adds up to Gallic flair!

As with most tracking systems, the Wistiki connects to an app on the smartphone and there’s a fairly standard set of features including ring, reverse ring and leash. There’s an additional neat feature where if someone finds a lost Wistiki, they can message the original owner to arrange return. And the ringtone is cool too.

The new range is launching on Indiegogo now with expected delivery in late 2016. Current perks offer six Wistikis for US$149.

Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic and health journalist.

Daniel J Lewis dares you to get started in podcasting with The Audacity to Podcast

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Here at CES, there’s been all kinds of sporting sensors and motion trackers from tennis rackets to golf clubs. The Easton Power Sensor with Motion by Blast brings the same kind of technology to baseball bats. Jamie and Daniel take a swing with Donavan Prostrollo, Senior Director of Marketing at Blast.

On show here is the Easton Power Sensor which attaches to the base of a baseball bat. Unlike the sensors in some other sporting goods, it can be switched between bats. The Motion by Blast software then synchronises video of the player with the telemetry from the sensor to show exactly what’s happening when the player takes a swing. The data is sent via Bluetooth to a nearby smartphone or tablet and the software automatically identifies the swings and clips the video to create a series of video highlights, overlaid with metrics such as swing speed, time to contact, swing direction, power, efficiency, etc.

At US$149, the Easton Power Sensor is not an impulse purchase but it is very affordable for a baseball team or serious player. Available now both online and at good sports shops.

Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic and health journalist.

Daniel J Lewis dares you to get started in podcasting with The Audacity to Podcast.

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Ziro is the world’s first hand gesture controlled robotics kit for everyone. With a few hand gestures, you can make a robot move. Ziro brings the Ironman type of quality, or brings “The Force” to everyone that wants to enjoy it with some really cool robots. This type of technology is great for STEM education.

John Rocha, VP, Marketing at ZeroUI spoke with Jamie Davis and Daniel J. Lewis at CES 2016. The mission for ZeroUI is to remove the barriers between people and technology. They want people to interact with mechanical things and other types of devices in a way that is extremely intuitive. The only way to do that is through hand gestures and other simple ways.

The Ziro kit comes with four actuator modules and one smart glove. The kit enables people to build 3 different robots that they can configure. One is a mars rover robot, another is a humanoid robot, and the third is a robotic dog. A person can use the smart glove to steer the robot in a direction with just the flick of a hand. Pricing for the kit will run about $199. Those that are interested in Ziro can get on a list to be informed when it will become available. It is expected to retail this summer.

Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly which can be found at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic, and health journalist.

Daniel J Lewis dares you to get started in podcasting with The Audacity to Podcast.

Dog and Bone are more usually known for their protective range of Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy smartphone cases, though here it’s a smartphone-controlled Bluetooth padlock that’s going to provided the protection. Jamie and Daniel find out more from Maria.

Dog and Bone’s LockSmart keyless Bluetooth padlock is exactly what it says: a padlock that uses Bluetooth communication from an app on a smartphone to unlock it. While that alone might be handy in some circumstances, the real trick is that with the app the owner can give unlocking privileges to other people. Say your bike’s padlocked to a railing in town and you want a friend to pick it up for you. You can give him (or her) the unlock permissions for the LockSmart, let him get the bike and once it’s returned, you can revoke the permissions. Definitely much handier than sharing keys or combinations. In addition, the app can manage multiple locks and receive notifications when locks are opened. Both iOS and Android devices are supported.

There’s a choice of two LockSmarts: on sale now is the larger version at US$89.95 with a mini version expected soon for US$69.95.

Jamie Davis is the host of Health Tech Weekly at HTWeekly.com. He is a nurse, paramedic and health journalist.

Daniel J Lewis dares you to get started in podcasting with The Audacity to Podcast.

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