Geekazine

While this is not going to replace seeing my eye doctor all the time, I do feel there are times where I can verify my prescription may not have changed. This is where EyeQue comes in. I can find out not only my left and right eye strength, I can set up a profile to get new glasses online.

I did an interview EyeQue at CES 2019, so I was aware of the full process.

Chapters

* 00:00 Intro * 00:42 What is EyeQue * 1:49 Unbox VisionCheck * 5:05 App Configuration * 6:20 First Eye Check * 11:22 PD Check * 14:06 Testing the Try-On Glasses * 17:27 Glasses Received * 19:16 Showing the Magnetic Clip-ons for these new glasses * 21:08 Final Thoughts

How EyeQue VisionCheck Works

This is a device that pairs via Bluetooth with your iOS (11 or better) or Android (5.0 or better) phone. VisionCheck is charged up via USB cable, so it can make optical adjustments of an image on the screen.

There are moving parts inside the unit, as it tests not only nearsightedness, but also astigmatism.

On the screen are a blue and red line. When you look into the eyepiece, you may see those two lines, or the overlapped version – a yellow line. The goal is to use the buttons on the side to merge the red and blue together.

This process is done 9 times per eye. Each time you match the lines together and press the button, the dial inside will turn 45 degrees, and you will line up the lines again. In total, one check will take 18 steps.

This test will be repeated around 4-5 times (total 72-90 steps) until an average is obtained. You can choose to do more than 5 times, which is what I did between a 5 day period.

Checking your PD

PD stands for Pupilary Distance between your eyes. A wrongly set PD could mean you having struggles focusing while wearing your glasses.

The unit also came with a pair of white frames with “T” marks on the front. The idea is once you take a photo of your face with the frames, you line up the pupils and “T” marks to the app. The PD number will then be created.

The Try-On Glasses

Next step is to get a pair of glasses to try on. These are yours to keep (great for a backup pair).

Bone conduction is a great way to keep your ears open for other sounds while you can keep in on your music, conference call, or phone call. It can even make you feel like you have another set of ears when you’re using it. I go through the full unbox and first test of this set of headphones in the video.

About Aftershokz OpenComm

Aftershokz OpenComm

A Bluetooth 5.0 headset, the OpenComm is a Stereo Headset with microphone attached. The headset is completely wireless, which charges up quickly, and gives you up to 16 hours of talk time.

This headset is IP55 water resistant, and is fairly stretchable, so it will fit around many different heads. The microphone does swivel so you can get it out of the way.

The headset can pair via Bluetooth 5.0 or NFC. Three buttons on the unit – Stop/Start audio, Volume up, and volume down. The volume up button doubles to turn on the unit and pair with a phone or computer (long press).

The Microphone

The microphone does have noise cancelling features that work fairly well. In my tests, I didn’t come across with broadcast quality, but it also didn’t sound like a regular phone headset.

Pros and Cons on OpenComm

The headset is easy to wear, and works well in many situations. I actually have been wearing on my Zoom calls to keep from wearing earbuds so often.

As long as the earpieces keep contact with the temple bone, I can hear what is being said or music that is being played. The sound quality is good, but does not offer the range a good set of headphones can. This would not work well for mixing music (for example), but perfect if you’re working out and just want to hear music.

With bone conductivity, the whole unit does vibrate. I had it in hand when talking to someone, and could feel the sound vibrate on my fingers.

The charging cable is proprietary to the unit, so don’t lose it. Buying a secondary cable is not expensive, but you could be without the OpenComm for a couple days if you don’t have the spare.

Overall, I was able to not only enjoy music, but take a call without issue. The noise cancellation did a fairly good job in a boomy room.

Price

The headset is $159 MSRP. You can get the Aftershokz OpenComm here.

I remember my first Rubik’s Cube… well… more of a generic knockoff that was in the bargin bin my Mom bought for me. The cool thing about that cube is it came with instructions on patterns to help solve. So when I saw the Go Cube with Bluetooth ability and an app that does more than solve the puzzle, I was intrigued.

What is the Go Cube?

The Go Cube is a Rubik’s Cube with Bluetooth 5.0 (LE), and app support. Simply pair up your Co Cube to your iOS or Android device, download the app, and you’re up and running.

The cube can help you solve by directing you on screen. There is even a visual guide that turns the virtual cube when you turn the actual Go Cube.

It takes a few minutes to understand the terms to which side you are turning. Once you’ve mastered that, moving around the cube is quick and easy.

It also comes with a charging stand that will double as a display stand for your Go Cube.

Games and Tricks With Your Go Cube

The app also gives you a series of games to play, and tricks to perform on your Rubik’s Cube. Everything from creating simple patterns, to more complex ideas, such as the “Tetris design”.

You can keep track of your solve times for improvement, or even challenge others across the Internet. And it doesn’t matter if you (or they) are on iOS or Android – you can challenge them all the same.

The internal battery can give you about 60 hours of connected play time before recharging. And it can also be used by multiple people, as long as they use their own profile while connected to the Go Cube.

Thoughts on Go Cube

One thing I like about the Go Cube is the smooth feel and rounded corners. This makes for easier turning, and keeps me from cheating (by not being able to swap the stickers).

The cube also has some stretch-ability with it’s core. It allows me to not catch on edges at all when I’m turning, especially with one hand cube solving.

Price and Availability.

It definitely is a little more than the $4.99 cube I got back in the 80’s. AT $99, The Go Cube is still a great gift for friends and family, or perfect for your geek decor.

Get Your Go Cube here – Check out Go Cube’s website

Apple unveiled Air Tags for tracking keys, luggage, and other items you need. With a device no larger than a U.S. quarter, these tags connect via Bluetooth, and are instantly seen by your Apple device.

The Tag also is added to your “Find My” option, so you can find them at a distance.

Air Tags have a long life battery that is easy to replace. The tag is water resistant, so if your keys are at the bottom of the pool, they can still be found.

Using the Connection of Millions

If you leave your keys at the gym, restaurant, store, or another place, the Find My network will ping off of hundreds of millions of other iOS devices to help find your lost items. Think of it like a search party looking for what you lost.

And you don’t even know half of them.

Keep in mind, these people are helping you, although they don’t know they are. This keeps your stuff private, and not having these hundreds of millions of people trying to get to your Air Tag before you do.

Price

Air Tags start at $29 for a single, and $99 for a pack of 4. Free engraving is available.

Get Your Air Tags here

Normally, I’m trying to figure out the words to say. But I think I should let the transcription say it for me. This is Simon Says – it’s a transcription app that uses AI to not only transcribe, but also helps you figure out how to edit videos by looking at what was said.

Assemble puts the text next to timecodes. You can choose to remove a certain part of text/video, or create a quick social meme.

But I spoke too much. Let’s let the software do the work:

Jeffrey Powers: continuing coverage, see twenty, twenty one virtual virtual being me, you hear us?   I’ve got here us Shmeer. And the company called Simon says you’re called Schmeer, but you’re not called  Simon, right?

Shamir Allibhai: Exactly. Yeah. You know, I get that mixed up a lot incessantly on chat where people are like,”Hi, Simon.” No Schama, but  Simon’s fine.

Jeffrey Powers: Now tell people your role at Simon Says and a little bit about what Simon says, says or is.

Shamir Allibhai:  Yeah, absolutely it is.  Shamir Allibhai , CEO and founder of Simon says AI, where we’re using speech recognition to transcribe and translate audio video, typically at the beginning of post-production, where you have your dailies or rushing your interviews that you want to find the meaningful parts of, or at the end of an edit where you want to subtitle caption that edit for distribution.

Jeffrey Powers: And last month we released it, Simon says Assemble, which is now text based video editing so you can find the sound bytes in your transcript and then drag and drop in order then to create the foundation of your story. It’s collaborative, it’s web based, getting a lot of kudos for it. So I’m really excited with where it’s headed.

Jeffrey Powers: So how that how Assemble works is but we’ll take this video we’re making we’re making a video right here, I would put that into Simon says it would transcribe it and then I would see like a storyboard type situation. Is that how that works?

Shamir Allibhai: So, yeah, and so on. When you load up, assemble, you’ve already transcribed your video. And so what you see is in the source monitor. And below is the transcript for the original video that you imported. And then you just go in editing a Microsoft Word or Google Docs, just highlight the sentences

Shamir Allibhai: the key words and the beauty and the kind of technology behind it is what speech recognition is doing is it’s matching each word to a time reference point in the video.

Shamir Allibhai: And so when you highlight the sentence, Simon knows the end point and I’ll point for that sentence. And so you highlight that sentence and you highlighted and then on the timeline side, now you have these sub-clips these sentences, and you can just drag order sentences around to create the foundation of your story.

Shamir Allibhai: And a video is dynamically created again, sentences nose in and out points for each sentence. You give an example, one video, but imagine you’re done 10 interviews. And so you want to cut from interviewee A interviewee B, you can do that.

Shamir Allibhai: On the timeline side, the video is dynamically created. So now you’re watching in real time this this rough cut being formed and easy, as is some word,

I talked with Victoria Nece of Adobe to learn about the updates in After Effects 2021. We centered around real-time events, and a new feature in beta: Real Time Rendering.

Multi-Frame Rendering

The new redesigned render queue for After Effects will show the render in different states. The Exported frames, the frames ready to be exported, and the frames currently exporting. This uses the multiple cores in your CPU to help see things in closer-to-real time.

That can help get graphics, or whole scenes ready for export, as an editor will be able to review the changes as quick as possible.

A computer with 4-6 cores and 16GB RAM will see a speed improvement of 1.2-1.4x, whereas a higher end system with more than 16 cores will have a 2-3x faster performance boost. Since this feature is still in beta, these numbers could change upon release.

Anyone with Creative Cloud can download and test the latest beta. The software does not interrupt your regular workflow, as the current stable version stays installed.

Get Adobe Creative Cloud here.

3D render engine

3D Render Engine

Adobe also had a big March release. Victoria showed a couple cool new features, including a real-time 3D gaming-style engine for workflows. She showed us how to navigate cameras in a 2D animation. You are also able to move around camera tools in 3D space, instead of around the center of the screen. The selection tool can even be done via keyboard and mouse.

Media Replacement for Graphics

Media replacement for motion graphics is another feature that lets you create one template, then make changes to use this in a different composition. This composition can also be used in Premiere Pro in the Graphics tab.

These features are available now. Get Adobe Creative Cloud here.

I bought my first Android phone in a long time. I am building an “At home” kit – a video system that I send to people for one-on-one interviews. But for this video, I’ll be unboxing and setting up the phone for everyday use.

Asus Zenfone 7 Specs

The Zenfone 7 is an Android phone with AMOLED display measuring 6.67 inches of viewing screen. The display also emits up to 700 nits for outdoor reading, and protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6. Finally, the screen is SGS certified for eye comfort.

The Zenfone 7 uses the 7 nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 5G mobile chip, and is a 64-bit Octa-core processor. Qualcomm Adreno 650 is the GPU, and runs LPDDR5 RAM at either 6 or 8 GB.

Audio

Speakers are stereo dynamic, 5 magnet speakers with dula NXP TFA9874 smart amplifiers. The phone runs the Qualcomm Audio CODEC.

3 Microphones on the Zenfone 7, with ASUS noise reduction technology.

Connection and Storage

This phone is GSM based, but you can get at WCDMA phone if needed. Dual SIM tray allows for 2 carriers on the phone. Both slots can be equipped with a nano SIM card and support 2G to 5G speeds.

WiFi 6 inside, with dual band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz connections. Bluetooth 5.1, supporting Qualcomm aptX Adaptive. Add a USB-C adapter for Ethernet connection, along with USB options.

The SIM tray also holds a microSD card, up to 2 TB in size.

@geekazine Looking at the @asus #zenfone7 with #flip #camera #qualcomm #snapdragon #phone #dualsim #tech #tiktoktech #gear #8k ? original sound – Jeffrey Powers

And Then There’s the Camera…

Most notable feature of this phone is simply the camera. There is only one set of lenses, and they can move to the subject. Therefore, you can have your best camera shooting, and watch from the screen of the phone.

This phone holds a Sony IMX686 64 MP image sensor, capable of up to 16MP pixel size. It’s F1.8 aperture can give give you a good field of depth, along with letting in enough light to get shots during the day or evening. This phone holds a Sony IMX686 64 MP image sensor, capable of up to 16MP pixel size. It’s F1.8 aperture can give give you a good field of depth, along with letting in enough light to get shots during the day or evening.

If you’re looking for a good entry Black and White printer for simple tasks, HP LaserJet MFP M234dwe is a great all-in-one for office needs. This printer, along with last year’s HP Neverstop 1202W are affordable LaserJet printers for your office needs. With the HP Smart app, you can do a lot more than print. All for around $179 (MSRP).

Features of the HP LaserJet MFP M234dwe

This printer takes as much room as any inkjet style printer. You can connect wireless (802.11b/g/n), or through the Ethernet jack. Although there is USB-B, this plug is not setup for computer connection. It’s either a maintenance port, accessory option port, or possibly device that will eventually be removed from future models.

There is no other USB, drive, or memory card slot on this printer.

The 150 sheet input tray will take letter, card, label, and envelope stock. You can be ready to print around 2,000 pages a month, and it can handle up to 20,000 if needed. The output tray can hold up to 100 pages.

Page Speed, Duplex, Scanning

Printing the first page will take up to 6.9 seconds, with a 30 ppm speed after. The duplexing option is built-in: you can save paper by printing on both sides.

Flatbed scanner on top allows you to bring scans into your computer or phone, or make copies. 600×600 monochrome copies come out just as fast as printing, and quality is comparable to the original.

Top of the printer includes a contrast option for matching the copies as needed.

With HP+

HP introduced HP+, a new complete printing solution that combines hardware, Instant Ink, and the HP smart app. This gives you 6 months of free toner, a 2 year warranty, and advanced HP Smart app features.

HP Smart App

The HP Smart App allows you to set up a printer without a computer. Open the app, and you can connect via Bluetooth or Wireless to setup. You can be on your network and printing within a couple minutes.

Faxing and OCR Scanning

Your HP Smart App adds OCR scanning. This is perfect for adding receipts to your accounting software. Further, the app has a feature so you can fax out documents when needed.

HP Instant Ink, Warranty

You will get 6 months of Instant Ink toner with this printer. This is perfect if you have to do a lot of printing, the app will setup a schedule so you have new toner at your door before you run out.

This HP LaserJet also comes with a two-year warranty. Once you set up the printer, register for warranty support.

Price

The HP M234dwe LaserJet Printer is available now for $179. Available in many office retailers and electronic store outlets.

Adobe Creative Cloud has updated their Caption support in the March Update of Premiere Pro. I talked with Francis Crossman, who shows us how to use the new Captions tab, and features an upcoming service for caption transcription.

New Captions Workspace

The new Captions Workspace will open up a Caption panel, and Graphics panel. This will allow you to import your captions, or create your own captions.

When captions are inserted, you will see it on the top of the timeline. The essential graphics edit box will allow you to edit the look of your captions. You can create templates for quick editing, or make adjustments to your captions so they don’t fall over graphics, or important parts of the video.

Captions set into video, or through an SRT file

SRT or Burn In Captions

To bring captions into the video is simply choosing the Captions tab in the render box (control/command M). We got to see if you are resizing for social networks and want to put the captions in, captions are a great way to improve the view on those networks. You can burn those right into the video.

Sneak Peek: Adobe Transcription Service

Francis also showed us a new feature in BETA right now. You can send your project up to the Adobe cloud, and their transcription service will create captions for you.

There is no release date or prices available at this point for this service.

Adobe Creative Cloud Pricing

You can start using Adobe Premiere Pro as an app, or through the Creative Cloud. Premiere comes in a monthly subscription fee, or through the Creative Cloud at $600/year. Get Creative Cloud Here

CME Pro launched a new device that turns your MIDI into a Bluetooth MIDI for your computer. They have come out with three different devices that will connect your keyboard, drums, horn, guitar, lights, or other items together without a cable.

What is WIDI Master

Bluetooth MIDI is a new wireless standard the MIDI Association approved. CME-Pro developed a small MIDI connector that will attach to your instrument. WIDI Master is point-to-point Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity with ultra low latency, automatic pairing, and complete with MIDI Clock and SysEx for syncing together.

One WIDI Master can connect to Windows, Mac, Android (8 or later), and iOS (8 or later) devices. The device is compatible with Bluetooth 4.0 or better.

WIDI Jack

This device adds TRS MIDI, DIN 6 mini and DIN 5 MIDI to your wireless. You can even connect unpowered MIDI ports with the USB-C connector.

The jack is a small box that can be affixed to your instrument, and the cables to your MIDI device. WIDI Jack can communicate with WIDI Master, so a rack unit can talk with a pedalboard.

WIDI Uhost

This is a 3-in-1 USB MIDI Bluetooth solution. It adds BLE to a USB MIDI device, with all the same features as the WIDI Master. WIDI Uhost also can connect up to 4 WIDI Master devices.

Prices

WIDI Master and WIDI Jack are both available now for $59. WIDI Uhost is still in production, with a 50% discount to get this unit up to 3,000 boxes. Get WIDI Master Here