Geekazine

Belkin showed off several wireless charging solutions at CES 2018, including devices that could be added to furniture for quick and easy charging. These chargers are iOS 8/X and Qi compatible, and can charge up to 7.5W for faster charging.

Belkin is the #1 third-party maker of wireless charging. They are working with furniture makers so you can not only purchase items with the charger included, but also convert your older desk, chair, and more to include a wireless charger.

The Boost Up charger is available now. Also check out the Belkin website for other cool, innovative items.

As we get into this digital music age, we want to feel safe when we put something in front of our feet. We don’t want iPads damaged, or iPhones stolen during a gig. IK Multimedia – an innovative music company – has been working to merge iOS, tones and pedals. The iRig Stomp I/O comes from years of building, learning, and re-building. The end product is something you will use for both practice, and for performance. I talked with Dan from IK Multimedia about this new product coming to shelves this year.

What is the iRig Stomp I/O

It’s a pedalboard for your need. Set up with 4 main buttons and a expression pedal, you can make these buttons do whatever you need. You connect this up to your guitar, then add your PC, iPad, Mac, or any device that will allow for a low-latency music pass-through, and start rockin.

The Stomp I/O is a 96 kHz/24-bit device that provides input, connection to computer or iPad through USB or MIDI, External pedal switch, and Stereo line outputs to mixer or amp. The 4 button interface also can be set up for looper mode, tuner mode, or other modes that might be available in the future.

iRig Stomp I/O for the Guitar

Connect this device up to your guitar, then run AmpliTube, or many other programs on the iOS device, PC, or Mac (Garageband, Logic Pro, Presonus, Ableton, etc). Do some practice using the headphone jack to keep things quiet, or connect to an amp to rock it out. One line to Amp, the other to board for live performance, or in-home recording.

iRig Stomp for Keyboards, Bass, other instruments

Amplitube has bass presets, Sampletank and iGrand for keyboards, and even a saxophone, horn, or many other instruments will benefit from this pedal. A harmonica player can get the gritty sound they look for, while a horn can dial in soft to harsh sounds, depending on what the music calls for. The possibilities are endless.

iRig Stomp for Vocalist

The main input is a 1/4″ TRS/XLR input with Phantom power. Vocalists can utilize the Stomp I/O with Mic Room to turn your $20 microphone into a ribbon mic, tube mic, or many other sounds. With VocalLive, you can add effects to your voice, and control them at your feet.

The iRig Stomp I/O will be available in March starting at $299. When available, you can get it here. Learn more at the IK Multimedia site.

It’s been a bit of a wild ride for Skully. If you have been following the troubled saga, you know that they failed to deliver on IndieGoGo crowdfunding promises. There were delays, missed shipping deadlines and hurt backers. For a while many thought that the company was dead. Well, things have been happening behind the scenes and it looks like the company has plenty of life left in it.

What Happened at Skully

The company has some new owners who are determined to steer things right. Now known as Skully Technologies, the assets of Skully, Inc. have been acquired by Ivan Contreras and Rafael Contreras, who are successful businessmen known for reinvigorating technology companies. This all means that development of its AI-guided, AR-enabled motorcycle helmets resumed. They plan to ship by this summer in fact. It has been a roller coaster, but this has all been good news for fans who want the best tech in motorcycle helmets. It is bound to get even better.

New Skully Helmt

Skully showed off their latest prototype of the helmet at CES on Sunday. In case you aren’t familiar, it sports a rear-facing camera, a visor with a heads up display, and smartphone integration. As for that IndieGoGo fiasco, Skully has launched a “Make It Right” campaign, insuring that everyone who ordered one through the crowdfunding site will get one. And that is good business 101. Good on them.

For more information, check out Skully Technologies.

Robots have been a part of CES for a long time. This year, they got their own wing in South Hall to show off all the cool things they can do. From utility to sport, and even getting you a beer at the end of the day. You’d be surprised how many people have robots in their homes already. Maybe it’s a vacuum. It could be that stationary personal assistant you call Alexa, Google, or Siri. So why not embrace these cool robots as well…

Omron Plays Ping Pong

It’s simply a concept, as Omron is not in the business of making ping pong table robots. Still, it was cool to see them serve, and react to oncoming ping pongs. Omron does create many different types of autonomous devices, mostly for the workplace – Agriculture, Manufacturing, Health care, and mobility.

Still, pitting the human opponent to the machine shows we have ways to work with them to get things done.

Yamaha MOTOROiD

While still a prototpe, this is part of a series of “Lifestyle vehicles” from Yamaha. No real details can be given, but the end result is a advanced motorcycle for your transport needs.

UBTech First Order Stormtrooper

Another consumer robot is the fun loving Star Wars First Order Stormtrooper. These are simple robots that you can control with a mobile device. UB Tech creates different types of robots that will teach you to build and program in the new age of robotics.

UBTech First Order Stormtrooper is a fun robot to start with. It has facial recognition, Sentry mode, and mission mode, which you can program in through your mobile device. You can get the robot for $299. Order UBTech First Order Stormtrooper here.

More in Video

We have some more awesome robots of CES in the video. Don’t forget to like, comment, and share!

Netgear has a new router and LAN switch aimed at gamers, along with software to keep you from buffering. Jeffrey Powers talks with Netgear at CES about all the cool new products, including the XR500 gaming router and XS10 Gaming switch.

Why a Nighthawk Gaming Router?

Because when you are in the middle of a heated battle, you don’t want any connection problems. The Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500 router and the Nighthawk SX10 10G/Multi-Gig LAN Switch help optimize network connections, stabilize ping, reduce lag, and generally make sure that you are ‘always-on’ both on wired and wireless connections while playing online games. Otherwise you may find yourself in a fit of rage when bad things happen just as you are beating that boss monster.

 Nighthawk Gaming with Net DumaOS

Netgear has partnered up with NetDuma for the DumaOS – software that can limit your location to other gamers, along with allocate bandwidth for others who might be watching movies, playing games, or other tasks.

The team at Netgear show Jeff how to localize his gaming experience, find out which devices are taking up all the bandwidth, and adjust allowances so one program doesn’t start causing bottlenecks.

More on the Pro Gaming Router (XR500) and Switch (XS10)

The Nighthawk Pro Gaming WiFi Router is going to be a gamer’s best friend. This device has a dual-core 1.7GHz processor, Quad-stream Wave 2 Wi-Fi with MU-MIMO, and four external high-power antennas. There’s also a four-port Gigabit switch for wired connections. Rounding things out are two USB 3.0 ports to share USB storage. It also packs in 256MB flash storage and 512MB of RAM.

The Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming SX10 10G/Multi-Gig LAN Switch offers hard-wired speeds and has two auto-adaptive 10Gigabit/Multi-Gigabit ports that deliver data transfer rates speeds of 100Mbps, 1Gbps, 2.5Gbps, 5Gbps or 10Gbps.

The Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming WiFi Router is priced at $299.99 and the Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming SX10 10G/Multi-Gig LAN Switch shares the same price. Get the Nighthawk here.

It was back in December when Huawei’s sub-brand Honor debuted the View10 in Europe and the world got its first look. Now the company has introduced the smartphone in the U.S. at CES 2018. What makes this phone unique? It’s all about the power of AI. The AI features just steal the show. We will likely see it in the U.S. in Q1.

About the Honor View10

The View10 has a 5.8-inch IPS LCD display, 18:9 aspect ratio and Full HD+ resolution. It is powered by the Kirin 970 chip with a dedicated AI chip that has a neural processor. This allows the smartphone to recognize 13 different photo scenes like pets, text, nature etc. It scans 33 times per second. It also offers real-time translation through the Microsoft Translator app and can unlock the phone with your face. If that isn’t enough, there’s a fingerprint sensor on the phone’s front bezel. A developer SDK is coming soon, which will let developers create apps to take advantage of the AI capabilities of the phone. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

Other features include: 6 GB of RAM. 128 GB storage with support for microSD card, a 3,750 mAh battery with Huawei’s SuperCharge fast charging technology, 16-megapixel and 20-megapixel cameras on back, and a 13-megapixel front camera.

In the Video

Jeffrey has a go with its AI ability by getting his face scanned in. A quick process, with pretty good accuracy.

Get Honor View10 and visit Honor’s Website.

Monster unveiled some really amazing headphones at this years CES show. Jeffrey talked with Stephen at CES 2018 about not only the new Headphones and Earbuds, but also about the Joe Perry Sound of Rock Blaster.

Monster Clarity HDX Headphones, Earbuds

Monster’s Clarity HDX headphones are a breath of fresh air. They are packed with cool features. Let’s start with the Tile tracker circuitry that’s built in. This uses the same technology as the popular keychain finder tags, and you know what that means. It means that if you lose your headphones, you can find them using a smartphone app. How many times have you lost your headphones or earbuds? This is a great feature. Right now that technology is in their headphones and will shortly make its way to the earbuds.

They also feature Google Assistant for voice-command features. These headphones have Bluetooth, but you can also have a direct connection through USB-C. Since USB-C gets power from the source device, the power switch on the headphones has a mode that forces the headphones to run on their own rechargeable battery. This way your phone’s battery doesn’t drain and leave you sad.

A feature called MonsterTalk lets you play music from any streaming service by using your voice, no matter if it’s Spotify, iTunes, or others. I told you that these headphones were packed with features. Price is expected to be between $199 and $249.

More info at Monsterproducts.com

CES isn’t just about innovation for humans. Sometimes your pets benefit from the technology on display as well. Petwalk is showing off the world’s first fully connected pet door at CES 2018. This pet door can be controlled via remote, mobile devices and web browsers, or through the ID chip on your pet. With one tap, you can open or close the door. It can also open via a transponder implanted under your pet’s skin.

Petwalk Secure Pet Door

It’s a pet door for the modern age. Maybe it’s raining outside and you want Fido to stay in. You can keep the door closed. The door looks a lot like a vault and it is insulated door and airtight. This keeps your home secure from burglars and also keeps noise and bad weather out. The door connects to your alarm system to keep things extra secure. The design looks good in the home and this door can be installed on any wall, glass or door and closes softly so that your pets don’t get hurt by it.

The user can use any cloud based media service to make a face recognition for your pets. The data gets sent to Petwalk and if they determine that it is not your dog, that dog is staying outside. If they are unsure if this is your pet, they send you the video stream so you can decide to let the dog in or not.

Could Petwalk be an Amazon Key Alternative?

During the conversation, we pondered if this pet door could come in handy for Amazon deliveries. The delivery service scans the QR code to send a message to your device, you confirm the delivery, and allow the door to open. A camera can even be positioned inside to ensure the package is the only thing coming in.

Petwalk will be available in the US shortly (Currently in 30 countries worldwide). They will be available in the 2nd half of 2018 starting at around $1900. Check out more at Petwalk.

4K  in 360-degree video it can still feel like it’s not so much. So Pisofttech is showing off one of the first 360 camera that can stitch 8K videos in the camera itself. The Pilot Era is a four-lens camera capable of shooting 8K 360 videos at 26 frames per second or 4K at 60 fps.

About Pisofttech

Since 2012, Pisofttech has been working in panoramic algorithms. They are the only Panoramic + AI algorithm team in China invested by ARM .

About Pilot Era 8K Camera

The Pilot Era’s four lenses and sensors work together to record and stitch 8K spherical video automatically. You can still choose to use third party software to do the stitching if you want, but why would you when this device does it all for you? The four f/2.2 fisheye lenses are on each side of the body and the camera also uses algorithms to stabilize the footage and correct any distortions created by merging the four views together.

The Pilot Era has a small touchscreen, voice control and an optional smartphone app can control it remotely. It also has four different preview modes: fisheye, scrollable 360, little planet, and flattened equirectangular which allows you to see the entire recorded area. It weighs about as much as a can of soda, so it is compact and also light. The battery will deliver 1-2 hours of use time.

The Era will cost around $3,000 when it is released later this year. For more information, check out Pisofttech website.

Most instruments get amplified using either Microphones, pickups, or Piezo sensors. But Taff has been introducing a new way to amplify the sound – through optics. Host Sergio Michel talks with Taff Optical about their line of optical pickups at NAMM.

What is an Optical Pickup?

Using the instrument’s body to modulate a path of light, the Taff optical sensor will be a great way to give the fullness of their instruments through only one pickup. Constant volume, all without distortion.

Taff Optical helps stringed instruments like the cello, upright bass, acoustic guitar, and many other acoustic instruments.

More information at TaffOptical.com including release dates and prices.