Techstination

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.  When it comes to smart home controllers…Ezlo Innovation is doing what its name implies.  It is out with the PlugHub Energy…a combination smart home hub, smart plug and energy monitor….and it sells for under forty dollars.  VP of product Roger Gregory…

“Most consumers know what it is…you can plug it in …it will function as a smart switch as one would expect.  But then we unravel additional functionality.  We actually add in that hub capability so it will talk to and control other devices in your home.  So that’s pretty exciting.”

It works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and a wide range of smart home gear.  There’s also a new smart home hub… USB powered…called the Atom…that might be the solution for many households.   Find more info at www.getvera.com.

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.   There was a lot of focus on digital health at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show once again.  A variety of companies have developed devices to help with hearing loss.  Olive Union has a solution that looks like a standard wireless earbud…that can be used in one ear or two…and the app is designed to test your hearing and tune the device.  Chief Operating Officer Teo Son says the design helps to remove some of the stigma of hearing assistance devices…

“We don’t want our products to look like medical devices instead of a fashionable Bluetooth earbud.”

The Olive Smart Ear is impressive and easily slips into a shirt pocket when not in use.  To help you breathe easier wherever you are….Wynd…spelled with a Y…has new products coming to market.  The Wynd Plus…available now…is designed to improve air quality around you.  You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.

Techstination Week is a compilation of this week's Techstination reports with tech journalist and host Fred Fishkin.

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.   Building robots to do some good. The Dutch delegation from Techleap at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show….were showing robotic technology….designed to clean up beaches around the world…and help farmers get rid of weeds without chemicals.  Martijn Lukaart from the delegation says Odd.bot can use machine vision to tell the difference between weeds and crops..

“We now primarily focus on organic farmers because they are now are forced to do it manually.”

On the beach cleaning side is a robotic machine called Project BB…

“This is a robot that can drive autonomously over the beaches to detect small litter.”

From plastic bottles to things as small as cigarette butts and clean them up.  They are looking to form partnerships around the world.  Find more at www.projectbb.org.

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.

Baldwin brings new tech to stylish door locks.  Baldwin's Josh Hodgson chats with Techstination.

Yamaha unveils new Silent Bass & more: President Tom Sumner in Techstination interview.

Voyage Without Carbon blogger tops 100 thousand miles in Tesla Model 3: Arthur Driessen chats with Techstination.

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.  If one of your resolutions year is to cut down on the amount of time the kids …and maybe you  spend in front of screens…might want to first spend a little screen time watching Suzanne Crocker’s film…All the Time in the World.  She, her husband, three kids, two cats and a dog…spent nine months in a small cabin in the bush in the Canadian Yukon.  No electricity..except for the batteries needed for film making.  And the story is about what happens to a family in that kind of setting.  How has she dealt with screen time issues?  Crocker told her oldest son…he could only play video games that he wrote and programmed...

“He took up that challenge and he really enjoyed programming video games more than playing them for a while.  And then he quickly went on to design boardgames and things like that.”

You can find links to the film at www.allthetimeintheworld.ca

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.  Accessory maker Accell is helping consumers stay charged and more connected with some new gadgets this year.  A unique and fun way to plug in and charge all of those devices is the Power Cutie…

“It’s round.  It has three outlets, four USB ports, it comes in three colors…red, white or blue.”

And says the company’s Christine English…has UL certified surge protection.  Also new is Accell’s Driverless Dock…that works with Macs, PCs and even Android mobile devices…with, as the name implies, no drivers.  VP Tenny Sin..

“It’s like magic.  The external display will start in mirror mode and the 4K HDMI will be working.”

Along with the other docking ports you’ll need.  For more …head to www.accellww.com.

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.