January, 2011
Up and Coming |
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With a new year comes new gadgets, here we'll look at a couple slated for release this year. The first is Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), a new version of the popular wireless technology used in mobile phones. The second is video camera called Looxcie (pronounced look-see). |
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Used predominantly for wireless hands-free units, Bluetooth technology exists in almost every new mobile phone on the market, but has been hampered by high power consumption and limited functionality. BLE plans to tackle both of these issues. The new standard will support two types of devices, single mode and dual mode. Dual mode hardware merges both traditional Bluetooth and BLE, and can operate in both high-power and low-power modes. While single mode BLE hardware can only connect to other BLE devices, it sips power. An example of this is a new concept watch from Casio. Utilising a BLE single-mode chip, the watch connects its alarm functions to your phone, shows incoming email alerts and syncs up to the phone to set its own time. It also promises a battery life of two years. At first glance, the Looxcie camcorder looks like it fell off an alien spacecraft. Designed to be worn on your ear, the camera records everything you see for up to 4 hours. When it runs out of space, it just erases the oldest footage to continue recording. This is a device designed not to collect clips, but rather capture moments. All of those moments when you wish you had a camera but didn't, the Looxcie will capture for you in a gloriously low resolution (480x320 at 15fps). Once captured, you press a button that instantly makes a clip of the last 30 seconds of footage and sends it via Bluetooth to an app on your Google Android phone. The app also allows access to all other footage on the Looxcie, letting you create longer clips and change settings. Have more questions or need help? Contact Gizmo on
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