Even though I’ve yet to wrap up my Kevo Smartlock review, Kwikset has gone ahead and revealed phase two of their Unikey-powered connected home strategy. There’s a variety of ways to slice and dice these smart components, and Kevo only ships with Bluetooth capabilities – unlike some of their competitors, who integrate WiFi. To extend … Read more
A clever new Netgear router feature caught my eye this morning from CES. Tailored to small businesses, Facebook Wi-Fi enables that local cafe or bead shop to offer free wireless… in exchange for a Facebook check-in. Win-win? From the press blast: NETGEAR is making the Facebook Wi-Fi login available on its premium line of next-generation wireless routers … Read more
Parrot Jumping Sumo
Via CNXSoft we’ve learned a new Popcorn Hour A-410 networked media jukebox is now available for pre-order at $260. It’s been a several years since I’ve personally heard from from Syabas, when they attempted to take a run at the Rokus of the world with Popbox – a simple media streamer with fresh UI. Unfortunately, they failed … Read more
After breaking news that TiVo’s co-founders have reunited to develope another (mini) set-top, it appears that the company rebrand has accelerated… as Invisioneer transforms into Qplay right before our eyes (and clearly without a private staging website). Our initial assumptions, based on limited site text and LinkedIn profiles, appears spot on. From Qplay’s new description: For … Read more
Having missed the ever so lucrative holiday hopping season, we stop to wonder what Amazon might pack into their forthcoming TV streamer (after failing to reach a deal for the Netflix-backed Roku a few years back).
First, given pulled and presumably filled job openings, one technology Amazon’s Lab126 Kindle division has been interested in is MHL – something we’ve seen leveraged by the Roku streaming sick, as means of doing away with the set-top box. Of course, the M in MHL is “mobile” and this could equally refer to the Kindle Fire line of tablets — either on their own or as a means of interfacing with a Kindle streamer. However, we fully believe any Amazon TV stick or set-top would act as an endpoint to the Kindle Fire’s Miracast capabilities.
GigaOM’s Janko Roettgers has been dogged about trying to discover the raison d’etre behind stealth start-up Black Pearl Systems, and now, six months after first revealing the company’s existence, Roettgers is finally able to give us details on what exactly the company aims to do. Black Pearl has launched its new consumer brand name, Lyve Minds, and plans to introduce a product called LyveHome next spring that lets users share and back up their personal media across a variety of devices and apps.
The big deal with Black Pearl, er Lyve Minds, is the management team behind it. The CEO and co-founder Tim Bucher used to be head of engineering for Apple, and the rest of his team brings in experience from companies including Netflix, Danger, YouTube, Microsoft, TiVo, Roku, and Amazon. Interestingly, I discovered separately that co-founder and Content CTO Scott Smyers left the company in October, and has now moved on to a VP role at the audio company DTS. It seems odd that one of the co-founders would abandon the pirate ship before launch. Perhaps a management disagreement? Or maybe something far less interesting, like logistics or start-up fatigue.
In the meantime, here’s what we know about the LyveHome product:
While I’m the CTO of the Zatz household, my wife Melissa is also capable of making tech purchasing decisions… and living with the consequences. What follows is her realization that one gadget doesn’t fit all.
Dave’s pattern of flipping gadgets must be contagious because I’ve caught the bug! More importantly, I’ve inherited his appreciation (or lack thereof) of a gadget’s usability and functionality. As such, technology is frequently coming and going in our home.
A year ago I wrote about swapping my iPad 3 for the new iPad Mini. At the time I wanted a smaller device that I could more comfortably handle when lounging around; a gadget I could use for mundane web browsing and video streaming. But, the Mini and I had a short lived love affair as I quickly starting yearning for something sexier. The lack of retina display was hard to get used to and I never adjusted to the fonts. Having to constantly pinch and zoom the screen became annoying. My $330 toy started collecting dust.
My iPhone became my “go to” device when doing non work-related web browsing. But as close to perfect as the iPhone is, size does matter! I was missing a larger screen. A larger screen that I could still easily hold without needing a stand or case. When the iPad Mini retina display launched earlier this year I was tempted to buy one. I’m a loyal Apple fan who loves their sleekness and simplicity. But, I didn’t want to indulge myself by purchasing the new model knowing that I would likely want something new sometime soon! Yup, I’m a true Zatz!
When we got up Sunday morning,