2013 ~ GizmoEditor.com

Monday, December 30, 2013

CES 2014: Music goes for a swim

NYNE Aqua Maybe this will take your mind off the latest cold front. At least two companies will be showing waterproof Bluetooth speakers at nest weeks International CES in Las Vegas. One is the Aqua speaker from NYNE. The Aqua has an IPX7 rating, which means it can be...

By: Ric Manning On 12/30/2013

Sunday, December 29, 2013

CES 2014: A power move for skateboarding

Shanghai-based Yuneec is best known for producing the world’s first commercial electric aircraft, the GreenWing430. But at CES, the company will be showing off an electric-powered skateboard. Yuneec says the E-GO Cruiser is the world’s lightest electric longboard weighing 13.9 pounds. It hasn’t yet said how far the...

By: Ric Manning On 12/29/2013

CES 2014: Moneual's baby monitor buzzes and blinks

Moneual, a company best known for its robotic vacuum cleaner, will introduce several new products at the 2014 International CES next month in Las Vegas. Among the more unusual new items is a wristband that parents can wear to link to a baby monitor. The Smart Wristband Baby...

By: Ric Manning On 12/29/2013

Saturday, December 28, 2013

CES 2014: Bigger, curvier TVs ahead

Have you heard about 4K TVs? You’ll be hearing a lot about them in a couple of weeks when the International CES opens in Las Vegas. 4K TVs are the next step in high definition. The screens on today’s typical 1080p high-definition TV boast about 2 million pixels....

By: Ric Manning On 12/28/2013

Thursday, December 26, 2013

CES 2014: New smart lock works with smart phones

As in past years, there will be plenty of big-screen televisions, tablets and mobile gadgets to explore when the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show opens Jan. 6 in Las Vegas. But technology is also rapidly moving in to take over more mundane tasks around the house. A few months ago,...

By: Ric Manning On 12/26/2013

Friday, December 13, 2013

Christmas special: 2 Rock-Its for $15

You might have seen the Rock-It on TV's "Shark Tank" or some other show. It's a clever gadget that turns almost anything into a speaker. Connect one cable it to a mobile phone, iPod, or some other music device, then attach another to a flat surface and you...

By: Ric Manning On 12/13/2013

Thursday, December 12, 2013

CNet has great gift ideas for under $50

Still looking for inexpensive tech gifts? Check out the list of cool gadgets under $50 at CNet. The Roku streamer and a $25 digital amp are pretty s;lick. But tell Santa to put me down for the Belkin Bluetooth Music Receiver. It plugs into anything that has speakers...

By: Ric Manning On 12/12/2013

What's new in travel gadgets?

My Well-Being's Gadget Guy's latest video looks at gifts for travelers. I've got a TSA-friendly lock, my favorite mobile charger, a travel pillow that doubles as a tablet stand and the Screaming Meanie travel alarm. ...

By: Ric Manning On 12/12/2013

Thursday, November 21, 2013

iPhone speaker goes retro

Feeling nostalgic for the 1980s? This retro speaker for iPhones looks just like my first portable tape recorder. The compartment that used to hold a cassette tape has been redesigned to holds an iPhone 4/4S or 5. Those buttons on the front are real. They control the Play,...

By: Ric Manning On 11/21/2013

Monday, November 18, 2013

Gizmo's gift to you: Best Buy discount coupons

When the Gizmo Guy goes holiday shopping, he's almost always looking for gadgets and gear and that means you'll likely find him at Best Buy. That's especially true this year when I'll be armed with a couple of special holiday discount coupons. Check the links below to get...

By: Ric Manning On 11/18/2013

Friday, November 15, 2013

Coin aims to replace a stack of credit cards

I'm ready for Coin, the all-in-one electronic credit card. The gadget emerged from a California start-up incubator yesterday and quickly hit its target of raising $50,000 from pre-orders. Coin is not a coin at all. It's a plastic card that's the size of a credit card. Working with...

By: Ric Manning On 11/15/2013

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Make room for Samsung's Galaxy Note 3

I finally figured out what I'm supposed to put in those square thigh pockets on cargo pants. An iPhone gets lost in those pockets and they're too small for an iPad Mini or Google Nexus tablet. But Samsung's new Galaxy 3 Note seems to be right at home....

By: Ric Manning On 10/22/2013

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Uber is the future of city travel

We were finishing coffee and dessert with my nephew at a restaurant in Washington's DuPont area and it was time to consider our options to get back to our hotel.It was a good opportunity to check out Uber. Uber is a company that provides on-call car rides in 26...

By: Ric Manning On 10/15/2013

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Logitech's do-it-all remote control

If your entertainment room has a TV, stereo system, DVD player an other equipment, you probably also have a stack of remote controls. in my house, we keep a basket on the coffee table just to collect remotes.But that was before the arrival of the Harmony Ultimate Remote....

By: Ric Manning On 10/09/2013

Monday, October 7, 2013

A woofing good time with the Go-Go Dog Pal

My dog's especially happy when he's running through an open field. I do just fine sitting on the sidelines with a cold drink. Now I have something that keeps us both entertained. The Go-Go Dog Pal is designed to give a dog plenty of exercise while you take...

By: Ric Manning On 10/07/2013

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Heavy sleeper? Screaming Meanie will blast you out of bed

Have you ever overslept and missed an early-morning flight or an important meeting? I've found the cure for heavy sleepers. It's called the Screaming Meanie and it will blast you out of bed with the power of an air raid siren. The Screaming Meanie is a battery-powered clock...

By: Ric Manning On 10/05/2013

Thursday, October 3, 2013

How to get a BOOM out of Bluetooth speakers

With music collections packed into our portable devices and streaming service offering made-to-order mixes, wireless Bluetooth speakers have become our sound system of choice. They're more portable, convenient and often less expensive than cradles or plug-in powered speakers. But a frequent complaint about wireless speakers is they're not...

By: Ric Manning On 10/03/2013

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Louisville's Hacker Hostel

My friend Richard Meadows looked at a four-room shotgun house in Louisville's Portland neighborhood and saw something no one else would see: a site for the city's first hacker hostel. Richard and his wife, Suzi, renovated the house, adding some special touches including a five-foot conference table, a...

By: Ric Manning On 10/02/2013

Monday, September 30, 2013

Apple and Microsoft: The retail experience

Microsoft store at the Pentagon City Mall Two computer stores in the same mall. One had five or six customers, the other was jammed with people. You can probably guess which was rocking and which was chilling. It was a little before 5 p.m. last Friday when I...

By: Ric Manning On 9/30/2013

Monday, September 23, 2013

Streamer face-off: Roku, Apple TV and Chromecast

Google's Chromecast costs $35 When I first went looking for a device to stream movies and music from the Internet, there were two major options to choose from: a Ruku LT box for $50 or Apple TV for $100. Now Google has entered the mix with Chromecast, a...

By: Ric Manning On 9/23/2013

Sunday, September 22, 2013

iProp is a pillow and a tablet stand

When my wife travels, she takes along one of those horseshoe pillows that wrap around your neck. Good for a nap on the plane, but a bit of hassle to carry around. I found a product that can be both a pillow and a stand for my iPad...

By: Ric Manning On 9/22/2013

Friday, September 20, 2013

This robot does windows

One of the more intriguing new products that I saw at the Consumer Electronics Show last January was the Winbot 7, a robotic window washer made by Ecovacs. The device clings to a glass surface using vacuum suction to defy gravity. It crawls around the window surface scrubbing...

By: Ric Manning On 9/20/2013

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

What to do with that old mobile phone?

Thinking about getting a fancy new cell phone? Check your service contract. If it's more than two years old, you may be entitled to a new phone for a small fee or even for free, depending on the brand and model you choose. And your current phone could...

By: Ric Manning On 9/17/2013

Monday, September 16, 2013

Findercodes helps find lost pets

When a pet wanders away from home, you want it to be found and returned as quickly as possible. This lost and found kit from FinderCodes can help. Findercodes uses tags that display QR codes. Those are the blocks of squiggles that you can scan with a cell...

By: Ric Manning On 9/16/2013

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Moto Maxx is an eye-catcher

It's not that I've fallen out of love with my iPhone 5, but you could definitely say the thrill has worn off. I keep getting distracted by new Android phones that are lighter and thinner with larger and brighter screens. The latest object of my flirtations is the...

By: Ric Manning On 9/01/2013

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Gear for the well-wired student

LiveScribe Smartpen When I packed off to college - and that was more than a few years ago - my collection of high-tech gadgets was pretty small. I had a portable typewriter, a reel-to-reel tape recorder and a transistor radio. Students today are better equipped than the Apollo...

By: Ric Manning On 8/22/2013

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

What's brewing in Google's secret lab?

An integrated circuit on a contact lens. Love 'em or hate 'em, you have to admit that Google has done some pretty remarkable things. I mean, who doesn't love the idea of a driverless car? I saw that in Popular Science magazine in the 1950s -- and in...

By: Ric Manning On 8/07/2013

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

What do you need to disconnect from cable?

We’ve always been of two minds about cable. We love its convenience and variety but we hate the ever-increasing cost and all those channels that we never watch. And we're not alone. A recent survey of U.S. cable subscribers conducted by CouponCabin.com and Harris Interactive found that almost...

By: Ric Manning On 8/06/2013

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

This Android can go for a swim

I'm usually very careful with my cellphones, except for that time I left one outside for about six hours, overnight and in the rain. After its long bath, I dried the phone as thoroughly as I could. It carried on for a few days, but eventually stopped charging...

By: Ric Manning On 7/31/2013

Monday, July 22, 2013

Ion Air Copy will scan on the go

In our rush to convert everything on paper into a digital file, I've been seeing more types of portable scanners. Last year, I wrote about the IRIScan Book 2, which works like a wand passing over page in a book or magazine. And I checked out the Neat...

By: Ric Manning On 7/22/2013

Monday, July 8, 2013

A look through the Google Glass lens

Matt Coddington Louisville's Matt Coddington, the founder of MyMobileVille, is among the 8,000 people who were allowed to purchase Google Glass after pitching Google with an essay on how they would use the device. Lately, he's been giving the local press a tour of his new toy. In...

By: Ric Manning On 7/08/2013

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Neat app scans receipts from your phone

The people at The Neat Company are on a mission to banish document clutter. They started with NeatDesk, a $400 desktop scanner that would read and categorize all sorts of documents, from bills and invoices to restaurant receipts. Last year, they released NeatReceipts, a $175 portable version made...

By: Ric Manning On 6/25/2013

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Audio-Technica earbuds stay put while you sweat

The maxim "One size fits all" never did apply to headphones. I have a Bluetooth set for dog-walking, an over-the-ear model for quiet music listening, and a noise-cancellation version that I always take along when I fly. Now, thanks to Audio-Technica, I have a new sporty set of...

By: Ric Manning On 6/19/2013

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Scanning services make it easy to convert photos and slides

Like many families, my parents had amassed a large collection of family photos. By the time that collection was passed on to me, they had filled 23 albums with something close to 8,000 photos. And that didn’t count the boxes of negatives and 35mm slides.Then it was my...

By: Ric Manning On 6/11/2013

Monday, June 3, 2013

These apps can help your garden grow

Bugs In The Garden is one ofmany apps for gardeners. The iTunes store for Apple gadgets and the Google Play store for Androids are chock full of free or inexpensive apps that can help both novice and expert gardeners. For example, Garden Tracker will help you map your...

By: Ric Manning On 6/03/2013

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Going keyless with Kwikset's SmartCode lock

I can recall the exact moment when I decided I wanted a keyless lock on my front door. It was the last time I had locked myself out and had to call someone to let me in my own home. I never liked the idea of leaving a...

By: Ric Manning On 5/29/2013

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Over app is smart and simple

I had to check out the Over app after a feature story on its developer appeard on the front page of this morning's Courier-Journal. The article told how Aaron Marshall convinced his pregnant wife to let him spend their savings on an app that lets people put text...

By: Ric Manning On 5/23/2013

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Fun with Kickstarter

It's tempting to view Kickstarter as an online store where you can find cool and unusual gadgets and place advance orders at discount prices. That's pretty much what attracted me to the website. Browsing the listings recently, I found a phone charger that can fit on a keychain,...

By: Ric Manning On 4/18/2013