We find another gadget that plugs into the headphone jack of your iPhone/iPod Touch.

TTTT, Tuesday, January 25^th, 2011, Netcast 1272

That's the RedEye mini in the headphone jack. You provide the Apple product to use with it.On this Turn The Table Tuesday Leo talks about the RedEye mini, a device that lets you control your TV, stereo, cable box, DVD player, and many other devices that receive standard infrared signals. The company says you can use this at home or on the road, but who would have all those devices on the road? Maybe if you travel in a trailer or boat. Now if you have a monster home theatre system and tons of equipment, you might want the full sized RedEye. That retails for $188. But the RedEye mini offers much of the power of its bigger brother in a convenient mini size. You can use it with your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Operation is simple: plug the RedEye mini into the headphone jack and open the RedEye app. For the initial setup, you’ll find your various audio/video devices on company’s online infrared code database. Once you download them you can control devices even without the original remotes at hand. You can take advantage of activity-based controls and customizable button layout too. You can setup your system so that one button will perform a whole series of operations. For example pushing a button could turn on the TV, switch to the proper input, turn on the necessary components and start playing a DVD via your surround sound system. (This part Leo didn’t get to try, but the company says you can use multi-touch and motion gestures on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad to interact with your gear.) The range is up to 30 feet away. And no batteries required, or included! RedEye says you get the features of a high-end remote at a fraction of the price. But wait, there’s more. The RedEye mini comes bundled with an interactive channel guide at no additional cost. 

[http://thinkflood.com/products/redeye-mini/

 See or hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1272 

Update on January 30, 2011 by The Giz Wiz

Leo read an email from a listener which explained that there are many complaints in online reviews about the RedEye mini. Customers say it doesn't offer remote control codes for many electronic audio/video devices people use. So Leo suggested you check the company's website before purchase one to make sure it will control the device you want to control.

A New Tech Mashup With Old Tech.

 Monday, January 24, 2011, Netcast 1271

At CES I ran into Ty Liotta, head buyer for Think Geek. He’s the one responsible for roaming trade shows uncovering gizmos and gadgets for geeks. Turns out that geeks and just plain gadget lovers do buy gadgets! Sales for 2010 at Think Geek should pass $64 million. That’s up from $49 million in 2009. Ty told me he’d show me one of their newest gadgets that will be coming to Think Geek in Spring 2011. It’s the iCade. The iCade began as an April Fools joke at the ThinkGeek website. But the folks at Ion Audio loved it so much they decided to bring the prank to life. And the result is pretty nifty. There’s a desktop sized retro-design arcade cabinet that uses an iPad as the screen! It adds a joystick and 6 buttons. But wait, there’s more! The iCade project also teamed up with Atari to deliver some classic arcade games. The Asteroids demo at the Ion booth was indeed ‘classic’ and utilized the joystick and two of the buttons. Ty showed me the inside of the iCade and there’s quite a lot of switches, wires and connectors. It uses Bluetooth, so there’s no physical connection between your iPad and the iCade. That’s pretty clever engineering. You can pre-order one now for Spring 2011 delivery. Retail price is $99.99.

 http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/retro-gaming/e762/#tabs 

See or hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1271 

All of the Daily Giz Wiz shows this week feature gadgets we recorded "live" at Show Stoppers, one of events taking place during CES 2011.

Since we recorded these Daily Giz Wiz Netcasts ‘live’ at Showstoppers in Vegas, this Friday we do another new product introduction. Dick’s Gadget Warehouse Friday returns next Friday.

Suprise announcement! After more than a year, a brand new version of the GizWiz.Biz LED hat is available! http://gizwizbiz.squarespace.com/giz-wiz-garbage/

Friday, January 21^st, 2011, Netcast 1270

 Yet another iPhone4 case, but this one adds something very different.

The MoGo Talk XD from ID8 comes up with a totally innovative way to carry your Bluetooth headset. It’s the MoGo Talk XD headset + case system. The company says their Bluetooth device is the world's thinnest high performance headset. How thin is it? It’s so thin it snaps and locks into the Slim Mogo Grip Case. So when your iPhone phone rings, you don’t have to start hunting for your Bluetooth headset. It’s always with you and ready to use. The Mogo Talk XD headset features ID8’s SmartAudio noise and wind reduction. It has active noise compensation and echo cancellation technology to make voices sound good at each end of the conversation. The SoundShape ear bud design fits the contours of your ear and offer more than 15dB of passive noise-cancellation to block ambient noise while supplying decent bass response. But wait, there’s more! The slim MoGo Grip Case features a hard polycarbonate shell to protect your iPhone 4 against drops, scratches and bumps. Your headset charges in the case via MicroUSB. Of course, even in the case you still have easy access to all the iPhone 4 controls and connectors. And there’s even a felt lined interior case to cradle your phone.  This device will be available early February. MSRP $99.99. Discounts will probably be available once it’s in the marketplace. 

www.id8-mobile.com 

SEE or hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1270   

Is it time to get on the Beamz?

Thursday, January 20^th, 2011, Netcast 1269 

Okay, so it’s a (bad) play on words i.e. “get on the beam.” Beamz is a musical instrument that sounds like a digital version of the Theremin. (The Theremin lets you make music by using just your hands to control frequency and volume. It was often used to make eerie sounds for movie backgrounds.) The Beamz lets you make music by passing your hands through lasers. The sounds you make are coupled with synthesized background beats. That means you’ll sound better than you might be without the extra musical help. Leo and I had a lot of fun playing with the Beamz at ShowStoppers in Vegas. The Beamz unit connects to your PC via a USB cable. But wait, there's more! You also get Beamz Player, a software application that lets you play fifty Beamz songs, including works by Grammy-winning artists and independent musicians. You can create and arrange the music differently each time you play a song by changing the way you play the light. Then if you want, you can record your performances of Beamz songs as a wave file (*.wav) or as a Windows Media file (*.wma). In addition to the 50 included songs, the Beamz website offers a hundred different songs for purchase. You can also add sound effects to a video while it’s playing. Plus, there’s an interactive game ShadowBeamz, which challenges you to mimic prompted cues of when to break the beams. Beamz is $199.95 and there’s a professional version that adds much more robust software for $299.95. You can add a music stand for $49.95, but you don’t need it to play music with Beamz. 

www.beamz.com

 SEE or hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1269