The Giz Wiz, Week of November 19th, 2013 Netcast 1443

A portable solar generator that automatically follows the sun.

At CES Unveiled, a preview event for CES 2014, AspectSolar was named as an honoree for the International CES Innovation Award. This start-up solar power company was showing their SunSocket Solar Generator, the first and only portable solar consumer product to use SUNTRAX sun-tracking technology to trace the path of the sun across the sky throughout the day. Once set-up, the solar generator automatically rotates and finds the optimal position to be exposed to the most sunlight. Then it continues to adjust its position as the hours go by. With sun-tracking technology, the company says their SunSocket Solar Generator achieves up to 30% more efficiency throughout the day thus charging its own battery in only 5 hours of sunlight, as fast as wall charging. Inside the solar generator is a 250Wh Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery, unlike most other portable generators, which utilize heavy and inefficient lead-acid batteries. The LiFePO4 technology achieves a higher power-to-weight ratio, and is very safe as it has no thermal runoff. And though the SunSocket Solar Generator includes a built-in 60W sun-tracking PV array and 250Wh battery, it folds up into a briefcase (16.5”H x 20.2”L x 4.2”D) and weighs a relatively light 25 pounds. MSRP $1999.00.

At this link, they're selling it for $1499.00 http://www.pilotshop.com/sunsocket-solar-generator-p-13256.html

http://www.aspectsolar.com/products_SunSocket_Solar_Generator.aspx

Demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=408ME2GapWg

And here’s how it looks as infomercial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ9WEfy8PKU

See or hear this show: www.twit.tv/giz1443

A virtual keyboard that "floats" on your screen.

Those four color boxes, lower right on the screen, are the entire keyboard.Every year at CES someone introduces a new way to type via a different kind of keyboard. The Q4 keyboard is very different! It can be reduced to an invisible 4-key keyboard. Yes, you read that right, a 4-key keyboard! The company says the Q4 Keyboard is the smallest, simplest, & fastest keyboard that permits you to type while you view the entire screen at the same time. Here’s how the Q4 keyboard works. It divides the keyboard into four groups of letters. You tap anywhere on the color group that contains the letter you want. As you just use those four blocks of keys, a unique word prediction technology predicts the word you’re typing while it also learns different words you use to build a personal dictionary. But wait, there’s more! You can move the floating resizable keyboard anywhere on your screen. Optionally, once you become a whiz at using the Q4, you can also make the 4 keys transparent or make them invisible. They’ll you’ll use just four-color ovals on the screen which represents the entire keyboard! I tried it at the CES preview and I found it was quite good at figuring out what I wanted to type. Correcting a mistake was more time consuming. If the predicted word was wrong, you have to pick the correct word from a list generated by the Q4. Typing number slowed things down too, because you had to bring up a different keyboard. The spokesman for the company could type like a whiz on the Q4, so I guess with practice this could be a time saver. You can try it yourself if you own an Android device. Yes, this is one of the few times I’ve seen an Android-only device. It’s a free app here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sk.ime.qfour 

Company website: http://www.snapkeys.com/en/

See or hear this show: www.twit.tv/giz1443          

A really different kind of LED light bulb. It shines in blackouts!

Something folks attending CES 2014’s EUREKA PARK will see is a new and unique lighting solution coming to market via Kickstarter. Tech innovator iFi Systems announced a new LED Light Bulb crowdfunding project to fund production of the SmartCharge LED Bulb, This is a first-of-its-kind innovation that keeps the light on when power goes out. But it’s different from those lights that go on automatically when the power goes off. The SmartCharge Bulb, which looks like a normal light bulb from the outside, is designed to enable wall switch control of the lights even when the power is off. If the power went out when you weren’t home those automatic lights that come during a power outage may have no battery power left by the time you get home. But with the built with proprietary ‘Grid & Switch Sensor technology’ and a rechargeable battery, the SmartCharge Bulb will light when you click the switch when you get home and find the power out. It can keep you in the light for over 4 hours when the rest of the neighborhood is left in the dark. The SmartCharge LED Bulb is capable of distinguishing between a loss of power due to opening of the line switch and a loss of power from a power grid failure (when the switch is either on or off.) As iFi Systems founder & CEO Shailendra Suman told me: “We put a battery, control technology, intelligence, a central processing unit, memory, inverter, and a printed circuit board all inside the light bulb assembly to make it smart and efficient. The ability to control your lights from the wall switch even with the power is out is a game changer in the lighting industry.” SmartCharge LED Bulbs are rated up to 40,000 hours or 25 years of life (assuming the typical consumer uses a bulb four hours a day. Once the SmartCharge LED Bulb becomes a reality, it should retail for about $30. As of 11/18/13, the Kickstarter project had not started yet, but you can sign up to be notified when it’s live at the link below.

http://www.smartchargelight.com/

See or hear this show: www.twit.tv/giz1443

Leo's Crap! (But sometimes it's something good. Occassionally, very good!)

Leo’s crap this week is far from crap! Leo gave us a first look at the new Nokia Lumia 1520. As we recorded this show, the phone wasn’t released yet, so Leo’s phone was a loaner. (It will be on sale later this week.) Leo likes Windows phones and likes this one too, although he seemed concerned about the size of the device. With a six-inch, 1080p full HD display, it’s the largest Windows phone available. But Leo said as long as it would fit in his shirt pocket, he would be happy with such a large device. And yes, it did fit in his shirt pocket. Since it’s brand new, Leo hadn’t used it yet, but I found specs on 1520 on the Windows website. Here are some highlights: Comes with all the exclusive features of Windows Phone 8, like Live Tiles and People Hub; all optimized for the big screen. Excellent outdoor readability and redesigned start screen lets you make the most of the extra space. Nokia Storyteller, image editing tools and a 20 megapixel, PureView camera. The Nokia Lumia 1520 is a powerhouse of productivity. Built-in Microsoft Office means you can view and edit Word, Excel and Powerpoint files without losing any original formatting. Save documents to SkyDrive and return to them whenever it suits you.  – And now back to me. Price will depend on the carrier and your contract, but the Windows website says the price starts at $199. I’m sure Leo will review The Lumia 1530 on TWiT's Before You Buy, and he'll give us more details on an up-coming Giz Wiz Show.

http://www.nokia.com/us-en/phones/phone/lumia1520/specifications/

See or hear this show: www.twit.tv/giz1443

Dick's Gadget Warehouse - Smart Watches Are Nothing New.

This is Sunno Model which cost about $300.It was at CES 2003 that I saw my first SPOT Smart watch. They were called SPOT watches because they used Microsoft's Smart Personal Objects Technology. They could receive information like weather, stock reports, sports scores, horoscopes, etc. over the air via FM radio frequencies. It was an interesting technology, but I still liked my Timex DataLink better for my needs which included uploading info to the watch via USB. You couldn’t do that with the SPOT watches and they had a couple of other drawbacks. They were expensive and they were pretty large. You also had to subscribe to a monthly plan after you bought the watch. A neat feature of the watch was downloadable watch faces, which you could change at will. Companies making SPOT watch included Fossil, Tissot, Swatch,and Sunnto. SPOT technology was also included in some coffeemakers made by Melitta. You could see the day’s weatheryou’re your coffee was brewing. But not only are the watches gone, the service is gone too. 

Update: I talked about the Spot Watch in the gadget warehouse many years ago. Back then, you could still find the Timex DataLink USB watch if you searched hard enough. Now they have pretty much disappeared too. I still have mine, but it's sitting on the dresser until I can get a new battery for it. To tell you truth, I still like it better than most of the brand new Smart Watches we're seeing here in 2013. I just checked eBay and you can still find a Timex DataLink watch, but many are selling for hundreds of dollars!

See or hear this show: www.twit.tv/giz1443