Locca Wants To Stop You Losing Stuff - Or Your Kids - With Its SIM-Packing GPS Trackers

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Locca Wants To Stop You Losing Stuff - Or Your Kids - With Its SIM-Packing GPS Trackers

You wait ages for a lost-item tracker hardware startup, and then loads and loads pile on at once. There have been a spate of such startups cropping up on crowdfunding sites in recent times — notably Tile, which raised $2.6 million via Selfstarter back in July, although it won’t be shipping product until next year. Others hoping to attack the space with similar Bluetooth-powered tags include the likes of Button TrackR, Lapa and Protag (with its next-gen Elite offering), to name just a few. And now Locca has just kicked off a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo for a pair of item trackers, the Locca Phone and Locca Mini (pictured above left), that incorporate a range of tracking tech to offer longer distance real-time item tracking.

The latest low-powered flavour of Bluetooth, colloquially known as Bluetooth Low Energy or BLE, is undoubtedly encouraging more startups to try their hand at item tracking. But Bluetooth has its drawbacks for an item-tracking use case — notably it has a pretty limited range of around 30 meters.

Tile is hoping to get around that by leveraging a community of uses to create a distributed network effect, so that the proximity of your lost Tile to another passing Tile user can be used to cast its item-finding net wider. But that’s only really going to happen if its product takes off in a big way. In the meantime, all these Bluetooth trackers can only really offer a limited use-case scenario of finding stuff you’ve lost in your own house, say, or sounding an alarm when you stray a few meters away from your bag.

That’s why Locca reckons there’s room for another player in this space — one that can track items over much greater distances. Unlike its Bluetooth tag-touting rivals, it’s sticking a SIM card inside its trackers so it can draw on a range of location pinpointing technologies, including GPS, to boost tracking range and enable live tracking of lost items even across international borders (its service will initially cover the U.S., Canada and Europe and expand to more countries in 2014).

“Locca locators have integrated five of the best locating technologies: AGPS, GSM cell-triangulation, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth low-energy and FSK. Therefore the positioning is very accurate and fast, and tracking is possible worldwide, e.g. your lost luggage with a Locca is in Madrid, and you can see where it is from London,” the startup tells TechCrunch.

Items are viewed on a corresponding Locca app that displays the real-time position of tracked items on a map, and offers additional functionality such as setting up different zones where you might want the system to behave differently toward tracked items.

However there’s a cost to Locca’s more comprehensive coverage: Locca plans to charge buyers a monthly service fee for the data they’re using. Both Locca’s forthcoming devices — the smaller, lower-cost Locca Mini and the full-fat Locca Phone (which can also be used to make and receive calls) — come with a built-in SIM. The monthly cost of keeping each tracker active is €9,90 ($13,50) per month for the Locca Mini; and €14,90 ($20,30) per month for Locca Phone.

Battery life is another cost of this type of tracking option. Locca says it’s developed its own energy-saving algorithms to help improve this but while the larger and more expensive Locca Phone will have a guaranteed ‘more than one month’ longevity, the smaller Locca Mini looks to require a lot more juicing. Locca says the Mini’s battery is good for “7 days active time”, perhaps longer depending on your usage.

“Depending on which technology is used the battery lifetime is shorter or longer. E.g. a Locca is fixed on your dog. At home the device is connected to FSK, when the dog enters the garden GSM is turned on and when the dog runs away you could even switch on in addition the APGS to see the exact position,” it says.

An item tracker with a flat battery is no longer an item tracker — which does give the Bluetooth tracker startups an edge in some respects: for instance, Tile boasts a year-long battery life. In fact, Tile owners will never have to charge the device — instead, they get an email reminder towards the end of the battery’s life to send Tile back and purchase a replacement (costing $25). That yearly fee for Tile is still cheaper than a year of Locca’s service (albeit, you can start and stop the Locca service whenever you like within the app, with no contracts required).

There are other GPS trackers on the market, but Locca claims its Mini device is “the smallest with so many locating systems.” It’s also relatively lightweight (23g) — affixing it to your dog’s collar is one use case they envisage. Other use cases could include fixing it to car keys, putting it in your handbag or tagging your bike.

The larger Locca Phone tracker, which can also make and take calls, thanks to a built-in microphone and speaker, is being marketed as something to give to an elderly relative or your kids. (Locca co-founder, Albert Fellner, is also founder and owner of Austrian mobile maker Emporia, which makes mobile phones for older people — likely explaining this portion of Locca’s focus.)

Calls can be put through to the Locca Phone via Locca’s app, giving parents an alternative channel to speak to their kids or check in on elderly relatives. Another use for the Locca Phone is as an in-car safety device, as it will incorporate crash sensors and can be set to automatically make a phone call in the event of an accident.

Locca is offering Indiegogo backers a variety of options to bag its hardware. The Locca Mini can be picked up from €99, with six months of service included in that price. And the Locca Phone from €149, also with six months of service. It’s also offering a range of accessories, such as cases to fix the trackers to your pet’s collar or a bike kit to mount it on your bike.

The startup is focusing on getting the Mini delivered first, with an estimated ship date of December, while the Locca Phone is slated for February next year. Locca said it has been bootstrapping the project up to now — and is hoping to raise €75,000 via Indiegogo – although it has also previously taken in an angel investment of €150,000.

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Split Lives Up To Its Name, Creates Cheap Earbud Headphones With Absolutely No Cords

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Split Lives Up To Its Name, Creates Cheap Earbud Headphones With Absolutely No Cords

Even wireless earbuds have wires, let’s be honest – they have to, in order to link one earbud to the other. It’s been an impossible barrier to cross in headphone design, with some exceptions that generally cost a whole lot of cash. Enter the Split, a new Kickstarter project that wants to untether one earbud from the other forever.

The Split isn’t bulky like previous designs, and it doesn’t require any fancy transmitters. Each unit is a contained piece of gadgetry, with its own battery built-in, and they’re only just slightly larger than standard earbuds, with bits that stick out slightly from either ear. They each have their own memory chip and processor, too, and they sync playback between one ear and the other (something founder Marco Scandurra says isn’t likely to fall out of sync, barring physical damage to the devices).

The biggest problem with these earphones is that they work independent of any devices, however. That means they only play locally stored music, uploaded to the Split buds themselves –which currently tops out at a max of 256MB – and can’t connect to your iPhone or Android device via Bluetooth or any other protocol.

While there’s not currently any workaround in sight to bring Bluetooth connectivity to the Split, there is a plan to make it usable with mobile devices in the early stages of development.

“There are plans for next year to make an app that is compatible with iOS and Android phones,” Scandurra explained. “With that app you will be able to manage and upload songs onto Split, and we are also planning on developing an adapter that can support Lighting connectors on iPhone and iPad devices, while the regular USB port will just need to be converted to mini USB to work with Android devices.”

Memory on the device is limited, and a means of loading it with songs which requires frequent shuttling of content back and forth isn’t going to work for most people. Scandurra says they’re working with their supplier to double space on the device to half a gig by next year, so that’s something at least. And if you’re an athlete looking for a completely tangle-free solution, you’re probably going to be decently happy with enough content to run a simple playlist or two.

Now of course, if you’re like me you’re terrified at this point about what the Split is doing in terms of radiating your brain. But the headset uses around 1,000 times less radiation than a Bluetooth headset, according to Split. And how do you control a music player that’s only an inch deep and resides inside your ears? With bites, of course. Each one has an accelerometer within to detect jaw motion for play/pause, volume control and track skipping.

Honestly, this is an extremely niche product that’s at least a little crazy looking. But Scandurra has a PhD in high-energy physics from the University of Leipzig in Germany, and held a post-doc position at MIT in the Physic Department so if he’s crazy, he’s also at least got the creds to make these real. The team behind Split is looking at December as a ship date, and backers can pre-order for only $29, which means you don’t have to be soft in the head to get on board. This is definitely an early version of experimental tech, but it could also be the ground floor for something big.

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Goldee Does Dynamic Lighting For Philips Hue, Banks On A Future Where Light Isn't Static

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Goldee Does Dynamic Lighting For Philips Hue, Banks On A Future Where Light Isn't Static

A brand new app called Goldee launches today, offering Phlips Hue users a new way to use their connected lighting system. The app provides dynamic “light scenes” which use artist-sourced photos as their palette, changing tones gradually to provide dynamic shifts in color, including gradual on/off sequences for waking up in the morning or going to sleep at night.

There are 10 different scenes included in the app at launch, each which a brief description and credits (citing the scene’s creator, the photographer of the source image and the location where it was taken). Tapping on any starts the dynamic lighting, with each bulb attached to your Philips Hue system taking part. You can specific if you have multiple rooms in a single home with Hue bulbs, too, and run a different scene for each. The first light scene also has an alarm feature, and the last one has a sleep timer for going to bed.

The app works well, but there are some caveats – you have to have the app running in the foreground to get the dynamic effect to work, and the screensaver built-in to keep your display from using too much juice is a little finicky when it comes to returning your display to full brightness once you activate the screen again. But on the whole, it’s a unique experience, and one that Hue owners are likely to appreciate.

“The Goldee team started innovating home lighting even before Philips hue was introduced,” Goldee CEO Tomas Baran explained in an interview. “We figured out right away that Philips hue is a very good tool to build upon [with lighting]. However, the Goldee App is only our first step towards changing how we perceive and interact with light.”

Baran says that there are plans in place to do “something much bigger,” which he expects to reveal more about later this year. He calls light “a new form of art,” hence sourcing its scenes from people with experience in that field, and notes that light is never static in nature. I asked whether this might be a bit narrow in terms of focus for a whole company, but Baran says Goldee is betting we’re just seeing the beginning of change in this space.

“Every new thing is risky in the beginning, but if we wait until it becomes popular it will already be too late,” he said. “We believe a revolution has started in the lighting sector with smart LEDs. We have no doubt this will be the future. We used to watch black-and-white TVs, nowadays we cannot imagine a display without colors. Obviously, it will take time, but we see the same thing happening with light. “

The app is free, and so far the only content that’s locked within the app can be made available via either rating the app or sharing via Twitter and Facebook. There is a “library” section that promises to add additional light scenes in future, and some of those may arrive as paid upgrades. For now, Goldee is a well-executed curiosity, but it’ll be interesting to see if smart lights really do herald the kinds of changes Baran envisions.

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Android Ecosystem Finally Putting A Dent In The iPad's Universe, Says ABI Research

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Android Ecosystem Finally Putting A Dent In The iPad's Universe, Says ABI Research

Apple is expected to refresh its iPad line-up next month, likely adding a Retina display to the iPad mini, and perhaps pushing the iPhone 5s’ Touch ID fingerprint sensor-fuelled home button into a new flagship iPad. But even as Cupertino upgrades the iPad’s capabilities, its dominance in the tablet category is coming to an end — as the sheer size of the Android ecosystem inexorably dents the iPad’s universe.

Analyst ABI Research has flagged up what it describes as a “shift in leadership” in the tablet space, with Apple’s iPad family passing the baton to Android in three areas. Firstly in shipments: ABI notes that Android-powered tablets surpassed iOS-based slates during Q2 for the first time. Secondly, it says tablet-related hardware revenues in Android and iOS reached parity at the mid-point of the year; and third it notes that the average selling price (ASP) of the iPad is “rapidly approaching the market average.”

Apple reported its first yearly decline in iPad sales in its Q3 results back in July, with 14.6 million iPads sold in the quarter (vs 17 million in the year-ago quarter). Apple of course competes with multiple Android OEMs — which in the tablet space includes Amazon with its Kindle Fire range; Samsung with its Galaxy Note line up; and Google’s Nexus slates. So it’s fair to say that Android-powered tablets passing iPad shipments at some point was all but inevitable, with multiple companies attacking the iPad maker.

Amazon and Google especially have used price as the differentiator to move more tablet-shaped boxes by undercutting the iPad’s premium pricing. That it’s taken the Android ecosystem more than three years to be shipping more slates than Apple is a measure of how relatively poor Android tablets have been vs the iPad experience (it’s no coincidence that Google felt it needed to get involved directly with the tablet space with its own-branded Nexus slate to help bring up standards and push down prices).

Overall, ABI says tablet shipments grew more than a fifth (23 percent) year-over-year in Q2, while the market declined 17 percent sequentially.

On the revenues front, overall, ABI estimates that tablet shipments in Q2 generated revenues of $12.7 billion — with the iPad accounting for (only) 50 percent of worldwide end-user revenues. That’s notable because it’s the first time Apple’s slate has not dominated market revenues. Albeit, it still means Apple split the market in the quarter – taking the largest share for itself, while all other branded vendors shared $6.3 billion among themselves.

A shift to smaller slates

A dip in iPad sales and the lower-cost iPad mini go some way to explaining reduced revenues for Apple in the tablet space. But with multiple Android OEMs targeting the 7-inch small slate space before Apple did, there was a clear need for Cupertino to introduce a smaller iPad, whatever the costs on the revenue cannibalisation front. (Cannibalising itself is not, in any case, something Apple shies away from.)

ABI’s data reinforces the importance of the small slate category, noting that circa 7-inch tablets finally became the category majority in Q2. Apple’s own small slate also dominated overall iPad shipments — and accounted for nearly half of iPad revenues. “The 7.9-inch iPad mini represented about 60% of total iPad shipments and 49% of iPad-related device revenues in the quarter,” notes ABI senior practice director Jeff Orr in a statement.

The iPad mini, which launched just under a year ago and costs $329 vs $499 for the Retina iPad (or $399 for the iPad 2), is the main cause of a 17 percent drop in the ASP of the iPad over the past year. “The iPad drop is primarily attributed to the introduction and volume shift to the smaller iPad mini,” ABI notes.

Yet, while the ASP of the iPad has been falling — as buyers shift their cash to Apple’s smaller, lower cost slate — the ASP of the rest of tablet market has increased 17 percent over the same period. ABI attributes that to competition heating up and iPad rivals being able to match and even best the capabilities of Apple’s hardware. “Twelve months is a long time for the peak lifecycle of a contemporary tablet. To remain a leader, Apple must continue to innovate and address real-world market needs,” adds Orr.

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This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: Steam News Breaks While We Record, Surface Sequels And Adobe Gets Mighty

TechCrunch » Gadgets

This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: Steam News Breaks While We Record, Surface Sequels And Adobe Gets Mighty

A rare treat this week as you can hear the TechCrunch team react to breaking gadget news (the Steam Controller, to be specific) live as it unfolds. It’s like being inside our brains without the echoes and cobwebs. We also cover the big Surface 2 reveal, Steam OS, the Steam Box announcements, Adobe’s Mighty hardware and BlackBerry’s very bad quarter.

This week, we have a very special episode of the Gadgets Podcast with a ragtag team of lovable characters, including myself – Darrell Etherington – Chris Velazco and special guests Frederic Lardinois and TCTV Producer Steve Long, so you just know it’s going to be the heartwarming comeback story of a lifetime.

We invite you to enjoy our weekly podcasts every Friday at 3 p.m. Eastern and noon Pacific. And feel free to check out the TechCrunch Gadgets Flipboard magazine right here, as well as the TechCrunch Droidcast.

Click here to download an MP3 of this show.

You can subscribe to the show via RSS.

Subscribe in iTunes.

Intro Music by Rick Barr.

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Quantified Work: Meet Stir, A Former iPod Engineer's Smart, Health-Tracking And Height-Adjustable Desk

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Quantified Work: Meet Stir, A Former iPod Engineer's Smart, Health-Tracking And Height-Adjustable Desk

If you’re anything like me, you spend way too much of your day seated, at your desk, hunched in front of your computer. During busy days — especially once firmly planted “the zone” — it’s easy for a few hours to fly by without leaving a sedentary position. For this reason, I’m probably not the only one who could use a gentle reminder, just a little, “Hey Rip, you’ve been sitting for two hours, how about standing up, ya lazy bum?”

Well, my friends, your Fitbit can remind you that you’re behind on your steps, but what if your desk could remind you to stand up, or take a break? Thanks to Stir, a Los Angeles-born startup founded by former Apple, Disney and IDEO employees, now you can buy a smart desk that will do just that.

The Stir Kinetic Desk, the startup’s first product, which launches today, combines the health-tracking software of popular wearables like FitBit and Up with connected-hardware and machine learning to create a work experience that actually promotes movement — and, in so doing, your health.

Stir Founder and CEO JP Labrosse was one of the first 35 employees to join Apple’s iPod Division, where he led engineering development teams on two early iPod projects. It not surprising, then, that the Kinetic Desk borrows a bit from familiar Apple designs and interfaces, including built-in touch screen, which has a very iPod-type size, shape and look to it. It’s this touch interface that acts as the desk’s main “control panel,” allowing users to change the configuration and height of their desk, or to go from sitting to standing (and back) just by double tapping.

Not only that, but the screen displays graphs and visual representations of a user’s movement, so they can quickly see how long they’ve been sitting and what their work habits and usage looks like. The desk contains a thermal presence sensor and computer outfitted with its health-tracking software, allowing it to track your movement and display that data through its touch screen.

While it may sound almost uncanny, not to worry, the desk isn’t yet outfitted with Siri’s voice or any sort of personal assistant. While Labrosse was willing to admit that the Stir Kinetic Desk could incorporate some Watson or HAL 9000-like features down the road, for now, the desk is meant to work in concert with the Internet of Things, not to try to commandeer it and dominate your office.

In fact, the desk tracks and adapts to your personal routine in such a way that’s meant to optimize health and productivity. The desk will display how many calories you’ve burned, time spent standing versus sitting — and your answer to “who is the most beautiful desk of them all?” of course.

Labrasse, echoing Harvard Business Review’s recent study, called sitting “the smoking of our generation,” which is probably a little overdramatic, but it’s true that in our overworked, over-connected modern work environment, we do spend more time in chairs than on our feet. While your Kinetic Desk won’t remind you to eat, shower, finish coding and go outside or be a better friend, it will help keep you upright and mindful of the healthier routine that’s right around the corner.

The desk also contains a setting called “active mode,” which you can activate by hitting a button on the front of the desk, which will put it into “Whisperbreath” mode — meaning that the desk prompts you to move after you’ve been sitting for too long with a gentle, one-inch rising and falling motion. You can then double tap to change positions.

Stir’s new smart desk also comes with built-in AC and USB ports (eight and four, respectively), connected to a single power cord you plug into the wall, and comes with Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, which the CEO hopes will eventually allow the desk to integrate with third-party fitness and wellness devices. To think: Your desk could be come your fitness and wellness graph itself. Imagine that. The team will also eventually release a web-based dashboard to allow you to view your work and health data on the go.

The Stir Kinetic Desk has a hardwood surface, comes in white, espresso and four underside colors, and will retail at an expected $3,890. It’s not cheap, but, hey, you can’t put a price on good health, people, especially when it’s your office furniture that’s keeping you healthy.

Labrasse and the Stir team were kind enough to let us take their new health-conscious desk for a spin, and you’ll find our video below. Find the Stir Kinetic Desk at home here.

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Motorola Hiring For New Engineering Office In Waterloo – BlackBerry's Loss Is Google's Gain

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Motorola Hiring For New Engineering Office In Waterloo – BlackBerry's Loss Is Google's Gain

Motorola is “ready to go on a hiring spree” in Waterloo, the home of BlackBerry HQ, according to a new report from the Financial Post. The Google-owned maker of smartphones already has an existing, small office in the heart of one of Canada’s most important tech hubs, but plans to build a proper, full-fledged engineering team in the area.

BlackBerry is going to be shedding a lot of talent, very quickly, as it plans to lay off around 4,500 people in the near future. Motorola wouldn’t tell the FP that those layoffs specifically had anything to do with its decision to expand in Waterloo, but did comment that “it’s not always easy to find places that have significant tech talent in a variety of areas, but especially mobile.” Given BlackBerry’s focus, it’s very likely he’s referring to the abundance of engineers located in the region with smartphone experience.

Waterloo is already an area with high demand for engineering talent. The startup ecosystem in the region is vibrant, and those young companies all need engineers to build their products. VC investment is rolling in for companies in the area, which means more competition than ever for graduates of the University of Waterloo, one of the most highly respected engineering schools in the world. Other sizeable tech companies have also expressed newfound interest in the area, with Square announcing just last week it would open offices in BlackBerry’s backyard.

Google has other interests in the area, too. Its office in Waterloo has contributed considerably to the development of Chrome and Chrome OS, and there’s a specific focus on mobile for its team there, including the mobile counterparts of Gmail and Google Docs. Considering the Google Waterloo team’s focus on mobile software, it makes sense that Google would want its Motorola mobile hardware unit nearby.

BlackBerry and its ongoing demise (yes, I’m totally comfortable calling it that at this point) is not going to be a great thing for the Waterloo region by any means, and a lot of people are going to suffer as a result of the company’s collapse. But this move by Motorola shows that the core of what makes it such a successful tech hub remains intact, and will call other big players to fill the void the smartphone pioneer is leaving behind.

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Amazon Continues To Quietly Build The Enterprise-Optimized Tablet With New Kindle HD And HDX

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Amazon Continues To Quietly Build The Enterprise-Optimized Tablet With New Kindle HD And HDX

Amazon’s Kindle line of Android-powered tablets, which sport a modified version of Google’s OS that the online book seller is developing on its own, is looking more and more like a bunch of enterprise Greeks walled up within a great wooden consumer horse. The new Fire HD and HDX tablets ship with “Mojito,” the third iteration of Fire OS, which offers a number of key enterprise-specific features.

These features include support for enterprise email; a built-in native VPN client; wireless printing; a pre-installed productivity suite compatible with Office documents; secure hardware data encryption, better authentication and secure browsing via Silk; and finally, crucial support for existing popular mobile device management services via native APIs.

Kindle’s appeal in enterprise likely began due to cost – the per-unit deployment fees associated with introducing Amazon’s inexpensive tablet across small and large groups of employees far undercuts that of the iPad, for instance. But Amazon has been doing work to help complete the picture, adding services like Whispercast, which essentially offer a free, native MDM solution for organizations that don’t already have their own in place. This Fire OS update (and 3.1, which will introduce a few of the features mentioned above shortly) means it can also easily address those who have already built an enterprise mobile device provisioning network with providers like Good, without requiring them to do any significant IT infrastructure spending.

Also new with these tablets is the Mayday Button, a new on-device tech support service that allows HDX owners to essentially press one button and have an Amazon tech advisor respond immediately, remote in and show you how to do something on your own device. The support agent actually appears in a live video window, too, so it is very much one-on-one care.

Mayday has a clear consumer focus, but it’s also potentially a terrific feature for enterprise users. It means, in short, that organizations providing their employees with HDX tablets can save on in-house IT support and training, since Amazon provides all the basic help needed to get users familiar and comfortable using their devices. It’s a basic concern, but one that causes plenty of headaches for in-house IT.

Amazon has the right recipe for BYOD success with a low-cost tablet that’s powered by a strong consumer content ecosystem, but it’s now clearly investing a lot more time and effort into building out its enterprise value proposition. These new tablets make it a little more apparent that business and education are an opportunity they’re quite consciously targeting, so it’ll be interesting to see if enterprise buyers heed that call when the go on sale shortly.

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Charge It With Fire! FlameStower Turns Your Campfire Into A USB Phone-Charger

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Charge It With Fire! FlameStower Turns Your Campfire Into A USB Phone-Charger

Charge your gadgets with fire!  FlameStower, a startup that came out of Stanford’s StartX Summer 2013 class, has launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to get its alternative charger to market.

The gizmo lets you harness the heat from a campfire/gas stove/naked flame heat source to add some juice to a phone or other USB-charged device. It has a max power output of 3W and an average output of 2W, which its makers say can yield between 2 to 4 minutes of phone talk-time per minute of charge

The team behind FlameStower are targeting outdoorsy types, first and foremost, but also reckon their device could be a reliable back-up option to keep in store for use in power outages and storm scenarios.

In keeping with camping kit, the FlameStower folds down to a fairly flat profile so you can chuck it in your backpack.

And unlike the other outdoorsy/back-up option of solar-powered chargers, this bit of kit can work at any time of day — provided you have access to FIRE!

How does FlameStower work exactly? It creates and harnesses a temperature differential to generate electricity using its Thermoelectric Generator. The user exposes its metal blade to a flame to heat it up, while the other side is cooled by a small water reservoir that they fill with water. So really you need both fire and water for this to work. Oh and air, to fuel the fire. It’s elemental.

The hotter the fire, the more charge will be outputted. Albeit, the amount of energy generated is never going to match what you get from a wall outlet. FlameStower’s makers liken its output to charging via a laptop USB port. Which is to say slow and steady, giving you time to appreciate the great outdoors scenery.

The East Palo Alto team behind the device are hoping to raise $15,000 on Kickstarter to get the charger to market — and are around half way there, with 28 days left to run on their campaign.

They are offering the FlameStower to early backers for $70 ($10 off its expected retail price) and are aiming to ship in December.

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Amazon Introduces Mayday, A Unique And Amazingly Useful Live Tech Support System For Kindle

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Amazon Introduces Mayday, A Unique And Amazingly Useful Live Tech Support System For Kindle

Live support has always been a dream for major retailers. While chat solutions already exist, today Amazon announced a new support service available on Kindle HD products called Mayday. It is a single-click, hardware-support solution that lets users work with a remote tech support representative to solve problems with their tablets.

The service allows you to see the remote tech support person in a small window on your screen and also displays your screen on the support person’s computer where they can watch what you’re doing online, annotate the screen, and even tap through the interface. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said it’s like “actually very similar to having someone standing next to you” and offering tech support.

The service is unique to Amazon, and the company built a full infrastructure to support it at their HQ in Seattle and on board the hardware. By compressing the video signals, they are able to send more data to the devices from tech support and allow tech support to see the data remotely. Amazon’s goal is a 15-second response time, and they will ramp up staffing around major holidays when Kindles are flying fast and furious under the Easter tree.

While some may be concerned about privacy, rest assured the support person will not be able to see out of your camera, and you can mute your audio at any time. Bezos equated the experience to going into a store for tech support. “If you went to some physical store location to ask for help for your device, they’re going to see everything,” said Bezos. More important, however, is how many people the service will help.

“Are we in charge of our devices or our devices in charge of us? Getting good tech support isn’t easy, but it’s important,” he said.

The service will be available on the new Kindle Fire HDX tablets. You can read more about the service at Amazon’s Mayday page.

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Of Course Samsung Is Now Making A Gold GS4

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Of Course Samsung Is Now Making A Gold GS4

I’m going to try to write this without mentioning the gold iPhone 5s.

Samsung just took the wraps off of two gold-themed Galaxy S4 smartphones: Gold Pink and Gold Brown. Both options are seemingly cosmetic updates to Samsung’s Android flagship.

I can’t do it.

This news comes just two weeks after Apple revealed the gold iPhone 5s. And if recent reports are correct, the demand for the gold version is higher than Apple expected. Of course Samsung wanted in on the action.

To Samsung’s credit, planning and announcing a smartphone cannot happen in two weeks. Not even for Samsung. But Samsung likely follows the Apple rumor mill even more closely than the fanboys and likely knew with a high degree of certainty that a gold iPhone was in the pipeline. Samsung had plenty of time to prep their own model.

So far, Samsung is only showing this off to the United Arab Emirates market. As The Verge points out, Nokia also offered a gold phone there. It’s unclear at this point if the model will hit elsewhere. Samsung is likely looking to Apple and the iPhone 5s to make that decision for them.

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Your Nosy Boy/Girlfriend Can Unlock Your iPhone 5s With Your Thumb While You Sleep

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Your Nosy Boy/Girlfriend Can Unlock Your iPhone 5s With Your Thumb While You Sleep

The passcode can’t die yet. The iPhone 5s’s Touch ID fingerprint security system can be unlocked with your finger even if you’re asleep. That means a jealous lover could hold your phone to your thumb while you slumber and read all your texts, call logs, emails, and more.

Apple confirms that a dead thumb won’t work. Chloroforming the victim might, but international spies will have no luck cutting off a Prime Minister’s thumb to access their secure files / selfies. Apple also doesn’t send a copy of fingerprints back to its servers, and instead stores them in a “secure enclave” in its A7 processor designed to be inaccessible by hackers or other apps.

Apple worked hard to make the the Touch ID security system easy to use. So easy a 5s can be unlocked by a cat, your toe, or even your…member, if it’s registered with your phone. The real issue, though, is that Touch ID has no way of telling if someone is passed out.

Frat dudes, heads up. You could wake up from a night of drinking to find your bros messaged all your exes and creatively rewrote your Facebook profile. Yet the biggest threat is likely that of misuse by significant others.

It’s common to hear the story of a suspicious girlfriend or boyfriend who went through their guy/girl’s unlocked phone while he was asleep, found them flirting with someone else, and dumped them. Numeric passcodes would prevent this.

But Touch ID is vulnerable to “sleephacking.”

As long as someone knows what finger[s] you’ve registered with Touch ID, they can pick your phone up off the nightstand, press it against your sleeping finger, and voilà, the phone unlocks.

If you have shady personal stuff in your phone, you should…not have shady personal stuff in your phone. And if your significant other will rifle through your phone while you sleep, you’ve got bigger problems. But if you’re stuck sleeping by someone unscrupulous, you might want to go into your settings, enable passcode lock, and delete the fingerprints you have on file.

Really this all boils down to the idea that no password that humans have developed yet is both convenient and 100 percent secure. Not long strings of characters, not facial recognition, and not fingerprints. The lack of perfect digital security has become part of our culture — a risk and inconvenience no one is above for now. On that note, I’ll leave you with this touching painting/poem by graffiti artist Banksy:

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Valve Introduces SteamOS, A Linux-Based Platform To Bring Steam To Your Living Room

TechCrunch » Gadgets

Valve Introduces SteamOS, A Linux-Based Platform To Bring Steam To Your Living Room

Valve just announced the first part of its living room strategy with SteamOS, a free Linux-based operating system that takes the ‘Big Picture’ feature one step further. In addition to playing your game collection, SteamOS allows you to watch movies and listen to music.

The company has yet to announce a hardware partner for SteamOS, but this could certainly be the operating system behind the rumored Steam Box computer. OEMs will be able to use SteamOS to build gaming computers, as Valve states multiple times that it’s an open platform.

When it comes to gaming, SteamOS will work particularly well for audio performances and reducing input latency. Yet, only Linux games will work on SteamOS. While many games are now available on Linux, it still has a long way to go compared to Mac OS and especially Windows. That’s why you will be able to run Steam on your Windows or Mac computers in another room and then stream your games to your living room using SteamOS. Latency shouldn’t be an issue, as everything happens on your local network.

The family sharing feature now makes even more sense as the living room is the perfect place to let your kids play video games. Everyone will be able to have a separate profile and play the same games, just like you would on your Xbox.

SteamOS could certainly replace your gaming console, but it could replace your Roku or Apple TV as well for movies, TV and music. Valve didn’t announce a content partner but did say they are “working with many of the media services you know and love.” Services such as Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus and HBO Go should make their way to the platform.

While many of these services are only available in a few countries, SteamOS will be available for everyone in the world. We just don’t know when or what devices will run SteamOS. The second announcement is set for Wednesday.

The company has yet to announce a release date for SteamOS. And while it isn’t the long-anticipated Steam Box, Valve plans to make other announcements in the coming days. On Steam’s website, users can find a teaser page with three icons that represent three different announcements for the living room — SteamOS is only the first one.

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