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AmazonBasics power banks recalled over fire hazard concerns
AmazonBasics is great choice for everything from HDMI cables to coathangers and a whole lot more. Apparently "whole lot more" also extends to unintentional fire sources. The shopping juggernaut has recalled a half-dozen power banks sold between December 2014 and July 2017, according to The Verge, over worry that the units would overheat, melt and set themselves ablaze.
The Ellipse smart lock allows you to securely share your ride
The sharing economy took a turn toward the two-wheeled here at CES on Thursday when Lattis, "the smart city company," introduced its Ellipse Smart Bike Lock. As its name implies, the Ellipse packs as many IoT features as it can into its solar-powered frame. That includes an accelerometer to monitor for sudden stops (i.e., you crash or get hit by a car) and Bluetooth connectivity for remote unlocking and pushing theft-attempt alerts to your smartphone.
Seek Thermal helps your smartphone see in the dark
For as long as humanity has existed, it has sought to banish the darkness that surrounds us for half of each day. Fire, candles and the electric lightbulb have all done their part, and it's now time that thermal cameras join our pantheon of weapons. We've already seen some smartphone-based modules last year, and now Seek Thermal has joined the fray with its Android and iOS unit that joins to your smartphone and helps you see in the dark.
Xbox One controllers now work with your PC
The Xbox One controller is a wonderful piece of gear, so it's natural that people would want to use it with PC games, too. Right on schedule, but perhaps a year too late, Microsoft is now offering the drivers that'll let the hardware work on desktops, laptops and suitably-equipped tablets. Such compatibility will be baked into a forthcoming Windows update, but if you can't wait that long, you can pull down the software from Major Nelson's website right now. The Xbone controllers will work with any game that supports the Xbox 360's handset, but if you'd prefer to test it for yourself, you can always call your boss and tell them that you're ill... or something. [Image credit: Major Nelson]
Toshiba's TransferJet adapter does high-speed video transfer from micro-USB, smartphone chip coming next year
Toshiba's TransferJet has kept relatively quiet since we got the full explanation (spoilers: high-speed data transfer over very short distances) on stage at CES 2013. Finally, several Toshiba products are now ready for launch. Alongside a compatible SDHC card, there's also has a new micro-USB adapter that plugs into your (Android-only, although Toshiba are in discussions with Apple) smartphone, enabling those much-faster-than-Bluetooth data speeds over a distance of a few centimeters. It worked without a hitch on the show floor here at CEATEC, and the TransferJet duo is set to go on sale this December. Toshiba's spokesperson added that pricing for the pair of adapters will come in at around 10,000 yen (around $100), although it was the tiny chip sat next to it that really piqued our interest. Toshiba is planning to get its TransferJet tech embedded within smartphones and other products in the future, which could make a far more convincing argument for the file transfer technique. One module chip has been given a December production date, although the company wouldn't spill the beans on exactly which devices we'll see it in. Darren Murph contributed to this report.
Apple offers free Lightning to Micro USB adapter in China
M.I.C. Gadget reports that iPhone 5 buyers in China will get a little something extra with each new smartphone: A Lightning to Micro USB adapter. The adapter allows users to utilize their existing micro-USB cords to both charge and sync the new iPhone, and helps cut down on the added expense of picking up Lightning cables from Apple or third-party accessory makers. The adapter is the same one the company introduced in Europe to comply with EU's standardized charging requirements. iPhone 5 customers in the U.S. can also pick up the accessory in Apple's online store for $19. We'd of course love to see the adapter be made a worldwide freebie, but chances of that are rather slim.
Apple's Lightning to micro-USB adapter now available in US, not just Europe anymore
Just in case you thought the Lightning to micro-USB connector was Europe-only (to stave off that pesky European Commission), Apple has decided to sell it stateside as well. The tiny choking hazard recently made its way to the company's online store in the US for $19 each (over in Europe, it's £15 / €19), and brick-and-mortar locations will probably get them too -- if they're not in stock already. We're not sure if there's a huge demand for this, but if you're a recent iPod, iPhone, or iPad (Mini or 4th gen) owner with a plethora of existing micro-USB cables, an adapter like this could help lighten your nest of wires.
Mophie's $40 Juice Pack Reserve Micro charges your smartphone, fits on a keychain
Last we heard from Mophie, it revealed its upcoming Juice Pack case for Samsung's Galaxy S III. While there's still no further info for that model, the company recently took to its Facebook and Twitter accounts to announce it's new $40 Juice Pack Reserve Micro. The palmable battery pack is nearly identical to the 30-pin friendly Juice Pack Reserve, but, as the Micro in its name implies, this one charges Micro-USB devices. The unit features a key chain loop and stores a total load of 1,000mAh, which gets re-filled via its secondary USB 2.0 plug. There's more info at the source links below -- here's to hoping for a Lightning variant soon.
Daily Update for September 13, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS Note: Because of technical difficulties with Castfire, the Sept. 12 Daily Update wasn't published until a few hours ago. You can listen to our recap of the iPhone 5 announcement here.
Apple accommodates European law with Lightning Micro USB adapter
Apple's iPhone 5 introduced the Lightning connectivity port as well as adapters for older, 30-pin hardware. A Micro USB adapter was also released on Sept. 12, which Apple had to produce to comply with European law. Apple, RIM, Nokia and nearly every other major mobile phone manufacturer agreed to adopt Micro USB as a charger standard for their devices in 2009. Cellphone charger standards were published by those involved a year later, which stipulated that Micro USB chargers should be "predominant" within two years. Hence, the Lightning to Micro USB Adapter is now available on UK and French Apple Stores for £15 / €19 (about $25 as of this writing).
Apple appeases European lawmakers with Lightning-to-microUSB adapter
We do love products that only exist to circumvent the finer points of legislation (hello there, Aston Martin Cygnet), but even better are the ones that actually serve a purpose. To comply with the European Commission's insistence that all smartphones must have a microUSB connector, Apple is putting out a Euro-specific adapter for its new Lightning standard. It's turned up in the UK and French stores so far, setting you back £15 / €19 ($25) -- and we imagine it won't be long before some entrepreneurial soul starts buying them in bulk to sell to microUSB users Stateside.
TomTom launches new hands-free dashboard mount for smartphones (video)
TomTom is busting out a pair of new smartphone cradles to ensure your handset sits snugly on the windshield of your whip. The Hands Free Car Kit is available in both iPhone or microUSB (for all other smartphones) versions and comes with a built-in two watt speaker, extendable microphone and fast charging. Both editions are available for £80 ($125), while an iPhone-specific bundle that comes with the company's navigation app will set you back £130 ($204).
VESA's Mobility DisplayPort standard links smartphones to PC displays, jabs MHL
If you own a modern Android smartphone, there's a reasonable chance you're familiar with MHL for video out to a TV. The format saves the trouble of adding an extra port, but it's really only intended for HDMI-based destinations and occasionally runs into compatibility issues. VESA is hoping to settle all that with its newly available Mobility DisplayPort standard, or MyDP. Existing micro-USB ports will still serve as the output, but you'll have the option of plugging into DVI or VGA displays with the right adapter, in addition to HDMI and full-size DisplayPort. Picture connecting to an older projector and you'll see why that might make sense. The new spec will charge up your device like with MHL, but it also has about 1Mbps of bandwidth for input, such as keyboards and trackpads in some future lapdock. Video still tops out at 1080p and 60Hz, so there's no hooking into a 4K display here. The real advantage, for many, is simply in having a broadly-adopted standard in the first place: VESA backing sees 180 companies tacitly endorsing the idea, producing a big improvement over the patchwork results that we've seen from MHL's much smaller alliance. The chief obstacle is the wait for the first smartphones, Ultrabooks and tablets with MyDP, which could be months or more away.
Une Bobine: A Kickstarter succeeds, expands to another market
Une Bobine is a stylish and handy iPhone cable that went from zero to 1000 percent funded on Kickstarter in just 19 days. I covered the device on an episode of TUAW TV Live a few weeks ago, and just love the way that the flexible-but-somewhat-stiff Une Bobine works with an iPhone or iPod touch to not only connect your device for charging and syncing, but also works as a stand. As a result of the hot start this Kickstarter project received, the team decided to expand the product's use to micro-USB devices as well. Not all Mac users use iPhones -- there are a surprising number of TUAW readers who have Android-based phones -- so it is nice that Jon Fawcett and the [Fuse]Chicken team have taken the extra funding from Kickstarter to meet the needs of another market. Fawcett noted that "Micro-usb took significantly more work to achieve because it has one major flaw compared to the Apple 30 pin connector when attempting to do what we are with it. It is simply so small that the phone tends to rock side to side. To solve this, we have engineered a custom micro-usb connector housing that will make the micro-usb very stable on most phones. Because it seemed like an eternity was passing for us to finalize the details for this, we held a spontaneous 'Kickathon' with all of our employees (our name for the Kickstarter version of a hackathon) from 12:01am today until 5:01pm today. The Kickathon had one goal; to finalize the entire design for the micro-usb connector, which included design, engineering, prototyping, and testing. All of these came together by the hard work of our great team!" Une Bobine will be available in a 12" version (Petite Bobine) and a 24" full version, and since the company surpassed a $90,000 "stretch" funding goal, they're adding in a free 3-foot USB extension cable. And of course, it'll be in both Dock connector and micro-USB flavors. Check out another one of [Fuse]Chicken's well-done product trailers below.
Lytro video camera 'a possibility', would need more processing muscle
While we impatiently await a Lytro to call our own -- or at least rigorously review -- it looks like the light field technology could be used for video. Ren Ng, CEO of Lytro and the man behind the camera's focus-dodging optical wizardry, mentioned that the main barrier between the curious camera lens and video recording is the amount of processing power required to manipulate all that fully-lit input. He also mentioned that Lytro is continuing to develop the wireless connectivity within the device, something that wasn't fully baked during our hands-on. If it's a processing power issue, those incoming quad-core smartphones might be able to help squeeze some video out of that f/2.0 lens...
Innergie PocketCell can power over 10,000 USB devices, just not at the same time
Between your tablet, phone, GPS and whatever else, keeping powered up on the move is a challenge for us all. Innergie wants to crush that problem with its PocketCell battery pack. Yep, it's a power cell, yes it fits in your pocket, but here's what you might not have worked out from the name: it has a 3,000 mAh capacity, mini / micro USB connectors built-in along with an Apple 30 pin adapter (as it's based on its Magic Cable design we loved so much) and a fast "Smart Charge" function for the impatient. There's five built in protections against unstable voltage, so you can be confident your digital world won't burn out in your hand. The makers reckon you can get an extra 4.5 hours of iPad usage and about 15 more hours on the horn to mom -- though, we're sure your mileage may vary. You can get charging from today for $79.99, which includes the Magic Cable, or touch up the PR after the jump for more info.
Analogix Slim Port technology lets you connect your phone to your TV via its microUSB port
Sometimes, the simplest ideas are the best ones, and Analogix Slim Port technology certainly qualifies as both. It's a cabling solution that allows you to mirror what's on your phone (while charging it when connected via HDMI) or tablet's screen to your TV via microUSB -- instead of needing an extra HDMI or MHL port. Analogix's secret sauce is on a chip embedded in the jack portion of the cable and because it's based on DisplayPort technology, it can connect using HDMI, VGA, or DVI connections. Of course, as an OEM, Analogix won't be selling the cables when they go on sale this summer, but retailers like Belkin and BizLink will probably put one in your bag for around $20 or $30 bucks.
Tritton's latest Bluetooth headset lands at the FCC, hopes to find refuge with PS3 owners
No, that isn't some robotic fingernail -- it's MadCatz / Tritton's latest Bluetooth headset, which has just made its way through the FCC's underground bunker. Geared for audio chat on the PS3, the "Wireless Headset featuring Bluetooth technology," as it's not-so-creatively dubbed, is the apparent successor to the company's late AX Micro. A quick perusal of its manual confirms that aside from the science fiction-eqsue looks, the unit is essentially an average Bluetooth earpiece. Over the past few months, Tritton's been heavily catering to the Xbox 360 crowd with a smattering of officially licensed gaming headsets, so it's a pleasant surprise to see that Blu-ray spinning gamers are still getting a some love. Is this a taste of what's to come from MadCatz at this year's CES? You can be sure we'll find out once we hit the show floor in the coming days, but for now, check out the gallery below for a better look.
Innergie Magic cables wed USB and 30-pin connections, let you break 'em up on the fly
Apple's 30-pin connection got you feeling down in a world filled with USB? Wish your iDevice cable worked with more of your gizmos? Fret not, as Innergie recently introduced its effort to solve this dilemma with its Magic Cables. The idea is simple, one end is fitted with a standard connector and the opposite side terminates into a mini-USB plug that can be fitted with different tips. Twenty bucks will snag you the Duo variant with a 30-pin adapter and for $5 more you can pick up the Trio if you also need a micro-USB tip. All told, we're not sure that keeping track of minuscule adapters will prove much better than having a few cables, but if you're ready to consolidate your cords it may be worth a shot. Full press release just past the break.
Ice Cream Sandwich supports USB game controllers and HDMI, turns your phone into full game console
Take that, Xperia Play. USB gamepads are already supported in Honeycomb, so we had plenty of hope that Android 4.0 -- also lovingly referred to as Ice Cream Sandwich -- would offer the same functionality. We finally have the answer, and it's a resounding yes, courtesy of Google framework engineer Romain Guy's Twitter account. The cool part, though, is that HDMI's playing nice as well. In short, you could hook up an external gamepad to a USB-to-microUSB adapter on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, connect it to your TV and transform your handset into a fancy portable gaming console. It's definitely something we can see developers flock towards, and we'll expect some cool stuff to come out of it. Just in case you thought the Nexus wouldn't let you get anything else done around the house already, this pretty much seals the deal. Move below the break to see a screenshot from the SDK.
