beds
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Sleep Number's x12 smart bed monitors your sleeping habits
CES 2014: the year the Internet of Things got very, very real. So far at the show we've seen a smart toothbrush and even a smart slow cooker, but is everybody ready for a smart bed? Sleep Number just announced the x12, which packs a variety of sensors to monitor your sleeping habits, movement, heart rate and breathing rate. Basically, then, it potentially eliminates the need for a wearable fitness tracker, assuming you can do without the activity monitoring. In particular, the bed has two sections, each of which are independently adjustable, so that once the bed knows your sleeping patterns, it can suggest ways you might want to change, say, the head incline. Additionally -- and this is perhaps our favorite feature -- a Partner Snore feature allows you raise your partner's headrest to help ease snoring. (Because anything that introduces passive-aggression to domestic relationships wins our vote.) Wrapping up, the bed offers simple voice commands, and an under-the-bed light acts like a pathlight when you get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Look for it next month, shipping only in select markets at first, with a nationwide rollout following sometime later. No word on just how many sizes will be offered, though Sleep Number is saying it will definitely offer a queen-sized model for $8,000. Additionally, the built-in SleepIQ technology will eventually come to Sleep Number's other (less smart) beds, with prices then going as low as $999.
Minecraft iOS getting chests, creepers, beds and more
The team behind the iOS version of Minecraft has submitted an update for version 0.4.0 of the app, and as you can see from the changelog, they're adding some really important elements to the game. Chests are probably the biggest update: Those can be built with materials found in the world and allow players to store more and more of what they find and collect out there. Beds are also being added in to the game, which will help players more easily survive the game's dangerous night. Minecraft's most iconic enemy, the Creeper, is also headed to the mobile version of the game in this next update. These zombified guys sneak up on players from behind, and explode when close, not just hurting players, but also destroying any structures built nearby. It sounds like a significant update -- the differences between the very popular PC version of the game and the iOS version are shrinking more and more every time an update like this arrives. The development team says the patch has been submitted to Apple already, and should be out sometime next month.
