Tag Archives: sxsw2013

Ube WiFi Smart Dimmer to recieve customized multitouch gesture control

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Here's a cool little addition to the increasingly competitive world of home automation. Ube's got a WiFi Smart Dimmer that utilizes multitouch functionality to control the the lights in your house -- use one finger to turn off a single light, or use two to turn off a set. The company picked SXSW as the venue to announce the forthcoming launch of customized gestures for other smart devices -- in the example given to us by CEO Utz Baldwin, a user can input a "W" to turn on the sprinklers -- or an "A" plus up swipe to turn on an alarm and an "A" plus a down swipe to disable it.

Sadly, the functionality won't be available for the launch of the first generation, though it's likely to come in time for the second generation, along with a software update for early adopters. Interested parties can support the company via Kickstarter right now -- Ube's a bit over halfway to its goal of $280,000, with 24 days to go. You can also watch Baldwin discuss the product and today's news in a video after the break.

Gallery: Ube WiFi Smart Dimmer hands-on

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Source: Kickstarter

The Engadget Interview: BlackBerry developer evangelist Tom Anderson (video)

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We'll be honest, we didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into when we headed to BlackBerry's SXSW event. Gone are the business-suited low key gatherings traditionally tied to trade shows. The smartphone maker is here to meet developers on their own turf, putting together a bumping house party with a backyard DJ and a velvet rope line up front. The event is certainly in line with the company's shift toward a larger lifestyle focus in its latest operating system, along with an attempt to deal with potential developers on their own level.

Tom Anderson, the company's Manager Developer Evangelists Team Americas is one of the individuals tasked with leading that charge -- a central focus if the operating system is going to turn around its fortunes. BlackBerry knows that better than anyone, hitting the pavement here at SXSW to convince developers of all sizes that they need to be a part of the operating system. It can certainly be an uphill battle, with a user base that pales in comparison to the iOSes ad Androids of the world -- and then there's the fact that the OS hasn't actually launched in the States yet.

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TI shows off LaunchPad-based prototype mouse, hints at a big follow-up

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TI shows off LaunchPadbased prototype mouse, hints at a big followup

If you've been needing a little inspiration for your next TI LaunchPad project, look no further than the company itself. Texas Instruments set up shop in the maker tent across from the Austin Convention Center this week, showing off creations built atop its line of microcontrollers. The rep we spoke with was particularly excited about this mouse hack that the company put together in a few hours, while getting ready for SXSW. The creation utilizes the Stellaris board's accelerometers to control the cursor of a Windows machine on X, Y and Z axes, via USB.

The project is more than just a hack, according to the company -- it's actually a prototype of something it's set to unveil later this year. No specifics on that front, but TI promised a "big surprise." In the meantime, you can check out video of the project after the break.

Gallery: Texas Instruments LaunchPad-based prototype mouse hands-on

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Gigabot is a huge consumer 3D printer awaiting your Kickstarter dollars (video)

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Gigabot 3D printer

The standard crop of 3D printers are all well and good, but what about those times when you need to print something really, really big? Gigabot's hoping to fill in that gaping void with a build envelope of 24 x 24 x 24 inches -- 30 times the volume of a standard consumer device, by its calculations. The device is a beast, naturally -- and metal one, at that. It's so big, in fact, that it can support a full-sized laptop sitting atop an attached arm.

The project is the brainchild of re:3D, an Austin-based startup, which has turned to Kickstarter to help bring the Gigabot into the world -- and from the looks of it, the company should hit its $40,000 goal, no problem. You can pick one of these up for a $2,500 pledge, which gets you everything you need to build one at home. Video of the printer in action after the break.

Gallery: Gigabot 3D printer hands-on

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Source: Kickstarter

GE’s Barista Bots are exactly what SXSW needs: coffee-printing robotic arms

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Barista Bot

The best way to get the attention of a bunch of sleep-deprived, possibly hungover SXSW Interactive attendees? Coffee-slinging robotic arms, naturally. GE's fully embracing Austin's caffeinated food trick culture with a pair of Barista Bots, arms that operate similarly to your standard 3D printer, moving along the X, Y and Z axes to extrude coffee through a syringe, atop a latte's foam. The process starts when one of the robot's human barista counterparts takes a shot of an image with a webcam, digitizing it on a nearby computer. Then the arm goes to work.

It's an imperfect science, of course. For one thing, foam is a really difficult canvas to work on, what with all the unevenness of constantly popping bubbles. There's also an awful lot of wind in Austin today, and with all those people inside, the van did a little bit of rocking. We saw some more complex images that didn't come out particularly well (facial scans, for one thing), so we decided to throw something a simpler at the 'bot, drawing our "e" logo on a sheet of paper.

Gallery: GE Barista Bot hands-on

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Necomimi cat ears’ creators branch out into brain-controlled headphones (video)

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While we've always thought that brain-controlled cat ears are a perfectly viable business model, it's usually in a company's best interest to diversify, in case, you know, the bottom ever drops out of the furry accessory market. Neurowear, the company behind the Necomimi, which provided some of the more memorable moments at this year's CES, showed off its latest project, the Mico, which continues the company's core competency of letting people do stuff with mind waves. In this case, it's music control. A big white pair of headphones are connected to a sensor that rests on your forehead and a dangling clip for your earlobe (a la the Necomimi).

The cans connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth, using your current mood to select a song from the company's app, which currently contains about 100 tracks. According to the company, the songs have been "neuro-tagged," based on its testing, to ensure that they match up to perceived mood. If your mood changes, just give the phone a shake and it will clean the musical slate Etch-a-Sketch-style.

Gallery: Neurowear Mico brain wave-sensing headphones hands-on

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Tesla gives Uber a Model S boost at SXSW, so come on and take a free ride

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Tesla gives Uber a Model S boost at SXSW, so come on and take a free ride video

The number of cabs per capita in Austin is probably quite reasonable for a city of under a million, but during SXSW, taxis can be difficult to come by, plagued by ridiculous traffic and a surge of carless visitors. So, to make our way from last night's Engadget+gdgt event to our hotel -- a roughly 15-mile drive north of the city center -- we turned to Uber's Android app. Selecting the UberX option, we were told, would net us a free ride, but we were expecting a clunky cab to pull up; instead, we got a brand new Tesla Model S, with a tie-clad chauffeur to match. The driver, we learned, was on loan from Dallas, while the gorgeous all-electric car was likely to quietly roll its way to distant roads following this week's Central Texas geek fest. But we weren't leaving Austin without our ride.

Gallery: Tesla Model S with UberX

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Palm Top Theater turns your iPhone into a mini-3D display

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"Pepper's ghost" isn't the sort of phrase you hear very often at a show like SXSW. In amongst all the latest-generation technology, there aren't too many folks discussing optical concepts hundreds of years old. But the idea's a driving force in the Palm Top Theater, an iPhone case that turns smartphone videos into a miniature 3D-viewing experience. The peripheral utilizes three small drop-down displays -- the rear is a full mirror with two half mirrors in front it, reflecting images from the phone display into what appears to be a three-dimensional object -- and really, it a stunning little effect.

The Palm Top requires the use of a proprietary file format that essentially splits the displayed image or video into three parts. The company's providing some video for users, as well as a converter app to make custom footage. The device is available now for around $36 -- not super expensive, though it's hard to see such a device as anything but a niche product, especially since the opening makes for a fairly limited viewing space. It would be extremely cool to see this on a larger space, but in the meantime, you're stuck with a little window into the technology.

Gallery: Palm Top Theater for iPhone hands-on

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Xi3 starts Piston pre-orders: buy an early Steambox for under $1,000

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Xi3 starts Piston preorders buy a protoSteambox for under $1,000

While Xi3's Piston may only be a Steambox through its software optimization, that still leaves us with a milestone on our hands now that the system is available for pre-orders: it's the first Valve-blessed PC on sale. If you're willing to set aside just under $1,000 ($900 during SXSW), you can claim a Big Picture-friendly mini PC with an embedded, 3.2GHz version of AMD's quad-core A10 in addition to 8GB of RAM and a 128GB solid-state drive. There's no mention of the conventional spinning storage referenced at CES. Expansion is limited to larger-capacity SSDs, although that's not surprising when the entire computer is smaller than a GeForce GTX Titan. The real jolt will be the launch timing. Xi3 won't have Pistons shipping until around the holidays, which could leave some of us hunting for less-than-official (if considerably larger) substitutes for the full Steam experience.

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Via: Joystiq

Source: Xi3

Google shows off hacked speaking shoe at SXSW, promises it’s not getting into the footwear business

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All the hype of Google's presence at this year's SXSW has, not surprisingly, largely revolved around the company's Glass project, but much to our surprise, the software giant used the show to take the wraps off yet another wearable. We spoke to a rep who kicked off our conversation with the express disclaimer that "Google is not getting into the shoe business," so you can tamp down those expectations right now. Of course, the company is still firmly in the business of creating cool projects for the purposes of promoting creativity and supporting the developer community and ethos that are the driving forces behind its Art, Copy & Code project.

Gallery: Google hacks a shoe at SXSW

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