Archive

Synaptics Gives Spacebar Some New Touches

Touchpad pioneer Synaptics has touched up an unlikely area on a keyboard: the spacebar. The company last week announced the availability of its SmartBar technology, which adds gesture features to the bar. For example, text can be selected by swiping it. A double-thumb gesture can be used to zoom i...

August Smart Lock Gets Key Exposure in Apple Stores

The August Smart Lock will become available for purchase at Apple retail stores in the United States starting this week, the company announced on Tuesday. Priced at $249.99, the smart device uses Bluetooth and a mobile app to create a virtual key. It has been shipping since late August in limited qu...

Harmony Takes Control of Home Sweet Automated Home

Logitech has announced four new products for the smart home in its Harmony family that let users control TVs, set-top boxes, speakers, lighting, thermostats, door locks, window shades and more. Users can trigger activities such as dimming the house lights in several ways: by pressing a button on the...

Google Worms Its Way Into Nest

Google-owned Nest Labs, maker of smart thermostats and smoke detectors, this week launched a developer program along with partnerships that already have products on offer. Partners include Jawbone; LIFX, which makes smart WiFi-enabled light bulbs; Logitech; and Mercedes-Benz, which will offer models...

Logitech Outfits iPhone for Gaming Control

Logitech on Wednesday introduced its new PowerShell Controller + Battery, a device that's designed to turn users' iPhones into gaming consoles. Compatible with iPhone 5, iPhone 5s and fifth-generation iPod touch devices running iOS 7, the PowerShell offers analog off-screen controls along with a bat...

Insecurity and the Internet of Things, Part 1: Data, Data Everywhere

The Internet is actualizing the vision of a global village today. Cars are becoming infotainment centers with online connections; printers, home appliances and even door locks are being connected to the Internet; and some cities have begun putting in hundreds of sensors to help them better manage th...

IBM Builds Traffic Cop for Internet of Things

IBM on Monday launched MessageSight, an appliance designed to handle machine-to-machine communications of the future. Such communications will develop exponentially to create what's known as the "Internet of Things." In announcing MessageSight, IBM cited a report that predicted more than 22 billion ...

ANDROID APP REVIEW

IP Cam Viewer Pro: Well Worth a Bit of Configuration Hassle

IP Cam Viewer Pro lets you view and control an Internet protocol camera through Android OS on a phone or tablet. App features include SSL encryption, pan tilt and zoom, relays for lights and garage doors, and recording functions. DVRs and network video recorders also can be controlled. Included are...

Hacking the Google TV Box Without Rooting It, Part 3

Last month, I succumbed to a peculiar urge to go out to my local, friendly big-box consumer electronics retailer and drop almost a hundred dollars on a product that had been panned by the critics on launch, had a dubious life expectancy because of that, and had been almost universally rejected by th...

Hacking the Google TV Box Without Rooting It, Part 2

With the leaked Honeycomb 3.1 operating system installed, my Logitech Revue Google TV box was, for all intents and purposes, driving a giant Honeycomb tablet. The only problem was that there wasn't really any nonsubscription, ad-supported content -- none that I was interested in, anyway -- on the bo...

BEST OF ECT NEWS

Linux, Linux Everywhere

How many out there use Linux? I bet if I asked 100 people, less than 10 percent would say yes. To be fair, people think in terms of computers, laptops, netbooks, and desktops, and that demographic is 90 percent Windows, 90 percent Microsoft-centric. But computers and OSes that power them permeate al...

OPINION

Powered by Linux

How many out there use Linux? I bet if I asked 100 people, less than 10 percent would say yes. To be fair, people think in terms of computers, laptops, netbooks, and desktops, and that demographic is 90 percent Windows, 90 percent Microsoft-centric. But computers and OSes that power them permeate al...

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