Tons of exhibitors, so many gadgets to sift through. We were present at the Pepcom Holiday Spectacular tradeshow which gave us previews of what’s coming up this season in consumer tech, and here are the products we think you should keep an eye out for. At least we will.
Tagg: GPS and Fitbit for your pups
If your dog has a habit of running away, the Tagg pet tracker system will do Fido some good by helping you keep track of his whereabouts. Tagg collar runs on a GPS system to let you know exactly where your dog is at all times, and you can set the parameters of where you think it’s okay for your pet to be. If Fido steps outside this boundary, you’ll get a text alerting you of the situation, and use the accompanying app to locate your pet.
Now we know what you’re thinking: What if this thing runs out of battery? Tagg has a “sleep” integration that will put the collar to energy conservation mode to keep the battery from draining when the GPS isn’t quite necessary. This means that if the Tagg collar is located near the charging base, the collar will be in sleep. When the collar is detected to be too far from that range or goes off your set parameters, only then will the device begin using the charge. In standby mode, the collar can last up to 30 days while constant use can extend up to a week — so unless your dog runs away constantly, you’ll probably only need to charge the Tagg collar twice a month.
Newly updated is an upcoming fitness tracking integration to see how much activity your dog is getting a day. You’ll get an overview of the level of activeness your pet receives per day to keep him healthy and fit. For $100 plus an $8-per-month subscription, Tagg is essentially a smartphone and a Fitbit for your dog. Not a bad time and money investment for man’s best friend.
Looxcie action live-cam
We’ve seen GoPro cameras that promise to deliver quality photos while you’re on your most extreme adventures. We’ve also seen livestream webcams that are mediocre at best. Looxcie wants to be the best of both worlds by providing you full 1080p capacity streaming while allowing you to mount the lightweight camera anywhere you go.
The camera connects either via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and optionally via your data plan to run your live stream. You can also access the video streams in your history if you want to revisit old clips (say, a web show you host weekly) and share them either publicly or with those you carefully select.
What’s also integrated into Looxcie are camera sensors and Bluetooth capacity, meaning the device can double as a Bluetooth headset and a point-and-shoot. You can also leave Looxcie recording a video without saving, but press a special button to retrace the last 30 seconds of what you just saw. “For example, I can leave the camera running while I’m watching my son play soccer,” Looxcie CEO Romulus Pereira tells me. “And I can press this button to record just the part where he makes the goal.” Makes perfect sense for those who witness strange things all the time, wishing they had a camera to capture what just happened. Looxcie HD Explore launched this past week at $330 a set.
Duracell Powermat and smartphone cases
For those who want to combine extra battery power with a protective smartphone case, Duracell Powermat 24-Hour System is definitely one hot item making a buzz in the consumer tech market. The $100 set comes with a charging station, a portable backup battery pack, and a chargeable smartphone case. All you have to do is leave the battery pack and case (with or without your phone already inside) on top of the power mat overnight for charge. When you’re ready to go for the day, just pick the gadgets up and go.
The set comes in a variety of candy-coated colors and is currently available for the Samsung Galaxy S3 and iPhone 4/4S. The iPhone 5 edition is in development, with plans of a release sometime by Q1 of 2013.
Evernote and Moleskine
Launching October 1st, the Evernote integration with Moleskine notebooks may just change the way we incorporate physical note-taking into our digital lives. From what Evernote demonstrated to us at Pepcom, the app is able to recognize the Moleskine pages by reading the hues of the paper and the dotted lines so that when you snap a picture to load into your phone, Evernote can make your notes brighter, clearer, and easier to store. The smart stickers can also programmable to set as tags for particular types of notes, such as Recipes, To-Do’s, Receipts, Deadlines, and more.
Alternatively, you can also take your own picture with your phone’s camera app and upload it within the Evernote app. You can group photos and edit them as you please when they’re all ready in your Evernote list, and of course, shareable to your friends and family. Not to mention the elephant logo embedded in the leather cover looks exclusive, beautiful, and just plain cool. The app integration will be available for both iOS and Android. Our Molly McHugh is excited… aren’t you?
Keep an eye out for one or more of the above items as we hope to get review units shortly.
