Articles by Michael Anderson

GoG.com Celebrates 5 Successful Years with Retrospective Video

Game Diary, Gear Bits

GoG.com Celebrates 5 Successful Years with Retrospective Video

Has it REALLY been FIVE years since GoG.com opened up to the public? Actually it’s been longer – it was mid-November 2008 when I bought Fallout 1 & 2 and fully embraced the site and its model and began amassing what has become a 200+ game collection on the site. Because they have great games, fair prices, and no DRM. Here is what I said back then: (they) wanted to make a site that would charge a reasonable amount and give gamers older games that were out of circulation in a convenient, DRM-free package that you can download forever. I…

Scosche Launches superCUBE at CES 2014? - Smallest 12W USB Wall Charger

Events, News & Features

Scosche Launches superCUBE at CES 2014? – Smallest 12W USB Wall Charger

Over the last few years I have loved the moves to smaller and smaller chargign blocks for devices, which seems to be reversing as new ‘fast charge’ devices like iPad Air and Kindle Fire HDX require more power, meaning bigger blocks. So it was a welcome announcement that Scosche Launches superCUBE at CES 2014 – Smallest 12W USB Wall Charger. “Many of our customers have both Lighting and micro USB powered devices and become frustrated with how long a dedicated charger can take to power their other mobile devices,” said Kas Alves, Executive Vice President Scosche Industries. “superCUBE allows our…

Blumoo Home Audio Remote Debuts at CES 2014?

Events, Music Diary, News & Features

Blumoo Home Audio Remote Debuts at CES 2014?

The other day the local youth bureau called asking if my kids could help an older person set up a universal remote for multiple devices – and they declined because I was the only one in our house who knew our system! This is true for millions, making it great news as Blumoo Home Audio Remote Debuts at CES 2014!

Polaroid and iLuv Announcements from CES 2014!

Events, News & Features

Polaroid and iLuv Announcements from CES 2014!

The stream of cool stuff continues with some cool looking new Polaroid and iLuv Announcements from CES 2014. The list of their introductions is insane and impossible to capture here, but it includes Polaroid cameras, tablets, smartphones, and Roku-ready HD TVs; and from iLuv no less than 14 speakers, earbuds, iPad folios and iPhone cases!

IK Multimedia Announces iRing at CES 2014

Events, Music Diary

IK Multimedia Announces iRing at CES 2014

Since my wife bought me the original iRig a few years ago I have been a huge fan of stuff from IK Multimedia, currently absolutely loving the iRig Keys Pro. Now they are heading in a different direction as IK Multimedia announces iRing at CES 2014. iRing is the first motion-tracking controller for iOS music apps and offers unprecedented control.

Surreal Melting Watch Inspired By Salvador Dali Distorts Your Mind

Events, News & Features

Surreal Melting Watch Inspired By Salvador Dali Distorts Your Mind

Everyone at CES is talking wearable technology, from Google Glass to Pebble to fitness trackers and more. But what about the most basic wearable – the wrist watch? Gadgets & Gear is back with a cool ‘melting watch’ inspired by the classic Salvador Dalí’s painting ‘The Persistence of Memory’. With this on your wrist you will definitely make a statement! The watch features include: •Chrome Analog Watch •Quartz Precision Movement •Black Rubber Band •Case Color: Silver •Face Color: White •A Perfect Gift For Art Lovers! Here is the description: Not Only is This Watch Real, It’s Surreal! When Dalí created…

Digital Innovations introduces ScreenDr Antimicrobial at CES 2014

Events, News & Features

Digital Innovations introduces ScreenDr Antimicrobial at CES 2014

Earlier this week Dan reported that Corning introduced anti-microbial glass this week at CES, which is great news for next-generation devices. But for now, all we get is the knowledge that our touch-screens are gross. Fortunately Digital Innovations introduces ScreenDr Antimicrobial at CES 2014 to address our filthy screens, as our phones and tablets are dirtier than toilet seats! Here is what they are saying: “Phones and tablets are now among our dirtiest belongings,” said Collin Anderson, CEO of Digital Innovations. “They are with us all the time, get used everywhere and are constantly being passed from person to person….

JoyTunes Brings Real Music Learning With Piano Dust Buster and Piano Mania Apps

Events, Gear Bits

JoyTunes Brings Real Music Learning With Piano Dust Buster and Piano Mania Apps

For most people ‘playing the piano’ is one of their bucket list items. For many kids – and parents – it means expensive lessons and disruptive trips to teachers, and often a non-stop battle to practice! JoyTunes seeks to make piano learning more fun with their Piano Dust Buster and Piano Mania apps for iPhone and iPad! According to JoyTunes: JoyTune’s Piano Mania and Piano Dust Buster 2.0 mobile apps teach users to play the piano through exciting game-like lessons that only take a few minutes each day. The unique program is so effective that kids can transition their skills…

IUI Design is Launching the Bass Jumper Water Resistant Speaker at CES 2014

Events, Gear Bits

IUI Design is Launching the Bass Jumper Water Resistant Speaker at CES 2014

While CES is taking place in the warmth of Las Vegas, much of the nation is gripped by record-breaking cold, snow, and wind. IUI Design is launching the Bass Jumper water resistant speaker at CES to let you rock on despite the elements! It is ready for anything with IPX5 water resistance, carabineer for portability, and a 10 hour battery! Here is what they say: “With an emphasis on portability, the Bass Jumper is packaged with a carabiner clip so users can bring along and share their music on any adventure,” commented Al Fortino, Director of Business Development, iUi Design….

Tabtor Math Personal Math Tutoring for iPad is at CES

Events, News & Features

Tabtor Math Personal Math Tutoring for iPad is at CES

We were at Barnes & Noble and saw one of our son’s friends who missed a bunch of school due to illness being tutored. It made us think about how stressful it is when you’re behind – even one you love! Tabtor Math Personal Math Tutoring for iPad is at CES talking about how math can be fun and easy to learn!

Toshiba Announces Exciting TV and PC Products at CES 2014

Events, Gear Bits

Toshiba Announces Exciting TV and PC Products at CES 2014

Toshiba is not the highest profile maker of consumer technology, but they consistently come up with great new products that meet a wide variety of needs. At CES 2014 Toshiba announces exciting TV and PC products including a HD Chromebook, 4K laptops, Haswell updates for Kirabook, new 4K HD TV platforms, streaming and universal disc player bases, and more!

NVIDIA Tegra K1 Demo Using the Unreal Engine 4 at CES 2014!

Events, Game Diary, Gear Bits

NVIDIA Tegra K1 Demo Using the Unreal Engine 4 at CES 2014!

At CES nVidia introduced the Tegra K1, bringing high performance Kepler architecture used in PC graphics cards to mobile SOCs (system on a chip). The K1 offers up to 192 cores, with potential to offer desktop graphics on mobile devices. nVidia introduced the technology without release date and showed a NVIDIA Tegra K1 Demo Using the Unreal Engine 4.

Michael Bay Leaves Samsung Press Conference Stage Due to Teleprompter Failure

Events, Gear Bits

Michael Bay Leaves Samsung Press Conference Stage Due to Teleprompter Failure

When you do things live, stuff happens. That is just how it goes – technical problems, mixups and misunderstandings, and so on. They happen. As they say, it isn’t the problem but how you deal with it that says more about you. Well, at the Samsung Press Conference there was a teleprompter problem … and Michael Bay just walked off the stage. As Dan said when he grabbed the video: Michael Bay stepped on stage at the Samsung Press Conference at CES2014 to talk about UHD televisions. His TelePrompt went out of sync… And so did he. Check it out:…

Spree 'Revolutionary' Fitness Monitor Launched At CES 2014!

Events, Gear Bits, Health and Fitness

Spree ‘Revolutionary’ Fitness Monitor Launched At CES 2014!

Everyone is speculating that the ‘hot new thing’ at CES this year will be ‘wearable technology’. Wearables include the Pebble watch, Google Glass, Samsung’s Galaxy Gear, Magellan Echo, and fitness monitors such as Fitbit Force, etc. New to the category is Spree ‘Revolutionary’ Fitness Monitor from Hothead Technologies, bringing heart rate and temperature to help you better understand your health!

What Does Apple's 'Best of 2013' Tell Us About the State of Mobile Gaming?

Editorials, Game Diary

What Does Apple’s ‘Best of 2013’ Tell Us About the State of Mobile Gaming?

This week Apple released the ‘best of 2013’ list, which had what they called ‘the best’ apps in different categories. But the list also had the top paid and free iPhone and iPad games and apps, and the results are not surprising, but tell us much about the trends in the gaming audience on mobile devices. I won’t repeat the entire list, you can check it out here. At the risk of spoiling my own point, can you guess what the Top 10 Grossing (i.e. the 10 apps that made the most money) apps for 2013 on iPhone and iPad…

Quake Live Ends Freemium Browser-Based Play, Gets Windows-Only Client

Game Diary

Quake Live Ends Freemium Browser-Based Play, Gets Windows-Only Client

I reviewed a bunch of freemium games including Quake Live back in 2010, noting the value of the game compared to good old Quake III was that it ran seamlessly in a web browser across platforms. Last month it was announced that Quake Live was ending the web-browser play model and moving to standalone client – on Windows only. The reason for moving to a stand-alone mode is because of diminished browser support for plug-ins. “Over the past few years, browser support for plugins such as Quake Live have dropped off significantly, causing problems for plugins to operate in a…

'No More Woof' Looks to Translate Dog Thoughts to Words, Raise Money on IndieGogo

Crowdfunding

‘No More Woof’ Looks to Translate Dog Thoughts to Words, Raise Money on IndieGogo

Have you ever wondered what your dog was thinking? We would love to know what our pets want and if we could better take care of them. That’s the promise of No More Woof, a prototype from the Nordic Society for Invention and Discovery in Sweden, which discovered a way to sample and ‘translate’ EEG patterns into common speech elements. Using a Raspberry PI computer along with EEG electrodes to capture, analyze and report changes in brain activity with commonly associated human speech: No More Woof is a small gadget that uses the latest technology in micro computing and EEG…