The Geek Church

Okay, I probably used way too many B-words in that title. I guess it shows my excitement for Buhel’s SpeakGoggle G33, some ski goggles that pair with your smartphone via Bluetooth.

That’s right, someone invented a ski goggles that work like a Bluetooth headset, so you can take phone calls while you are on the slopes.

In case you are wondering if you have to put something in your ear to have conversations or listen to MP3 audio files while you are skiing, the answer is “no”. You see, the SpeakGoggle G33 have bone conduction inside. If you aren’t familiar with bone conduction, it is a method of headphones that only require contact with the skin. In the case of Buhel’s SpeakGoggle G33, the bone conductors are at the nose.

In case you are wondering, the controls for the SpeakGoggle G33 are on the sides with those large buttons for easy controls, especially while you are wearing gloves. You can also do some voice dialing, and the battery is good for 12 hours of talk time and 10 hours of music playback.

Unfortunately, I have not heard a price or availability of the SpeakGoggle G33, but it really should be soon, as ski season is almost over.

I know how it is. A lot of us have touchscreen tablets, and we can type on them, but I’m not certain whether or not we are comfortable with that.

I think a lot of us are accustomed to the clickity-click of the keys, and so we feel that we have to get keyboards for our tablets. For this reason, Verbatim has created a Mobile Bluetooth Keyboard for the iPhone, iPad, iPad 2 and other Bluetooth-enabled tablets.

I got a chance to try it out, and it runs on AAA batteries, and folds up with a case for some nice portability action. Not only does it have all the keys that you love as buttons, but there is a bonus media console to control things like iTunes.

You should be able to get the Verbatim Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard for about $104.00 at its official site. It is very good for iPhone, iPad, and iPad2 with iOS4 or higher, as well as Android 3.0 or higher tablet. That would be the minimum requirements, and I would recommend it for those devices, as it doesn’t really work with devices lower than that.

If you haven’t heard of the House of Marley before, then you really should. House of Marley creates some quality tech products like headphones, all with environmental-quality materials. I recently had a chance to try out their Positive Vibration over-the-ear headphones, and they are quite cool.

Of course, they had to be on deck a few weeks ago at CES with a whole batch of new product, and one of them was the Nomad. The Nomad is an all-in-one, portable audio system that connects via Bluetooth to whatever device you have.

Though you can’t see it in the picture, the Nomad has two 2.5 inch high-output woofers and passive radiators. This gives 10 watts of total power for a real blaster of sound.

I’m not certain when this is planning to come out, but I have the price of $199.99.

We have reported on the SuperTooth HD before, a fantastic Bluetooth speaker. The company introduced a lot of products recently at CES, and one of them is the Crystal.

The Crystal is a Bluetooth speaker that is designed exclusively for the car. It attaches to the car’s sun visor with a durable magnetic clip for hands-free calling capability.

Crystal provides up to 20 hours of hands-free talk time with 40 days of stand by, and it features automatic pairing and multi-point technology to connect over two phones at the same time. The Crystal has a 3 hour charge of its lithium ion battery.

The Crystal will also stream music directly from all Bluetooth A2DP enabled phones as well as turn-by-burn navigation from a Bluetooth A2DP-enabled GPS. Crystal supports voice recognition dialing for phone that has this feature.

The Crystal should be available in Q1 of this year for a price of about $69.

The Bluetooth Wireless speaker from Zimri Speakers is a design that I have seen before. It is basically comes in the form of a can, and you sync your mobile device to it via Bluetooth.

The speaker is rechargeable via USB, and it is good for 6-8 hours. It takes about 2 to 3 hours to charge it.

I got a chance to try it out, and I found that it really produces some terrific sound for something so small in size. By the way, you can hook it to something with a wire as it has a 3.5 mm input plug.

If you are interested in this, feel free to head on over to the Zimri Speakers site and pay $39.99. That is a three dollar markdown, but I don’t know how long that will last.

I always like visiting iHome at CES, as they have a booth that is apart from the floor, and more room to showcase their products. I saw many up there, and I admired this iDM8 rechargeable Portable Bluetooth Speaker a lot.

The iDM8 allows wireless streaming of music within 30 feet from a Bluetooth enabled phone or other compatible device. It recharges via micro USB cable, and it can play audio from any device with a 3.5mm headphone jack.

You might notice the ball shape, and there is a very good reason for that. This allows for 360 degrees of clear sound on all sides.

It should be out very soon, but I don’t quite have a date or price. Look for it in a few months.

Hey, I think we all know how it is: we want to be in the shower, singing, and we need something playing in the background for accompaniment.

Okay, maybe you don’t need this, but maybe you would be interested in the iShower, from the makers of the iGrill. The iShower is a water resistant Bluetooth speaker that wirelessly syncs with up to 5 devices. The device can play these tunes safely in the other room, and you can shower it up.

The music can be controlled using the onboard controls. It uses 3 AA batteries that is good for about 15 hours of music. You should be able to get it for about $99.99 now.

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If you’re familiar with Ford’s Sync system, then you know that it’s a very handy application to have if you’re a 2011 Ford or Lincoln owner. The Sync features navigation, access to traffic information, voice command capability, Internet radio and a 911 Assist mode for emergencies on the road. The 911 Assist mode actually gives dispatchers an approximate location for your vehicle through signal triangulation or your phone’s GPS if it’s connected to the system. Now Ford has updated the 911 Assist mode in its Sync system with a new GPS module.

This GPS module was added to the 911 Assist mode to make it more accurate. Thus, enabling emergency dispatch to be more effective in sending assistance for quicker response to an accident. Furthermore, the Sync system itself will continue to be a subscription-free service, even with this update. Sync is free for Ford and Lincoln owners in the United States and Canada. You only need a Bluetooth cell phone in order to use it. The GPS module allows the Sync system to give exact coordinates for finding accident victims since the module functions as a GPS receiver to provide the right location. The 911 Assist mode is also designed to send a customer’s cell phone call directly to a priority emergency line instead of a call center and gives the location information to emergency service providers through the GPS module. The 911 Assist mode is designed to alert an emergency service operator in the event of an airbag being triggered or emergency fuel pump shutoff as well.

This weekend, Ford will make an appearance at the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) 2010 conference in Indianapolis to announce this GPS module update for the Sync system. This update for the 911 Assist mode is available for Sync-equipped 2011 vehicles, which include the Ford Taurus, Focus, Flex, Fusion, Escape and F-150 as well as the Lincoln MKS, MKZ and MKT. In addition to the GPS module, Ford is also offering customers a variety of emergency service options such as a priority emergency screen. This feature will provide location information and quick-touch access to In Case of Emergency (ICE) contacts after a 911 Assist call is made. Ford is currently working with nonprofit organizations such as NENA and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International as it seeks to continue making improvements on the 911 Assist feature.

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Researchers and businesses continue to develop new concepts in lighter, more portable technology for the general consumer. Some examples include the smartphone, iPad and iPod, which tend to be less bulky than older cellphones, netbooks and mp3 players. Now Chinavasion presents their latest product as the smallest mobile phone in existence and it fits on your wrist.

They call their new mobile creation the Penthouse watch phone. It features quad band GSM support, two SIM card slots and Bluetooth capability. Although this watch phone does have a 1.5 touch screen display, it also has a key pad and a four-way directional controller surprisingly enough. Apparently, Chinavasion thought older control set options were necessary to include on their new phone as a backup to the touch screen.

Furthermore, the Penthouse watch phone isn’t a strong contender in the smartphone market since its multimedia options are quite limited. You can only capture pictures at 640×480 and the device’s memory is 506kb, requiring the use of a 1GB micro SD card, which is included. Video capability is also lacking with a maximum of 176×144 AVI files, having a 5fps frame rate. Sadly, this phone’s greatest selling point may be the fact that it was made to wear on your wrist as a smaller mobile set. If you’re interested, it’s available for $113.

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With the iPad and iPhone O S 4.0 recently announced by Apple, Microsoft is now poised to present their latest developments to stay competitive in the ever-changing market of mobile technology for communication and internet access. These products by Microsoft come in the form of two handsets called the Kin One and the Kin Two and they are being marketed as Windows phones. Here’s a rundown of these brand new handsets.

The Kin One and Kin Two are based on the Windows Phone 7 but they have some unique differences. The Kin series has its own custom-made user interface which is very focused on social media and also has a custom browser. The screen displays are multi-touch capable and you can even pinch and zoom with the browser. However, there is no support for third party applications, in-browser Flash or Silverlight.

The Kin One is also known as the “Turtle”. It’s a curved square sliding phone equipped with a QVGA display, 4GB of internal storage, a five megapixel camera with LED and a full QWERTY keyboard. Meanwhile, Kin Two is nicknamed “Pure”. It’s a more conventional QWERTY sliding phone with a HVGA display, an eight megapixel camera and 8GB of internal storage. Beyond that, it’s the same as the Kin One.

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