Installing a couple Artic F12 fans to replace some old, worn out fans is a simple enough task. I thought it might be a nice idea to take you on the trip, through a thick layer of dust.
A look through the innards of my now ageing, but still fairly competent system may be of interest to some.
Stars, Constellations, Mythological Characters, Planets and Galaxies are all waiting to be explored within the Universe2go star viewer. This could be the perfect gift for a budding astronomy lover or for a young mind who wants to begin to learn about the stars above.
Out of the box the star viewer has a hard plastic casing and feels like a solid premium product. Available from Amazon for £85 this product promises to transport you to another world.
The top of the star viewer can be lifted and this is where you put your phone when running the app Universe2go. The star viewer is different to other VR headsets by using a design similar to the telescope the image from your screen is mirrored.
With a removable front of the star viewer you can see the world around you with the screen of the stars still being projected allowing you to align what you are seeing on-screen to the actual stars above.
The app itself is free to download on the play store and with a unique code in the box allowing you to access exclusive content. As you scan the skies you can see where stars and planets are situated with interesting facts being displayed. I was impressed by the depth of knowledge made available. I gave the star viewer to my kids aged 6 and 8 they thought it was cool it soon lost interest after they got to see Saturn and a few different constellations. This gift would have to be for a budding astronomer as it only has the singular use as a star viewer.
This is what makes this product unique, although the design is not entirely user-friendly. Being visually impaired and wearing glasses I found myself in a struggle with the viewer I could use it without my glasses although the writings on the screen required me to get my glasses on to read it. At 99 euros this product is perhaps overpriced bit if you are buying it for someone who has a telescope and a real hunger for the heavens above us then it is a good purchase.
Purchase from Amazon.
The Mi Band 2 is the latest fitness tracker from Xiaomi. Perfectly pricey to encompass everything a fitness fanatic needs to keep track of their exercise.
Record daily motion data, Xiaomi bracelet to help you record all-day event, calculate walking distance, and calorie consumption.
Smart Vibration alarm clock, simulate wake up naturally status: You can set the alarm on the APP, in front of the preset alarm within 30 minutes, with a slight vibration to wake you from a shallow sleep, when to wake up slowly shallow sleep, naturally wake up closer.
Grabs one here: http://amzn.to/2hsAZed
devolo Home Control ensures you have full control over your home. Make your living spaces even more secure, convenient and energy-efficient with the first DIY smart home. devolo home automation makes intelligent living easier than ever: Just unpack and get started − you can enjoy the comfort in your new smart home.
devolo home automation lets you simplify everyday household life in a hassle-free way. You can easily and intuitively control heating, lighting and electrical devices the same way you control home security and energy consumption. You have control over anything at all times in your living spaces at the touch of a button, via timer or with the app.
You can easily design your smart home according to your individual needs without any previous knowledge. The home automation functions on the building block principle: Select the devices you would like to use in your living spaces from the available devolo Home Control devices. The heart of your smart home is the devolo Home Control Central Unit, which you can simply plug into any electrical socket. Subsequently program all devices used via the Central Unit. These are just some of the possibilities offered to you for your own intelligent home:
The smart home components of our devolo Home Control Series are programmed once, all operations run automatically: The lighting switches on at a desired time on its own, the heating automatically reacts to the room temperature, and your Motion Sensor notifies you of any unusual movement via e-mail or text. You decide whether to operate the devices via app, timer or simply via the switch from your favourite spot.
Never afraid to try new things, Archos have ventured into the growing market of Quadcopters and released a Drone. The lightweight nature allows it to fly around easily and rapidly. For the most daring of you, preprogrammed figures will allow you to try new things such as a 360-degree flip. The ARCHOS Drone is also capable of reaching a 25km/h max speed and can fly as high as 50 meters. Fly high with the ARCHOS Drone! Equipped with a camera, the ARCHOS Drone is capable of filming HD videos.
Use your smartphone (Android and iOS) to control your ARCHOS Drone thanks to the ARCHOS Drone Remote app, available on Google Play and on the App Store. If you’d rather control your ARCHOS Drone with a remote, that’s also possible!
Included in the box, the controller allows you to fly your drone while also serving as a stand for your smartphone to view live footage, for ideal flying conditions.
The Archos Drone is available now for £89.99 from Archos directly.
Information management software firm, Ideagen, has announced the after dinner speaker for its ‘Horizons’ Customer Conference to be held in Nottingham on 1-2 November.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes OBE, described by the Guinness Book of Records as “the world’s greatest living explorer”, will entertain delegates with stories of his adventures including being the only man alive to have travelled around the Earth’s circumpolar surface and crossing the Antarctica on foot.
His after dinner performance will resonate with the overall theme of Ideagen’s ‘Horizons’ conference, which will offer delegates insights into safety and risk management as well as performance, quality and audit.
Ideagen’s Chief Customer Officer, Ben Dorks, said: “I am delighted that we have managed to secure such a prestigious, legendary and charismatic speaker as Sir Ranulph.
“As the world’s greatest living explorer, Sir Ranulph will captivate our conference with tales from his many dangerous expeditions, including riverboat, hovercraft, man haul sledge, skidoo, Land Rover and skiing treks.
“He is living proof of successful safety and risk management, which is in line with our overall theme for the ‘Horizons’ conference and I am personally looking forward to welcoming Sir Ranulph to our event.”
As well as Sir Ranulph, Ideagen’s conference will also include some presentations from customers such as Network Rail, Telefonica and Johnson Matthey.
The ‘Horizons’ event will focus on the company’s Q-Pulse, Pentana, Enlighten and Covalent solutions that are used by thousands of organisations and millions of individuals around the world.
Mr Dorks added: “This event is an important milestone in the Ideagen calendar as it provides us with the opportunity to unveil the new and exciting functionality we have been developing for our key products.
“The conference also presents our customers with an ideal platform in which to converse directly with us, helping us sculpt our product roadmaps in line with customer expectations and requirements.”
David Hornsby, Ideagen’s CEO, said: “Horizons will bring together customers from many industries and over the two days they will see what we have planned in terms of our product range.
“I am personally looking forward to meeting everyone and I am also particularly excited by the calibre of after dinner speaker and customer presentations we have this year.
“It is promising to be a wonderful event for all connected to Ideagen.”
Ideagen is one of the UK’s fastest growing software companies, reporting its seventh consecutive year of revenue and EBITDA growth. The company has over 300 staff globally including a global partner network.
The ‘Horizons’ event will take place between Tuesday, November 1st and Wednesday, November 2nd at the East Midlands Conference Centre & Orchard Hotel in Nottingham. This event was meticulously planned by the London Event Company.
The MiSK Foundation was founded by and works under the patronage of the Saudi Deputy Crown Prince, HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It’s an NGO that focuses on the country’s youth, and aims to create genuine opportunities to forge links with business and young people of both sexes in both KSA and Great Britain. The event is focused on youth enterprise and fostering talent, creative potential and tech innovation for health provision among the UK and Saudi Arabia and one of its key aims is to drive awareness and provide a platform for female entrepreneurs.
The MiSK Hackathon 2016 is a live broadcast, real-time dual nation event themed around the ‘Medical Internet of Things’. The Hackathon will involve mixed Saudi/British male and female teams – up to 400 participants in total – and will be the first of its kind, each country joined by a live satellite broadcast, taking place on 25-27 November in London and Riyadh. The challenge is to create a prototype technology innovation over 48 hours for improving health care or health care provision, which will benefit both countries and the world at large. Winners will receive US $10,000 to bring their idea to concept stage and have the opportunity to present their idea to a panel of investors.
Leading academic institutions, businesses and organisations in the UK and KSA have already confirmed their support and involvement including: Saudi British Joint Business Council (SBJBC); Jan Ward, former UK Female Entrepreneur of the Year and CEO of Corrotherm; leaders from blue-chip businesses such as BT, Orange and Microsoft; founders of start-ups and SME’s including SWAG’R, and others still to be announced.
One of the smaller announcements that seem to have been buried under the bigger stories was Google’s Wifi project. Google Wifi is set of little puck shaped wireless access points in sync with each other and can be placed around the home to build a strong wireless network around the home, this seemed to be a great idea for me, as I’ve always been looking for a good internet source in my area.
The main emphasis here is for the WiFi, from your chosen isp, to be able to support multiple devices, and to deliver high-bandwidth activities such as streaming video and gaming without congestion.
A companion app for Android and iOS, allows the user to optimise your network however the system itself will work on the more complex aspects, like ensuring your Wi-Fi is operating on the clearest channel, so you don’t have to. The Network Assist app can even tell you where best to place a Google Wifi point or advise you to adjust your broadband tariff. One of the more interesting features is that you can pause a Wi-Fi connection to a particular connected device, such as the computer you child is glued to running League of Legends when you have called them five times for dinner. You can also see how much bandwidth these devices are using and prioritise particular devices over others. Google Wifi supports wireless encryption, verified boot and auto updates, keeping security and user privacy as high priorities.
As with most things at the Google event, nothing for the UK has been confirmed. Google Wifi is available to pre-order in the US from November, and will cost $129 for a single pack and $299 for a three pack. If it seems costly for you, you can always turn to other options such as leased lines which are reliable yet still budget-friendly. Leased line uk provider offers a cost-effective solution to businesses with two or more offices.
Connectivity
Hardware
Tuesday the 4th of October saw Google enter into a new domain, launching an item of hardware that intertwines all of the smart technology brands they have been purchasing for the last number of years and packaging them up into a neat solution to become a central feature of your home, Google Home. What this boils down it is that Home is a voice-controlled speaker. As highlighted by the Google Pixel, launched the same day, Google Home is that it will be powered by Google Assistant. This app is Google’s updated smart digital assistant, much like Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, or Amazon’s Alexa, and will help you get things done. Current Android users will know saying “Ok Google” to their phone provides much functionality, this does that and much more.
The hardware on display is a small, minimalist cylinder with an angled top. The bottom part of the casing is modular and can be replaced with bases of varying colours. Above this is white with four LED lights built into the slanted touch sensitive surface. Google mentioned the design is based on wine glasses and candles. No hardware specs have been confirmed for the innards.
Google Home works a speaker, it will streams audio over Wi-Fi, using your voice or smartphone as a control mechanism. Imagine the Chromecast functionality for music. So far only Google Play Music, Spotify, Youtube Music, TuneIn. iHeartRadio and Pandora have been mentioned as compatible. We would expect other sources to work when the Home ships worldwide. You’ll also be able to connect to multiple Home speakers at the same time too, so you should be able to create a Sonos-style multi-room system with relative ease.
You’ll also get some home automation features, which means you’ll be able to control various connected products around the house. Much like the Audio side, only a few brands have been mentioned, Nest Thermostat, Samsung SmartThings and Philips Hue lightbulbs. IFTTT is listed so the potential is almost limitless!
Will the Google Home be a hit or the new Nexus Q? The price of $129 seems welcome and if you have Nest or Hue Lightbulbs it might be a no-brainer. However, I feel for many it might be an impulse purchase and will probably will only really benefit the family with the most hectic of schedules or perhaps Google Employee themselves.
Exciting features include:
Connect
Connect with us on the following social media platforms.