Kalakshar US

Withings has already made a name for itself as a maker of smart scales and ultra-stylish activity trackers. Now, the French health-tech company is making a foray into the world of medical analysis, building a device to scan people’s urine. It’s initially intended as a way of supporting decentralized clinical trials, the company hopes to offer it as a consumer health-tech device in the future. Say hello to U-Scan.

U-Scan is a pebble-shaped device that hangs from a plastic tab on the side of your toilet bowl, much like a deodorizer block. The hardware, 90mm in diameter, is intended to sit on the porcelain where most people’s pee streams would land. There’s a collection inlet at the lowest point, and a sensor will detect the presence of urine and trigger a pump you pull a small quantity into its body. From there, the sample is pumped into a microfluidic system which triggers a chemical reaction.

Sitting underneath the U-Scan itself will be a cartridge, which contains the specific test that you’re looking for. The company has, so far, partnered with two medical centers in Europe to explore ways of discovering renal lithiasis and bladder cancer. It’s hoped that the system will eventually be used to mass-screen for cancer markers and support medical studies.

In terms of the consumer units, the company has developed U-Scan Cycle Sync, designed to be used for period tracking. The idea is to provide detailed, regular testing to enable fine-grain cycle tracking without the need for calendar apps. As well as predicting your menstrual cycle, the system says it’ll predict your ovulation window, hydration levels and nutrient levels.

The other is U-Scan Nutri Balance, which offers a “detailed metabolic guide to hydration and nutrition.” This will look at your water balance, nutrient levels, fat metabolism and quantities of vitamin C found in your pee. Most crucially, you’ll be able to monitor your ketone levels, as well as the pH of your urine, good for determining if you’re eating a healthy enough diet.

When processed, the results of the tests are shared to a server over WiFi or Bluetooth, and then the cartridge will reset with a fresh test pod. The company says that U-Scan is sufficiently smart to distinguish different users, such as various family members in a home, and separate tests accordingly.

Withings has also said that its system conforms to the highest security standards, and that its data will always be held in France, in a GDPR-compliant setup. It says that U-Scan will run for three months before needing a recharge (over USB-C) and a replacement cartridge.

In terms of pricing, and availability, you’ll expect that whatever date Withings says, it may be delayed due to regulatory approvals. The company says that U-Scan will be first made available in Europe at some point in Q2, 2023, with the Nutri Balance and Cycle Sync cartridges. A starter kit, with one reader and cartridge, will be priced at €499.95 ($530), while replacement cartridges are expected to cost €30 ($31). A US release will take place at some point afterward, whenever the FDA decides to clear the product for consumer use.

 

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder and former CEO of crypto exchange FTX, has pleaded not guilty to federal wire fraud charges and other crimes. Per The New York Times, Bankman-Fried appeared before a Manhattan court on Tuesday, nearly two weeks after he was granted bail on a $250 million bond, and said he was innocent of charges laid against him by US prosecutors. 

In addition to a civil suit from the Securities and Exchange Commission, SBF faces a criminal indictment from the Justice Department. Prosecutors have accused Bankman-Fried of leading a multiyear scheme to defraud investors and customers of FTX. SBF faces a total of eight criminal charges, including multiple counts of wire fraud. He is also accused of attempting to commit commodities fraud, as well as breaking federal election laws by donating more than is legally allowed. 

It’s worth emphasizing the changes against SBF are serious. For context, a federal judge recently sentenced former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes to 11 years in prison for defrauding investors and patients. Prosecutors have accused Bankman-Fried of defrauding investors of almost $2 billion, or about twice the amount of money involved in the Theranos case. SBF has previously said that he “didn’t ever try to commit fraud,” and doesn’t believe he’s criminally liable for the fall of FTX.

According to The Times, Bankman-Fried did not speak during the hearing. One of SBF’s lawyers entered a not-guilty plea on his client’s behalf. The trial is tentatively scheduled to start on October 2nd. Bahamian authorities arrested Bankman-Fried on December 12th. He originally planned to fight extradition, but later returned to the US to face federal prosecutors. 

 

Verizon has announced the latest model in its kids’ line of cellular-connected smartwatches. The Gizmo Watch 3 is a $150 children’s wearable that gives them basic smart features while allowing their parents or caregivers to keep tabs on their location.

The newest Verizon watch for tikes continues the company’s goal of “providing a safe smartwatch experience for children that aren’t quite ready for a smartphone.” The new version has a front-facing camera, allowing children to take photos, make video calls and record messages with approved contacts. (Although smartwatch cameras can sound privacy alarms, I see the value for children who don’t already have a smartphone camera.) The new model also lets parents add more safe zones, designated areas that the children can’t leave without the watch notifying their parents. The new model also doubles the number of trusted contacts parents can set up — from 10 to 20.

The Gizmo Watch 3 gets a new processor in the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform. Verizon says the chip helps it add 80 percent more talk time and 20 percent more standby time than its predecessor. It also includes Bluetooth for the first time so that kids can pair the wearable with wireless earbuds or headphones. Additionally, it has new watch faces (including ones that change with the seasons and time of day) and three new games: Tic Tac Toe, Gizmo Says and Puzzle.

The Gizmo Watch 3 will be available through Verizon on Thursday in Blue Clay and Mint colors. Of course, if you don’t want to pay the full $150 upfront, the carrier will let qualified customers pay it off over 36 months. For a limited time, it’s also running a deal where buying one will get you $100 off a second.

 

Five-year-old pool cleaning company Aiper is launching the Seagull Pro, which the company says is the world’s first quad-motor pool-cleaning robot. The flagship vacuum is a CES 2023 Innovation Award Honoree.

The Seagull Pro’s quad-motor system moves the robot around your pool by sucking and quickly exhausting water. Aiper says it can “suck in dirt, sand, leaves, hairs and other particles on the pool’s floor more efficiently than other models.” It can clean in- or above-ground pools (up to 3,200 sq. ft.) for up to three hours per charge and offers three modes: floor cleaning, wall cleaning and auto, which cleans both. Aiper says the device’s WavePath Navigation follows “a unique wave shape” while cleaning to increase its coverage compared to vacuums that wander randomly. The Seagull Pro will cost $900 when it launches in March.

Additionally, Aiper has new cheaper models, including the $400 Seagull Plus. It’s made for pools up to 1,300 sq. ft. and helps reduce its cost by trading the quad motor for a dual-motor system. It lasts an estimated 110 minutes while recharging in two and a half hours. Meanwhile, the Aiper Elite Pro skips the Seagull branding while offering high-end features at a slightly lower price than the Seagull Pro (although one big tradeoff is that the Elite Pro only covers 1,300 sq. ft.) It has a lightweight design, wall-cleaning capabilities and a dual-motor system. It can clean for two hours, the same time it takes to recharge. The Elite Pro arrives this Thursday for $800.

Aiper also highlights the Seagull SE, a budget water vacuum released in November. Although it only supports pools up to 850 sq. ft., it has dual drive motors and can run for 90 minutes (recharging in two and a half hours). The Seagull SE costs $300.

 

Roland may be a mainstay in the electronic music world, but it also dabbles in the occasional creator product, too. This year at CES the company has unveiled an audio interface aimed squarely at streamers and it’s called the Bridge Cast ($299).

Like rival products such as the GoXLR or Rode’s Rodcaster Pro II, the Bridge Cast offers a way to pipe different audio feeds (chat, music, game audio, browser sounds and so on) to different destinations – usually your local mix and the one your audience hears.

As you’d expect, there’s an input for an XLR mic and options for dual/submixes along with a selection of vocal effects. There are four channels with rotary controls for mic, aux, chat and game. Each channel also gets a mute button for quickly removing unwanted audio without diving into settings. An intersting touch is the ability to customize the faceplate so if your channel, stream or team has a logo you could add some branding into your Twitch or YouTube feed.

Deeper control will apparently be available via the companion software to fine tune the mic sound or even the EQ of your game audio.

The streaming space has become a massive opportunity for legacy audio companies, and it’s good to see Roland furthering its commitment to this space. How it stacks up to its rivals though, remains to be seen, but if your new year’s resolution was to finally get that stream off the ground then it looks like you have one more option to consider.

 

As someone who bought an electric toothbrush far too late in life, I appreciate any product that promises to save me from expensive dental care. After debuting a few years ago in Europe, the Y-Brush, a sonic toothbrush that can clean your teeth in 10 seconds flat, is now available in the US through Amazon. Unlike a traditional toothbrush, the Y-Brush features a mouthguard-shaped head with 35,000 nylon bristles designed to clean all your teeth simultaneously. Rather than moving the brush around your mouth for two minutes, you position one side of your mouth inside the Y-Brush, turn on the device and then gently chew on the brush head while rotating it around your teeth. Once you’re done with one set of teeth, you repeat the process on the other half. At most, you can expect to spend 30 seconds brushing your teeth.

Y-Brush doesn’t promise better cleaning performance so much as claiming you’ll do a better job of taking care of your teeth with its products. Since most adults spend about 45 seconds to a minute brushing when they go clean their teeth, most traditional and electric toothbrushes aren’t as effective as they could be if people spent the two minutes they’re supposed to commit to maintaining their pearly whites. Most modern electric toothbrushes try to get around that problem by including timers designed to remind you to move the brush around your gumline and hit different parts. The Y-Brush instead attempts to make the process as fast as possible.

At $80 for the base NylonStart model, which doesn’t include a timer setting (you can count to 10, right?), the Y-Brush is more expensive than your average electric toothbrush. Popular models like Sonicare 4100 will set you back about $50 – though you’ll curse Philips for its pricey and proprietary brush heads. Y-Brush also offers a kids model suitable for children between the ages of four and 12, and a $130 NylonBlack variant that features multiple timer settings and ships with an accessory you can attach to your toothpaste tube to make it easier to use it with the Y-Brush.

 

Meta isn’t the only tech heavyweight making tools to help root out terrorist content. The Financial Times has learned Google’s Jigsaw is developing a free tool to help smaller websites detect and remove extremist material. The project, built with the help of the UN-supported Tech Against Terrorism, makes it easier for moderator teams to deal with potentially illegal content. The effort has the assistance of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (founded by Google, Meta, Microsoft and Twitter), which offers a cross-service database of terrorist items. Two unnamed sites will test the code later this year.

As with Meta’s open source utility, Google’s tool is meant to assist sites that can’t afford to develop AI detection algorithms or hire a large moderation staff. That may be critical when the European Union’s Digital Services Act and the UK’s looming Online Safety bill will both require that site operators pull extremist content to avoid penalties.

Both Google and Tech Against Terrorism see their project as necessary to close a gap in countering online terrorist activity. Extremists and misinformation peddlers kicked off mainstream platforms frequently turn to smaller outlets that can’t always adequately police users. Ideally, this reduces the chances of terrorists finding safe havens.

There are limitations. Some social platforms have been reluctant to moderate content even when app store operators say it incites violence — Google’s tool won’t be very useful on websites that don’t want it. It also won’t stop terrorists from sharing material over well-encrypted messaging services or the Dark Web, where providers can’t easily snoop on data traffic. This might, however, make it harder to jump to online alternatives.

 

A new hands-on video was posted today of the alleged Google Pixel 7a. The 49-second clip shows a device that reflects previous leaks and rumors about Google’s next mid-ranged Pixel.

The device in question, posted on Slashleaks (first spotted by 9to5Google), looks similar to the Pixel 6a and Google’s 2022 flagships. The device name in Android 13 settings says “Pixel 7a,” and the handset runs internal pre-release (“design validation test”) software. The phone’s language is also set to Vietnamese, where Google manufactures its A-series phones. 

The phone in question has a “Smooth Display” that can adjust its refresh rate from 60Hz to 90Hz — which would be a first in the A-series line. (The Pixel 6a’s 60Hz display is one of its most griped-about features.) Previous leaks suggested that the upcoming model uses a Samsung display and an upgraded primary camera sensor from Sony. Although today’s video leak doesn’t address it, previous rumors suggest the 7a will be the first A-series Pixel with wireless charging.

If history is any indication, Google will announce the new phone at Google I/O 2023 in May. Other rumors include 10.1mm depth, a SIM tray on its left side (suggesting Google won’t follow Apple in going all-in on eSim this year) and no headphone jack.

 

ASUS is refreshing its gaming laptops with HDR Mini LED displays, better cooling and updated processors and graphics. However, since the company hasn’t yet announced pricing, it’s harder to discern the latest models’ value.

The Nebula display is found in more models than ever this year. That company branding denotes screens with high frame rates (120Hz for 4K and QHD screens and 240Hz or higher for 1080p), bright backlights and vivid colors. Meanwhile, the new Nebula HDR variant is like an ultra-premium version highlighting Mini LED panels. For example, the Nebula HDR display in the Strix SCAR 16 is a Mini LED with 1,024 dimming zones (double last year’s model) and a 240Hz refresh rate. Although we don’t yet know the pricing, it’s a safe bet those models will fetch top dollar.

The new laptops, which launch in Q2, also have updated 13th-gen Intel or AMD Ryzen Zen 4 processors, depending on your configuration. NVIDIA’s new GeForce RTX 40 Series Laptop GPUs power the graphics in maxed-out variants of the new machines.

ASUS added “intelligent cooling” to several new models, including the Zephyrus M16 and Strix models in 16-inch and 18-inch variants. The company accomplished this using a full-width heatsink spanning the device’s rear. ASUS also added a third cooling fan to more models. (It was first seen in the Flow X16 from 2022.) That extra fan improves airflow to the GPU and other internal hardware.

The Strix SCAR line, which ASUS calls the “performance flagships,” have bigger 16- and 18-inch screens than their 15- and 17-inch predecessors (including Nebula HDR in the most expensive tiers). In addition, ASUS says this year’s cooling improvements let these models push higher frame rates. Meanwhile, the Strix G16 and G18 are slightly less high-end (likely cheaper) equivalents to the Strix 16 and 18 with the same CPU and GPU options.

ASUS is also updating its light-and-thin Zephyrus line. The ROG Zephyrus M16 has a Nebula HDR display. Like several other models, top-shelf models include a MUX Switch and NVIDIA Advanced Optimus. They bypass the machine’s integrated graphics, using discrete graphics almost instantaneously. The full-width heatsink and tri-fan tech also let it run 25 watts higher than the 2022 version.


Meanwhile, the Zephyrus G16 has the same processor and graphics options with a QHD Nebula display that supports 240Hz. Its smaller sibling, the Zephyrus G14, gets a Nebula HDR panel with 504 dimming zones and 600 nits of peak brightness.

ASUS’ Duo 16 is the latest iteration of its quirky, dual-screen laptop line. Like the 2022 model, the updated version has a 16-inch Mini LED panel as its main screen with a smaller 4K display below for multitasking. It also joins other models in offering the new NVIDIA graphics and MUX Switch in the highest-end models.

The company also updated the ROG Flow, its 2-in-1 tablet PCs for gamers. The Flow X13, which has a 360-degree rotating hinge, has a 13-inch Nebula display supporting a 165Hz refresh rate. Additionally, ASUS redesigned its chassis, making it 10mm smaller and increasing its battery capacity (from 62 to 75 Wh) while maintaining the same keyboard layout. The company also made its touchpad bigger and redesigned the 2-in-1 hinge with better ventilation and an easier grip.

The X13’s larger companion, the Flow X16, has an HDR Mini LED touchscreen with a 240Hz refresh rate and 1,100 nits peak brightness. In addition, all ASUS’ 2023 Flow devices use Corning’s Gorilla Glass DXC, which can increase hardness by 40 percent and reduce glare. Meanwhile, the Flow Z13, a detachable that’s like a Microsoft Surface for gamers, is updated with the new Intel and NVIDIA components and a QHD Nebula display with a 165Hz refresh rate.

 

We often see a bunch of healthcare-oriented gadgets coming out of CES, but Vivoo’s latest offering isn’t exactly a fitness tracker. The company has unveiled a smart toilet device that can test your urine and send the results to your phone.

The tech is built into a device that can clip onto existing toilets. Vivoo, which has offered at-home urine tests for the last few years, designed the system with residential care, the elderly and healthcare service providers in mind. It could give those who simply want to know more about what’s going on with their body some additional data. 

The device will automatically align a testing strip with a person’s urine stream, according to Vivoo, which says this approach should reduce the risk of mess involved with a handheld strip. An optical reader akin to those used in hospitals analyzes the urine sample for four wellness parameters and delivers the results to the Vivoo app within 90 seconds. The company suggests that the results can offer “indications of certain deficiencies or abnormalities” and help with early detection of some conditions.

Vivoo says its app can provide data on your body’s water, magnesium, pH, protein and sodium levels, among others, though disclaimers on its website say these measurements are not intended for medical use. It offers nutrition advice based on the results and Vivoo may suggest personalized supplements.

The company claims it’s easy to clean the smart toilet device. It adds that the system has an ergonomic design. However, based on images Vivoo provided, the device is positioned at the front of the toilet seat and it looks fairly cumbersome. Folks who need to sit to pee may find it difficult to position their legs around it, such as the elderly and those with mobility issues.