Kalakshar US

Anyone who knows their tools knows that Makita, which makes drills and saws, also produces its own coffee machine that runs on the same batteries that power its equipment. Not to be outdone, Black + Decker has its own powered cocktail maker, and has now built a cordless model that you can take on the road. The Bev by Black + Decker Cordless Cocktail Maker is a battery powered booze-dispenser that harnesses Bartesian’s capsules to dish out alcoholic goodies.

Standing taller than a foot on the tabletop, the portable Bev has space for six liquor bottles with the Bartesian pod up front. Naturally, you can use the controls on the top of the machine to set your dose size, from mocktail all the way through to large. And, because a cocktail dispenser isn’t the conversation starter it once was, the unit has its own “enhanced party mode” with a “rainbow of colors that light under the bottles.”

The company says that you’ll be able to get up to 250 drinks on a single charge, assuming you’re rocking a fully-charged 20V MAX battery and don’t want anything too fancy. Naturally, when it’s plugged in, the machine will charge the battery, and run it down when you’re out of the kitchen. In terms of availability, the Bev by Black + Decker Cordless will be available in Spring of 2023, with the price set at $400 when it arrives.

Apple’s Find My app alerts iOS and Mac users when they’ve left an item behind or helps them locate something they’ve lost. Later this year, you’ll be able to do just that with Ember’s heated travel mug. A new version, dubbed the Travel Mug 2+, is on the way this spring. Inside, updated firmware enables the cup to show up inside Apple’s app. The Travel Mug 2+ is also equipped with a speaker, so if you lose it you can make it play a sound like you would for lost AirPods. Like other products that work with Find My, the new mug will show up in the app on iPhone, iPad or Mac and you can also locate it via the Find Items app on Apple Watch. 

Ember’s current model, the Travel Mug 2, is available for $199.95 and keeps beverages hot for up to three hours with a 12-ounce capacity. It can also keep things warm all day if you keep it on the charging dock. A touch display allows you to adjust temperature right on the cup within a range of 120-145 degrees Fahrenheit. And like other Ember models, you can make that temp change inside the company’s app. The company says that despite the added functionality, the Travel Mug 2+ won’t cost more and it will eventually replace the Travel Mug 2.

BMW is once again ready to give the world a glimpse of the futuristic tech it has in the works as p[art of its i Vision concept vehicle program. Following 2017’s iVision Dynamics, 2018’s iNext SAV, and last year’s iVision Circular, the German automaker revealed at CES 2023 on Thursday the i Vision Dee (“Digital Emotional Experience”), a pared-down concept vehicle with a HUD running the full width of the front windshield.

And like the previous iVision iterations, many features from the Dee are expected to make their way into production models — specifically BMW’s new NEUE KLASSE EV platform beginning in 2025. Per the company, the Dee will feature BMW’s Mixed Reality Slider which leverages the company’s “shy tech” sensors to control how much digital content is displayed on the heads-up display. It will slide from fully analog up four additional steps — driving-related information, to infotainment information, to AR — and (eventually) full VR. Fingers crossed that only happens after BMW masters Level 5 driver assist.

“With BMW i Vision Dee, we are showing how the car can be seamlessly integrated into your digital life and become a trusty companion. The vehicle itself becomes your portal to the digital world – with the driver always in control,” Adrian van Hooydonk, head of BMW Group Design, said in a press release. “Implemented the right way, technology will create worthwhile experiences, make you a better driver and simply bring humans and machines closer together.”

The vehicle will also greet their drivers as they approach with a “personalised welcome scenario that combines graphical elements, light and sound effects.” You’ll even be able to communicate directly with the vehicle through verbal commands while it will respond using its headlights and kidney-shaped grille to “form a common phygital (fusion of physical and digital) icon on a uniform surface, allowing the vehicle to produce different facial expressions,” according to Wednesday’s release. The Dee will reportedly be capable of conveying joy, astonishment and approval, all visually. There’s no word on what happens if you manage to anger it, but it can’t be good.

Nothing on the road is more important than the safety of your loved ones but you wouldn’t think it from the state of child safety technology these days. “While safety features for adults in vehicles have evolved dramatically over the past 10 years, child passenger safety technology has remained stagnant,” notes Babyark founder and CEO Shy Mindel stated in a release Wednesday. Their startup, Babyark, aims to significantly advance the quality of vehicular child protection with the self-referential Babyark car set. 

“I was surprised to learn that the most important people in our lives, our children, sit in safety seats primarily made out of plastic and styrofoam,” Mandel noted. “Babyark is approaching safety through the hardware, the actual seat, and the software, including the safety sensors that communicate with the app. The result is a car seat that takes a holistic approach to safety.”

Rather than styrofoam and plastic, the Babyark is constructed of anticrash materials and relies on a novel shock-absorbing SafeCoil that absorbs forward momentum during a crash. Should the worst case occur and the seat is involved in an accident, a set of IoT sensors will record the crash telemetry and relay it to first responders so that they can better and more quickly treat the child. 

An associated smartphone app for both Android and iOS will remind forgetful parents that happen to leave their children behind. Additionally, the ark itself will not engage with its base unit (which secures using the standard seat anchor points) if it is improperly seated upon it — a handy LED light ring will switch from red to green once everything is correctly set. The seat is rated to accommodate up infants and toddlers from four to a 65 pounds (front facing) and up to 55 pounds for rear facing. The Babyark is currently available for pre-order at $990 and will increase to $1,190 when it is officially released later this summer.

Fellow is well-known among coffee geeks for its well-designed range of brewing accessories. The company makes everything from kettles and mugs to brewers and grinders. And while Fellow’s first grinder, the Ode, is mostly designed for pour overs, the company will debut a more versatile model next month. The Opus is a conical burr grinder than can sort everything from fine espresso to coarse cold brew. 

Inside, a six-blade 40mm burr set offers consistent grinds across 41 different settings. So whether you’re brewing AeroPress or French press, the Opus will cover a lot more styles than the flat burr Ode. Fellow did bring its anti-static tech back for the new model, which the company says will help keep the mess to a minimum. Plus, there’s an automatic timed stop, single dose loading, 110-gram capacity hopper and no-tool calibration. The Opus will be available on February 21st for $195, significantly cheaper than the second-gen Ode. 

One of the biggest reasons I don’t have a wall mount for my TV is because I don’t want to deal with the mess of installation. The dust, the drilling, the permanence — all of that gives me stress (I know, I know, I’m more sensitive than most people). So when I heard that the Displace wireless TV can be attached to any wall or surface without a mount, I was very excited. This is a 55-inch 4K OLED screen that uses active-loop vacuum technology to suction itself into place, and the company built handles into the frame to make it easier to hoist. The Displace also has four onboard batteries that eliminate the need for a power cord, and they’re hot swappable so you don’t have to wait for one to recharge before you can watch your TV again.

Because the prototypes we saw in Vegas were custom designed for CES, the company says details about battery size and charge time aren’t available yet. But they did say that they expect users to get a month of runtime if they watch six hours of TV a day. Part of the reason the Displace can do without a power cord is because it doesn’t do very heavy processing onboard. It’s basically streaming media from a base station that comes with the device and performs the rendering. 

My favorite thing about the Displace TV is the ease of setup. I wasn’t allowed to try this out myself since the prototypes were fairly precious, so I could only watch as the company’s CEO slid his hands into the two slots and lifted the screen. According to Displace, each unit weighs less than 20 pounds, which is impressively light. 

The CEO took the TV over to a window, and when the vacuum loops on the back detected it was in contact with a surface, the mechanism whirred to life and began sucking itself onto the glass. After about 8 seconds, it was quiet, which indicated that it had affixed itself and was secure. I was then able to try jiggling the unit and see if I could pry it out of place. I didn’t try very hard, since I was afraid of damaging the prototype, but I will say the screen seemed pretty securely attached. I’d say I used the equivalent force of opening a refrigerator door to try and get the suction to budge and it did not. 

To dismount the TV, you’d have to press and hold a button on either side, and wait for the vacuum loops to slowly disengage. The company said this mechanism works with any flat surface — even if there is some slight texture like drywall. We tried to put the demo unit up on another wall, but couldn’t find a spot wide enough to accommodate the 55-inch panel.

The Displace TV also has a pop-up 4K camera built into the top of the frame, and it doesn’t just facilitate high-res video calls. The company’s custom software powering the TV also allows for some gesture control, which is the only way to interact with the TV as there isn’t a separate remote. For example, holding up your palm during playback will pause your show, while using two hands to mimic a stretching action can zoom in and out of items on the screen. If you have multiple Displace TVs, you can arrange four of them into a square and zoom into the feed from a specific quarter, for example.

There’s also a very Minority Report-esque gesture that involves “grabbing” the content from one screen and “throwing” it at another one nearby. And if you point the thumbs up gesture at the camera, it activates a mode that has your content follow you as you walk around your house into different rooms. Since they’re all streaming from the same base station, the multiple screens can pick up your content where you left it in a different room. 

If you’re feeling baller, you can put four Displace TVs together to create a 110-inch 8K TV. In that scenario, the relatively thin bezels here can help minimize disruption when four screens are playing as one. But Displace told Engadget it was also working on future models that could be bezel-less to eliminate the borders altogether. The company also has many plans, including exploring potential partnerships to build in some form of wireless charging, as well as releasing an API to allow third-party developers to create applications for the hardware. 

For now, though, I’m already pretty impressed by the concept and want one. At $3,000, though, the Displace TV is fairly pricey. Only 100 units are available for pre-order at the moment, and the company said they’ll start shipping in December. I’m anxious to get one to see how well the vacuum system holds up over time — the last thing I want is to wake up to the crash of a $3,000 TV breaking my furniture, hopes and dreams.

Once you get past the gimmicks, there’s a common thread among the TVs announced at CES 2023. Every manufacturer is trying to produce the brightest possible sets. For Samsung and LG, that has meant doubling down on their respective OLED display technologies. Hisense is instead seeing how far it can go with Mini LED. At CES 2023, the company unveiled the UX, an 85-inch 4K TV Hisense claims can produce 2,500 nits of peak brightness.

The set is the first entry in the company’s new ULED X line and features Hisense’s in-house Hi-View Engine X processor. According to the company, the chip is the key to what makes the UX special. With control over more than 20,000 Mini LEDs, 5,000 local dimming zones and the industry’s first-ever 16-bit light control algorithm, the Hi-View Engine X allows the UX to produce smoother and more precise dimming and color effects. Hisense claims the UX can achieve three times the “environmental contrast” of an OLED TV, and two times the dynamic range. I’ll note here Hisense didn’t say what OLED TV it used as a benchmark. For a more definitive comparison, the company says the UX features a 150,000 to 1 contrast ratio.

Hisense promises the UX is no slouch in the audio department either. The TV incorporates a newly designed seven-speaker system that delivers more than 80 watts of power and Dolby Atmos spatial sound. Other notable features of the UX include support for Dolby Vision, WiFi 6E and AMD Freesync Premium Pro. When the TV ships, it will also include a built-in ATSC 3.0 tuner for those who want to catch broadcast television. Hisense did not announce pricing and availability details for the UX. Expect those to arrive after CES.

JBL revealed five new soundbar models at CES 2023, but the Bar 1300X sits at the top of the lineup. The 11.1.4-channel speaker is capable of 1,170 watts of output with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X onboard for immersive 3D sound. Inside, there are 21 total drivers, six of which are upfiring. That half dozen is three times more than some companies offer, a decision JBL says is meant to make the most out of its MultiBeam spatial audio tech. 

In 2020, JBL first debuted a soundbar with detachable rear satellite speakers. On the Bar 1300X those units pack in one upfiring speaker each and can last up to 10 hours on a charge (they charge when you reattach them to the main bar). Being completely wireless, you’re free to position them wherever you like. They also double as Bluetooth speakers, both individually or a stereo pair. Once you remove the speakers, there are snap-on covers included as you’ll expose side-pointing tweeters you’ll want to protect. In terms of connection, there’s one HDMI/ARC to connect to your TV and three additional HDMI inputs. 

During my demo, I was able to watch a chaotic chase scene from Ready Player One. With the rear speakers detached and situated behind me, I was impressed by how immersive the audio was from the 1300X. The footage was loud with lots going on, but the audio remained crisp and clear, and most importantly, the directional audio enhanced the viewing experience. There was also plenty booming bass from the 12-inch wireless subwoofer. 

JBL’s PureVoice is available across its entire 2023 lineup to enhance dialogue when other loud sounds are also part of a scene. This feature is impressive as well, boosting spoken words without taking away from everything else that’s going on. The tech performs equally well on the $400 entry-level Bar 300 too, an all-in-one option that musters great immersive audio from a single speaker. The 300 is the one model in JBL’s 2023 lineup that doesn’t come with a sub, though it does have integrated woofers. The company says you can’t add a wireless sub either as the Bar 300 isn’t compatible with them even if you purchase it separately. 

The $1,700 Bar 1300X, like the rest of JBL’s new soundbars, will be available February 19th.

EA gave Madden NFL 23 players an unwanted gift last week: corrupted save files. The publisher said on Saturday that anyone who tried to access the game’s Connected Franchise Mode (CFM) during a server outage has a 60 percent chance of losing their saved data forever.

The initial server issues occurred on Wednesday, December 28th and stretched into the following day. As a result, EA says files were corrupted for anyone who logged into franchise leagues during that period. (Save files should be unaffected for anyone who didn’t.) Unfortunately, EA’s development team estimates it will only recover 40 percent of the corrupted franchises.

Making matters worse, EA tweeted on December 28th that “users should now be able to play CFM without issue” — three days before delivering the bad news about lost saves. After apologizing, it encouraged affected gamers to “start a new franchise as the mode is up and running.” The publisher also directs customers to follow the Madden franchise account on Twitter for further updates.

The Madden series’ franchise mode first appeared in Madden NFL 99, with the rebranded CFM arriving in 2013. (The latest version lets you control a player, coach or owner throughout a simulated career.) Considering how many hours it can take to build your league, it’s hard to imagine gamers with borked saves being content with EA’s advice to start a new file.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says its Science and Technology Directorate division has created a portable gunshot detection system with the help of a company called Shooter Detection Systems (SDS). The agency notes that whereas other systems only detect audio, SDS Outdoor can pinpoint flashes of gunshots as well. DHS claims this approach can reduce false positive rates.

DHS has not disclosed details about the accuracy of the system. SDS, which is owned by Alarm.com, says its indoor gunshot detection system has a near-100 percent detection rate with fewer than one false alert per 5 million hours of use.

The latest system took DHS and SDS almost two years to develop, and it builds on SDS’ indoor gunshot detection tech. Prototype testing started a year ago. DHS says that law enforcement agencies who were involved in testing helped to make SDS Outdoor more effective in alerting forest responders to gunfire.

The agency claims that SDS Outdoor could be employed at temporary events in locations where infrastructure support is not typically available. It gave open-field concerts (such as festivals) and pop-up rallies as examples of situations in which SDS Outdoor could bolster security.

“Many US gunshot detection technologies are not easily deployed in the field or at temporary locations,” Dr. Dimitri Kusnezov, DHS under secretary for science and technology, said in a statement. “This new system can be moved by one or two officers without the need for technicians to transport and set up. This mobile capability will help responders approach gun violence incidents with greater awareness, reducing response times and increasing responder safety.”

However, critics claim that gunshot detection systems aren’t effective enough and may cause more problems than they attempt to solve. “Past efforts to detect gunshots in real-time have not only wasted taxpayer dollars, they’ve put civilians in harm’s way when officers are falsely told that fireworks and car backfires are active shooters,” Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive director Albert Fox Cahn told Gizmodo. Fox Cahn added that there are privacy concerns around such systems, which “can often be misused as illegal wiretaps.”

Last July, the MacArthur Justice Center sued Chicago after police used evidence from gunshot detection system ShotSpotter in a murder case. The organization claimed that police had an overreliance on the tech and failed to follow other leads. After the suspect spent nearly a year in jail, prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss the case due to a lack of evidence.

In a study published in 2021, the MacArthur Justice Center found that 89 percent of alerts that ShotSpotter sends to law enforcement has no evidence of gun-related crimes. ShotSpotter has claimed that its system had a 97 percent accuracy rate.