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Posts tagged with "bluetooth"

The New Hotel Key: Your Smartphone→

Craig Karmin, reporting for the WSJ:

Guests arriving at the Aloft Hotel in Manhattan or one in Silicon Valley will soon be able to do something hotels have dreamed about offering for years: walk past the check-in desk and enter their rooms by using a smartphone as a room key.
[…]
Guests at these properties will receive a message on a Starwood app containing a virtual key, which will unlock the door with a tap or twist of their phone through the use of Bluetooth technology. The company says the iPhone 4s or newer models and the Android phones running 4.3 or newer will be compatible.

Personally, I still enjoy the interaction with staff members when I check in, which is also the reason why I always go talk to an employee when I need to buy something at my local Apple store (I tried Apple’s EasyPay feature, and it felt odd).

This is where the future is going, though, and there are several elements worth considering. Bluetooth LE has stolen the spotlight from NFC for low-power, peer-to-peer wireless transfers, and there are obvious security concerns over solutions like this, as well as home products like the Lockitron. It’s an exciting time to watch pocket computers reshape our world.

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Dialogue: Handsfree Calling Through OS X

Dialogue

Dialogue

During my typical work day, my iPhone 5 is sitting on my desk next to my MacBook Air or iPad, usually locked as I’m focusing on writing or researching topics for MacStories. I don’t receive many phone calls, and when I do I don’t mind picking up my phone and using it for the task that phones were made for in the first place (remember when people used to buy phones to make phone calls?). Dialogue, a new Mac app released today on the Mac App Store, wants to remove the annoyance that some people have with switching devices when a phone call comes in; at $6.99, Dialogue uses Bluetooth to route phone calls through your Mac – employing an unobtrusive menubar popover to find contacts and manage connected devices. Read more

Review: Logitech Tablet Keyboard for iPad

As I mentioned in my post about new apps and tools for 2012, I’ve been playing around with a Logitech Tablet Keyboard for iPad, which is available at $69 through Logitech’s website or $59 on Amazon. The Tablet Keyboard connects to the iPad (or any iOS device) wirelessly over Bluetooth, comes with built-in batteries, a carrying case that can be turned into a stand for the iPad, and media keys that trigger some of the tablet’s functions such as audio controls and Spotlight. Here are my impressions so far.

Normally, I wouldn’t have much to say about a keyboard except for “it’s comfortable” or “I can’t type anything on this”. Fortunately, the Logitech keyboard for iPad fits into the former category, with a sturdy plastic design that feels “premium” when compared to other keyboards available on the market, a good keyboard layout, and a carrying case that’s not as premium as the device but certainly gets its job done. Below, the Italian layout of my Logitech Tablet Keyboard:

As you can see, the keyboard isn’t necessarily “standard” as it’s been designed to include iOS-specific keys like shortcuts for Spotlight search, Home button, volume controls, slideshows, media playback and screen lock/unlock controls. The basic layout is the one of a Mac keyboard, and the function keys can be activated by holding fn. Obviously, this isn’t as intuitive as simply reaching out to the screen with your finger to adjust volume, but if you’re going to work with your iPad using the keyboard, you’ll want to know it’s possible to do more than just type.

Which brings me to this: why would you want a physical keyboard for your iPad when the system one is more than acceptable? I don’t know about you, but I’ve been working mainly from my iPad in the past month, and I found a physical keyboard to be a must-have if you’re serious about getting real, regular writing done in a text editor or word processor. iOS’ multitouch keyboard is fine to fire off quick email replies and tweets (and iOS 5’s new split keyboard helps a lot for “general typing” in every day usage), but I still can’t give up on the allure of plastic QWERTY for long-form content and serious email time. Logitech’s iPad offering fits nicely in my workflow (and Tom Bihn Ristretto Bag): I can get it out of its case, turn it on, wait a few seconds for the iPad to connect (once paired, the Bluetooth connection process is very fast on iPad 2) and start writing. Read more

MacStories Product Review: SuperTooth Buddy

Despite our daily commutes, it’s almost required that we stay connected on our mobile devices during the long drive to and from work. Bluetooth accessories and various car kits have exploded in the automobile market, and many new vehicles come with phone syncing capabilities built in. As people consider the safety hazards of driving and choose to focus on the road instead of their phones, many purchase an in-car speaker or bluetooth headset so both hands can stay on the steering wheel. SuperTooth is one of the companies whom offers various solutions for motorcycles and automobiles to keep your hands off your ears. One of their latest products is small, pocketable, and doesn’t require a mechanic to install. Today we’re looking at the SuperTooth Buddy, a small handsfree Bluetooth speaker that goes where you go.

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MacStories Product Review: SuperTooth Disco

Bluetooth AD2P has opened up a market of fantastic audio products that allow us to stream high quality stereo audio from our smartphones to speakers, headsets, and to car electronics. SuperTooth is just one of many companies who focus specifically on handsfree, bluetooth accessories for travel that work seamlessly with iPhones (and other smartphones of course). Straying from the tradition of car kits and speakers, SuperTooth has launched into the fray of home and portable audio with the SuperTooth Disco, a 28 Watt RMS Bluetooth AD2P speaker that can blast tunes without the need for an electrical outlet. Our full review past the break!

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Eavesdrop: Share Your iOS Music Library Over WiFi & Bluetooth

When I was in high school, I remember we didn’t have iPhones with wireless sharing capabilities or music streaming apps like Pandora and Spotify. But we did have some iPod Classics, and sharing headphones with friends asking you to listen to your “new songs” was normal. And sharing headphones was annoying: you were forced to mess with cables, you didn’t get the full quality of a song, you always ended up with broken earbuds after a few days. Though, like I said, that was normal.

We have better ways of listening to music nowadays: streaming aside, we have portable Bluetooth speakers like the Jambox and iPod nanos that fit in every pocket and are relatively cheap. Eavesdrop, a new app for the iPhone released a few days ago, aims at taking the whole “local music sharing with your friends” concept a step further by enabling you to broadcast your iPod.app library over WiFi and Bluetooth. Read more

Celeste Brings Tightly Integrated Bluetooth Sharing To iOS

Coming later this week to the Cydia Store is a new tweak from CocoaNuts called Celeste, a handy little tweak that will allow you to send and receive various audio, video and image files to and from your iOS device using Bluetooth. Whilst there have been other apps and tweaks distributed through Cydia that brought Bluetooth sharing to iOS such as iBlueNova, Celeste seems to be a much more tightly and neatly integrated tweak.

Celeste keeps it simple by just indicating, via an inverted Bluetooth icon on the status bar, that the tweak is running and then to share files is just a click or two away. Another feature that others have lacked is that Celeste will also make sure any songs and videos you receive over Bluetooth will automatically be synced over into iTunes, as if you had purchased it. Jump the break for a demo of how the tweak works.

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iControlpad Game Controller for iPhone Finally Shipping Next Week

Over the past years we’ve been keeping an eye on the iControlpad, a Bluetooth controller for a variety of phones which, among other things, will support the iPhone 3G, 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPod touch. With a few adjustments and padding when needed, the iControlpad will provide an alternative (we can’t judge on comfortable from pictures) way to control iOS games, or any other device that supports Bluetooth.

As noted by Engadget, the iControlpad has left the vaporware stage and is now accepting orders with shipments starting next week. The design has been finalized and it looks pretty good although, admittedly, it will add bulkiness to your iOS device. That’s the price to pay for classic game controls on a 3.5-inch screen, I guess.

The question remains whether or not in the multitouch era buttons are needed at all. Most iOS games are perfectly playable and meant for multitouch controls. Some of them, however, could take serious advantage of the configuration offered by the iControlpad, like first-person shooters and arcade games based on virtual buttons on screen. We also wonder if it will be possible for developers to officially support the iControlpad in their apps by offering a way to entirely get rid of interface elements on screen, although maybe we’re just dreaming too much.

In the meantime, go check out the iControlpad here and take a look at your iOS game collection to see if the gadget would come in handy for you.

iFusion for iPhone: All-In-One Landline Dock, Speaker, Charger [Macworld]

Officially announced at the Macworld Expo yesterday, the iFusion for iPhone is an interesting all-in-one solution that combines a standard landline dock, a speakerphone, charger and USB connector into a single device that can let you have phone calls, listen to music, charge the iPhone and sync data with a Mac or PC. The unique design of the device, which will ship in April at $149, is highly ergonomic and allows for superior voice quality thanks to the hand-free speakerphone that, admittedly, also looks pretty good.

The creators of the iFusion call the product the first “iPhone communication docking station”, which comes with its own app (geared towards business users) but that, at the same time, can work with any other audio app for the iPhone, like Skype or Viber.

The iFusion can be pre-ordered here. Demo video embedded below, courtesy of TUAW. Read more