Audiovox Car Connection Helps You Find Your Car and More

Audiovox has announced a new device called the Car Connection that helps drivers monitor, manage, and maintain vehicle health. The device plugs into the OBDII port available on most vehicles since the mid-90s. When connected to the vehicle the Car Connection can monitor the driver habits to help coach drivers to be more green.

When the cooler features of the device is that it will show you your vehicle location and where it’s heading. Vehicle location can be tracked online from a smart phone or notebook computer. This allows you to keep an eye on where teenage drivers are and what they’re doing, and can help police recover your vehicle if it’s stolen.

Another interesting feature is that the Car Connection can work with the app operating on Android or BlackBerry smartphones to limit access to the phone when the vehicle is in motion. You can prevent users from making calls from behind the wheel or sending texts. The device operates on the Sprint mobile broadband network and requires a service plan at $9.95 per month or $89.95 per year. Both plans require a $19.95 activation fee and the device itself sells for $169.99.

Read More

Logitech Alert Security Camera Receives OS X Support And Alert Commander App

Mac OS X users might be pleased to learn that Logitech has today rolled out Mac support to their range of Logitech Alert Security System and Cameras. Enabling you to now view the cameras on Mac OS X.

The new Logitech Alert Security Mac software “Alert Commander” is now available to download from the Apple AppStore for free and allows you to  configure your video security system, watch live video, store video on your computer and review recorded video, directly from your Mac. Watch the video after the jump to see it in action.

Alert Commander provides a wealth of features and supports up to six Logitech Alert security cameras:

* Install your Logitech Alert camera system on any Mac (with OS version 10.6.8 or higher)
* Control and configure your video security system 
* Manage up to 6 cameras
* View live and recorded video in HD resolution 
* Set up motion zones for individual cameras
* Create and manage e-mail and mobile phone motion alerts 
* Perform Digital Pan, Tilt and zoom
* Back up video stored on your cameras to your Mac
* Manage your account and security settings
* Receive desktop notification of important events
* Set schedules for when you want to receive motion notifications to your email or mobile device

“With a wide-angle lens that delivers twice the viewing area than that of a standard camera and HD resolution video, home security has never looked this good. Plus, there is a new pop-out window feature that allows you to minimize the main app while continuing to watch one or more cameras while you multi-task. Work on a presentation or browse the web, and still keep an eye on what’s important.”

Read More

Microsoft Surface Tablet Gets Software Updates

Microsoft recently launched their first tablet, the Microsoft Surface, which comes with Windows RT, and now Microsoft has released a software update for the device which comes with a number of bug fixes and performance improvements.

According to the guys over at the Verge, there are a total of seven minor updates available for the Microsoft Surface Windows RT tablet, and some of the improvements include faster launching applications.

As well as releasing various software updates, Microsoft has also patched a number of security issues with their Windows RT OS, you can find out more details over at Microsoft.

Read More

Google Releases Android 4.2 Jelly Bean SDK

Google’s latest Android devices, which come with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean were released yesterday, the list includes the new Google Nexus 4 smartphone, the Google Nexus 10 tablet and the updated Google Nexus 7 tablet.

Now Google has announced the release of the Android 4.2 SDK, which is now available to download for developers, with API level17, you can see some of the highlights below.

Performance
We’ve worked with our partners to run Renderscript computation directly in the GPU on the Nexus 10, a first for any mobile computation platform.

New ways to engage users
Users can now place interactive lock screen widgets directly on their device lock screens, for instant access to favorite apps and content. With just a small update, you can adapt any app widget to run on the lock screen. Daydream is an interactive screensaver mode that users can encounter when their devices are charging or docked in a desk dock. You can create interactive daydreams that users display in this mode, and they can include any type of content.

New interaction and entertainment experiences
Android 4.2 introduces platform support for external displays that goes beyond mirroring. Your apps can now target unique content to any number of displays attached to an Android device.

Enhancements for international users
To help you create better apps for users in languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian, Android 4.2 includes native RTL support, including layout mirroring. With native RTL support, you can deliver the same great app experience to all of your users with minimal extra work. Android 4.2 also includes a variety of font and character optimizations for Korean, Japanese, Indic, Thai, Arabic and Hebrew writing systems.

You can find out full details about the Android 4.2 SDK over at the Android Developers Blog.

Read More

Elliptic Labs Windows 8 Touchless Gesture Control Unveiled (video)

Elliptic Labs has developed a new touchless gesture control system for Microsoft’s latest Windows 8 operating system, which has been designed to enable users to take advantage of natural gesturing to navigate Windows 8.

The new system unveiled by Elliptic Labs uses ultrasonic touchless technology, and uses up to 95% less power than existing camera image-based gestural systems which are currently on the market, says Elliptic Labs. Watch the video after the jump to see the new touchless gesture control system in action.

Elliptic Labs has also developed an “Elliptic Ultrasound Starter Kit for Laptops”, to provide developers with an out-of-the-box solution for them to start integrating the new touchless gesture-based system within their hardware.

“Microsoft’s new metro interface changes how consumers interact with the operating system and the design is a perfect fit for touchless gestures. Elliptic’s Windows 8 Gesture Suite gives the users a touchless version of the gestures they already know from a touchscreen and allows the user to interact in an even more natural and intuitive way without having to touch the screen.”

For more information jump over to the Elliptic Labs website for full details on the new touchless gesture-based control system.

Read More

Google Confirms Adobe Flash Is “Fully Sandboxed” In Its Chrome Browser

Adobe Flash Player has received extra attention from Google within its Chrome browser, and has now been “fully sandboxed” within Google’s browser across Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome OS platforms.

The purpose of sandboxing help restrict malware from being able to install itself on to your computer, adding additional layers of security against malicious website that might have other plans for your computer whilst viewing a video on their site.  Watch the video after the jump to learn more about the Chrome Flash Sandboxing update.

Google has been working with Adobe since 2012 to help make their Chrome browser even more secure for possible threats and the addition of the newly added sandboxing for Adobe Flash Player offers great protection for users against malicious websites.

“With this release, Flash Player is now fully sandboxed in Chrome on all of our desktop platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome OS. Ultimately, this means a safer experience for you as you browse the web. We take the security of Chrome extremely seriously, so we’re excited to be delivering these enhanced protections, and we’ve enjoyed collaborating with Adobe on this effort.”

For more information jump over to the official Google announcement.

Read More