“Imagine a Microsoft Kinect on steroids and you have a good idea of how Leap Motion works,” suggests Roberto Baldwin at Wired Magazine. “The motion controller tracks in-air movement to 1/100th of a millimeter. But instead of watching you dance, the Leap creates 8 cubic feet of 3-D space that is recreated on the computer and can be interacted with via hands, pens or random objects you find lying around your home.”

The Leap is 200 times more sensitive than existing technologies and will cost a fraction of the price, just $69.99. You can pre-order the Leap, and the company says it will ship sometime this winter.

The Leap creates a three-dimensional interaction space of 4 cubic feet to control a computer more precisely and quickly than a mouse or touchscreen, and as reliably as a keyboard. Leap Motion’s patented software, the heart of the Leap, represents four years of research and a series of major mathematical breakthroughs by co-founder and CTO David Holz.

The Leap allows you to control your computer just like you would using a touch screen… using the same type of hand gestures you would with a tablet or smartphone – you can now control your computer

The Leap is accurate to within 1/100 of a millimeter, a precision level required for touch-free natural gesture controls like pinch-to-zoom. The Leap addresses the shortcomings of all existing human/computer interaction tools by enabling a 3-D workspace that recognizes intuitive gestures. It is the first product in history to accurately sense the individual movements of all 10 of the user’s fingers, and can also track objects like a pen. Traditional mouse-and-keyboard navigation turns actions that are intuitive in the real world, like drawing a picture or manipulating 3-D objects, into highly technical tasks. Existing motion-sensing technology is crude, inefficient and often frustrating, and even touchscreen technology is limited by a two-dimensional workspace and scale restraints.

“It was this gap between what’s easy in the real world but very complicated to do digitally, like molding a piece of clay or creating a 3-D model, that inspired us to create the Leap and fundamentally change how people work with their computers,” said Leap Motion CEO and co-founder Michael Buckwald. “In addition to the Leap for computers, our core software is versatile enough to be embedded in a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, cars and refrigerators. One day 3-D motion control will be in just about every device we interact with, and thanks to the Leap, that day is coming sooner than anyone expected.”

Computing tasks ranging from simple to complex can now be accomplished with natural hand and finger movements.

Current uses of the Leap include:

• Basic computing tasks like navigating an operating system or browsing through Web pages
• Precise virtual drawing in 2-D and 3-D
• Signing a digital document by writing in air
• Navigating large-scale 3-D data visualization systems
• Creating and manipulating 3-D models like houses and cars
• Playing computer games, including fast-twitch first-person shooters
• Future applications from developers could include medical imaging, robotics, unique art creations, computer-aided design, virtual-reality environments, training simulators for complex manual tasks and more.

The Leap plugs directly into a USB port and calibrates in one step, allowing users to quickly begin controlling their computers with natural hand and finger movements. Users can fine-tune the Leap’s sensitivity settings, create their own custom gestures and even network more than one Leap together to create a larger interaction space.

“Breakthroughs in technology come in all sizes, but often the very biggest disruptors come in very small packages: the computer chip, the mouse, the smartphone and now the Leap. Roughly the size of your pinky finger, I believe the Leap is the future of how people will interact with their devices,” said technology visionary Bill Warner, founder of Avid Technology and a Leap Motion investor. “What’s previously been an expensive special effect in movies is now an affordable everyday reality, in full 3-D. With the Leap, you use both hands and all 10 fingers to work within your computer’s virtual environment just as easily as you do in the real world.”

The top four wireless carriers in the U.S. – AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile – speeding up availability of a text-to-911 service, allowing mobile users to send a text message to 911

A new initiative by the top four wireless carriers in the U.S. – AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile – plans to accelerate the availability of text-to-911, with major deployments expected in 2013 and a commitment to nationwide availability by May 15, 2014. Building on text-to-911 deployments and trials that are already underway, this agreement will accelerate progress and ensure that over 90 percent of the nation’s wireless consumers, including millions of consumers with hearing or speech disabilities, will be able to access emergency services by sending a text message to 911, where local 911 call centers (known as a Public Safety Answering Points, or PSAPs) are also prepared to receive the texts.

Text-to-911 will provide consumers with enhanced access to emergency communications in situations where a voice call could endanger the caller, or a person with disabilities is unable to make a voice call. Text-to-911 will be a complement to, not a substitute for, voice calls to 911 services, and consumers should always make a voice call to 911 during an emergency if they can.

In addition, to help eliminate consumer confusion while text-to-911 capability is being phased-in, the carriers have committed to provide an automatic “bounce back” text message to notify consumers if their attempt to reach 911 via text message was unsuccessful because this service is not yet available in their area. Such a message would tell the user that their message was not received and to make a voice call to 911 instead. The four carriers will fully implement this “bounce back” capability across their networks by June 30, 2013.

The FCC will take additional action as necessary to ensure the public’s ability to reach 911 using text messaging. “Access to 911 must catch up with how consumers communicate in the 21st century – and today, we are one step closer towards that vital goal. Last year I announced a comprehensive plan to accelerate the transition to Next Generation 911, including text-to-911, and the FCC has acted to advance this effort,”  FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said. “I also called on the communications industry and public safety entities to work together to enable nationwide text-to-911 as quickly as possible, and I am pleased that the nation’s four largest wireless carriers and leading public safety organizations have responded with today’s commitment, which will save lives starting in 2013.”

Nexus 7 is now more powerful and portable than ever. With up to 32GB of storage and the option to add mobile data, users can take even more of their favorite content from Google Play with them anywhere. These new models of Nexus 7 come on the heels of numerous awards for Nexus 7, including T3’s prestigious 2012 Tablet of the Year and Gadget of the Year.

Nexus 7 is designed to go wherever you go – and now with up to 32GB of storage and the option to connect to mobile data networks – Nexus 7 can take users even further. Nexus 7 can now operate on more than 200 GSM providers worldwide, including AT&T in the US. Starting today, the 16GB model and the new 32GB model will be available for purchase on Google Play, priced at $199 and $249 respectively, and on November 13, Nexus 7 32GB + Mobile will be available on Google Play for $299.

Nexus 7 is also available for purchase from select retailers and their online stores in regions both with and without access to Google’s Play store. Please check with local retailers for more information.

Nexus 7 is built by ASUS and comes with a NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 quad-core processor so everything is faster – pages load quickly, gameplay is smooth and responsive, and running multiple apps is a breeze. Patented 4-PLUS-1™ design gives users processing power when needed, and battery saving efficiency when they don’t. It comes with Android 4.2, the latest version of the world’s most popular mobile platform – featuring an improved keyboard that helps users say and do more, new actionable notifications, updates to Google Now and much more.

Nexus 7 was made for Google Play, putting entertainment users love right in their hand: the world’s largest collection of eBooks, millions of songs, thousands of movies and TV shows, and the latest magazines – plus over 675,000 apps and games. Nexus 7 comes with all the favorite Google Apps – like Gmail, Chrome, Google+ and YouTube – putting the best of Google in the palm of the hand.

According to a report from AnandTech, the new Apple TV also includes a second Wi-Fi antenna with better gain, allowing for better reception and network throughput.

Another welcoming change to the new Apple TV is the new user interface, which seems a lot more like iOS, with similar home screen with rectangular icons. Improvements were also made to the on-screen keyboard, now featuring a regular, QWERTY layout.

With iTunes in the Cloud, you can purchase and play your favorite movies and TV shows from the iTunes Store and watch them instantly on your HD TV. The new Apple TV features a simpler, refined user interface making it easier than ever to access your purchased movies, TV shows and music with iTunes Match right from iCloud. And with AirPlay, you can stream or mirror your favorite content from your iPad or iPhone 4S to your HDTV with Apple TV, including AirPlay screen mirroring, which allows you to port your iOS device display onto your large screen TV, allowing you to stream music, home videos, webpages, spreadsheets, games, social media sites, and more. For those who want to be able to play music from their iPad or iPhone and play through their home theater stereo system, Apple TV using AirPlay makes it a piece of cake.

“People are going to love streaming movies and TV shows in 1080p with the new Apple TV, and photos look beautiful displayed at the maximum resolution of your TV,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Apple TV is easier than ever to use with its new icon-based interface and the ability to access your purchased movies, TV shows and music right from iCloud.”

Apple TV users can choose from an incredible selection of programming including over 15,000 movies and over 90,000 TV episodes on the iTunes Store. Apple TV also offers great content from Netflix’s streaming catalog, live sports from MLB, NBA and NHL as well as Internet content from Vimeo, YouTube and Flickr.

With iCloud, you can buy movies and TV shows on Apple TV and watch them on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC. iCloud also stores photos and pushes them wirelessly to all your devices including your HD TV via Apple TV. iCloud provides an incredibly easy way to get instant access to all of your content, no matter which device is being used.

Apple TV makes it easy to enjoy iTunes video, music and photo libraries from your computer right on your HD TV—and with iCloud you can instantly enjoy content that was purchased on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch as well. iTunes Match customers can now play their entire music library from iCloud—even songs they’ve imported from CDs. Users can also control Apple TV with their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch using the Remote app, available as a free download on the App Store.

The new, 2012 version of Apple TV is now for sale for $99 at the Apple online store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.
Apple TV requires iTunes 10.5 or later. Apple TV requires an 802.11g/n Wi-Fi network or Ethernet network, a broadband Internet connection and a HD TV capable of 1080p or 720p and an HDMI cable that is sold separately. iTunes movie and TV show availability varies by country. Second generation Apple TV users can install the new Apple TV user interface via a free software update, available today. Third generation Apple TV hardware is required to play 1080p video.

The Hopper was unveiled by DISH CEO Joe Clayton at the 2012 International CES in Las Vegas, and it is already winning honors as a CES Innovations 2012 Design and Engineering Award honoree. Pricing and packaging will be announced later this quarter.

The main Hopper unit features:

• Three satellite TV tuners
• A two-terabyte hard drive for up to 2,000 hours of video entertainment
• Up to 250 hours of HD or up to 1,000 hours of SD user recordings
• Bluetooth for linking to devices such as wireless headphones
• Picture-in-picture for watching any two channels simultaneously

Combined with a Joey, the Hopper whole-home HD DVR system offers more advanced features:

• 750 MHz Broadcom processer — the fastest satellite receiver processor available today for a quick, responsive on-screen guide
• Approximately 50 percent more energy efficient for a four-room installation than previous models
• ZigBee RF4CE using a proprietary protocol remote with “remote control finder” alert
• High definition user interface
• Easy-to-use, fast, graphical, tile-based user interface with predictive search
• Small, sleek chassis for convenient placement

“Building on a heritage of award-winning DVRs, DISH is proud to be the first to introduce a groundbreaking product that delivers the most choices for TV entertainment by integrating multiple sources of video into one set-top box,” said DISH Network CEO Joe Clayton. “The Hopper gives our customers network TV shows on demand and thousands of family movie choices streaming or delivered to the hard drive. With its massive storage, the Hopper leads the industry in delivering the most entertainment options, bar none, for every member of the household.”

The Hopper’s new, unparalleled feature, PrimeTime Anytime allows customers, with one click, to record using a single tuner all of the primetime TV programming from ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC — the networks that deliver the most popular shows during primetime. Once activated by a customer, PrimeTime Anytime records network programming in high definition, where available, every night and stores them for eight days after they have aired. This creates an on-demand library of approximately 100 hours of primetime TV shows, and makes it easy to catch up on episodes from last night and last week’s airing.

The Hopper can record up to six TV shows at once (two live programs and four PrimeTime Anytime shows) while allowing viewers to watch up to four different recorded or on-demand shows in four rooms of the house, simultaneously. This gives a family a variety of options to control or view their recordings and to watch shows in any room from a single Hopper.
The Hopper’s on-demand capabilities give access to DISH’s Blockbuster @Home™ for $10 per month which is now enhanced with more than 10,000 total titles streaming to the TV.

The Hopper also offers on-demand content for customers with limited or no Internet access with a feature called DISH Unplugged. This feature delivers via satellite hundreds of the most popular movies and TV shows to the hard drive, including transactional and authenticated videos on demand. DISH Unplugged provides a high quality picture without buffering and makes available many of the same streaming movie choices offered by Blockbuster @Home, including premium movie access.

And for subscribers of DISH’s America’s Top 120 programming package or greater, the Hopper provides whole-home music distribution from 73 SiriusXM channels, including album art and a unique collapsible list of music channels located at the top of the channel guide at Channel 99, making it faster and easier for SiriusXM music fans to find their favorite music.
Additionally, the Hopper will features TV apps that give viewers real time access to Facebook, Twitter, Pandora and photo sharing, as well as games, news, weather, sports, and stock quotes.

TV Everywhere

You can manage the Hopper via the Internet at www.DishOnline.com or the DISH Remote Access app, providing the ability to control DVR recordings on their tablets, smartphones and computers. Connecting the Hopper with DISH’s Sling Adapter provides customers the ability to watch and control all live TV channels, PrimeTime Anytime programs and the DVR on their computer, tablet or smartphone wherever they go.

The Hopper and Joey are designed and engineered by EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ: SATS). The Hopper works by distributing HD signals through existing co-axial cable in the home using the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) specification. The Hopper is powered by a Broadcom 750 MHz processor, the most powerful satellite TV processor available today delivering a fast and responsive on-screen guide and a graphical user interface that features channel logos to help search channels, movies or TV shows quickly. The advanced search platform also allows for navigation of programs across satellite TV, broadband and an optional external hard drive.

I use LogMeIn to connect to the office PC from my home PC or laptop, or vice versa, and I even utilize the LogMeIn apps on my iPad and iPhone for the occasional remote control of one of my PCs from those devices.

I was happy to hear at press time that LogMeIn has launched a new service called Cubby (www.cubby.com), which is an all new cloud data service to simply and securely share information across PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones, Android devices, or with other people. Cubby lets you turn any number of PC or Mac folders into ‘cubbies’ that can be accessed from other devices, stored in the cloud, and shared with colleagues and friends. Cubby also gives you the option to simply share or sync an unlimited amount of information across your devices for free, and without ever counting against cloud storage limits. As a result, you have the flexibility to share and access information across your devices without having to worry about creating a new, separate version of your digital life in the cloud.

“When it comes to sharing data in the cloud today, most solutions on the market are ultra simple but inflexible, or highly flexible but inherently complex. We see Cubby as an opportunity to deliver an ideal balance of simplicity and flexibility,” said Marton Anka, LogMeIn’s CTO. “It is designed to adapt to the way people naturally interact with their information — to deliver the benefits of the cloud without forcing people to change their behavior.”

LogMeIn CEO Michael Simon recently mentioned that file sync is the #1 most requested new feature from LogMeIn customers. And for added security, Cubby will allow users to use their own encryption keys.

Cubby is built on LogMeIn’s Gravity Data Services, LogMeIn’s own, proprietary data synchronization and storage cloud. Architected to deliver secure, high-scale data sync and storage capabilities at incredibly low cost, the new Gravity Data Services has been designed to help bring new offerings, like Cubby, to market, as well as to introduce cloud data benefits into virtually any other offering, service or application. LogMeIn plans to use Gravity Data Services to expand its suite of essential cloud offerings, add a variety of new cloud data capabilities to its existing family of access, customer care and remote IT management products, and create opportunities for 3rd parties to build their own cloud offerings on LogMeIn’s platform.

With Cubby, you can make any file public and get a link to it to share with others, assuming the file is synced to the cloud. Cubby also does file versioning for data stored on its servers, so it can be used as a backup service.

People interested in participating in the Cubby beta, which includes 5GB of cloud storage, free unlimited folder syncing across devices, as well as apps for the iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows, can request an invitation. Prices haven’t been announced for cloud sync plans over 5GB.

The Canon PIXMA MX892 Wireless Office All-In-One (AIO) printer is designed with the home office user in mind. The print, copy, scan and fax machine has a variety of connectivity options for easy printing of documents and images from the cloud and other compatible portable devices.

Canon has designed the PIXMA MX892 Wireless Office AIO printer to help home-office users easily access and print materials through utilities such as Google Cloud Print and PIXMA Cloud Link. Google Cloud Print will enable Gmail messages, file attachments and select Google Docs to be sent to the printer for printing from any computer, tablet, or smartphone. For those registered with Google’s PicasaWeb Albums, there is PIXMA Cloud Link so users can print photos directly from their online albums. The printer also provides direct access to a wide range of printable templates, such as stationary and calendars, so photographers can get creative with their images.

Adding to the printer’s connectivity options is the Canon Easy-PhotoPrint (EPP) mobile app, for use with compatible Apple and Android smart phones and tablets, where documents can be scanned on the printer and sent to the device. Users can also print PDFs of documents that were created with the app directly from these devices.

The Canon PIXMA MX892 Wireless Office AIO printer will also have 802.11n wireless capability allowing for a high-speed network transfer rate and easy sharing on a network. Setting up a wireless network for multiple users to quickly share information can be accomplished with the press of one button when using Wireless Protected Setup (WPS). An Ethernet port has also been included as an alternative when wireless is not available, allowing for a hard line connection for easy sharing with multiple users as well.

“With users increasingly utilizing the cloud to store important documents and images, it is imperative to provide an easy way for these materials to be printed easily when they are needed,” said Yuichi Ishizuka, executive vice president and general manager, Imaging Technologies & Communications Group, Canon U.S.A. “The variety of connectivity options supported by the PIXMA MX892 Office All-in-One printer allows the flexibility to do just that, and provides the users with the comfort of knowing that the end result will be high-quality.”

The Canon PIXMA MX892 Wireless Office AIO printer utilizes the ChromaLife 100+ system with five individual ink tanks producing superb quality for presentations and memorable images at a maximum color resolution of 9600 x 2400 dpi. When the latest task includes creating a family photo album, the printer allows you to easily view images on the 3-inch LCD screen and can generate a 4” x 6” borderless photo in approximately 20 seconds. The scanner capabilities feature an incredible resolution of 2400 x 4800 dpi to help ensure the duplicate copy will be equivalent to the original. Further adding to the functionality of the machine, is the capacity to provide print output at approximately 12.5 images per minute (ipm) for black-and-white documents and approximately 9.3 ipm for color.

A major concern for home office users is being able to scan oversized documents to be distributed at important meetings. With the Canon exposed user interface, scanning or copying of large sized documents can be accomplished without interfering with any buttons needed to perform a task. Further adding to productivity is the Dual Function Panel, which makes navigating through menus and functions a very smooth process. When switching between the fax function and either print, copy or scan functions, the keypad will switch from the standard numbers to a directional keypad thus making the printer look sleek, clean and easy to use.

The Canon PIXMA MX892 Wireless Office AIO printer comes with additional features which can help increase productivity and conserve paper usage. With Advanced Media Handling capabilities such as a 35 sheet Duplex Auto Document Feeder that allows for quick two-sided copying and scanning in addition to Auto Duplex printing, users can perform other tasks while the printer handles the bulk of the workload.

The printer also has two paper feeds which can hold a maximum of 150 sheets of plain paper each, helping ensure paper will not run out unexpectedly while working. With the two paper feeds, there is the option to load one tray with standard paper and the other with specialty paper so the user will not have to re-load when changing types of print jobs and save time.

For those interested in customizing photos, Easy-PhotoPrint EX software is available for this feature-packed printer with a variety of fun filter effects such as Fish-Eye, Miniature, Toy Camera, Soft Focus and Blur Background. Full HD Movie Print software has also been included, producing clear images of frames from videos captured on compatible HD Canon EOS and PowerShot Digital cameras. An added bonus is exclusive printable content through CREATIVE PARK PREMIUM. The content on this website includes family projects such as Eric Carle greeting cards and photo frames as well as calendars to keep track of important business meetings and appointments.

The Canon PIXMA MX892 Wireless Office AIO printer will have an estimated selling price of $199.9912.

The Logitech UE Air Speaker with Apple’s AirPlay allows you to stream uncompressed music from iTunes or an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch connected to your home’s Wi-Fi network to a Logitech UE speaker that delivers high-quality audio with a big sound stage boosted by dual tweeters and woofers.

With Logitech UE, it’s about delivering pure, undiluted music wherever you want to listen. The new Logitech UE Air Speaker offers superior functionality in a stylish design. Its subtle curves and handsome piano-black finish look great in any room, while its custom-tuned acoustics deliver a big soundstage with impressively detailed stereo sound.

“There’s a new breed of music fans whose iPad and iPhone devices are at the center of their listening activities,” said Rory Dooley, senior vice president of music at Logitech. “We created the Logitech UE Air Speaker to give those people a great audio experience that combines effortless streaming with fantastic sound. With its stylish, modern design, easy setup and excellent sound, the Logitech UE Air Speaker looks and sounds phenomenal in any room in the house.”

Setup is easy: just dock your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, follow the on-screen instructions to download the Logitech UE Air app, enter your Wi-Fi network password and you’re ready to go. After that one time setup process, any iPhone 4s, iPhone4, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch (2nd, 3rd or 4th generation), iPad, iPad 2, or iPad (3rd generation) with iOS 4.2 or later, or any Mac or PC on your network with iTunes 10.1 or later is instantly connected. Plus with the Apple Dock Connector, you can charge your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch while you play music.

The Logitech UE Air Speaker has been named an International CES Innovations 2012 Design and Engineering Awards Honoree in the Wireless Handset Accessories product category. The $399 device is now available at computer outlet stores, Logitech.com, Amazon and other electronics retailers.

Recently, Google announced we could expect a 7-inch Android tablet coming this year. While Google is as tight as ever to release any information, the Wall Street Journal cited unnamed Google sources suggesting the 7-inch tablet is being designed with Samsung and Asus. The only statement officially from Google is that there are, indeed, plans to unveil a Google-branded tablet this year. The tablet will be sold through a new, online tablet store that will be introduced with the release of the tablet.

As with any Google launch, speculation abounds. The current reporting from DigiTimes and the UK’s V3 suggest that Google will be pricing their tablet in the $199 range to compete against Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Other sources cite that a deal between Asus and Android is complete and that we could see the tablet as soon as May or June with price points between $149-199.

Earlier this year, Asus showed off the Asus MeMo 370T at the Consumer Electronics Show, stating the device would retail in the $199-249 price range. This device can no longer be found on Asus’ website, further feeding the Google-Asus $199 tablet rumor mill. As of last week, The Verge reported the tablet is official and Google will be launching in July, pending some design tweaks to make sure it can retail under $249.

It appears Google is trying to enter the affordable tablet market to gain ground on a tablet market that Apple dominates with over 60% share. Other reports suggest Apple is planning a smaller, 7” version of the iPad and Google is trying to stay ahead of any news Apple may or may not have planned.

Also remember that Google always makes a big splash of major announcements as its fourth quarter winds down in June. From the Google I/O developer’s conference at the end of June, Google has always made large announcements and product features. In previous years, these announcements have included the Droid Bionic and lapdock, partnerships with Adobe and Verizon, and their social endeavor: Google+.

With the iPad2 recently re-priced at $399, Apple still won’t compete on price. But do they have to? Would you be inclined to “Go Google” on a tablet device if the price was right? Or do you need the sleek, coolness that is the iPad? Leave a comment and let us know!