Tag Archives: tech

5 Best AI-Powered Companions In 2022

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People seem to be a bit too concerned about AI and its hazards. But they don’t realize how much it is already present in our lives. People were also very concerned when Facebook was shifted to the Metaverse. 

However, AI plays a major role that is largely invisible with various customer service chatbots and other services. AI is in our mobile devices and computers these days. Many people love interacting with AI as it is getting smarter and more advanced. 

If you want a simple and cheap way to get in on the AI action, here are the five most interactive and smart companions that will make your life more convenient than ever. These robots can provide company for long boring days during isolation or working from home.

Best AI-Powered Companions

  1. Vector 2.0 

The Vector 2.0 is the best robot companion with Alexa inbuilt. It comes with advanced robotics that gives it a personality by sight, touch, and sound. 

Void recognition powers it, and it will answer your questions. It can also take photos for you and can time dinner. Moreover, it can also display weather and do much more. Sending voice commands to it is a simple job using inbuilt Alexa. 

It comes with an uprising platform using wifi. Therefore, he is always learning and updating his skills and various features. It comes with a powerful battery. The best part is that it comes with an easily accessible battery that you can replace. 

Furthermore, it has a better camera resolution, thanks to its inbuilt 5 MP camera facial recognition. Therefore, it can recognize pets and even know when you smile. 

  1. Amazon Astro

Amazon Astro is a household robot that monitors your home in your absence. It comes with inbuilt Alexa and comes with a 6-month free-of-cost trial of Ring Protect Pro. With this trial, your assistant can save videos in its cloud storage for up to 60 days and even more with an upgrade.

The robot comes with intelligent motion thanks to its advanced navigation technology. Therefore, it can find its way around the home pretty easily. It can go wherever you want it to go, and you can stay connected even when you are not at home. 

You can conveniently manage it from your phone using the Astro App. You can even customize it with different compatible products. It comes with a detachable cup holder, and it can carry other items such as a Ziploc container, the Omron BP monitor, and Furbo Dog Camera that can toss treats to your pet. But you will need to accessorize the robot separately. 

  1. SunFounder PiSloth

SunFounder PiSloth is an AI programmable root for Raspberry Pi, and it can dance and avoid obstacles. You can also follow an object, provide you with background sound, and use sound effects. So, it is a top choice for kids and adults and is a versatile AI robot. It is a bionic robot and has a solid aluminum alloy structure. 

It can talk, dance, and even express its emotions, such as excitement and happiness. You can program it with 22 different actions, and it can stomp, swing, and moonwalk. It can send and receive ultrasonic signals with sensors as per your needs. You can use these signals to measure distance and proximity detection. 

Its eyes are a pair of send and receive ultrasonic sensors which you can use for obstacles avoidance and distance emergent along with proximity detections. Even beginners can program the proximity kit, and it is pretty easy to use. 

More traditional users can use Python for proximity detection. You can also find a variety of high-quality tutorials available online, and users can acquire the name of different skill sets for robotic programming. 

  1. Mibro Bold Really Rad Robots

This little friend can play, talk and prank with you, and it can turn your boring lonely life into a fun time. It comes with a new gold look and different gold accessories. You can find it and laugh at its jokes or give it different commands. 

It has a mouth that is as sharp as its looks. You can also use it to spy on your friends along with your family. So, you can be sneaky and send in your little spy friend. You can conveniently listen to the secrets from other rooms. 

You can also play tricks on your friends and prank them with this golden little friend. It comes loaded with fifty different functions and various paired sound effects. It is small in size and relatively easy to operate. 

  1. LivingAI EMO

This AI-powered desktop pet is pretty cool with a personality. It has multiple sensors and features cutting-edge technology. The AI robot can explore the world independently, and it can also react with more than a thousand body and face movements. 

It can cheer you up with your favorite music and dance moves. You can play online games with it. Moreover, it can wake you up and turn the light on. 

You can take pictures with the inbuilt HD camera and use its inbuilt voice assistant for commands. 

Since it is equipped with a touch sensor on its head, it can feel your touch like a pet. It can recognize you, and it also knows your name. 

Final Word

AI-powered companions are great for dealing with loneliness and social isolation. Even if you are not dealing with these issues, these AI friends are great to show off your buddies to your family and friends.

AI can be pretty awesome, and it is getting advanced over time. You can program your bots according to your requirements and have as much fun with them as possible. 

*Please note that there is a possibility we make some profit from any sale of one or more of these products. This helps us continue to create great content for our readers.

Code Crew is For the Children

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Jamal O’garro has a sharp haircut. He’s hamming it up with the group, and he’s in his element. I’ve come in a little late and am a little frazzled because I had to go through a security check point because apparently, the UN is an international airport. As I make my way to a free seat, no one is annoyed or cares for that matter. It’s a pretty open forum and I immediately feel at home.

Code Crew is a group of individuals from diverse backgrounds all learning to code together. Jamal and Felicia O’garro founded Code Crew when they themselves decided to switch careers and learn to code. Felica tells me that they were hit hard by the recession of 2008 and they struggled for a while to make ends meet. They thought about going back to school to acquire their masters degrees but it was a pricey move and one with no guarantees. “Learning to Code was free” Felica mentions, and there were no barriers to entry. They learned to code together, studying from sun up to sun down at the library and watching tutorials on YouTube. Now they’ve both got jobs as engineers. They started Code Crew officially in 2013 though they were hosting meetings the year before. It was initially a means of getting together with other folks who wanted to learn how to code. They first met up at coffee shops, but pretty soon their Meetup Group grew and they needed a larger space. Now, they’ve been invited to speak at the UN for NYC Code Camp an open source conference held at the UN Headquarters here in NY. They’ve also been to the White House because of their commitment to making sure everyone has access to education around coding. They’ve made sure that all of their classes are affordable and in many cases even free so anyone can come and learn if they want to.

During the class at the UN, I was pretty lost, but I don’t have the keene sense of dread that I did in my computer science classes at University. It’s all good – no one is judging me. I have no assignments, and everyone who is there wants to be there. I can ask questions if I want and I don’t feel like anyone will judge me if my question is elementary. A fun, affordable, reputable coding class? I’ll definitely be back.

The Robot War of Your Dreams!

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So, I was checking out one of the coolest mech robots in the world that you can currently purchase and own called the Kuratas and realized that the American company MegaBots Inc. has just challenged them to a duel! I immediately recognized them from last years comic con as they were raising money via kickstarter. Having seen the MegaBot Robot myself up close and personal, it looked really cool. However, honestly, I really do like the Kuratas better. It seems to have a bit more style and functionality. Watch the owner and CEO of Kuratas Kogoro Kurata talk massive amounts of smack in the video below. Either way, when both creators suit up, it will be a must-see for all robot heads!

Source[the verge]

Audio-Technica Sonic Fuel In-Ear Headphones Review

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Win a pair!

I had the pleasure of checking on a unique pair of headphones for the past month and below are my thoughts. Initially, I thought they were just a regular pair of mundane in-ear buds like many you can from other headphone manufacturers like Beats, Sony, or Bose. Honestly, I wasn’t that wrong, but I wasn’t right either…

The Good:

Customobility. I feel like I made that word up, but I don’t care. Long story short, for being a really simple pair of in-ear headphones, they offer quite a bit of customization options. Not just the size of the ear tips either which come in XS, S, M, and L. But the eartips actually swivel. This is important because this is the main reason why I’m not such a big fan of in-ear headphones. I can never quite get the earbuds to sit comfortably in my ear and these swiveling tips really helped. Another big deal was the “c-tips” that kind of hook onto the curvature of your ears. They also have different sizes here as well so they’ve got most ears covered. I was a little skeptical at first, but they did go a long way in providing comfort and for stopping the headphones from completely dropping out of my ear every time I turned my head. Lastly, they have some cool colors. I got a white pair and I’m giving away the red pair. Check out details below.

The Bad:

The mic wasn’t very convincing and I ended up not using it at all. Granted, I live in NY and there is always tons of ambient noise so this is a factor. But if you are in a busy city like me, you may end up having to take the headphones out and speaking into your phone normally.

The “c-tips” I added to “The Good” section because they were useful. However, if your jogging, working out, riding in a packed subway, or doing any other activity that causes large movements they really didn’t help as much as I’d like. The cord would get trapped on my bag or jacket button and would plop right out of my ear. Now this is more of a mark against cord based headphones in general than a knock against Audio-Technica. I really don’t see this problem going away for cord-based headphones.

I did like the volume notch on the side of the mic, but it was really easy to move so every time I’d start my music, the volume was either too low or too high because the notch wasn’t where I left it. I advise caution here.

Summary:

A cut above the rest I’d say, but not by leaps and bounds I’m afraid. If you’re just looking for some inexpensive headphones that will take you from point A to point B I’d say these are a good choice since they offer better than normal comfort and versatility. Sound is not going to be ear melting and there really aren’t any other features that will fulfill your wildest audiophile dreams. You’ll need to come out the pockets a little more if you want that, but they are a great middle-of-the-road headphones for a normal commute.

Win a Pair!

I do have an extra pair sitting here and I’d love to give it a way. Just write in the comments, tweet, facebook or other social media that you see this post on why you need these headphones before March 31st. I’ll get in touch and send them over!

Coolest Gadgets From CE Week in New York

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This past week was CE Week in New York City. Lots of technological goodies were on display. Some Awesome, some not so much, but they were all quite unique in some way. I spent some time going around to most of the booths and here were the items and companies that stood out.

Sodacase:

Sodacase had some impressive cases for the iPhone 4- 5, Galaxy S2,3 and Note. They also have cases for all the iPads as well. The production was really high quality and there was texture to all of the designs – including the one I made (to the right). What really made the process cool was their use of www.makeryapp.com which allows you to upload any image you want into pre-determined templates. If you have a hot design, you can upload it to the site and have them ship you a nice stylish case. One con I had was not being able to position the image exactly the way I wanted, but I was still happy with the final product. One other reason they are cool is that they gave me a code which will give my readers $10.00 off their own purchase at www.sodacase.com. Like me on facebook or follow me on twitter referencing the discount and I’ll send you the code. Crimson’s “Photo-eazl I just had to write about this little do-hicky. It’s a small easel for your camera, or whatever small device you have. You can screw the camera at the top, or hold your cell phone or tablet at the bottom because of two notches that protrude. It really reminds me of a swiss army knife except for holding stuff up. The founder was nice enough to let me try one out and I’m really liking it thus far. It’s quite sturdy. I did suggest to him however to add a grip so you can hold it like a gun more naturally for sweeping shots with the camera, and to possibly add something to connect to a monopod for those tough to reach angles. Let’s see if he listens. Mobio – “Go”, “Pivot”, “Grip” The Mobio products were really interesting. They all work with a magnetic mount which is sphere which you can swivel at will. Each product had the same premise but slightly different design. The “Go” was designed for in-car use, the Pivot was for desktop used, and the “Grip” was for your hand (in the image to the left). I liked the “Pivot” the best because it looked really nice when you have your iPad on it. The only drawback was that you needed to stick the mount onto your device. You could technically remove it but it might take some prying. That said, I’d probably stick it to a case so I didn’t have adhesive on my device.

Cushi Phone Cases:

I know what you’re thinking – I already wrote about phone cases above. Yeah, yeah, but this is worth it. The designs Cushi had were amazing – especially if you’re into urban art at all. You can’t make your own designs, but the designs they had were hot. Check out the image to your right.There’s graffiti, guns, clever phrases – the whole shebang. I also liked the fact that the designs were all padded so it had a nice feel to the fingertips. You can find more designs here    

Sony’s 4k TVs

You’ve got to see it to appreciate it. All I’ll say is blades of grass man. Blades of freakin’ grass. I could see individual blades of grass on the field of a soccer match. I didn’t think I’d need this – but I do.

Just GIG IT! Nas CoSigns New Facebook Game

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John Acunto, CEO and Co-Founder of GIG IT asked me to “Gig-IT”. I had to admit that I had no clue what he was talking about, but that didn’t last for long. As I spoke with he and his team behind the new Facebook game it became increasingly clear that this could be the next Big Facebook game. With the mantra “This aint no Farm” firmly embedded in my psyche I stepped forward into the light.

First, there’s the game play. It’s quite simple really. You book a GiG for your client. Your client just happens to be the likes of Flo Ryder, Rick Ross, and even Nas. You book the venue, you choose the sponsors, you can even choose what your artist wears. Now here is the cool part – you can choose your artist’s songs they will perform based on your own song list. Not only that, but you can plan everything that happens on stage including lighting, pyrotechnics  and the like. When you get good – you can have your friends watch the concert you put on in REAL TIME! You can save your best performances and share them with the world for up to two weeks. Check below for the starting list of artists in the game, most of whom were at the launch party last night. You can see the awesome pics in the gallery below as well. There were appearances by Jamie Foxx, Busta Rhymes, La La Vasquez, Nas, Talib Kwele, 2 Chainz, and many, many, many more.

I mentioned to John that he should add the ability to skin your own likeness in the game so you could appear as one of your favorite artist’s crew. I think that would be hot!

The app utilizes Youtube for saving the videos that you make and you can view them on your mobile device. The game is based on ratings so you better do a good job or you’ll have your friends raggin’ on you. I interviewed B-Real from Cypress Hill who said this wasn’t the first time he was in a game and that in the old Maddens you could put in a cheat code and get him on your squad! I thought that was an interesting little fact, but it really goes to show how far music – especially hip-hop – and technology have come.

I’ll definitely be checking this game once it drops this year and I’ll keep you posted on new news. For now, check the little clip of Elle Varner tearing down the house!

Game Artist List:

1. Flo rida
2. Neyo
3. Tyga
4. Slaughter house
5. Sean Kingston
6. MGK
7. Fabolous
8. Miguel
9. 2chainz
10. Nas
11. Rick Ross

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Samsung Teams Up With Bruno Mars for Rockin’ Launch Event

			
						

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Looks like Samsung is really not playing around with their next flagship phone, the Galaxy S4. The latest event was Bruno Mars singing sweet nothings in concert at Cunard Hall in Manhattan on Thursday. The Hall was beautiful and was a perfect choice with it’s banging acoustics. Check out images of Mr. Mars himself below.


Hands On With The Galaxy S4


The more I spend time with the phone, the more I like it. I still don’t like any skin on my Android devices though. I’m a vanilla type of guy because I feel like most skins just end up slowing the phone down. That said, Samsung does add a few key touches that I think will at least make some of your friends jealous. There’s the 13MP camera for starters. Add to that the ability to edit out moving items in the background and you have a pretty functional camera. You can use two apps on the same screen at the same time which is pretty interesting, though I’m not sure I’d use that functionality on my cell phone, but perhaps there is someone out there who will. Check out the Hands on Review for more details. It’s available on all the major carriers.



Also, a little snippet of my man singing his heart out for you fans out there…



					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
“Romo” The Not-So-Creepy Personal Robot

			
						

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Behold – the thingamajig you’ve all been waiting for. Since the movie Short-circuit came out, I’ve always had a fascination with sentient robotic beings that would do obey my every command as it’s benevolent emperor. Alas, robots came and went none really getting the obedience thing quite right and then out pops “ROMO”. Using your iPhone as it’s brains, you can command it wherever you are via an internet connection. The robot will stream video via the iPhone camera. You can even take pictures as demonstrated in the video below.


Break Dancing Robot


What’s really fascinating is how the robot reacts to the user. It’s programmed to respond to how close or far away you are from it and it will move accordingly which humanizes it a bit. I can think of at least a dozen use cases for this little bad boy like attending meetings for me for one! The best part is that Keller Rinaudo, CEO and Co-Founder of Romative, the company that makes Romo, is promising this robot will only cost $150 bucks. Sign me up! If we can get our hands on a demo unit, I’ll let you know how it works in person.



					

		
		
	


				
					
	

				
					
	

		

						
Hands On With The Galaxy S4

			
						

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We were able to spend some quality time with the all new, just announced Samsung Galaxy S4. Check out the video below.




There are a few new features that Samsung has baked in that more than a few people will like. Some of my favorites are as follows:


13 MP Camera. There is some fuss about what makes a mobile camera good. Is it the pixels, or how the image is stitched together. Listen, I won’t refuse if Samsung wants to put 13 MP in it’s main shooter. They’ve also put a 2 MP camera in the front for a nice combo.


IR LED, Bluetooth 4.0, 4G LTE supporting up to 100/50Mbps 


In addition they have added Temperature, Humidity, as well as, IR Gesture sensors.


Drama Shot allows you to take a ton of shots and select the the best one. In addition, the Eraser feature allows you to erase something from the image if it was moving which will make for a lot nicer pictures on the fly.


Group Play might be my favorite since I had this idea a long while ago. You can play your music with as many as 8 different S4s. You can also control volume on each device as well as control them like a surround sound system with Left, Right, and Center phones as speakers.


The phone will also have an accessible battery as well as expandable storage via microSD.