KEECKER: The World's First HomePod

A new project on Kickstarter has gotten a lot of attention, it's the KEECKER, billed as The World's First HomePod, a rolling egg-looking robot that moves from room to room in a person's house, bringing personal entertainment functionality with it.

The idea is that instead of having music players, television sets, etc. in multiple rooms, have just one that can be summoned to wherever you want.


KEECKER is white and looks like a giant egg (a little less than knee high) with just a camera, lamp, microphone and a button mounted on it.

It's very plain looking, but offers a wide variety of entertainment options. It receives commands via smartphone (iOS or Android). It also comes with some smarts.

When brought home it moves around the house creating a map (with assistance from the new owner) learning which room is which by name so that when summoned, it knows which room to come to.

Pierre Lebeau

Once it arrives, KEECKER can play music or broadcast a video (or artistic renderings such as the moving galaxy) on a wall, browse the web or serve as a gaming unit.

It can also be used for video conferencing courtesy of a built in 360° camera and microphone, and because it runs on Android, it can run any Android app.

As if that weren't' enough, it can also be used as a sentry (or pet sitter) constantly monitoring the home (movement, temperature, CO2 and noise levels) while everyone is away.

KEECKER has motion sensors, WiFi, audio/video, an adjustable projection lamp, a processor (a quadcore mobile chip),

1 terabyte of local storage and a battery that can go for several days between recharging. Its makers promise that it's also quiet and doesn't get hot.

They also plan to release both an SDK and API in the near future and promise that it won't operate like Roomba, constantly running into walls to learn of its limitations. Instead, the robot will lean more the longer it "lives" in a home, and has software that prevents it from running into things.

It's not difficult to see the usefulness of KEECKER, if you're working in the kitchen, you could call your little robot to offer up a recipe, or provide music as you cook.

Likewise, it could be summoned to other areas, such as the bathroom or other parts of the house where traditional electronic devices don't exist.

On the down side, it clearly wouldn't work if there are stairs and may have trouble navigating cluttered environments.

Initial prices for KEECKER range from $3000 to $4000, depending on configuration.

Android L: Google releasing its new Android KitKat replacement to developers

Google’s much anticipated follow–up to Android KitKat is coming.

Currently dubbed Android L, it was detailed last week during the search giant’s annual I/O developer event in San Francisco.

So, what’s changed? Well, Google seems very keen to shout about its plans.

This is the first time it’s made a similar move to Apple and released an early preview for devs to tinker with. What’s more, it’s made some tweaks that are bound to impress casual and hardcore fans alike.

Stock Android has had a similar design for a few years now and while it’s not badly dated, Google has decided to spruce things up a bit.

It’s using a new design language called ‘Material Design’, which serves up similar looks across its own apps, as well as making the home screen look a lot less cluttered.

The feeling is that the whole thing looks a lot ‘flatter’, something which Apple’s iOS 7 achieved last year.

The aim is simple: To make basic Android look fancier, so manufacturers don’t feel the need to customise it so much, which usually slows down software updates.

Notifications have been given a major new look in Android L.

They’re now readily available from your lock screen, so you can either tap to see what’s what, or swipe to dismiss, without having to open up your phone and delve into a specific app.

What’s more, notifications will pop up at the top of your screen no matter what app is open, so you’ll never miss an important message or email again.

This is called ‘Heads Up’. This subtle change should make Android a lot easier to use.

Notifications will also be ordered according to importance, not alphabetised, with Android knowing which ones you check most frequently.

Android L is up for grabs now.

However, there are plenty of caveats. For starters, you’ll need either a Nexus 5 or a Nexus 7 2013 tablet with Wi-Fi only.

Then you’ll need to snare it from Google’s Android developer site.

Google says that it’s nowhere near finished and that users should be aware this is an early build which could harm their devices.

Still keen? Well, if you download and change your mind, Google says you can easily go back to Android KitKat. But that if you do, all your data will be deleted. Still, you’ll be a pioneer.

Google reckons that tapping in a code or using a swipe pattern to unlock your device slows you down.

True, even if it does keep you safe. So, with Android L, it’s using what it calls ‘trusted environments’ to let you fire up your phone securely without resorting to standard unlocking techniques.

You can use a Bluetooth device to unlock your phone, whenever it’s nearby it’ll work and when it moves out of range it’ll lock down.

This looks especially cool next to Google’s new range of Android Wear smart watches, which can unlock your phone when you’re wearing them.

Well aware that excessive battery drain is becoming a real issue on Android phones, Google has instituted a new battery saving mode with L.

Fire this up and it will switch off data, slow down the device’s clock speed and ensure that everything keeps kicking for longer when you need it most.

A new developer tool also allows app makers to work out just how much battery power their add–ons use and tinker with code to fix it accordingly.

Hopefully this will mean desperately searching out a power source becomes a thing of the past.

Android L phones promise to be much, much snappier than Android KitKat ones.

Why? Because Google is using a new platform to ensure its updated devices run more efficiently and use less memory.

Called ART, this new tool will work automatically with apps and support 64-bit chips.

That means mobile makers can create speedier phones which should mean zipping between apps and firing up games will be lightning fast.

NASA Science New Apps

NASA Science App Landing
NASA leads the nation on a great journey of discovery, seeking new knowledge and understanding of our planet Earth, our Sun and solar system, and the universe out to its farthest reaches and back to its earliest moments of existence.

This NASA Science application brings you the latest information from NASA’s Science Missions, including the spacecraft, their instruments, the data, and what we are learning about the questions we seek to answer.

NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and the nation's science community use space observatories to conduct scientific studies of the Earth from space to visit and return samples from other bodies in the solar system, and to peer out into our Galaxy and beyond.

NASA Science Apps - NASA Science

Southern Star's SkyCube: a Social Media Space Mission

Southern Stars Group LLC, the company responsible for the popular SkySafari apps for iOS, Android and Mac OS X, is thinking a little bigger with its next project.

The publicly funded SkyCube is a miniature CubeSat satellite that will orbit the planet, transmitting low-resolution images of the Earth while broadcasting short messages from sponsors in the form of data pings. In short, it's the world's first social space mission.

The hardware involved in the project isn't anything we haven't seen before. The satellite itself is a 10x10x10 cm (3.9 cubic-inch) “1U” CubeSat, which is the current leading picosatellite standard with nearly 100 of the devices built and launched to date.

The SkyCube will be the second payload on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, set to launch sometime in 2013.

Once deployed, it will orbit more than 300 miles (483 km) up, taking low-resolution pictures and broadcasting short, simple messages from the project's sponsors as it crosses over most of the world's inhabited regions.

At the end of the mission, the SkyCube will deploy its 10 ft (3 m) diameter balloon, making it visible from the Earth, with a brightness akin to that of the Hubble Space Telescope.

If everything goes to plan, the miniature satellite will eventually return to Earth, brought down by atmospheric drag.

So if you want to broadcast your own short message from space, the Southern Stars Group has got your back, with pledges starting at just US$1.

This base option gives you a ten-second time slot on the mission, in which you can broadcast a single 120-character message.

The sponsorship options go all the way up to $10k, for which the company will fly two people out to Cape Canaveral from anywhere in the continental US.

From there, sponsors can watch the satellite lift off and once it's successfully in orbit, they can control the SkyCube for an entire day to take pictures, send messages, or just sit back and contemplate the balance of their bank accounts.