WakeMate, an application and wristband for use with your phone, tracks your nightly sleeping patterns, and recommends a perfect time for you to wake up depending on how your body’s sleep cycle.
You simply snap the wristband on before you go to bed, tell your phone (iPhone, Blackberry, Android and others) the latest time you’d like to wake up, and the WakeMate application will set off your alarm someone within 20 minutes before that latest time.
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Chicago company Tukaiz has turned its image personalization technology into the obvious consumer application, an iPhone app! Called PixyMe, this mobile app lets you place names into images and photographs, and in some cases with a great degree of realism.
We took the app through its paces, and found it easy to use, smooth and all without following any directions. The image you see was produced in a matter of seconds using PixyMe.
You can e-mail images you create as well as post images to your Facebook account. One nice additional feature is the ability to create and send postcards (get them printed and mailed out by PixyMe for $1.99) with both front and back images and decorations. Now you don’t even need to go looking for postcards when you’re on vacation – just take a photo wherever you are and create customized postcards every time.
For $1.99, this is a fun and useful app, and if you’re an avid postcard’er, we totally recommend it.
(Disclaimer: Gizmos for Geeks received a complimentary review copy of this product.)
The Line2 iPhone app from Toktumi is a VoIP calling application that lets you use Wi-Fi and 3G networks to make or receive calls with your same telephone number. Line2 may be particularly interesting to international travelers, as they can make calls back home without incurring international fees. On the flip side, making international calls starts at $0.02.
Line2 is so named because you actually get a second line on your iPhone replete with voicemail, caller ID, etc. Line2 costs $0.99, but monthly service runs $14.95/mo with unlimited US & Canada calling.
Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $0.99 for app; $14.95/mo for service
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Remember the Sleeptracker which tracks your sleep patterns based on your movement through the night? Well, they’ve got some competition in the form on an iPhone app called Sleep Cycle.
It uses the iPhone’s built-in gryoscope in a similar manner to the Sleeptracker. However, we’re doubtful of its accuracy as compared to the Sleeptracker because you have to place your iPhone somewhere on your bed, whereas you wear the Sleeptracker right on your wrist. Depending on how good/bad your bed is at transmitting motion, then Sleep Cycle is going to vary in its results.
We’ll give Sleep Cycle the win for the much better price ($0.99) although you do have to buy an iPhone first!
Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $0.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Home security comes to the iPhone from security company, Protection One. eSecure is a Web-based home security system that also features an iPhone app.
The Web app lets you monitor in real-time your cameras at home as well as adjust your home alarm system. There is also an SMS text message-based system for controlling your Protection One alarm system.
The iPhone lets you turn your alarm system on and off and receive alerts. Reminds us a lot of what the remote home automation apps like iLinc can do.
Price: free with Protection One’s eSecure alarm system
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
We just posted that Smart Start iPhone app from Viper that lets you start your car remotely, but what about opening your garage door remotely? Why you ask?
Here’s the scenario – you wake up on a cold winter morning, maybe in your upstairs bedroom, and you’re already late for work but just can’t imagine getting into that cold car sitting in your garage, but you’ve got the Smart Start iPhone app. Great, except that it’s going to take more than a minute or two to get that car warmed up, and you don’t want all the noxious exhaust filling your garage and seeping into your house as well.
Convinced? Ok. So one enterprising techie has already figured out how to rig his garage door [Howto] with some X10-enabled equipment that he could then control via an iPhone app called X10 Commander. And just so you know, that’s not the only game in town – there are more apps for the iPhone for your home automation control, such as iLinc.
Well your AT&T coverage and reliability may not be very good, but hey at least your iPhone is one amazing little smartphone. Automotive gadget maker Viper has taken advantage of that fact to create an iPhone app called Smart Start that pairs with one of their Remote Start products to let you start/stop/lock/unlock your car from your iPhone from virtually anywhere.
Before there were iPhones, Viper was making remote automobile starter systems that are installed in your car, and that you could then use the accompanying remote control to start your car from varying distances (some products are just local up to 2000 ft while others could go up to a mile). …
Viper Smart Start iPhone app – Remotely Start Your CarRead More »
There’s a new poker app looking to be the king of the poker games world (at least on the iPhone): World Poker Tour Texas Hold’em. While it’s very similar in ways to existing poker apps already out there, it puts together a total package of features that other apps haven’t quite managed to pull off yet.
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Now that you have your home automation all tricked out, and you got yourself an iPhone, how do you control your HA system from your God-phone?! Not to worry, iLinc is an iPhone/iPod Touch app that lets you do just that.
For example, you can control up to 1000 INSTEON or X10 devices as well as up to 1000 ‘scenes’. You of course need some way to make your devices accessible to the Intenret, and either the ISY-99i controller or the INSTEON PowerLinc controller will do the trick.
There are 2 versions, the iLinc Lite can only control 1 device, but it’s enough to get you started testing. iLinc Pro will let you control all of your devices and also works with the USB/Serial PowerLinc.
By the way, this isn’t the only iPhone app available to control your home automation devices.
Price: iLinc Lite: Free, iLinc Pro: $19.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Have Zune begun to copy Apple’s stylish music players with the upcoming Zune HD? We’ve got your weekly fill of format wars – this time focused on home automation and could we really be that much closer to wearable remote controls?
Father’s days coming up and, being such a caring bunch, we came up with a a really great idea! Another idea may be to get him an analog to digital converter so that he can preserve those old video and music sitting in the attic.
Are you aniPhone/iPod Touch user and also a networking maniac? Take a look at Zensify.
The week was capped off by the ever-so-geeky Mac vs. PC poster and a look at the current progress of holographic optics – manufacturer SBG has a very cool prototype of a full-color, heads-up wearable display.
