BioLite CampStove Provides USB Power While Cooking

It is that time of year where you might be thinking about vacation time. For some, the idea of getting away to the back country is the primary place for vacation and roughing it. Getting into the mountains or to the lake where there is no electricity and lights is the desire for many. But the fact remains that we desire to continue to stay connected even in remote locations. But, carrying extra batteries to keep your smart phone or tablet charged up is not exactly what you want to do. The BioLite CampStove might be the perfect answer for your next trip to the wilderness.

The BioLite CampStove is small enough to carry with you to provide a camp stove powered by small twigs to cook your food. The silver cylinder has a fan running in the bottom to quickly get the fire going and keep it hot. That may require you to add more branches while you are cooking. And it has the strange orange attachment which captures energy from the heat while you are cooking with the BioLite. The orange attachment is where the heat from the fire is converted into energy which can then charge up your smart phone. The How It Works shows all the technical pieces associated with the process.

But, basically, the BioLite CampStove technology has 2 purposes. One is the ability to charge up your smart phone and the other is to power the fan that is running at the bottom of the fire. And that fan takes the priority. So while charging your smart phone, you need to make sure that you have a decent fire going. Otherwise, the fan will take the priority and you will not be charging your phone. That is a minor issue, but for some it may be a big problem.

The BioLite CampStove weighs in at 33 oz. and the size of it is 8.25 inches tall and 5 inches wide. It should fit in nicely for those weekend trips that some like to take. And you do not have to bring any fuel along as you are using twigs and small branches for fuel. With the BioLite CampStove, you can leave your solar charges and extra batteries at home and lighten your load. One of the key things to have is the ability to charge up a smart phone when you are out camping. That is the one thing you must have in an emergency and you must have the ability to charge it up. The BioLite CampStove gives you that ability to add to the charge and gives you peace of mind knowing that. And you can use it to cook on.

DragonFly Drone: BionicOpter Controlled By Your Phone

Drones have become of great interest this year and that does not look like it is going to slow down any time soon. That is because they are growing smaller and a drone will be affordable for just about everyone. The ones on the market right now are much smaller than the drone we think of which the military uses. But, if you look at the consumer drone of today, there are even smaller ones making there way to market this year.

The DragonFly Drone, BionicOpter from Festo, is the kind of product which will be showing up for sale and will be one that everyone wants to have. This drone is only 17.3 inches long and has a wing span of just under 25 inches. Pretty impressive based on how well it flies and it weighs about 6 ounces. The video below shows you just what it can do. And best of all, you can control this with your smart phone. If you do not have a smart phone to use for this, there will be a wireless controller available.

With the 4 wings, the BionicOpter drone can easily hover and move about in any direction including backwards with ease. All of the details on this drone are available from the company in a PDF which is located in Germany. All of this is building on the previous flying drone from the company which is called SmartBird which demonstrated they could have realistic flight for a bird. This was shown at TEDGlobal in July 2011.

While there has been no announcements yet about when they might release this drone to the public, it may be that a much smaller model could become available to the public. That would reduce the costs and make this one more affordable. Exactly when that might be is an unknown, but with the successful presentations this month, it is only a matter of time before other companies jump in with cheaper models and attempt to grab the market. We would assume that some form of the BionicOpter drone will be coming to market this year.

YikeBike - Ultra Compact Fold Up Electric Bicycle

If you are considering an electric bike for transportation, you might want to take a look at the YikeBike. While this may look like the strangest electric bike that you have ever seen, it is also one of those which is using some very interesting techniques to go along with it. While it has the expected 2 wheels, you do not see any pedals on it as you do with the majority of electric bikes. That is because they did not start with a bicycle as the starting point for creating this. And looking at the YikeBike, it is not like anything else you have seen in electric transportation. And it sure does look awkward to ride on.

But, as the video below shows, it is one of those things that you can adjust to very easily. And just like the Segway, once you quickly master the balancing act, you are ready to go and travel as far as the battery will take you. Which for the YikeBike is not very far. The lowest model (Fusion) will take you about 6 miles, which for people leaving in San Francisco will be able to take you to work in the downtown area without any problems. You can then charge it up for the trip home. And since the bike folds up to be a very small package (about 30 pounds for the heaviest model), you can take it into work with you. Check out the folding video.



Since the batteries are easy to get to, you can bring additional batteries with you to extend the range that the YikeBike can travel. And with traveling speeds well over 10 mph, you can move along at a good clip towards your destination. And unlike a regular bike, the YikeBike comes with included lights on it so people can see you.

As with any product, there is always going to be something which is a problem. With the YikeBike, it is the fact that it is not based on a bicycle. If the battery runs down, there are no pedals to power you on to your destination. You would have to fold up the YikeBike and find another method of transportation. The other problem that we see is the price for the YikeBike. With 3 different models, the prices range from $2305 (Fusion) up to $4040 (Carbon) at the YikeBike America web site. This is a very different product and worth a look.

Cycle Atom - Pedal Power To Charge Up Your SmartPhone

KickStarter Friday - Battery charger powered by your bike

Here in California, riding your bike for exercise and pleasure is a big deal. There are bike lanes clearly marked in numerous cities to provide for the ability to ride to work and spare the air from driving your car. And that is an important part of taking care of the planet. Now, we need to figure out a way to use that pedal power while riding to do something else very important. Like charge up a battery or even charge up your smart phone while your ride. Now, that would be a really great product to have. And as a matter of fact, we have found one which is coming soon.

This week's KickStarter project is the Siva Cycle Atom which can provide you with both a battery charger and charge your phone at the same time. With 27 days remaining, it looks like they are going to exceed the goal of $85,000 with the current pledges at over $64,000. The idea is a great one. Place a charger on your bike attached to the rear wheel so that it cannot be stolen unless they are able to steal your rear wheel and include a small battery to be charged up.

While you ride your bike, you generate kinetic energy which the Cycle Atom converts into electricity. That can be use to power the battery so that you have something to charge up your smartphone at work. The battery is easily detached to take with you. Or you can attach a USB cable to the battery that is being charged and then connect it to your smart phone and charge your phone while you are riding. The Cycle Atom seems to be an answer for the problems with battery life on our smart phones while you are riding.

Being able to charge up USB devices while you are riding is a big deal. Many cyclists go out for all day rides and this would insure that they have the use of their smart phone and do not have to worry about a low battery. For avid cyclist, weight and balance are a big concern. The Cycle Atom only weighs 10 ounces and measures 7.5 inches by 3 inches so it will not be in the way. And with the 1300 mAh battery, you will have what you need when away from your bike to get enough power to your smart phone for use. Multiple purposes for a really great idea.

If you pre-order the Siva Cycle Atom, it will cost you $95 as part of the KickStarter promotion. When it comes to market, the price will be $105. For what the Cycle Atom is delivering, this seems like a really great deal on a product that is powered by pedal power while you ride.

Double Robotics Lets You Be There From A Distance

The idea of having robots in our every day lives is starting to become reality. Some of them are like toys which can be played with in games at work. But, the robots are now becoming far more sophisticated in their design and applications. Many of us have the ability to work from home which does create some problems when it comes to meetings and seeing everything which is going on. There is a growing number of products which can make it seem as though we are there attending the meeting. Some are fixed in place and can turn to show those in the meeting. The real value can come from being able to move about at will to go to other locations in the office when you are still at home.

Another robotic company is bringing Double Robotics to market and is one of those items that you should pay close attention to. This provides you with the ability to be in the office without actually being there. Robots are the future and this provides you with one that has an iPad attached to the top of it. While this does not come with an iPad which you have to supply, it does come with the motorized unit which is controlled through the iPad. It has two wheels to move about and even a kickstand to hold it up when not moving. Reminds me of the Segway. With the Double Robotics which you control remotely, it can be navigated throughout a building as long as there is a level surface.

You "drive" yourself to a meeting and once there, you can move the robot around to see things and people in the meeting. You can even adjust the height of the iPad on the top which is a plus. With the live streaming of video and voice between you and the location of the Double Robotics, you are an active participant. And, with you own iPad, you can connect to other Double Robotics and move them around as though you are actually there. All of this is made possible by connections over the web and the connected iPad controlling the Double Robotics.

We previously talked about the VGo Robots which are being used in hospitals and schools, but comes with a much higher price tag. With anything new, the prices tend to come down as others enter the market. The VGo starts at just under $6,000, making the Double Robotics seem like a bargain.

The Double Robotics is currently on pre-order for $1,999 as part of the second production run. The regular price is $2,500. While it may seem expensive, you only have to consider the costs of commuting to work for a few months to see the value that this provides. Robots are coming and this one is part of the growing movement.

FireFox Phones Moving Closer To Release Date

Firefox OS phones broke onto the scene in February and they create a splash with the announcement they would be selling sometime this year. Given the powerhouse phones from Apple and Samsung, they will be facing an uphill battle to gain market share. There are so many brands out in the market and some, such as Blackberry having been struggling lately. But, a Firefox OS phone could just make the difference in taking advantage of a powerful name. As web based smart phone, it present something far different than anything we have seen before. Gone will be the very complex coding for apps on a smart phones. If you can code a web site, you can write an app for the coming Firefox OS phones. The idea of using open source code to drive a smart phone is nothing new and you only have to look back to Google and their Android OS. So, will a Firefox OS phone be popular?

Phones are currently selling for developers to develop their apps on and the first day of sales resulted in them selling out in a few hours the first 1000 units. More are planned to be made available for sale by today, but the quantities may not be enough to prevent another sell off. And these are not phones which are to be sold to the public as they are beta models of the hardware and FireFox OS. It is expected that the demand by developers for phones to test apps on will remain high for several weeks.

Based on the first day of sales, these are extremely popular among developers. This may not translate to actual consumer sales, but it does appear that developers will be buying models as quickly as they are put on sale. This will be the case for he next few weeks bolstering the idea of success for FireFox as an OS for smart phones. Multiple manufacturers are already lining up to build FireFox OS phones including Sony, Huawei and LG. The developer phones come in two models. The Keon, shown above, is selling for $119 and coming with a 3.5 inch screen, a 3 megapixel camera and 4 GB of storage. This sounds like a great price for an entry level smart phone and will do well in sales. The Peak, shown to the right is selling for $194. It comes with a 4.3 inch screen, 8 megapixel camera and the same 4 GB of storage. This one looks like a FireFox phone going after the heart of the smart phone market.

While we wrote about the FireFox OS coming to a crowded market back in February. But based on the rapid sell out on the first day, the market may not be all that crowded for a new entry into the market place. The developer models are being sold by GeeksPhone in their GeeksPhone online store. At the moment, they are still showing as sold out.

There is so much more to the FireFox OS phones in the future that we will continue to follow the story as it unfolds.

MeterPlug - Fighting Vampire Power Waste In Your Home

It seems that power bills get higher all the time, though that may be what it seems like and reality may not be that bad. With all the things that we plug in, there must be a way to reduce the cost for electricity. What has been coming out in recent years is the fact that many of the things we have in our homes use power 24 hours a day. That DVR is running 24 hours a day consuming power, but is required to do that in order to work correctly. And there are so many other devices which consume power when not in use. Your computer is taking power when it is turned off. And then there are the things which consume large amounts of energy, but you do not know just how much, such as your refrigerator. All of these things cost money and there needs to be a better way to figure out where all the power is being consumed.

The MeterPlug is going to be that device which can tell you what is going on with power consumption. It is a small plug that slips between the plug and the wall socket and once in place can provide you with valuable information. Think your xBox 360 is stealing power like a vampire sucking money out of your wallet? The MeterPlug will be able to tell you that. And the information is provided to your smart phone. This is accomplished via Bluetooth 4.0 on either an iOS or Android app you run on your smart phone.

As you can see here, they are showing you what it costs to run washing machine. Just by placing the MeterPlug between the power cord and the wall socket, you can start getting information. So many electronic devices continue to pull power even after you hit the power button and they all add up on your electricity bill. One of the features for the MeterPlug is the ability to turn off a monitored appliance or device so that it is drawing no electricity which right now is like a vampire draining power when it does not need it.

With their huge databases, they can even tell you the costs for using power so that you know what a single item is costing you. Or you can have devices for your home office plugged into a power strip and place the MeterPlug between the power strip plug and the wall outlet. You will then be able to know what your home office is costing you in energy costs. And that dreaded vampire drain after your power things down.

The MeterPlug started as an Indiegog project and is going to be shipping to the US in a matter of weeks with this get method of figuring out where your costs are for electricity. You can pre-order one now at StockNFind.com. The MeterPlug has a lot of intelligence built into it and as a result is not going to be cheap. They will cost you $50 per plug, but are well worth the cost in terms of the value you can get from them.

Power Pack Gives Your Mobile Device A Battery Charge

Until the battery life on our mobile devices improves radically, the need to have a charger along is critical to our daily lives. And if you are in a situation where there is no where to plug in that USB cable you use to add battery life to your phone, then having an alternative handy becomes critical. Portable battery chargers are a necessity if you rely on your mobile device for connections to friends, family or work. When that dreaded low battery light starts showing on your smart phone, you want to have something on hand which can save the day for you until you get to a power source.

And that is where the Belkin Power Pack 4000 comes in to keep you mobile devices charged until you get to a power source. Measuring at 4.3 by 3.3 inches with a height of 0.6 inches, this one is compact enough for you to drop in a pocket or bag for your use. And while weighing 4.6 ounces, it weighs a little more than the iPhone 5. But, with most of us, we are carrying both a smart phone and a tablet and need something which can charge both when we are seeing low battery indicators.

The Belkin Power Pack 4000 has 2 USB connectors to provide power to both your smart phone and tablet at the same time. And they throw in 2 USB to microUSB cables with this portable charger. These are not a partial charge, but a full charge for both devices. Not all portable charges have the ability to charge up two items at the same time.

The Belkin Power Pack 4000 comes with a wall adapter for charging it up after use. But with a 95% battery staying power after charging, it will hold that charge for up to 30 days, so you are not going to need to carry the charger with you for short trips. While the initial charge on the 4000 takes about 8 hours, recharging this portable battery takes 3 to 4 hours from then on.


While the idea of having to carry a portable battery charge is not exactly what we what to be doing, the reality is we are going to experience low battery problems on our smart phones because of the poor battery life in them. The current technology is not where it needs to be for having multiple days of battery life on smart phones. Until you get the kind of battery life that is demanded by our mobile lives, carrying a portable battery charger is a fact of life. The Belkin Power Pack is one of those items which becomes a necessity.

Travel Outlet With Swivel Plugs And Surge Protection

If you have ever traveled and stayed in a hotel, you know the frustration of trying to find more than a single outlet to plug your chargers into. Whether it be for your laptop, tablet or smart phone, most hotels limit you to pretty much a single plug for your technology equipment. And with some of the large plugs for USB drives and others, you need to find something which you can easily carry with you while you travel. And since the power in some locations is not a clean as it could be, you need to be able to check for it being grounded as well. All of this must include the ability to handle surge protection as well.

While there are many portable surge protectors, few have all the features that we want to see. We have found the Travel Swivel Socket with Surge over at Herrington Catalog and this one provides great features. We have searched to see if you could find this one elsewhere and were not successful. There are several things which make travel swivel socket with surge protection a desirable part of your travel gear, if not an essential part.

The two outlets have the ability to turn 360 degrees, so if you have one of those over-sized transformer style plugs, you can still use the other outlet. By providing the swivel feature, it gives you the flexibility to move things around and have 2 items plugged in. There are also 2 USB outlets as well for charging up your smart phone or tablet at the same time. As you can see from the picture, there is a grounded light and a protected light to provide you with the knowledge that you are protected.

The one big additional feature for this portable power surge protector is the retractable plug on it. So many of the travel surge protector do not have one specific feature which is one we consider to be an important feature. With plugs sticking out, they can snag on things causing potential problems with poking holes in your bag if not covered up. For me, this is a great feature to reduce the packing concerns when traveling.

There are a lot of other popular travel surge on the market, such as the Belkin SurgePlus which has a swivel plug. But the swiveling plug is the one that plugs into the wall. And that plug does not retract so it sticks out to catch on things in your bag. The one nice feature is that the USB plugs are on the side and will not be blocked by the items plugged into it. On the Travel Swivel Socket, the USB plugs are on the top and could be covered by a large transformer block style plug.

If you do not have a travel surge protector, the Travel Swivel Socket is a great item to carry because of the flexibility of the plugs which can be turned 360 degrees. And it provides the ability to know that you are connecting to a grounded power source.

SmartThings Provides An Open Home Security System

KickStarter Friday - Opening Connections To Other Products

Home security systems have become very important today. And there are so many different ways that you can protect your home and belongings. The problem with so many of the various home security packages which are available is that they are not open. If you buy a package from a security company, you get their products along with the monthly fees. You cannot add some other product into the mix. Even the ones which leverage mobile technology today are not able to take advantage of other products or apps. And there are a number of different methods used for communication, like ZigBee, Z-Wave and WiFi. And vendors are not going to include multiple methods for communicating with devices.

So, for this weeks KickStarter Friday, we are talking about SmartThings which raised over $1.2 million for their base product. This was done last year and they have shipped product. At the moment, they are working to manufacture more to meet the continuing demand and you can "Reserve Your Spot" for one when they come in which is currently estimated to be in May. The SmartThings hardware unit and the associated software is being worked on to continue to include more and more devices.

If someone's product allows for it to be controlled by a 3rd party, then it can be controlled by SmartThings. There are developers working to add various products and controls to be able to join the SmartThings unit. While this does sound like a fantastic way of doing things, it is going to take a little while longer to create the software connections to other devices. The company is working to make connections to the things in your home and allow for automation of them from a single device. That is a big undertaking and if they are only 50% successful, they will have a great product.

While they sell "things" which are devices you would normally have with a security system, such as door and window monitors, it is the potential to use other devices which do not come from SmartThings. Their SmartApps are designed to let you monitor just about anything that you can reach which has an interface. And with that, they have a large development effort which appears to be operating much in the same way as open source projects. It is these apps which will allow the SmartThings unit to monitor and control so many more items than one would think. It is all dependent on whether those devices will allow for the SmartApps to access their information.

This may be the next be thing for home security and move beyond the limiting packages that you are forced to purchase.

WiFi Cameras Should Be Part Of Your Home Security

With everything that goes on in the world, the need for having a camera to record activities is an important feature for your home security. If your home is being viewed by someone wanting to break in, seeing exterior cameras may be a deterrent to them doing that. Or cameras inside the home can record someone inside the hone who should not be there. You can even be alerted to someone in your home by the recording of information. There have been recent news reports here in Northern California of exterior cameras recording someone coming to a home and stealing the delivered boxes. Having cameras for your home is becoming part of the standard package for home security and is something which should be part of your overall considerations for home security.

While you can run wired cameras, WiFi cameras are far easier to set up and use. It is just a matter of making a connection to them and you are ready to use them. Those of a few years back were limited to connections to the back of a DVR, but the ones of today are using mobile devices to alert you as to activities besides recording the actions. More and more are storing the recordings in the Cloud with added services, so even if someone steals the camera, you still have the images to turn over to the police.

WiFi cameras will leverage your local WiFi router to stream the video, which can be to the web, computer or Cloud. One that is popular is the Samsung SmartCam which has a lot of features at a low price. That includes the ability to detect noise or motion around the camera and then provide notifications to you. Another popular WiFi camera is DropCam which offers a similar set of features and adds night vision to the package as well. The include the streaming video to the web and notification alerts should be the standards you are looking for.

Having a camera for indoor use which these are designed for, still leaves the outside of your home to be covered. You want something which can withstand the weather, such as the Wansview WiFi camera which has notifications and motion detection. The growing market for outside WiFi cameras is growing and it is the feature sets which make these desirable. The Wansview has built in night vision as well which is something that should be expected from all outdoor cameras. There are many other outdoor WiFi cameras on the market and you should research those that you are considering for your home.

With summer approaching and vacation planning, you need to make sure that your home security is where it needs to be. If you need to improve on what you have, WiFi cameras look to be your best bet to cover your home and property. There is no one size fits all for this and you will need to do some research to find cameras that fit your needs. Indoor cameras come in many shapes and sizes while outdoor cameras are less flexible in shapes and design. The key to look for is WiFi enabled cameras that can send you notifications to your phone to alert you along with streaming video which can be viewed remotely.

Electronic Door Viewers Greatly Improve The Door Peephole

Growing up, the front door is the the barrier to the outside world and provides a feeling of security. When someone would knock on the door, my parents would look through the tiny peephole in the door to see who it was and decide whether to open the door. I was too small to look through it because it was towards the top of the door. As I grew older, I could pull up a chair and look through it to see the outside world. But that view was very strange looking. Trying to get a clear picture of who was at the door was not possible. So much has changed in the past 5 years that getting an excellent view of the person outside is now possible.

So, in continuing with gadgets around the home to provide security, we are looking at the old door peephole concept and the numerous improvements which have come about. There are a variety of door viewers which can provide an excellent LCD picture for you to see. And they include a wide angle picture as well. The other big improvement is that they take a picture of what you are looking at and store it on a micro SD card, such as the Digital Door Viewer from Yale shown above. Viewers have improved greatly and the whole family can use them. You press a button and the picture appears, so even the younger members of the family can use an electronic door viewer to see who is at the door.

The pictures being recorded have pretty much become the standard for the door viewers and most come with a 512 MB micro SD card standard. With the 2.5 to 3.5 inch screen sizes being sold today, you get a great picture. The biggest issue with these is the batteries required to power door viewers. It seems that not all door viewers are created equal and some do not get the best battery life. As an example, a generic viewer has people complaining about the battery life in the reviews. Brand names do not seem to have the same complaints, such as the Brinno electronic peephole viewer. Viewers are going to be one of those items which require research on your part.

When you are looking at viewers, be aware that some of the digital viewers do not record pictures of the person at the door and that will obviously impact the price. The added picture taking has more technology with it and raises the price for the electronic door viewer. Some viewers have an associated door bell with them, so that when someone rings the bell, it will take their picture. There are so many features associated with the electronic door viewers that you are going to have to determine which one fits your needs. The best feature of all for these is that from the outside of the door, you cannot tell that there is an electronic viewer which can take a picture.

Lockitron - Remotely Lock Your Door When You Forget

If you are like many in the technology world, you sometimes have to rush out of the house to get to work because of some emergency. And with the rush to get out of the house, how many times have you wondered if you locked your door or not. That is a nagging feeling and one that stays with you until you get home. Since there are other products on the market for turning lights on and off when you are not home, why not one which will let you lock or unlock your front door remotely? This is the week where we are providing gadgets to help around the home while providing you with security. And with that, we have found something new to let you lock or unlock your deadbolt with your smartphone.

Coming this summer, Lockitron will be shipping to provide you with an electronic security device. Listed at $179, you can pre-order one now and be part of the first group to receive your own Lockitron. This is such a simple concept to provide you with the peace of mind to know that you have locked your door. I have left home a number of times only to return a few minutes later to make sure that I locked the front door. With the Lockitron, I would no longer have to wonder. While it can do much more than just this single feature, for me, this is the reason I would go out and buy one.

When the Lockitron arrives, it will have the both Android and iOS apps to provide you with the ability to check the status of the deadbolt lock. With the app, you can lock or unlock the deadbolt with ease. If you need to let someone into your home while you are at work, you can to that with the WiFi enabled Lockitron. While the plans to include WiFi into this security device are underway, there will be no visible interface for the device to set things up. The built in WiFi device can be configured with the Lockitron app on your phone. You place your smart phone near the device and enter the provided user name and password. Then press Send and it syncs things up for you in a matter of seconds.

Since this is technology, it requires power which is provided by 2 AA batteries. And they claim that this will power the Lockitron for more than a year. This looks like a great device to have and is very simple to use. It can even alert you when the door is unlocked which is a great feature. And there is even more to this. They are going to include Bluetooth 4.0 capabilities so that the Lockitron knows when you are approaching with your smart phone and automatically unlock the deadbolt for you. All of this is coming and will be easily installed. Take a look at the video to see just how great this product is.

DoorBot - Answer Your Door When You Are Not There

In today's world, many of us are concerned about security and where we live is just another of those areas of wanting security. If you own your own home, the concerns of protecting your home is one that is always there. If you are not at home, how do you address security concerns for people looking for a home where there is no one there. I have seen reports here on the West Coast where people ring door bells to see if someone is home and if no one answers, they often return a few hours later trying to break in. So, what if you could make it look like you are at one when you actually are not. There is technology which will do exactly that by letting you answer the door via a camera and speaker to make it appear like you are at home.

The DoorBot Smart Doorbell has recently received funding via Christy Street and is preparing to come to market by July this year. And the concept is very simple to install for anyone. Requiring 4 screws to attach it, it is powered by 4 AA batteries which are supposed to last up to a year. And there are no wires to run as with the current door bell on your home. With a camera, microphone and speaker, you have all the parts you need to help protect your home.

When someone comes to your door and rings the bell, you are notified on your mobile device via the DoorBot app which you can download for iOS or Android. This is via the WiFi in your home which then sends the information to your mobile device. You are then able to see who is at your front door via the adjustable camera. The angle of the camera is set by you when you install the DoorBot. With a view of the person at the door, you are able to communicate with them as to what it is they want. As far as the person at the door is concerned, you are at home talking to them. And the person at the door cannot see you, but only hear you and assume that you are at home. You can be miles away or hundreds of miles away, but it creates the illusion that you are at home.

The one drawback to this is the label on the DoorBot. It makes it very obvious so someone that you are using the DoorBot and those who looking to burglarize your home are going to know about the devices. While this is a very simple model to install, it may not be the best one for you. If you want something simple to install, this is the one to get.

Swivl - Your Personal Cameraman For Making Videos

If you have worked to create a video to share, you know that it is very difficult to do by yourself. And if you are doing this with your smart phone, there is no way you can move about and show the background or props without having someone hold your phone and move with you. While technology has moved a great deal to provide the ability to shoot a video with a smart phone, there still exists problems with creating your content by yourself the way you need to do. I recently ran across a product which is going to provide a tool in order to let you make videos by yourself and let you move about when you are doing it.

The Swivl is a stand which will hold an iPhone for use as camera so that you can put together your own video. And you will not need someone else to be holding the camera on the iPhone as you move about the room. If you are like me, holding the camera still on my smart phone as I move it has always been a challenge. With the Swivl, the movement is going to be far more steady than if someone is holding the camera. The only drawback to the Swivl is its support for the iPhone and leaving Android out.

The key to the Swivl, other than the base unit, is the remote device which comes with the Swivl. This lets the Swivl track you as you move about so that you are always in the center of the camera. And there is a a built in microphone that comes with it. With this, you have your own camera crew without having anyone there with you. Being able to move about to show things in the background or other props and have the sound being recorded is quite a neat idea.

All of this may sounds really great, but you may be asking about when you can get one to support your Android smart phone. At the moment, there is work being done on the next Swivl after a recent KickStarter campaign and this model is expected to make its appearance in July. And it will support Android devices some time after the launch of this model. If you like to make videos and don't want to rely on others to hold the smart phone shooting the video, you want to take a look at the Swivl.

Drones Go Mainstream In Online Stores

Drones have become extremely popular with the public in spite of all the concerns that people have regarding the government. Those concerns include the US Government using drones against its citizens and is a big concern regardless of what is said to reassure the public. But, with lowering prices on drones and parts, it has come down to the point where just about anyone can go out and purchase one for personal use. The Parrot AR Drone has become a big favorite of many and with a price of about $300, anyone can have one. All you have to do is spend a little time looking around.

As an example of how popular drones have become, I did a Google search for "drone accessories" and at the top of the list was Brookstone which was rather surprising. They sell a wide variety of items, but I did not expect to see them selling drones. The next one I found was Amazon selling a long list of accessories and units. They always provide things either directly or from a 3rd party selling to meet everyone's needs. It seems that you can get replacement blades, hulls, or just about anything you might need to add or replace from an online site. It is a fast growing market right now.

There were some offerings online with a few that did surprise. Such as Verizon Wireless offering the Parrot AR Drone 2.0 for $299.99. A seller of mobile devices moving into selling what has become a hobby product is a surprise. Guess that is because so many of the drones can be controlled by a mobile device that wireless providers are getting in on the action. All of this is continuing to see growth.

And so much of this is for the hobbiest and how they love to fly things. For so many years, it has been the flying of model planes, some of which can get quite large in size. There are sites on the web, such as Flying Toys to meet the needs of those who are now getting involved in the flying of drones. The fascination with flying something which can move in many different directions very easily and quickly has drawn many to purchase one and quickly learn how to navigate a drone.

And there are a growing number of apps available and competing for use on smart phones to control the growing interest in drones. As an example, there is the Drone Ace app for controlling the Parrot AR Drone for the Apple iPhone. Or the AR Free Flight app for the Android smart phones. And there are far more than just these 2 available for use in controlling the hobby drones.

The interest that the general public has with drones right now looks like a love hate relationship. There is the hate for using drones to kill people and there is the love of new discovery. Drones provide an educational aspect for learning how they work and may possibly be used for non-military activities. We wrote about some of the other uses for Drones which are positive in nature, including monitoring climate change which is a topic many are concerned about.

It is obvious that drones are now mainstream here in the US and will continue to grow. You add to that the continuing decline in prices and they quickly move into being affordable by everyone to use and learn from. If you have not looked into drones yet, now would be a good time to do so.

Trax GPS Gives You A Tracking Device For Your Loved Ones

KickStarter Friday: Tacking your child's location with GPS

If you are a parent, you probably have had a situation where you may have lost sight of your child. And finding them was the only thing on your mind until you located that ever important person. Now, what if there was a small device which you could give to your child so that you could know where they are at all times. And what if that device could be tracked with your Android or iOS phone through a downloadable app. You would be very impressed and want to know where you could get one of these. This is a simple GPS device that has a lot of features.

Our Kickstarter Friday gadget is the trax GPS tracking device which will be closing in a few hours where they have already exceeded their project goal. The project is coming from Sweden and the trax website is already up and preparing to take your pre-orders. While I am focusing on kids because that is important to me, it could be a pet that is important to you as well. What they are going to be providing is a very small GPS tracking device in real time.

These measure at 1.49 inches by 2.16 inches with a thickness of .39 inches. A small package weighing in at 1.06 oz. A very small compact GPS device. But it will be so much more than that. The tracking portion of this will be done via a SIM card where they are going to give you 2 years worth of free data and roaming charges in a number of countries including the US, Canada, Australia and much of Europe. Now, with a SIM card, they have the ability to communicate to the app you are running on your Android or iOS device. With an included accelerometer and Gyro, they can add further to the feature set providing the GPS location of the carrier of the device.

The largest item in the trax GPS tracker is the battery and is estimated to last from 2 to 4 days. And they keep track of whether the device is moving and if not, the trax GPS tracker goes into sleep mode conserving the battery. This is not something you have to monitor all the time. You can predefine areas where the GPS unit can travel and if it goes outside those boundaries, you are alerted. Or, if you set a distance limit, it will detect whether it is too far away from your location. Another great one is that it is able to identify when the trax GPS is exceeding the speed limit. If they are able to identify a speed boundary, you would be alerted if your child is in a moving car or not. That would be a key feature to track a kidnapped child.

All of this is very impressive and with its small size, this is going to be a desirable item to know where your loved ones actually are. It looks like pricing is going to be about $200 when it comes to market. And that will be after those who pledged to the KickStarter project for the trax GPS tracking device. Current estimates are for those to be delivered in June.

Another great idea funded by KickStarter.

PayTango - Using Fingerprints Instead Of Credit Cards

The days of having to carry a credit card around with you to pay for things may be moving towards a thing of the past. It is not that the credit card itself is going away, only the need to carry one with you. If you could use your fingerprints to charge something, that would make life much easier for everyone. If you are not carrying your credit card with you, it cannot be stolen. This sounds like such a simple process, it is surprising that it has not turned into a product before now given all the problems that the credit card industry has with fraud and the untold costs of that on consumers.

This is where PayTango comes in to fill a void which has been a problem for years. Four recent graduates are doing a pilot test with the concept of using fingerprints to charge your purchases at Carnegie Mellon. They have proven that the simple sign up process of placing your index and middle finger on the scan pad works very well. If the scan of your fingerprints does not find a match, it asks you to tie a credit card to the fingerprints. After you swipe a card, it asks you to enter a cell phone number. That is all there is to the process for you to begin using your fingerprints to begin making purchases.

For many years, fingerprints have been used for unique identification of a person and is an accepted standard. So, the idea of using fingerprints to uniquely identify a person tied to a credit card to make purchases makes perfect sense in today's world of technology. If you forget your wallet, it is not a problem when you are paying by using your fingerprints.

We can expect to see PayTango roll out to Colleges and Universities this year as it is a great match and use of technology. They have built their own scan pad which is connecting to their servers where it does a look up of the fingerprints and if there is a match, it places the charge on to the associated credit card. All of this takes a matter of a few seconds.

While the concept of PayTango is a fantastic idea that I believe will be extremely successful, it does have a similar problem which so many other things in the world have and that is fraud. The process of putting two fingers on the pad and then swiping your credit card on the reader to register is the point where things might fail. Unless someone is verifying the credit card is tied to the person with an ID check, there is nothing to stop someone from using a stolen credit card. The only bright spot in the failing is the fact that they have two fingerprints on file of the person who is using the stolen credit card. That will easily help the police to track down the individual.

While some of their marketing sites for PayTango need some work, this will be the future for charging purchases. It will take some work to break into the large retail chains or smaller stores, but it will happen. As an example, we have all moved to an app to charge our Starbucks coffee. How much simpler it will be to pay with fingerprints instead. Your hands will be free from holding your smart phone in making your payment. Others have tried the use of fingerprints for making payments, but PayTango looks to be one of the better ones.

Watch for this as the year progresses as you will be hearing more about PayTango in the future.

Water Heater For Your Future - Nuclear Reactor

Talking a hot shower in the morning is something that most of us take for granted. Having natural gas or propane to heat of the water that is delivered to warm the water is taken as a given. Some even have electricity to heat the water instead. Which ever the method, it looks like that may be changing in the future based on an article that I came across talking about the idea of having a nuclear reactor in your home which could heat the water. While many are dead set against Nuclear Power, we have to consider alternatives as existing fossil fuels are not going to last forever.

Much of the current conversation which is taking place is based on an article from Forbes talking about how a Nuclear Reactor is going to replace your water heater. While the title is an attention grabber, it is a little misleading. But it does get your attention. The idea of having one in your home is a scary thought, but these are not the ones we all think of when the topic comes up. The idea of a nuclear meltdown is something that I want to be as far aware from as possible.

Instead, a low-energy nuclear reactor (LENR) uses common, stable elements like nickel, carbon, and hydrogen to produce stable products like copper or nitrogen, along with heat and electricity.

They are talking about the Low Energy Nuclear Reactor (LENR) which is not using nuclear material or splitting atoms. The LENR is using things for power that we are all familiar with. Items such as nickel, carbon and hydrogen would be used in this small nuclear reactor. And it is quite possible that the first application will be for heating the water in your home. As the picture shows, heating water is currently a byproduct of cooling the nuclear reactors.

They are referencing electricity as another product, but that is more than likely not going to be the first supplication. Just like solar in the home, the first application was to heat your water and years later it moved to providing power to your home. Given the general purpose of a nuclear reactor to provide power, using it for heating water would not necessarily be the best use of the LENR process. But it will probably be the first in getting it into the home.

All of this is coming out of NASA and their Langley Research Center, so there is legitimate research going on to move in this direction. But that research is a long ways from completion before it can become a safe and reliable method of provide heat for your water. How far off that will be is an unknown as this is still the early stages of the process.

There is going to be a lot of resistance to the idea of providing a nuclear reactor to hones. Much of that is going to be due to the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster of 2011. Studies are still going on from that and will continue to be in people's minds for many years to come. Nuclear continues to be a situation of changing people's minds as to its safety.

Battery Issues Impact Both Electric Vehicles & Mobile Devices

We are faced with a need for new technology to address the ongoing limitations in battery life that we are seeing every day. If you are the owner of an all electric vehicle, the majority of them on the road today have a very limited range of driving before you must stop and charge them back up. Few cars exceed a range of 100 miles and if you exclude the Tesla, the average across all models drops a lot. You can only go so far before you have to stop and recharge. The same issue is impacting our mobile devices today where getting an all day charge on your smart phone seems to be very elusive at best. It seems that technology and desire has exceeded the capabilities of today's battery technology.

Future Battery Technology

The existing batteries which are being used does not meet the needs and without new discoveries, we will continue to be limited in battery life. Current solutions to extend all electric vehicles for decent ranges are extremely expensive as demonstrated by Tesla. For mobile devices, the current solution is battery extenders which attach to you device and add life to the battery. Neither of these are acceptable solution. There is continuing work being done by a wide variety of groups on the next big breakthrough. And it is a race because the winner will make a lot of money.

The future is being held in new discoveries, such as one using Graphene layers to improve batteries. This one is supposed to improve battery capacity and speed up charging times. Existing Lithium batteries are being researched for ways of improving that technology. Other research for smart phones holds promise to increase capacity 10 times greater than what we have today.

There are numerous researching activities going on at universities which will hopefully result in significant improvements in battery life for electric vehicles. While one might think that it will benefit only all electric vehicles for what has been discovered and brought to market, that would not be correct. That new technology would be passed on to mobile devices as well, benefiting us all. But how long it will be before all the various research which is being done will come to market is an unknown. And that is part of the problem as there is no known time frame when we can expect to see the hoped for significant battery life improvements.

With the coming technology shift to provide far better battery life, we are concerned about how long can we go before having to charge things up again. Given our appetites, it would appear that we will never have enough of a charge to meet our needs. Be it for the all electric vehicle or the ever popular mobile devices. We all want to keep using them and never have to worry about charging them up. That is not available for today, but is the hope for tomorrow.

Passwords To Be Replaced With Biometrics & EyeVerify

Passwords have been the primary means of securing computers, emails and web sites along with a large number of other things. And that has been the first line of defense for way too many years. As we gained more and more access points for web sites or emails, the goal of having a unique password for each one became a major problem and so many have duplicated passwords from time to time. There are even some who use the same password on every site or email account. And that is a bad thing if one site gets hacked and they have access to your password. Technology needs to evolve to something far better than what we currently have and Biometrics is the real answer for the future.

Things continually change as technology improves and a company called EyeVerify may be holding the most promise to moving us from the problems of remembering passwords and typing them in to a logon screen. Your eyes are unique to you as an individual and you do not have to remember a password. And with the technology they are using, they can prove who you are by combining several different features of your eyes. Those features include both the Iris in eye and the blood vessels of the eye.

Some have indicated that biometric scanning of the eyes can be fooled, but if the scanning process is looking at your eyes at different angles, fooling a scanner becomes far more difficult to accomplish. Scanners which can be fooled are not checking for what some refer to as "proof of life". By checking the location of blood vessels of the eyes, they are proving that it is a live person they are working with in combination with the angles of what they are recording.

It is the use of streaming video of your eye to move beyond the single picture for using biometrics which makes this method far more secure than previous methods which are being employed. And that video is key to what the future holds for moving us from the manual entry of passwords to the utilization of biometrics for validation of who you are. Just how soon we might see this kind of technology is not known as EyeVerify is partnering with various companies to move their product forward and into the market. This would be a big improvement over the current layers of security used to secure access to web sites and email. Or even access to your mobile device.

Hyundai 4EU - Your Personal Vehicle Of The Future

It seems that car manufacturers are always trying to figure out what the future transportation might look like for people. And car shows seem to be the best place to test the waters to see how the public will respond to new concepts in moving from place to place. The idea of a Personal Mobility Vehicle (PMV) has been around for a while and it seems they are always trying to improve on that concept. The latest prototype for the PMV has been presented at the Seoul Motor Show and is creating a lot of conversation, primarily because of its shape, but also what it may mean for the future of transportation in the crowded cities.

The Seoul Motor Show has just concluded and one of the more talked about items here in the US is the Hyundai 4EU, a prototype Personal Mobility Vehicle for the future. It is the very unique shape of this which has caught the attention of many and one that could very well become a reality here in the US. It is very small and is rated to run at speeds of up to 18 mph. This beats out the Segway with its 12 mph speeds, so technology is improving. If you remember when the Segway was first introduced, it was looked at as something strange with a lot of people against them. Here is a potential method for transportation in cities where parking is a premium along with traffic congestion.

This is not something we are going to see next year, but the idea of personal transportation is going to become a reality in the future. When I travel during rush hour times, most of the cars around me have a single driver in the vehicle, just like myself. That is a lot of wasted gas and costs to incur. The future for transportation will have to address this problem and that may not be too far off. If you look at Google's self driving cars, they allow for computers to control the vehicle and in the future the flow of traffic.

It could well be that the future has us traveling to work in computerized Personal Mobility Vehicles which can zip down the roads at high speeds reducing congestion and accidents. And with all electric propulsion, it meets the needs to reduce the use of fossil fuels. The Segway broke new ground when it came out and the Hyundai 4EU has done the same with this prototype. We need to figure out alternative methods of transportation to alleviate the traffic problems of getting to work. This concept along with major improvements in technology to allow vehicles to be controlled by computers is going to be our future.

RigidBot - Your Own Personal 3D Printer

KicStarter Friday - A 3D Printer at a price the majority can afford.

There has been a lot of talk about 3D printers over the past year and some of that is the result of TV shows basing part of the story line around one building a gun made out of plastic. While that may sound far fetched to you, it is not that far away from reality where a 3D printer can produce one. Today, what was once a huge device costing multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars is coming down in price to the masses. And they are starting to show up for less than $2,000 which is still a little out of reach for many. But, that is changing.

This weeks KickStarter project is the RigidBot 3D Printer at an affordable price. And that price will be $499 as shown above which is significantly less than the Replicator 2 which they are comparing against. There are a lot of other models which are less than $2,000. But the idea of producing a 3D printer for under $500 has gotten a lot of attention. And that attention has turned into pledges for people for the 3D printer from Invent A Part.

As the video demonstrates, the RigidBot 3D printer will be able to produce plastic items which have been programmed into to it using plastic which is melted just prior to it being placed on the item being built. Layer upon layer is added until the planned item is completed. In this case, it was a chess piece as you can see. Other items can be created as well and this is an excellent example of how technology continues to shrink and become available to us all with the RigidBot 3D printer.

At the moment, the RigidBot 3D printer KickStarter project still has 35 days to go and the original goal of $31,500 has been exceed and they are sitting at $307,739 which shows just how popular the idea of a 3D printer is with people. And this is estimated to arrive in September this year. With all the money they are gathering, this one looks like it is going to be a reality and provide something which will be both educational and functional. Take a look for yourself.

Monkey Tail Kit - Ultimate Tablet Holder

We have seen many different methods for holding your tablet while in use and there are quite a few. Some are average or run of the mill and there is always a few that are special and very unique. That is what we have seen in the Monkey Tail Kit from Octa and it is something unique. Just as the kitten here is in shock at what this small cat is seeing, it is such a simple idea that catches you by surprise. A long tail to support the holding of your favorite tablet for use. And in just about any position as well.

The company is calling this the Monkey Kit in their TabletTail line, but I feel that the Monkey Tail is a far more appropriate name for what this product can do for you. The Monkey Tail has a very long tail and thus the name Monkey Tail. You can wrap the tail around anything or shape it in such a way to hold your tablet up. The Money Tail is stiff and long (36 inches) to provide you with one of the best multipurpose solutions.

The vacuum doc which comes with each TabletTail kit is the magic that makes the Monkey Tail a great product. This vacuum allows you to attach your very own Monkey Tail on your tablet with 5 pushes on the unit to create a seal that will hold your tablet for days. Disconnecting the vacuum is relatively simple by releasing the vacuum seal you created. That is the magic that will let you hold your tablet with the Monkey Tail in just about any position.

The Monkey Tail provides you with hands free use of your tablet and allows you to turn in with their 360 degree rotation. Coming in at 1.49 pounds, the Monkey Tail provides you with what we see as the best solution to hold your tablet hands free to utilize your tablet to the fullest. The claims are that the Monkey Tail works with the iPad and most tablets which are non-porous surfaces. Thus the "most tablets" claim from the company. Watch the video below to see just how easy it is to use the Monkey Tail from Octa and their TabletTail line.

We wrote about the Monkey Tail when it was on KickStarter and it is great to see that they have released the product as estimated. You can pick one up for $99.99 from Octa or from Bite My Apple.

Android Fragmentation - Changing How the Numbers Add Up

Fragmentation has been a much discussed issue over the past few years. And it does not seem to be resolving itself in the most recent information which has been released. Gingerbread is still holding strong at about 39% and given that it was released at the end of 2010, it still has a huge market presence more than 2 years later. One would have thought that it would be tapering off by now, but that is not the case. Ice Cream Sandwich has finally grown close to the 30% mark for its share of the Android market. It was released in October 2011 and one would have thought that it would have grown quickly replacing Gingerbread.

All of this is from the latest report from the Android Developer site where they put out numbers monthly to show the status and distribution of the various versions of Android. As of this latest report, they are now showing Jelly Bean at 25% which is looking extremely good as compared to the slow growth of Ice Cream Sandwich. Jelly Bean was released as the latest Android version in June 2012, so things are positive in working towards getting the version distributed. But is that necessarily true? In the information from the site, there is a note regarding how they are counting things.

Note: Beginning in April, 2013, these charts are now built using data collected from each device when the user visits the Google Play Store. Previously, the data was collected when the device simply checked-in to Google servers. We believe the new data more accurately reflects those users who are most engaged in the Android and Google Play ecosystem.

It seems that the changes in the method of counting has put Jelly Bean in a very favorable light giving them a huge jump from the March Android report. In March, Jelly Bean was sitting at just over 16% and now with the April Android report, they are now at 25%. That is a huge one month increase and can partially be attributed to the change in the way that they are calculating the numbers.

On the surface, they are changing the method of measuring Android OS version to make things more accurate. But the end result is a huge jump in the numbers for Jelly Bean making it look to be highly successful in less than a year. In the end, this may not mean that much for Android Fragmentation. The next months reporting may be the one to compare month over month to see how that one looks as compared to the recent changes in how things are measured.

Cord Cutters Getting More Options With Aereo

The idea of cutting the cord from the providers of TV programming and the bundles they provide has been a topic for discussion for many years. And while there has been some slow process in that direction, the number of people who have actually cut the cord seems to be relatively small as compared to the number of subscribers. We know that subscriptions have remained relatively flat for the past few years for subscription TV and while we all would like to believe the number of cord cutters is rising significantly is not supported by the information. But that may all be changing based on some start ups working to provide what so many people really want, which is lower costs and better selection.

A recent court decision in the Federal Appeals court in New York this week could be further opening the door for getting TV programming for a fraction of what is paid today. The broadcasters were trying to stop a company called Aereo which has been providing TV in a unique way and at radically reduced costs. They started on the East Coast and are moving West, but for those of us in the San Francisco Bay Area, it is going to be a while before we can test out this new service. But when it does arrive, it looks to be of value for many of us.

What they are doing is capturing the over the air broadcasts via very small antennas and storing that information. And they have thousands of these tiny antennas with each one being dedicated to a subscriber. Once you subscribe to their very cheap service, you can watch the shows live or save them for watching later just like the well known DVRs. The concept is very simple and the broadcasters do not like it because it takes away the huge revenue stream from their packaged programming deals they force you to take. This process does simplify things greatly and with a price of $80 once a year (annual plan), you are saving a lot of money with great benefit.

For your subscription, you are getting two antennas. One is used to receive the signal from the airways and the other is used for DVR recording on Aereo's cloud for later broadcasting to the device of your choosing. This model could be something for other providers of TV programming to provide to their customers such Dish or DirectTV to help hold down costs to their customers. The whole idea could potentially be copied by cable companies as well to reduce costs.

All of this is sent to you over the Internet making things very convenient to watch on your mobile devices or a large screen TV. This battle between the broadcasters and Aereo is far from over. There are far more legal battles to be waged, but if they can get a large audience of subscribers, it makes things much harder to stop. We can hope that things continue to be successful for Aereo as we gain another option to receive TV programming instead of paying large sums of money for what we do not watch.

April Fools' Day - More Pranks Than Ever Before

It seems that every April Fools' day, the pranks come in droves and this year is no exception. Exactly when this day of making people look like fools began is a subject of some debate, but it could date back many centuries to a time when making fools of others was a past time. And there are theories for different countries as well. You only have to do some quick searching to find a number of different theories as to when this holiday began. Though it is not really a formal holiday, but one which so many people do observe and enjoy. And this year is no exception.

As you can see by the picture, even IKEA in the UK has posted a folding lawn mower as part of April Fools' day. This all plastic mower will do its best to keep you lawn in shape. The big ones always seem to come from Google and this year, there are 11 hoaxes for us to all enjoy. One of the good ones is YouTube shutting down, though we have heard this one before.

Another fun one is the Google Nose to deliver scents for you to smell. Clicking on the "Try Google Nose" takes you to a search of the work dumpster. They even created a great looking video for Google Nose. Even Google Maps has a "Treasure" button on it today which will display a map showing you the location of a treasure. There are marks everywhere on this map, so take you pick as to where to search for one. All of these provide us with some humor and one wonders how many people got sucked into the items thinking they were real.

Twitter is announcing Twttr today which will be the basic Twitter service. But you will only see "consonants" in the tweets. You can pay $5 per month for the premium service which will include "vowels" in the tweets. Another fun one is the Glass Bottom plane from Virgin Atlantic. This one does not look like it pulled in too many people.

Even the White House got into it with a message from the President, though it is not who you think. This is great that every one has some humor today. Another great one is of George Takei staring in the coming Star Wars Movie. We all remember him as Sulu on the Star Trek series. Guess he has jumped ship to continue staring in SiFi movies. Who is next? Captain Kirk in Star Wars?

There are many more than these few and you do not have to look very far to find them. Simply go to Google search and type in April Fools' and you will get a wealth of information from the web. Though it does make it hard to work on a day like this because you cannot trust what anyone says because it could be an April Fool's prank. Beware.