Friday, October 11, 2013

Glasses That Can Help Your Posture While Texting - i90 Glasses

Is this the end if Tech-Neck?


i90 GlassesIf you are like most of us, you pretty much have your head down as though you might be praying or sleeping. But the reality is that you are probably looking at your smartphone, reading something on it or typing into. It is not something that we probably should be doing, but that is the reality of how things are. But, what if there was a way to look straight ahead and still see the face of your smartphone that is in your lap? Would you be interested in hear more about that. The i90 Glasses may be exactly what you are looking for to help your posture and reduce that sore neck that you get.

This week's KickStarter project is the i90 Glasses which are going to help with your posture. The idea is to have you looking straight ahead and the refracted lenses having you looking down while it looks like you are looking straight ahead. This is based on the idea of a periscope with a glass frame. The head leaning forward ("tech-neck") is eliminated with this and removes your neck problems and upper back problems. This sounds like a great idea to be watching the game on your mobile device when you are with others.

We all have fallen victim to that slouch look where we are looking at a mobile device. Whether it be looking at a text, email or video, it is an uncomfortable position. While there are some other companies which have offered a similar item, none have offered one that is light and looks like a pair of glasses. The i90 Glasses have hinges on the arms of the frame and are made of aluminum which lets you make slight bends in the frame so they fit you better. When wearing glasses, it is all about comfort.

The company web site, i90 Glasses is up and running, but refers you back to the KickStarter site where you can contribute to the i90 glasses fundraising campaign. For a contribution of $75 or above you will receive your very own pair of i90 Glasses in December, though some contribution levels are delayed until March next year. The lower levels have limits on them so if you want one at the lowest contribution, you need to get over there now and contribute. Some levels do not give you a color option.

Now, if they could figure out a way for those of us who wear glasses to be able to take advantage of this, that would be fantastic. They have designed it to fit over readers, but those of us who prefer to wear glasses instead of contacts are left out. We can only wait.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Quick and Easy WordPress Security

It's a sad fact that most people only take the time to protect their WordPress sites after they have been hacked. In all my years supporting CMS's like WordPress, I've had dozens of terrified site owners come to me for help in a panic after their site was attacked. Conversely, I've had exactly zero people ask me how to protect their site before an attack ever occurs.


The following are a few, easy to apply, best practices you can take care of right now to reduce the risk of your site being hacked. You cannot have complete security from attacks; you can only minimize your chances. Anyone who comes to you and says they can prevent your site from being hacked is lying!

My hope is that you'll apply the following suggestions (if you're not using them already) and look into further security measures you can take.

Anyone can do the following suggestions to immediately improve your site's security. But there's much more you can do to better protect your site than what's mentioned in this article. Many advanced security measures require editing server settings and file permissions, which require someone with knowledge of server configuration. If you want to improve your site's security beyond the recommendations in this article, you can learn more or hire a professional systems administrator to review and adjust your configuration.

According to WordPress, the two most common attacks target outdated plugins, or attempting to gain access by using "brute-force" password guessing using automated scripts. The following recommendations will help minimize your risk to these types of attacks.

Using Strong and Long Passwords


You've probably heard this recommendation before if not several times. You're going to hear it again. One of the best things you can do right now to improve your security right now is updating your password so it's longer. (Yes, I said "right now" twice on purpose!)

How long should your password be? According to an online password crack estimate, a password with 16 random numbers and letters will take a computer 2,780,885 centuries to guess. I think that's an unrealistic estimate given that processing power can be increased making cracking programs run exponential faster. This is why I make my passwords at least 20 characters and include special symbols.

You're probably wondering how you're going to remember long passwords of mixed numbers and characters. There are many methods to train yourself to remember passwords from mnemonic memorization to phrases, but I gave up trying to remember passwords a long time ago. I just use RoboForm and let it manage my passwords for me.

I wish we had something better than usernames and passwords for authentication technology, but that's what we're stuck with at the moment. Again, that's why I've relied on RoboForm for the past 10 years.

Don't stop with WordPress


Make sure your hosting account password is long and as well as your SFTP account. (If you're still using FTP, please switch to SFTP, it's much more secure, encrypting your data as it is transmitted between your computer and your website. This means your password is never sent in the clear and cannot be intercepted by an attacker.) And if you don't use FTP at all, delete any unused FTP accounts from your hosting.

What about two-factor authentication?


I use two-factor authentication (password plus a pin number sent to my phone) on sites that support it. For WordPress, I haven't found a two-factor authentication plugin that didn't lock me out of my site, so I can't recommend it right now.

If you're web host supports two-factor authentication, consider enabling it on your account.

Delete logins not being used, especially Administrator accounts


Delete all users from your WordPress site that are not being used. For added security, don't use your administration account for adding articles to your site. Use an account with an Author role instead to add content to your site.

Protect your login page


By default, WordPress doesn't do much to protect your login page. A brute-force attack can hit your login and try thousands of password combinations until it finds one, or until your web host shuts you down because your account is exceeding memory and CPU.

One measure you can take right now is to use a plugin that will limit the number of login attempts before blocking the source of the attack. There are several of these types of plugins available in the plugin repository; one I use is Limit Log Attempts.

You should understand that this type of protection can be undermined. An attacker can spoof where the attack is coming from after each failed attempt, making the plugin "think" each new attempt is legitimate. But a plugin like this can help in attacks looking for low hanging fruit, and since it's easy to add you may as well do it.

There are a number of other advanced measures you can take to protect your login page that include server access settings and configurations. You can start learning about these options by visiting WordPress Brute Force Attacks.

What about changing the "admin" username?


Popular security advice for WordPress is not using "admin" as a username. This may cause a few automated attacks to move on, but only because an attacker chooses not to find your username. It's quite easy to get the usernames of a WordPress site. It's much more important to have a long password.

Don't Login To Your Site on Public Wifi



Unless you're using SSL on your WordPress site or a protected connection, avoid logging into your site on public networks such as free airport or coffee shop Wifi. These networks, or the people on them, can log the communication between your computer and site and retrieve your username and password.

Apply WordPress Updates


I usually pick up a few new clients each month and I'm always amazed when I log in to their sites and find they are a behind in WordPress updates. When confronting one site owner about not applying updates, she told me about a blog post from an "expert" who said it's better to wait a week or two to apply an update because it may not be stable and might cause problems. This is not the best advice.

It's important to stay on top of WordPress updates as most are security fixes that address the latest exploits. Most of the time the hackers know the WordPress team will fix the vulnerability quickly so they count on the thousands of people who are slow to update their sites. It's a race against time and each day you go without updating increases the chance your site may get hit.

It's easy to apply an update and only takes a few seconds. When you see the update notification, just click the update button and the package will download and be installed.

When you see the notification of a new update you can run a backup first and then apply the update. If the update causes a problem with your site, just restore it with the backup you just made.

Minor versions of WordPress, like 3.6.1 or 3.6.2 for example, are commonly security and bug fixes. These versions usually don't introduce new features or deprecate old features that might "break" anything on your site. Major versions, like 3.6, are more likely to cause a problem (if any) because of themes or plugin compatibility.

In a perfect world, you'd have a staging (or test) copy of your site running on the same server that you can test updates to make sure there won't be problems with your site. I know most of you reading this don't have a staging copy of your site so you're best strategy is to always backup before applying an update.

To make the backup strategy work, you need to be confident in restoring your site. Use a tool like BackupBuddy and practice backing up and restoring sites. This exercise will also reveal if your web host has any issues with BackupBuddy.

Remove Plugins


Plugins are one of the most common ways sites are hacked. Delete all unused plugins from your site. Reevaluate the plugins you are using, do you really need them? Can they be replaced by something outside of WordPress?

For example, many people use the popular Contact Form 7 plugin to place an email form on their contact page. Why have a plugin that's used on only one page and probably used a couple times a week? Especially considering that it loads scripts on all your other web pages where it's not used and it might be vulnerable to new exploits and has to be updated periodically. Is it worth the overhead when there are alternatives? If you need a contact form you can use something like Google Docs to embed a form on your site without using a plugin.

Instead of using plugins that post your articles to Facebook and Twitter, you can have the same functionality without plugins by using your RSS feeds with services like Dlvr.it and Twitterfeed.

Take a look at your plugins and only keep ones that are critical to your business. Removing plugins will not only make your site more secure, but it will probably run faster.

Just like WordPress updates, make sure you stay on top of plugin updates.

Avoid plugins that bad ratings or have not been updated in months. This shows a lack of support. If there ever is a vulnerability discovered in the plugin, it may not be addressed right away by the developer.

Learn How to Backup and Restore Your Site


This recommendation doesn't help prevent an attack, but is essential for recovering from one. And since we know that 100% protection cannot be achieved, it's crucial that you to follow this suggestion.

Note I didn't say regularly backup your site. You should regularly backup your site, but backups are worthless unless you know how to restore your site.

Practice backup and restoring your site until you feel comfortable with the process. Then begin backing up your site regularly depending on how much content you publish.

If you don't know where to start when it comes to WordPress backups, a tool I recommend that's both reliable and easy to use is the BackupBuddy plugin.

Resources


As I said at the beginning, there are many more security measures you can take but these can be done right now. For more information about WordPress security, please see these resources:

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Smart Lock System Includes A Camera - Goji

GojiWe have seen a growing number of home automation products focusing around door locks this year. And they continue to get smarter in what the technology is able to do. They are able to performing much with leveraging your WiFi connections so they can communicate over the web with your smartphone. And that is the great beauty of all these products. The latest one we have discovered is the Goji Lock System, which is an automated front door lock and then some.

What sets the Goji Smart Lock from the others is that the system has a component that goes inside the front door and another component that goes on the outside of the front door. While the inside lock is similar to others that we have seen, the outside component has a built in camera on it to show who is at the front door along with a display which can show information to the person outside. This eliminates the need for something like the iDoorCam which is a door bell with a camera and motion sensor. The Goji combines that together with a home automation front door lock.

So, the Goji gives you visibility of who is at your front door and can send that information to your smart phone. It can display information on the external component so that someone knows that the front door is unlocked. The interior device is similar to others we have talked about and communicates with your WiFi and then to your iOS or Android smart phone. There is also support for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), but few Android devices have that and requires Jelly Bean 4.3.

You can unlock the deadbolt remotely via your smart phone when people need to get in and you are not there. You can grant temporary electronic keys so that people can gain access with their smart phone as well. And all the opening of the door is recorded and logged for you to review. And you can even integrate with small key fobs to open the Goji lock as well.


There are some drawbacks for the Goji locking system. The big one is that it must replace your existing deadbolt lock. So, if your deadbolt is a single unit that includes the door handle, you are not going to be able to use the Goji for your home. Another drawback is the round device you attach to the outside. It snaps on and looks to be fairly easy for someone to steal, so we would hope they would make it harder to open.

The Goji is to be released in December at a price of $278, which you can order now on the Goji site for delivery in December. While the price may seem a little high, you have to remember that it is more than just a home automation device to unlock and lock the front door. It includes an external camera which shows you who is at the front. When you factor in the cost of buying that separately, this looks like a pretty good deal.

Monday, October 7, 2013

7 Ways to Optimize Your Home Office for Maximum Success

I know from interacting with readers via email and social media that many of you work from a home office. Perhaps many more of you plan to begin working from home or are starting a home business in the near future. It's a dream for many.

The benefits of working at home are obvious. You may want to eliminate commuting and spend more time with your family, or start your own business, be your own boss, and make more money than a 9 to 5 job can offer.

I've been working from a home for over a decade, and though I wouldn't trade it for anything, it hasn't always been the office paradise I expected. When you work from home or work for yourself, you have complete control, which is great. But for those accustomed to being accountable to managers have to adapt to self-motivation. You need to be prudent with work habits. Over time, without accountability weak work habits will worsen and limit your business.

I had to learn how to make working from home effective and efficient, below are 7 tips from the lessons I learned.

Properly Plan Your Home Office


If you haven't set up your home office yet, think about the business activities your office needs to support. Will you have meetings, visitors, or is it just you? How much space do you need for office furniture and equipment? How much desk space will you need?

Once you have a list of what kind of space and equipment you need it will be much easier to begin arranging the area where you will work. Since you know the type of furniture and equipment you will have, you can determine how much minimum space you need to allocate. From there you can begin acquiring the right sized office furniture and equipment you don't have on hand already.

Equipment & supplies


Make a checklist of all the items your office will need to support your work. This article will have additional items you may want to consider for you home office.

If you have a desktop computer, consider adding a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) battery backup to your checklist. In case of a power outage, a UPS will keep your computer from shutting down at the worst time, and prevent you from losing any valuable work.

Prioritize your list and only get the essentials. There are many items in my home office I rarely use and probably didn't need to buy.

A room with a door


You'll likely need a workspace dedicated to your business activities. This means an area where you can work uninterrupted. It should be a quiet place where you have conversations and concentrate when you need to.

Bad examples for your workspace are areas that can't be closed off or multipurpose areas. It's best if you can have a room that no one else needs to use while you work and has a door you can close.

Bedrooms are a bad idea for a workspace. Your bedroom is a sanctuary; the place you go to rest and escape from your work.

If you set up a desk and plan to work in your bedroom you do two counterproductive things: you destroy your sanctuary and you create a work area in a place where your mind and body have been trained to relax.

A small designated and dedicated space is much more important than having a large multipurpose area to work in. Keep that in mind if you live in a place without much space to spare.

Good ergonomics


If you're just starting to work from home, consider that you're going to spend much more time in the space you currently have for your computer. You may already have a desk and chair for using your computer, but are these suitable for a full 6 to 8 hour workday?

Read up on recommended office ergonomics and make adjustments to your desk, chairs and computer monitor position.

Don't be upset if everything you want in your office doesn't fit at first. There are always different ways to arrange an office to make the space work. You can move items you won't use often, like a fax machine or filing cabinet, to another room. There is also a number of space-saving office furniture and storage units you can buy that will make your limited space look a lot more spacious.

Create a Positive Area for Your Workspace


Your office should be a pleasant place to spend time, conducive to your best work. The last thing you want is a space that makes you feel uninspired or weighed down while you work. Remember, it's now up to you to keep yourself motivated. These tips will help you maintain a positive work area that you enjoy spending time in.

  • Keep clutter to a minimum. Don't have any lose items on your desk. Have an inbox for incoming items and an outbox for outgoing items.

  • Make sure you have proper lighting. Natural light and simulated natural light is said to improve your mood. Position light sources to keep glare to a minimum.

  • Have motivational music or speeches playing in the background while you work. Upbeat music can energize while you work, and an inspirational speech can rejuvenate your spirit on a slow afternoon. Only use audio stimulation when performing tasks you're not easily distracted from.

  • Decorate your office with inspirational elements. Choose items that remind you of what you want to achieve in life, places you want to visit, your dream home, your children's future. These can make a big difference in your self-motivation.


Outfitted for Communications


In this day and age, you're likely to need a high-speed Internet connection to support your business and work. Be smart but don't skimp on your Internet service plan. You'll probably need enough bandwidth to support collaboration tools and materials such as:

  • VoIP (Phone Power, GoToMeeting, Skype, Oovoo)

  • Cloud services (Dropbox, Google Drive)

  • Office, project management and CRM apps

  • Downloading and uploading large graphics and media files


Consider upgrading your mobile phone plan. You may receive more calls on your phone if you have a new office number that's yet to be distributed. More importantly, if you have a good data plan, your phone can serve as a backup in case your home Internet goes down or if there is a power outage.

You may not need an expensive business landline. Your business voice needs may be covered by VoIP and your mobile phone.

Use Dual Monitors


Studies show that using more than one monitor increases productivity. Other studies show that having dual monitors does nothing to increase productivity.

I believe having two monitors will increase your productivity. I think the later studies that indicate otherwise show that some people don't know how to effectively use dual monitors.


The goal of having a second monitor is to avoid toggling between windows, resizing and scrolling. These micro-adjustments add up and waste time. It's far better to have what you need in front of you at all times without having to scroll or adjust.

For instance, say you're writing a report in a word processor. With dual monitors, you can type in MS Word in one monitor, while reading source materials in another monitor. Your hands stay on the keyboard typing away without having to reach for the mouse, or stop and minimize windows. This is the right way to use dual monitors.

The wrong way: working on a document or spreadsheet in one monitor, while having your inbox open in the other. This does nothing to help productivity, in fact, I think it hurts productivity. Each time a new message pops in your inbox, you'll automatically be drawn away from what you're working on to see what it is. And 9 times out of 10, it's probably not important.

If one of your monitors is dedicated to email or worse, your Facebook newsfeed, you're probably better off going back to a single monitor.

At one time I had two full sized 26 inch monitors on my desk. I loved this set up, but in recent years I've switched to having one 30 inch monitor and using my 17 inch laptop screen and a second monitor.

The move away from having two desktop monitors was because of travel. I stopped buying desktop computers because I need a good laptop for travel. Laptop's can be elevated on a stand so the bottom aligns with a larger desktop monitor.

I admit, my set up now is not as nice as having monitors of the same size, but the 30 inch is great and I do have a second monitor when needed.

Today's business laptops are just as powerful as desktops. The great thing about using a laptop instead of a desktop is that it gives you a second monitor and UPS with the built in battery for no additional cost. And you can take it with you on trips or meetings away from the office.

Stick to a Schedule



This is perhaps the most important tip in making your home office arrangement work. You need to decide on a schedule when you will work, and adhere to that schedule. It can be 8 hours each day or only 3, whatever it is you must stick to it!

Without a schedule you take seriously, you work will suffer and you'll develop a poor work ethic. The bottom line is that you'll make less money –a lot less!

You can think of it this way. If you held a traditional job, you would only spend lunch time taking care of personal business. If there are errands to run you would either do them before or after work. You would not drop your work and start doing a load of laundry in the break room. You don't sit on the phone talking to friends and family. You don't run to the hairdresser in mid-morning leaving work undone.

Your home business is your job whether you are doing it full or part time. You have to set a schedule which insures you spend the right amount of time on your business without being distracted by the personal surroundings you have at home.

You may think, "Hey! Where does the freedom of being an entrepreneur begin if I have to follow a schedule?"

The freedom is in the options you have and control of your income. For example, when you are working in an office for a corporation, your supervisor determines your hours. You are told when to be at work and when you can leave. Even if you are an executive, there are expectations as to when you are supposed to be in the office.

When you own a home based business, you can set a schedule, but you can determine your hours. For example, you may like to start work at 9 AM instead of 8 AM. You may prefer to work evenings instead of mornings.

One of the reasons home businesses fail is because there is no time schedule set. If you say you are going to work your business from 9AM until 5PM every day, then you need to be at your home office desk working by 9AM.

Managing time efficiently involves a lot more than just setting aside chunks of time. You also need to determine how much time you need to do particular tasks.

For example, you may need to allocate the start of your workday by respond to new customer inquiries so not to keep anyone waiting too long. Bookkeeping and other administration tasks not critical to revenue can be scheduled on days you're less likely to be busy.

For brainstorming sessions, find out which part of the day you're most creative. I've read books by CEO's and successful entrepreneurs who say they're most creative in the mornings before noon. Others say in the late afternoons when they begin to feel a little tired they've come up with great ideas. From what I gather everyone is different and it will be up to you to find your creative "zone" and schedule accordingly.

Use a calendar and populate it with your work schedule for the entire month. Towards the end of the month populate your work schedule for the next month. Be sure to include your personal activities so you're not blindsided by non-work appointments you forgot about.

If you follow this advice and use it to your advantage, you'll be able to reward yourself with one of the best benefits of being an entrepreneur: giving yourself a raise!

Take Advantage of Online Services


When you operate a home office you're responsible for your own equipment, which includes software. It's nice to have a work computer loaded with the latest Office suite supplied by your company, or rely on the legal department to take care of any paperwork that needs to be filed. If you're running your own home business you won't have that luxury anymore.

The good news is that the Internet is a DIYers paradise. This might be a techie insider's secret, but if you spent a little time looking you might shocked to learn how cheap professional services are online. Here are some examples:

  • With WordPress, you can have a professional website complete with all functionality to supports your business online for few hundred dollars or less.

  • You can hire people to do almost any design task, such as create a logo or advertising banner for as little as $5.

  • Stockphoto sites can provide professional business graphics and imagery for as little as $1 each.

  • Bookkeeping and accounting software that allow you to do your own business taxes for less than $100.

  • There' s letter writing software, templates for professional documents, inventory management programs, or publishing software which can create newsletters or marketing material all at very reasonable prices.


These days, you can literally have all your administration and professional services taken care of for your business without any employees or consultants, and at a fraction of the cost.

Avoid Distractions


This is one of the biggest pitfalls of working at home. At home, the distractions are all around to trip you up: family, TV, even knowing you can crawl back into bed on a cold morning can be a distraction.

These are different distractions than the ones you faced at the company office. You need to prepare yourself for them or the distractions will turn into bad habits which will undermine your home operation.

Some of the tips I've already mentioned will help, especially having a designated work area and following a set work schedule.

The next step is to think about the possible situations that come up and prepare yourself to handle them. What will you do if you four year old walks in your office and wants you to find her shoes?

Your business is not a hobby. Have a talk with your spouse about your commitment to your work schedule, and explain that, unless it's an emergency those are not appropriate times to ask you to do something else.

There are also online distractions. Without anyone holding you accountable, you might waste time watching videos on YouTube or responding to messages on Facebook when you could be working.

Reward yourself with the distractions you avoided during your workday. After you've crossed every item off your daily work to-do list then allow yourself to indulge in some TV or that new viral kitten YouTube video.

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Keeping Your Smartphone Charged With CulCharge

culchargeCarry a smartphone is the norm these days and if you are without one, you are in trouble because of a lack of connection. They are far more than making phone calls, but rather a connection to the world with email and social media. But, they continue to lack the kind of battery life which is necessary to sustain them for days. As a result, you must be prepared and carry around a USB charging cable as one of those requirements for continued use. But, carrying around those long USB cables or a charger is not want any of us really want to do. But, the CulCarge USB connector breaks that mold and provides you with an ulta-small USB charger for your smartphone. And the picture here shows you just how portable it really is.

The CulCharge is on the verge of being shipped in November for all the current orders they have in place. Shortly after that, we expect to see it appearing in the usual places where you can get your own CulCharge USB charging cable for your smartphone. This one looks like it is going to be well received and be the one to have. They are going to be providing various models to support the Apple 30 pin connection, Apple Lightning connection. MicroUSB and MiniUSB connections to charge up your smartphone. I have too often forgotten to take my long USB charging cable with me and with this, it gets added to my key ring and I will no longer have to remember.

Coming in at just 2,3 inches long, this is a great size for a keyring or pocket. And being this small, the CulCharge is bound to generate conversation when people see one. It is strong enough that you can plug it into a USB port and let your phone hang down from it. And, if your current USB cable supports charging and data exchange, the CulCharge will provide you with a charge, data exchange and sync capabilities.

The current estimates show the CulCharge retailing for under $10 when it comes to market making this very affordable. It is expected that the Apple Lightning connector will be more expense, but until they come to market, it is not known how much more. This company has really thought things out as they have been working to get distributorships from the start so that their product is represented everywhere. And they already have CulCharge boxes ready for distributors to place in stores for sale.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Waiting For Instacube

Instagram ColorWaiting for an announced product can somethings seem like it takes too long. Those waiting in long lines to get the latest iPhone have great anticipation for getting their hands on the latest magic from Apple. But those products coming from KickStarter sometimes seem to have a wait that is too long. And that is just with the original estimated date for shipping a great new product which has been funded. The one that we are waiting to see is the Instacube and it seems that the delay for delivery seems to continue. There are so many who contributed to get the Instacube delivered and are still waiting. There are over 3300 who backed the KickStarter project and on top of that there are all those who have reserved one since that funding campaign ended. So, how much longer are people going to have to wait?

The latest comments from the D2M folks do not indicate any guesses at a delivery date which is not a good sign. With the original estimated delivery date in October 2012, this does not provide optimism and one that needs to be corrected. Firm dates need to start being put out there. Or even their best guesses as to when they think that the Instacube might be shipped. It seems that this continues to drag out for all those who helped fund a very successful campaign for the Instacube.

There is some hope that things are starting to move forward for a delivery this year. I came across the instacube.ru site while looking into this, but did not find a rash of other ones as I would have expected. The domain name is "goinstacube.ru" and this site is definitely not in the US. And if you go to their Facebook page, it is showing that the Instacube will be released in Russia on January 15, 2014 and was posted on September 20, 2013. That is one of the very few dates that we have seen, but this is not in the US.

Is there hope that it will be released in the US this year?

The product page on Facebook for Instacube has not been updated with a post since May 16, 2013. This looks to be the official Facebook page for the coming Instacube product and that is not a good sign. This should be seeing posts weekly letting everyone know the progress of delivering the Instacube. Why are they not actively posting on Facebook?

There are still a number of pretty good Instacube domain names still available and I would have thought they would have locked those up by now. Something for them to address in moving forward before those reading this get the idea to grab them all up. There are many goinstacube domain names still available as well. As of today, you can still get the domain name "getinstacube.com" which should have been grabbed a long time ago. Why has not the company grabbed up a number of these to lock them in?

Any product that is coming to market requires a great marketing campaign and at the moment, we are not seeing much of anything. And those people who have contributed to the KickStarter campaign are not get much information either. Some people are asking for refunds now that the product ship dates are close to a year late. Those refunds will only come after Instacube ships. What happens if that takes another year?

Design To Matter is not new to the game of developing products and it is time for them to step up and tell everyone when the Instacube is going to be delivered to all those who funded the product. Their continuing lack of a delivery date has many starting to believe that the product will not come to market.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Futuristic 3D Motion Controller For Games - iMotion

New Game Controller moves into the 3D realm.


iMotionThe Kinect device has been immensely popular for playing games as it responds to your body movements. But, it does not work quite as finely as some would like. Anything that would be able to reflect you as 3D motion for a game would be great. So, a device that you can wear sounds like the best idea for doing interactive games where you are physically involved in it. An even better item would be if that device could give you feedback as well during the game. There is such a device which is moving forward with fund raising and lining up the manufacturers. It is called iMotion and could alter how interactive games get played in the future.

This week's KickStarter project is the iMotion 3D Controller and they are over half way towards their goal of raising $100,000. This is a hand held device you can hold with Velcro straps holding it on your hands and fits in the palm of your hand. You can use multiple iMotion 3D controllers to play games with and they are accurate down to 0.08 of an inch. That accuracy is going to give you a better gaming experience. With some games you use a mouse click to activate or do something. With the iMotion, you accomplish that by covering one of the 3 LED lights on it.

One of the great items for the iMotion 3D controller is feedback. When you strap it to your hand, you will feel vibrations that interact with the game. So, when you bump into an object in the game, you will see and feel that object. With this feedback, it will open up a whole new world to how games can be played. And one that you should pay attention to and watch for it in the near future. Some are saying that the primary reason that this is being developed is for the Oculus Rift virtual reality game. That may well be, but there is so many other 3D games that this can be applied to in the future.

The company has set up the Get iMotion web site to promote the iMotion controller and looks great. The iMotion controller has another 23 days to go before the funding campaign ends. And you still have time to be part of the group that receives the iMotion before it gets released to the public. For a contribution of $59 or more you will get your own iMotion device. The $59 level looks to be just about gone, so $69 looks more realistic. You are going to really need 2 iMotion devices and those will have you contributing $137 for the pair. March 2014 is when you would receive your very own iMotion controller. So, head on over and grab one for yourself.