Withings Smart Baby Monitor

Temperature and humidty monitor, high resolution video with night time mode, 4x zoom, pan & tilt camera, active sound warnings, two way microphones so that you can talk or sing to you baby, and even an interactive color changing night light!!!  Withings has introduced a truly amazing "MacGuyver" monitor but I'll admit, $299 isn't that peachy. It actually puts it at the top of the baby monitors in terms of price. Yes you can argue that this feature set is second to none, but let me ask, are you willing to pay for this? I want to think that I am, but it's not the spontaneous purchase that I thought it would be. At $199, I'm all in! Peep the sample video below and tell me what you think.

There is one disturbing feature that I read on the Withings website though and it talks about the ability to monitor outside the network. It beings up the question, are you streaming to their server? Why would I have to pay to connect to my home network? Here's the exact text below.

The Smart Baby Monitor allows you to monitor your baby everywhere with an unlimited range and for an unlimited time. When you are outisde of home Wi-Fi network, audio/video streaming is free for 15 minutes a day. We propose services upgrades so that you can buy 100 minutes of audio/video streaming for 4.99 euros (in-app purchase by Apple).

Sprint TV now on Sprint iPhone

How does Sprint attract more customers? Make mobile television free!!! Your move AT&T / Verizon. Would I switch carriers with the iPhone 5 coming this summer? Maybe...and only because AT&T hasn't made me happy at all especially since I received a text saying that I'm a top 5% data user? I barely went over 2 gigs and I pay for "unlimited" data! <-- scam (someone sued and won btw)

Sprint customers with iPhone can now watch free live TV and video-on-demand with the Sprint TV App, available now on the App Store. The Sprint TV App, powered by MobiTV, includes free live news and sports, along with shows from popular content brands such as ABC, CBS, NBC, ESPN, The Disney Channel, MTV, Comedy Central and more.

Click here for the FREE APP!

Free App Saturday!

It's amazing how you can think of something you need, search the Apple iOS App Store, and viola -- free for a limited time, I give you the Tabata Timer by Garaio Technology Lab. Hanging out in Miami for a quick two day stint, I found a quick start solution with some WOD (Workout of the Day) strategies. Downloadable and printable in PDF format, Michael Ashcroft maps out a 16 day strategy and I got Jojo to do it up with me. Day 2 was all about Tabata workouts and it always helps with a timer. Download it now!

It does exactly what it states and best of all, it's free!

What kind of music are you listening to?

Lately, more often than not, you can find me navigating through both of NPR's amazing iOS applications, (NPR: News / NPR: Music).  This morning, I discovered "First Listen: Michael Jackson, 'Immortal'" by Ann Powers.  Whether you listen to the entire soundtrack of the up and coming Cirque du Soleil production or chose an individual song, it provides yet another way of enjoying the king of pop's msuic.  As Ms. Powers so cleverly puts it, "...it gives your ears a slap and reminds you how fresh these great songs sounded when you first discovered them." But, I digress. The real reason I wanted to write is to introduce you to an amazing compilation that includes world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bassist Edgar Meyer, mandolinist Chris Thile and fiddler Stuart Duncan.  Entitled, The Goat Rodeo Sessions, it marks his second forray into the Americana genre with his first album dating back over 15 years ago dubbed Appalachia Waltz.  If you're into exciting, new and different, I can assure you that your ears will be pleased.  It's also great writing music!

    

Apple iPad 2 Available for Pre-Order: ships in 3-5 days

The title says it all. As of this morning, March 11, 2011, you can order either the black Apple iPad 2 (ships within 3-5 days) or the white Apple iPad 2 (ships in 5-7 days) along with Apple's Smart Cover and free engraving on http://www.apple.com. While you're at it, pick up AppleCare for $79.00, add-on the Apple Digital A/V Adapter for another $39.00, and why not add in the digital camera connection kit for $29. Checking out, my cart easily shot up to $815.00 for a 32GB Wi-Fi + leather Smart Cover, and the rest I spoke of above! You give it a shot and tell me how you did.

Google Translate for iPhone

It's Tuesday and on the heels of Google's Shopper App comes Google Translate for iPhone.  With all the recent native Google Applications being released for iOS, you'd think that Apple and Google are best buds again.  Maybe it has to do with Eric Schmidt being ousted...I don't know.

The biggest awesome is that you can speak the text and Google will try it's best to translate your phrase or word in 15 different languages.  Then, if you desire, one can play back and hear the desired translation!  Granted it hasn't been setup up for my parents native language, Tagalog, but hey, I'm sure that voice support will come soon.  In the mean time, have at it!

I'll admit that when I speak a certain English sentence, it doesn't capture the exact phrase but it's better than nothing when lost in a foreign land!  What do you plan to use the app for?  Translating that Spanish paper you have to write or ordering sushi?

Description

Translate words and phrases between more than 50 languages using Google Translate for iOS. For most languages, you can speak your phrases and hear the corresponding translations.

With Google Translate you can:

* Translate text between 57 languages * Translate by speaking the text instead of typing it (15 languages) * Listen to your translations spoken aloud (23 languages) * Display translations in full screen mode to make it easier for others nearby to read * Star your favorite translations for quick access even when you’re offline * Access your translation history even when you’re offline * Spell out the translation of non-Latin script languages (e.g. Chinese, Japanese, etc..) in Latin characters to read it phonetically (e.g. Pinyin, Romaji) * View additional dictionary results for single words or short phrases

Translations between the following languages are supported:

Afrikaans, Albanian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Arabic, Basque, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Irish, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Maltese, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish

Digital Books as Apps = Physics Heaven

If you're in the game of writing, authoring and releasing a book within the next year, don't go all 1.0 and turn to iBooks, Amazon or the onslaught of various publishers for some ebook / hardcover / paperback setup.  Check out Push Pop Press! Launching their teaser  site yesterday, Push Pop Press is starting their campaign to transform your book into an experience!  Started by the talented designer, Mike Matas of Apple iOS fame as well as the Delicious Library, and engineers Kimon Tsinteris and Austin Sarner, Push Pop Press is poised the game and is definitely off to a running head start.

Books that let you explore photos, videos, music, maps, and interactive graphics, all through a new physics-based multi-touch user interface.

As you can see from the teaser site and /or image below, the possibilities are amazing with pinch to zoom and in app video rendering.  For a more in depth look and commentary, check out John Gruber and his early testing! // Daring Fireball: Push Pop Press //