GeekwithEnvy

Hardware

Buddy the Futuristic Dog Collar

by Leave a Comment

With wearable technology slowly working it’s way into our everyday lives, it was only a matter of time before we got man’s best friend involved. This new futuristic dog collar called Buddy, is the ultimate must-have gadget for geeky pet owners.

‘Buddy’ will keep track of just about everything you could ever want to know about your dog, starting with temperature. No longer will you have to wonder if your dog is getting too uncomfortably hot or cold, you will now know the exact temperature of your four legged friend. In the event that your dog does get to hot or cold ‘Buddy’ can actually link into your Nest thermostat to have the temperature automatically adjusted.

With Geofences, you will be able to set a perimeter that your dog is allowed to be in by simply using an app for either iOS or Android. Once your dog leaves the perimeter that you set up, you will be notified with an alert. Even better, ‘Buddy’ will include GPS tracking so you can know exactly where your dog is.

To keep your pup in top shape, the Buddy collar will also include an activity tracker to measure how much exercise your dog is getting. This feature could also benefit some owners as it will persuade us to get up and get active with our pets. Need to know how much your pet is eating? Well, it keeps track of that too. How about appointments with the veterinarian? Yes, it keeps track of this information as well.

And last but certainly not least, it’s quite stylish. The Buddy collar has customizable LED lights that can be adjusted to pretty much any color you can imagine. Plus, having a well lit Buddy collar is great for safety as it provides ample night time lighting so drivers and cyclists will not only see you, they will see your pet as well.

All of these features of course are going to come at a premium, after all this isn’t your basic everyday pet store collar here. If you back the Buddy project early you will get the collar at a discounted price of $180 US. If the collar is fully funded and released for purchase, it could set you back approximately $450.

 Buddy the Geeky Dog Collar

PS4 outselling Xbox One in UK

by Leave a Comment

ps4ConsoleShot

In what has been a true battle of the “next-gen” consoles, Playstation 4 appears to be currently winning the race, at least in the UK according to VG247.

The source MCV, states that the PS4 has sold about 250,000 units and has tallied up £87 million in just 48 hours, beating out the 150,000 units that the Xbox One has sold so far. It’s obviously still too early to tell who’s going to win, at least in terms of sales, but these early numbers do seem to give Sony a bit of an edge. How do you think things will shake out in the end? Will Xbox catch up?

Xbox One Suffers Disc Drive Issues, May Get Free Game

by Leave a Comment

XboxOneVideoDemo

Unfortunately, it happens all too often, early adopters run out and grab the latest and greatest, whether it’s software or hardware, only to find that you’re likely to run into issues sooner or later. The Xbox One is no different as some users have been reporting disc drive failures that prevent any disc based game from playing. The defective units have been reported to make a nasty grinding noise when a disc is inserted into the system.

The feeling of disappointment and possibly rage can build up quick when this kind of stuff happens but there’s no need to freak out just yet as Microsoft has said that they will be offering Forza Motorsport 5, Ryse, Zoo Tycoon, or Dead Rising as a FREE digital download, but only to those users who are having problems specifically related to the disc drive failing. In addition to this, and most importantly, Microsoft is also working with these affected customers to ensure that they get new and fully functional consoles.

Microsoft isn’t the only one feeling hardware launch pain as Sony’s Playstation 4 has also suffered from some issues of it’s own including major slowdowns to it’s Playstation Network service and some consoles arriving completely dead out of the box. The hope is here that even though all of these aforementioned issues on both consoles are only causing a very small percentage of users to have headaches, that both Sony and Microsoft step-up and take care of the issues they are having as quickly as possible, and most importantly, take care of their customers by offering them good customer service for their hard earned money.

 

 

Nintendo offers 3DS for $149 Including Zelda Edition

by Leave a Comment

Nintendo has recently tweeted out an awesome deal on the Nintendo 3DS XL system by offering it for $149.99! This deal includes the new limited edition Zelda: A Link Between Worlds console. This offer is exclusive to Target and will continue on through 11/28 to 11/30.

The Zelda version of the 3DS XL includes a digital download code for the newly released game, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. The bundled 3DS XL console is gold with a black bottom and it features a triforce on both the top and bottom of the console. It’s probably Nintendo’s coolest looking 3DS XL and it comes bundled with a top notch Zelda game which received a 9.4 (“Amazing”) review score from IGN. I have personally started to play through the new Zelda title and it’s easily one of the best reasons to own this console.

Parents Angry Over the SNES in Old News Video

by Leave a Comment

This video is from a news broadcast in 1991 that shows parents getting upset over the release of the Super Nintendo. Many parents at that time thought that Nintendo was trying to brainwash their children by making them think they couldn’t live without the far superior SNES, while many parents believed the upgrade to be trivial. The content seems laughable now, especially since rate of obsolesce has increased tenfold in many other devices.

Ever since video games became popular they have been under criticism for everything, including the content that they contain, the amount of time people spend playing them and how much money we dish out for them. In the 80’s and 90’s when Nintendo and Sega dominated the video game market and created a console boom, there was real concern among some parents that video games would have a large negative impact on the lives of their children and that they would fall prey to corporate schemes. Obviously, video games are just good fun and most of us from that generation have likely turned out to be just fine, of course that’s all a matter of opinion I suppose.