In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line.
Fallen out of love with sensor? Don't worry, Variable Technologies is here to help. The company's working to bring the world Node, a project aimed at helping smartphone users "explore the fun and power of sensors." The "Swiss Army knife-sized" modular device communicates with the iPhone 4S and Android devices via Bluetooth. It has a built-in accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope and can detect physical motion and space, temperature and elevation, to name but a few. It also has a game control module and eight LEDs that can double as a camera flash, with carbon monoxide and radiation detection on the way. The Node will be compatible with Arduino devices and will have an open API, firmware and source code. There's a month left to help Variable hit its lofty $50,000 goal. Click the source link for more info.
Continue reading Insert Coin: Node helps your smartphone monitor pretty much everything Insert Coin: Node helps your smartphone monitor pretty much everything originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Kickstarter | Email this | Comments
from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/23/insert-coin-node-helps-your-smartphone-mon...
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The American Express Premier Rewards Gold card has upped its signup bonus from 15,000 Membership Rewards points to 25,000 (after $2000 in spend within 3 months), no fee the first year. That’ll be enough to get several folks off the fence and apply. If each point were worth 2 cents, that’s a $500 signup bonus for a no fee card. Truth is, American Express points are both hugely flexible for their ability to transfer to tons of different frequent flyer programs (to anyone’s account, in many cases instantly) although potentially annoying to some since many of their partners add fuel surcharges onto awards.
Amex offers frequent transfer bonuses, last year you could earn a rebate equivalent to a 67% bonus on transfers to Delta and a 50% bonus on transfers to British Airways for instance.
And the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card is the strongest-earning Membership Rewards card there is, double points on gas and groceries and triple points on airfare.
There’s no fee the first year, $175 thereafter, so whether the card is worth keeping after the first year depends on how much spending you do in their bonusable categories. Mine is significant enough, especially on airfare, that it makes sense. But at least grabbing it for the first year will be a boon to frequent travelers who buy their own airline tickets, and for folks with gas and grocery spend that’s more than de minimus.
I applied for the card back when there was only a 15,000 point signup bonus on offer, although perhaps I lucked out because when I hit my qualifying spend they actually gave me 25,000 points.
I use the Premier Rewards Gold for bonus-able spend only, there are two other American Express cards I carry.
- I have an American Express Platinum card not to put spending on but for the benefits, it’s a great way to get lounge access with American, Delta, US Airways, and via Priority Pass Select Alaska Airlines and a sleuth of international lounges. I reviewed the card extensively in January.
- I use the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express for spending that isn’t bonusable on other cards. It’s my generic go-to for most spend (non-travel, restaurant, gas, groceries). And it has been for better than a decade. Because the points are great for hotel stays and transfer to a huge variety of airlines, with a 5000 mile bonus for every 20,000 miles transferred. I reviewed the card extensively in December.
There are cards you get for the signup bonus (and put only the minimum spend required for that bonus). There are cards you get for the benefits like the Amex Platinum, you hang onto the card whether or not you put any spend on that card. And there are cards you get for your spending — in my case general spending on the Starwood American Express, airfare, gas and groceries on the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card, and finally the Chase Sapphire Preferred card which I use for:
- All merchants who don’t take American Express, since it’s a Visa
- All purchases outside the U.S. since there’s no foreign currency transaction fees
- All travel spend that isn’t bonused by the Amex Premier Rewards Gold and Starwood Amex, so hotel stays at other chains and outside the U.S. (even Starwood stays outside the U.S.) and cabs and trains, etc. Since the Sapphire Preferred earns double points on all travel spend.(Note: I do keep my Diners Club card for primary collision coverage on rental cars, so that doesn’t go on the Sapphire Preferred, it’s a benefit that few cards offer but oddly enough something that the United Explorer card gets you.)
- All restaurant spend, since the Sapphire Preferred earns double points on all restaurant spend.
Points earned through the card transfer to United, the best use of those points in my opinion. They also transfer to British Airways, which offer cheap short-haul flights on partners like American Airlines, Alaska, and Qantas intra-Australia. They transfer to Korean Airlines (which as Lucky observes offers great first class award availability on the Airbus A380 to Seoul). They also transfer to Southwest, Hyatt (in my opinion, second best use of the points), Marriott, Priority Club, and Amtrak.
The card gets 50,000 points as a signup bonus after $3000 in spend within 3 months, and points transfer to whomever you wish. The card also earns a 7% annual bonus on all points earned, and gives access to the Ultimate Rewards mall which is often the most lucrative points-earning online shopping portal.
The Starwood Preferred Guest American Express, American Express Preferred Rewards Gold, and Chase Sapphire Preferred card combine to form the core of my credit card strategy for where I put my spending.
I carry a Platinum Amex, and for strategic purposes I currently have other cards as well like the Amex Hilton Surpass card ($40,000 in spend annually nets Diamond status), the Diners Club card (for rental cars), the Hyatt Visa (a bit superfluous given my Sapphire Preferred card but I keep it so I can trade the next time I want another Chase card), the American Airlines Visa (need to cancel that one and I’ll get it again eventually for the signup bonus), a Citi Thank You Points-earning card (which I got for the bonus and need to cancel), and the US Airways Mastercard (which I got for the signup bonus, am putting some more minimum spend on to earn a targeted bonus, and will keep through the annual Grand Slam bonus offer to earn one partner transaction before I cancel).
(Do know that links to credit card applications in this post will provide me with a referral credit if you are approved. There’s no obligation to use my links for these cards, but I appreciate it if you do.)

from View from the Wing http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromthewing/2012/02/23/the-most-lucrative-m...
Google is looking to get into the paid TV business.
The company filed an application last week to provide video service to residents of Kansas City, Mo., according to The Wall Street Journal. If approved, the service could launch as soon as a month from now, according to the article, which cites a “media executive currently involved in negotiations to license channels to the service.” Offerings in the video package would include live TV as well as on-demand and online access to TV channels, according to the report, which was based on an earlier article by The New York Post.
The source told the WSJ that Google plans to look beyond the Kansas City market and into other areas where Verizon’s Fiber Optic Services (FIOS). Controlling the pipes to TV subscribers would offer Google a new revenue stream.
Reps from Google could not be reached for comment.
The Kansas City application coincides with another request to put a satellite antenna farm near the company’s data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. That addition could allow Google to receive movies and TV shows that could be bundled with a new Internet service in Kansas City that promises to be up to 100 times faster than the average Internet connection.
Google chose Kansas City for its ultra-fast service last March. Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan., beat out about 1,000 other municipalities for that honor. That fiber-optic-based Internet service is expected to go live there this summer.
This isn’t the first time that Google’s ambitious plans for TV service have been exposed. The Wall Street Journal also reported in November that Google was in talks with Disney, Time Warner and Discovery Communications about providing content for its fiber-optic based video service in those cities.
More About: Fiber Optic, Google, Media, trending, TV For more Business coverage: 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/22/google-to-launch-tv-service/?utm_source=feedbu...
 Printing in 3D is now no more complicated than printing photos in Picasa. First you design something in Autodesk 123D (in my case, my first project was a device housing prototype). Then pick "Make" from the menu. You can print your object on your desktop printer, like a Makerbot (moderate quality, now), or you press another button to have it printed (high quality, later) on a commercial printer. Enter your credit card (my prototype, shown here, cost $24) and a week later it's delivered to your house. Wow.
Best of all, 123D is free. This is the future of fabrication.
-- Chris Anderson
Autodesk 123d
Free
Windows-only (OSX support to come)
Available from and produced by Autodesk 
from Cool Tools http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/006114.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_med...
If you find you have trouble keeping in touch with coworkers that you used to work with or an old manager you'd love to use as a reference, Mingly is a new webapp that makes it easy for you to stay in touch and up to date with your personal and professional network as major events take place in their lives. It doesn't replace your social networks, but it does help you use them more efficiently. More »
  
from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/5887221/mingly-maintains-your-personal-and-professional...
Google plans to launch glasses with a heads-up display by the end of 2012, the New York Times reports citing sources familiar with the matter.
The glasses, who were previously rumored to have a front-facing camera with flash and a voice input interface, will be Android based, sources say.
They will include a display, mere inches from the wearer’s eye, streaming real-time info about your surroundings, similar to the various augmented reality applications we’ve seen on smartphones.
The data will be fetched through a 3G/4G data connection, and the glasses will retrieve information about their surroundings through GPS and several sensors.
The glasses will cost “around the price of current smartphones,” sources say. While definitely not very precise – current smartphones cost anywhere from $150 to $600 – this price range shows that Google intends the glasses as a product for the mass market.
Will these glasses be something you need as opposed to want? We doubt it – we haven’t seen a must-have augmented reality application yet, although we have seen some very cool ones in the past.
AR heads-up display glasses, however, are the stuff sci-fi dreams are made of, and it’s a product we’d definitely like to see in the real world – even if they make us look like total geeks.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Jason McDermott.
[via New York Times]
More About: Google, Google glasses, heads-up glasses, trending For more Tech coverage: 


from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/22/google-glasses-2012/?utm_source=feedburner&utm...
You probably have a friend who travels more days than he or she spends at home and, as a result, has more incredible perks with airlines and hotels than you could ever dream up. While you're not going to earn the highest level of elite status at a hotel chain without a serious commitment, you a very small one can do the trick. As New York Times writer Michelle Higgins points out, you may only need to stay with the same hotel chain for as few as four nights. Alternatively, certain credit cards can reduce your minimums and help you earn your privileges and rewards a bit faster: More »
  
from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/5887096/attain-hotel-elite-status-without-spending-half...
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