(Gadget) The Schwinn CycleNav Bike Navigation – keep your eyes on the road

When you need to get from point A to B, you plug in the directions on your phone and make your way to where you need to go. This can be the case for walking, biking, taking the bus, and more. However, it’s easiest to keep track of where you’re going in your car as there aren’t exterior sounds to drown out what your GPS says, and it can sit right in front of you. When walking, you don’t need directions to come at you as quickly, as your pace isn’t going to be too fast.

However, when riding your bike you might want your information to be a bit more readily available. It’s not so easy to pull out your phone and check if you’re on the right path. If you wish you had a bit more assistance in finding your way, then the Schwinn CycleNav Bike Navigation system might be able to help you out. This is a Bluetooth device that will attach to your handlebars, and tell you which way to go.

This has an app which you will need to use on your smartphone, and it is compatible with both iOS and Android (4.1 or later). Since this is taking front and center on your bike, it only makes sense that this would also be an LED bike light to help you navigate when the sun is no longer making an appearance. If you don’t want to rely on pulling out your phone or keeping in earbuds to be able to hear what directions your phone is spitting out, this is a $50 purchase that will get you the CycleNav Bike Navigation, a bike mount, rechargeable battery, and a charging cable.

Available for purchase on Fancy, found via Redferret

[ The Schwinn CycleNav Bike Navigation – keep your eyes on the roadcopyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

(Gadget) Text your friends even when you don't have service.

Ever needed to send a message to a friend from the boonies? A company called goTenna has just launched a device that connects to your phone via Bluetooth and turns it into a low-frequency radio with a range of several miles (up to 50 miles). Using an iOS or Android app, that'll let you text or share GPS locations (no voice calls) over an unlimited, free ad hoc network with other goTenna users. The team behind it says that everything is encoded, and the app will automatically retry until your message goes through -- in case you're hiking in difficult terrain, for instance. The company's planning on selling a limited number for $150 per pair on its site to raise $50,000 in funding -- after that, it'll run $300.

(Gadget) New Slingbox Makes Streaming Cable TV to Your Gadgets Easier Than Ever

The new $150 Slingbox M1 is the cheapest Sling-branded way to stream from your home TV to a laptop or mobile device.  Sling Media

After the Supreme Court ruling against Aereo, many people wondered what it would mean for the future of streaming services and devices that didn’t have the full blessing of the major networks. Indeed, an emboldened Fox is already making legal moves to ban the Dish Network’s Hopper DVRs due to their integrated “Sling” functionality, which lets users stream live programs to other devices.

None of this seems to be deterring EchoStar, the sister company of Dish and the owner of Sling Media, though. Today, the company announced a new entry-level Slingbox as well as a rebranded version of the higher-end Slingbox 500. The former, the Slingbox M1, doesn’t offer a huge jump in terms of functionality over the Slingbox 350 it replaces—bad for potential upgraders, but good for those who feared Aereo’s defeat would have an immediate chilling effect. The M1 will be the cheapest Sling-branded way to stream from your home TV to a laptop or mobile device.

The main thing it adds to the 350’s feature set is Wi-Fi connectivity. You had to connect the 350 to your router via an Ethernet cable, but now you just connect the box to your home Wi-Fi network during setup. What’s still missing is an HDMI-in option from your cable box to the Slingbox. The signal feeding into the Slingbox M1 is done via an included component-video cable.

Aesthetically, there are some minor changes, too. The Slingbox M1 is a low-key, VHS-tape-sized black box, and lacks the textured finish and space-Toblerone stylings of previous Slingbox hardware.

You can change channels while you’re watching the feed away from home, and the approach to doing so is pretty antiquated. There’s an IR emitter built into the M1, as well as an included emitter cable that gives you more flexibility when you’re positioning it. When you change the channel via the Slingbox app, you’re literally changing the channel at home. Literally meaning literally.

Because the feed is streaming from your home, you have access to your local news, sports, and other broadcasts when you’re thousands of miles away. There’s no geoblocking involved. You can also extend the feed from your cable box to other sets in your home (or your other homes) via a Slingbox app for Roku, Apple TV, and other set-top boxes.

Streaming from the Slingbox to the browser-based desktop or laptop browser is free, as is streaming to the desktop app for Mac OS and Windows. However, streaming to a mobile device will cost you, and you can’t use the browser in that scenario. The iOS and Android versions of the SlingPlayer app are $15 apiece, and buying one of those apps is required to make the Roku and Apple TV features work. The set-top boxes use your phone, which must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network, as a receiver.

The Slingbox M1 costs $150 and will be available starting July 20. But unless you plan on watching everything on a laptop or desktop, tack on that extra $15 for the mobile app.

The other “new” device is the $300 SlingTV, which is the same hardware as the Slingbox 500 running new firmware. The new platform is HTML 5 based, with its own app ecosystem, custom pop-up displays, and sports tickers that can run on top of live programming. All those new features are also available as a firmware update for the Slingbox 500. The rebranded box and firmware update are both due at the end of August.