Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced several new features for its upcoming smartwatch, the Apple Watch, during the manufacturer’s Spring forward event.

Tim Cook called the smartwatch “the most advanced timepiece ever created,” detailing how the device is a “comprehensive health and fitness companion.” The smartwatch is accurate within 50ms of the Universal Time Standard, and comes with many different watch faces and offers users the ability to customize watch faces.

Apple showcased a Glances feature that is accessible by swiping out from the bottom of the watch face. Glances allows users the ability to check heart rate, weather and other information that can be customized. With the built-in speaker and microphone, you can answer calls through the watch directly.

Apple Pay integration was also mentioned, as well as interaction with Siri, and the ability to receive notifications from iPhones on the watch.

Given that the Apple Watch SDK has been available to developers for months, app functionality was also highlighted. For instance, Apple Watch can be used as a digital boarding pass, and can be used to book a cab directly through services such as Uber.

If you’re traveling, hotel information — such as confirmations as well as room numbers — are available directly from the watch. You even have the ability to bypass a hotel’s front desk entirely by using the watch to unlock your room. There will be a dedicated section on the iTunes Store that will allow you to browse apps tailored for Apple Watch.

The Apple Watch comes with a new magnetic connector that automatically clicks into place upon brining the watch in the vicinity of the connector. The watch itself has a battery life that is touted to last 18 hours on a single charge.

There are all-new ways of communication, with the side button coming with the ability to connect your Apple Watch with another Apple Watch through a feature called Digital Touch.

In terms of fitness tracking, the Apple Watch tracks your daily movements and comes with a reminder feature that lets you know if you’ve been idle for too long. There are also weekly statistics that highlight your activity, and based on the amount of exercise you’ve received, the following week’s schedule is set.

Apple Watch Sport edition features anodized aluminum, with prices starting at $349 for the 38mm model and $399 for the 42mm variant. The stainless steel model comes in 38mm and 42mm, will cost $549 and goes up to $1,049 based on the band.

Apple Watch edition — with 18-carat gold cases — comes with custom designed bands that are also made of solid gold. The Apple Watch edition will be sole in limited quantities, and will be priced starting from $10,000. Pre-orders begin April 10, with the devices available at retail locations for customers interested in viewing the watches on display.

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We’ve always stereotypically known modern Japan as the land of the weird and unusual. However, that’s for a reason, especially considering the number of wacky gadgets and crazy inventions there that you’ll probably seldom see anywhere else. These may not be the weirdest of the weird, but here are the top five recently introduced weird Japanese gadgets that you might just find very interesting.

Muscle Mouse

Who says desk work is the enemy of physical fitness? With Muscle Mouse, you’ll never have to worry about not having the time to exercise anymore. This item is technically an ordinary wireless PC mouse, but is installed an electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) device. Just stick the electric pads to wherever part of your body you want to work out and voila! Instant exercise (to a degree). It has six different settings, each giving a different electric current pattern, so you’ll just have to find out which works better for your body.

Trash Thrower Chief

It might not be obvious at first glance, but this digital clock like thing is actually a trash disposal alarm and scheduler. That’s right; the Japanese are so meticulous about time that they would actually create a clock specifically for taking out the trash. You can set an alarm to specifically remind you the type of trash you’re supposed to take out, whether it is biodegradable, non-biodegradable, recyclable, burnable and non-burnable trash. There’s also an “I’ve taken it out” button to automatically set the gadget to your next trash schedule. Oh, and you might want to know early on that it doesn’t have a ‘snooze’ button.

Portable Handy Mist Battery

Combining electronics with personal hygiene items usually takes the form of items such as this. However this gadget takes the concept at a different angle. The Portable Handy Mist Battery is exactly what it sounds like, a moisturizing mist that doubles as a power bank. So, not only do you have a handy (and stylish) instant moisturizer, because this thing can also provide extra juice to your gadgets. At 2200 mAh however, you’d probably want to bring more than one for a long trip.

Food Replica Smartphone/Tablet Stands

Japan’s food replica industry may not be the biggest, but it sure is one of the most dedicated in terms of actually making the fakes look real. Now, the industry is focusing on another trend: mobile device stands. Nope, no need to worry about that smartphone almost falling into a bowl of hot ramen; they’re all just mobile device stands. Just be reminded though that we do not recommend putting these stands beside the real thing, for obvious reasons.

USB Vibration Helmet

Tired after a hard working day? Can’t concentrate on your afternoon work? Then put this head massager on for instantly relief. Unlike a certain manually-used head massaging device, the USB Vibration Helmet is completely electronic and automatic. Just charge it via USB or pop a few AAA batteries, wear it on and you’re ready to massage. As a bonus, it also looks quite cool and futuristic, so it might help you do that classic Tron cosplay at nerd conventions without suffering from headaches too much.

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Power Practical has a new device on Kickstarter called the Pronto, a portable power bank that only needs 60 minutes to fully charge.  It employs Lithium Polymer batteries to achieve fast charges, and these are known to be volatile in certain cases.  Power Practical looks to avoid issues from a healthy dose of electronics engineering.

Power Practical is bringing tech to your portable electronics that has been available in the radio controlled hobby for a few years.  It launched a new Kickstarter campaign, following two other successful projects.  The company was invested in by Mark Cuban after a successful appearance on ABC’s Shark Tank.  This is by far its most ambitious project yet since there is much more engineering needed on the Pronto.  The Pronto comes in two versions, 4500mAh (25W,5V,5A) and 13,500mAh (60W,12V,5A).  The first early bird prices were $59 and $99 respectively.  Both models are equipped with 2.4A USB ports and charge via a DC wall wart charger.  The higher capacity version comes with a 12V output to a car adapter, allowing you to use it to charge a larger variety of items.

Pronto 5 – 4,500 mAh capacity

Pronto 12 – 13,500 mAh capacity

These portable chargers employ Lithium Polymer cells and sophisticated circuits for charging the cells and regulating the power output.  The cells are known for their volatility when punctured, shorted, under charged, overcharged,  or compromised in other ways.  To help prevent these from being punctured or compromised the chargers have a heavy duty die cast hard-anodized aluminum shell for protection.  The ports are protected by a cap that has a silicone seal held in place by an elastic band.  The upside to using this technology in the chargers is that it will be fully charged and ready to go in an hour or less.  This is a massive improvement over other chargers that take many hours to reach capacity.

LiPo cell and circuit board

It sure looks like the company has done its homework on this device to make sure that it will stay safe with use.  The project has already reached 200% of its goal in only 4 days.  It is easy to see this being the go to charger of travelers within the next year due to being able to reach capacity so quickly.  This will definitely allow some people to have more time having fun and less time staring at the charger wondering when it will be done.

Die cast hard-anodized aluminum shell are important for these chargers

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How many devices do you have that need power or to be charged by USB?  Likely there are a handful of devices, and plugged into a separate USB power adapter for each one.  Anker aims to help cut down your power adapter clutter with its 40W (8A) 5-port family sized USB charger with PowerIQ™.

The 5-port charger is a powerful one with up to 40 watts and 8 amps able to be spread over the ports.  Anker employs its PowerIQ technology, which is a smart circuit that will adjust the amperage to the device’s needs instead of being a set output.  This will allow you to charge your devices that can draw 2.1 amps to charge their batteries faster than a mismatched charger would allow.  This gives the benefit of not having to check the charger you are using each time to make sure you are going to charge as fast as you can.

Specs:

• Input: AC 100-240V
• USB Output: 5V / 8A (total)
• Size: 91 x 58 x 26mm / 3.6 x 2.3 x 1.0in
• Weight: 130g / 4.6oz

*For optimal use

• Use your device’s original cable or a third-party certified one (such as MFi). •
• Compatible with all Apple and Android smartphones, tablets (including the Nexus 7) and other USB-charged devices. The iPod nano, iPod Classic, HP TouchPad, LG G2, Asus tablets and some GPS and Bluetooth devices are not supported.

The power cord is also included and has a hook and loop cord wrap to help keep your clutter to a minimum.

The design is very simple, a non grounded power cord plugs into the power brick that has five USB ports to the front.  There are no power indicators like an led, since your device should indicate to you that it is charging.

Performance

Using a USB voltmeter the voltage and amperage were checked when charging devices.  The 5v output was nice and stable, ranging from 5.05v to 5.07v while charging a HTC One M7.  In comparison the output voltage from a USB 3.0 port on my MSI GT60 notebook came in slightly lower than 5v at 4.91v to 4.94v when charging the same HTC One M7.  The M7 was drawing the same amperage from both devices, which was 0.46a.  The M7 is able to draw more than this with a custom kernel that has fast charging enabled, but I currently don’t have that in my ROM.  Devices that will be able to draw higher amperage will charge much faster like the Samsung Galaxy S5, iPad, iPhones, and the HTC One M8.  The M7 charged at the same speed or faster than it usually had when using the wall wart charger that was originally included with the phone, performing as expected.

Anker’s chart shows how much time savings is possible when charging with PowerIQ enabled chargers.

Value

This is a good deal since you may pay up to $20 on a single usb port charger at your local electronics store.  Having a charger that can handle up to five devices and charge all of them with the proper amperage is much better than having five separate wall warts on a power strip.

The customer support Anker provides is hands down some of the best I have experienced.  Initially I was using one of these with only one device plugged in, when I attempted to plug something else in I learned that only two of the ports were active.  I went to Anker’s website and filled out an RMA form, I was contacted the next business day via e-mail requesting that I provide them the serial number of the charger so they can track these issues.  They confirmed my address and shipped out another unit which I received two and a half days later.  They requested that I recycle the original charger appropriately.  It was pleasantly surprising that I didn’t have to ship anything and only had to make minimal contact to get fast service.

Is it worth it?

When the purchase will have a company that has good customer service and will stand behind its products I find that a big reason to pick something from that company.  It can take the place of five separate wall wart chargers, and being able to be placed where you want it with the detachable cable makes it that much better.  I personally have routed this into my nightstand’s drawer next to my bed, allowing me to charge items out of the way.  Seeing this is priced at an affordable $25.99 I think it would make a wise purchase for your all of your devices.

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When I found out that I’m actually going to Computex Taipei 2014, my first thought was – well, nothing. The fact is that through all of my journalist years I’ve heard news bits about an IT conference that is held in Taiwan every year for the last 33 years. Somehow, I couldn’t imagine myself being actually there on that very spot. I’m aware that as for all of you BSN readers, I don’t have to explain what it’s all about. Somehow though, I still like to think that I’m not the only one who’s been IT ignorant so maybe this typically chick-lit text will find its readers.

Computex Taipei 2014 Intro Page

If you’d ask someone who knows me in person, they would probably call me a geek. A girl, but, still a geek. It is true though, that even I am a great final user of many gizmos and gadgets, I couldn’t call myself a geek. Nowadays, when a girl needs a huge amount of gadgets and related applications, it is practically impossible to stay a total idiot. Or lives under a rock.

In that way I’m pretty much trying to go along with the news in the IT industry. For me, the most important thing that a gadget should have is accuracy. I want my mobile/laptop/tablet (etc.) to act fast, be accurate, simple to use and – to look nice. It’s not the matter of benchmarks, which as we know – today can be owned by the manufacturers of the said gadgets.

Yes, I can understand some guys drooling over some really ugly (but still very cool, expensive, hip, mega extra wanted) notebook as it was some hot chick from AVN Expo. Still, for me, my gadgets have to be pretty, and has to match my other accessories and has to be noticed.

That is way I’m pretty happy because of attending of this years’ Computex. I you consider that it’s my peer, and that every year it gathers top ICT elite, different innovators and entrepreneurs from all of the world – I believe that there is a hope of finding some very cool and useful stuff. As organizers announced during their press conference, this Computex should be impressive for launching the new ‘SmarTech’ area featuring smart wearables, 3D printing and the rest of the smart technology at all levels of everyday life. Who knows, maybe 3D printing opens our ways to some new fashion era.

Teuta wearing Google Glass at the W Taipei Hotel.

All in all, through the next few days, I will be there having my Google Glasses on – assuring that nothing comes out of my way. And of course, I’ll be in my feminine way informing you on what have I learned and found out.

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