What you see above is the tōd (pronounced “toad”): a tiny Bluetooth 4.0 beacon that will let you know whether or not it is in range of your mobile device. You might not have realized it, but we are pretty sure that you will find a lot of uses for this new accessory.

You can place tōd anywhere or on anyone and your mobile device will know whether the beacon is in range or not. There are dozens of uses for this new product. Place this thing on your pet or child and you will know if they move too far away from you. If there’s tōd in the car, you will enter car mode when in the vehicle, or a beacon at your office will let your device know that you have reached there. Your device will alert you if the beacon on your teenager is not in range by the scheduled time. When connected to the web, you can even connect to beacons other than your own.

Of course there are similar sensors out there, but tōd appears to be better as it uses Bluetooth 4.0 that features low energy consumption. And also the beacon is cheap and can run on a single coin-cell battery for years. And it has a range of up to 500ft.

But Bluetooth 4.0 means that tōd is only compatible with devices such as the iPhone 4S, the new iPad, the Droid Razr and a very few other devices. But more devices will certainly arrive in the future.

Its makers, Rowdy Robot, need your help at the moment to enter production. It is a Kickstarter project and you can help them meet their $50,000 target if you want to have the device. Check out the video to know more about tōd.

The post tōd: The Bluetooth 4.0 Beacon That Lets You Connect To The World Around You (Video) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

If you’re looking for some kind of exceptional functionality above and beyond what a hub can do, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. However, if you’re finding that you have no more room for your mice, keyboards, webcams, microphones, speaker systems, and portable drives, this just may be your golden ticket.

As you can quite plainly see, USB Fever has taken a hockey puck-like form factor and outfitted it with a series of USB ports. Most of these run along the perimeter, but there are a couple of vertical ports on the top as well. More likely that not, you’ll need to make use of the AC adapter to power all your acessories.

You can find the Super USB 24-Port Hub on USB Fever for $69.99. That does not include the three bucks for shipping either, so this isn’t exactly the cheapest of endeavors. On a per-port basis, it sounds like a better deal though.

Source: RedFerret

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