Don't forget the forums!

Hey guys!

Just a heads-up that there are forums for the SHARD website!

Either use the following link or click the SHARD Forums tab on the top bar.

Thanks! Can't wait to see ya there!

..Carter..

A Change in Social Media Plans...

Hey everybody. I know it's been a little while since the site had any activity, but I just wanted to update everyone on SL's social media presence.

For the entirety of the site's existence, SL has had a large presence on Google+, and that has been mainly it. (Much to the chagrin of some.)

Up until February, we also enlisted Google Friend Connect, a service that allowed people with Twitter, AOL, and various other services to follow the site as well. However, Friend Connect... no longer exists. Well, it does, per say, but it only allows you to connect with Google+... which you can already do through the embedded Google+ tab on the blog.

So here's the role call for SHARD Labs: If you previously used Friend Connect to follow the site, PLEASE switch over and click "Follow" on the Google+ tab.

If you don't have a Google+ account or haven't bothered to follow us in the past... well, do it or suffer the consequences. Just kidding. Maybe.

Ta ta!

..Carter..

Review | The Qoo Bracelet

Today's review is the Qoo Bracelet, a nifty transparent form of media sharing brought to you by AC Grindl, the founder of the Colombian-based company. Many many thanks to him for dealing with the import hassles of getting the bracelet to me. 

Check out his website where you can buy one of your own!

-http://www.atmydevice.com

Review: Qoo Bracelet

What is the Qoo Bracelet? Simply put, it's "social media you can wear." It's an NFC-equipped, smartphone-connecting wrist band that seamlessly, privately, and instantly lets you share your favorite links, pictures, videos and other forms of social media with anyone else.

Just by holding up your wrist.

HARDWARE:

The Qoo Bracelet is a simple, minamalistic band of rubber with a larger disc of rubber in the middle. This disc contains the pre-programmed NFC chip that will enable you to share with phones.

The band is a smooth white rubber. It feels nice and doesn't pull at your arm hairs as it slides around. There's no connector at the bottom; instead, strips of metal run through the band. These lock into place outward, and then snap into a loop when bent. This makes for a one-size-fits-all fit, which is nice, considering that people's arm vary so greatly in size.

There's not much else to say; the company's Qoo logo is embossed on the top of the circle in pink (or gray, the color I recieved.)

SOFTWARE:

The software that you'll use to upload your media is conveniently powered by Wordpress. In fact, the custom site that the band redirects to is essentially a modified blog. This makes it very easy to upload your pictures and whatnot without worrying about rewriting NFC tags and whatnot.

To begin, you'll need the instructions that came with your Qoo bracelet. These instructions provide the unique alphanumeric code that you'll need to enter into your site in order for your band to direct phones to the site. The Qoo website does contain several video instructions that'll be very helpful during this process.

WARNING: YOU MUST FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS TO THE LETTER. Missing or messing up a step can cause your band to redirect to nothingness instead of the personall media wall. And we don't want that now, do we?

Once you own your custom mini-blog, you'll be able to customize to your heart's content. There are more tutorial videos on how to do this as well. Wordpress has a handy system that categorizes your videos, pictures, links, posts into seperate categories through the help of a static homepage.

This brings me to a small complaint: the upload size. Wordpress has an 8MB file size upload limit, which works fine for most media, but not videos. If you want to upload a video that's larger than that, you're gonna have to provide a link to a YouTube video or file storage site instead.

But the system is very nice overall. There's a plethora of different languages to choose from, so you don't have to worry about what language you speak in order to use the band. The site customizer lets you change the themes, colors, and much more.

Overall, the band is a pretty handy tool that greatly simplifies the media sharing process.

Once again, thanks to AC and if you want to check out (and possibly purchase?) the Qoo Bracelet, head over to the Qoo Shop and pick one up for $6.99.

Keep checking back for more reviews coming soon, and consider supporting the GoFundMe if you like what you see! Until next time,

..Carter..

Project: Preview | RezaNinja Laser Tag

Today's review is a bit of a departure from protocol; I'm actually previewing... a laser tag system? The folks at RezaNinja were nice enough to ship me a review set across the sea (and remarkably quick, at that). 

Many thanks to those guys, who you can check out at the links below:

-RezaNinja Laser Tag

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Project Preview: RezaNinja Laser Tag

What is RezaNinja? The company's slogan is "Reza mean laser!" I'll take their word for it. But on a more serious note, this business specializes in cosplay, gaming, and laser tag. The lattermost of which I am reviewing today.

They shipped me a review set remarkably fast; it took less than a week for the shipment to make it overseas from Hong Kong to my house. So kudos to them there.

If you managed to see them at the New York Toy Fair this year, than you probably don't even need to read this review. But since you probably didn't, (I sure wasn't going) keep reading after the break!

The RezaNinja laser tag system is a pretty nice-looking set of gear. And boy, is there a lot of it.

My set included:

-2x Laser Gun/Swords

-2x Point Meter Belts

-2x Foam Shields

-2x Foam Daggers

-2x Foam Throwing Stars

-2x Sword Sheaths

-2x Arm Bands

...That's a lot of stuff. But it's all very nice. The foam accessories don't really do much for the actual game, unless you buy the impact vest which measures physical hits as well. But it's all great for cosplay!

The Hardware:

Let's get into the meat and potatoes of our pie now, however: the RezaSword and Vest. This is what you'll be using to actually play the laser tag game.

THE SWORD/GUN:

The RezaSword is a pretty nice looking piece of equipment. Some Kickstarters I review send products that are still in their prototype stages, and therefore, not as nice or streamlined, but RezaNinja has been working on their system for a while now.

It reminds me a bit of a Wii remote. The device is slightly curved, with a trigger on one side, and fits well enough in your hand to work in either sword or gun mode.

The handgrip is covered by a matte black rubber cover, also a la Wiimote. This covers the battery cover as well as the mode-changing button at one end.

On the front, you'll see a large angled piece of rubber with a hole in the middle. This is the laser part. (This is starting to sound wierd.)

The their are six LEDs on the gun, three on each side, and these blink repeatedly at you as play the game. There's also a rumble motor inside that vibrates whenever you're "hit."

This is all very nice, but it brings me to my first complaint: the sound.

When you first insert the AAA batteries into the remote (WARNING: You're gonna need 12 of these puppies to power the entire set) and hit the switch, the sound system kicks on with some jammin' rock tunes. Nice! Aim and pull the trigger, and you'll here the semi-loud "Pew!" "Pew!" as it fires on the opponent. But switch into sword mode, and you'll be greeted with the EAR-SPLITTING sound of metallic sword blades smashing into each other. And we're talking deafening here. It may be a little better outside, (I haven't tested it outdoors) but then again, your neighbors might just call the cops.

Otherwise, the RezaSword is very nice! For all of its sounds and blinkeys, the pair managed their battery life quite nicely. You'll want some rechargeable batteries for them to help ease your wallet.

THE BELT:

What fun is a laser tag game without a point system? That's what the belt accomplishes with a (somewhat) easy way of keeping track of points.

The belt isn't as nice as the gun, but still accomplished its job pretty well. It has one triangular sensor on the shoulder-region of the fabric, and a point-counter screen on the back strap. This counter goes up with each hit you receive; as opposed to most systems where it shows your points for how much damage you given.

This is where the electronics to the system get a little screwy: To "sync" the belt to your sword, you must point the gun at the belt's sensor and toggle a little plastic switch on the sensor back and forth. This (may) work, at which point the belts' embedded LEDs switch from solid blue to a pulsing green. If it fails, the screen reads: ERROR and explodes.

Okay, so it doesn't explode. But hooking the different peripherals can be quite a pain, especially if you don't have someone else helping.

Overall, the system is pretty fun. You'll want a pretty large area to play in with (preferably) some obsticals to hide behind, but it can be fun in a smaller area, too.

RezaNinja has also announced that they're working on an augumented-reality add-on to the system as well, which will allow users to "unleash secret powers" and fire digital dragons and other things at each other with the help of AR headsets. All this and more they're working on and hope to fund in their Kickstarter. Check it out below!

Well, that's all for this week. Be sure to check out the SHARD Labs GoFundMe...

-GoFundMe

...and if you like what you've read, consider donating a buck or two. (Or five hundred, if you're Bill Gates. I know you're reading this, man.)

Otherwise, keep your eyes peeled for the next review. Have a great week!

..Carter..

GoFundMe is Live Now!

Today's the day, folks! After much contemplation, and several days of getting prepared, the SHARD Labs GoFundMe is official open!

Click the logo to visit the page! We've worked long and hard on this project and hope you all appreciate the campaign. Please consider donating to help us upgrade the site, purchase extra equipment, and most importantly, bring you all more content. Plus, there are several reward levels for donators, depending on how generous you are with your money. (hee hee)

We thank GoFundMe and all our readers for helping and supporting SHARD Labs.

..Carter..

Review | The Black Card

Today's review is the Black Card, a nifty device that (used) to be on Kickstarter.com.

But first, I'd like to thank the academy... or not. The real thanks goes to Tim Almond, the co-creator of Black Card, who was gracious enough to send me a review unit. You can check him out (and buy one for yourself) here:

blackcard.tech

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Review - The Black Card

What is Black Card? The Kickstarter subtitle to the project states it as "Online Privacy Simplified." And that statement would be correct. It's a plug-and-play device that let's you boot into a secure, untraceable OS from any computer, anywhere, and manage your communications, finances, and secret-agent files on a 5GB drive the size of a credit card. All without having Big Brother or malicious hackers snoop around in your personal biz.

All this is managed by a wonderfully simple operating system, and enclosed in a sleek, minimalistic plastic case that won't draw attention in a public area, thanks to several handy features both in the software and hardware department. But more on that later.

Black Card was brought to Kickstarter at the beginning of December and quickly amassed 50-some backers before Kickstarter suspended the project for some unknown reason. While disappointed, it didn't stop Tim Almond, the co-creator, from setting up an online market for the device earlier this year.

As I said before, Tim was very gracious to send me a review unit. He contacted me back back when the Kickstarter for this product was still up, and only five days later, my package arrived in the mail.

Unfortunately, it arrived slightly damaged. However, this was not due to a mistake on Tim's part in any way, but I can thank the good ol' USPS for crushing one corner of the package. Tax dollars at work, aye? However, the Card only had some minor scratches on one corner and functions perfectly.

The Hardware:

The Black Card is one sleek piece of hardware. Wrapped in a sleek, matte black plastic, it measures almost exactly the same dimensions of a credit card, with a thickness of about two cards. It fits quite nicely in my wallet (which is quite slim), and wouldn't draw any looks if you pulled it out at the cafe or public library.

It's also durable enough to slide into your bag or wallet without worrying about breaking it in half, but also light enough that it won't put a large weight in your pocket, like some portable hard drives.

To get started with using the Black Card, the access USB port is popped out from the rest of the card, and swivels back and forth on a little hinge. This is helpful because it allows more freedom to plug the Card into a hard-to-reach USB port. 

It's a little bit tricky to push into the port; I had to push rather hard on the card to get it into my laptop's port. I was slightly nervous that I'd break it, but maybe I'm just a clumsy person.

Once plugged in, restart your computer. While it restarts, either mash F12 (on Windows) or hold OPTION (on OS X) to be greeted by the boot screen. From there, you can boot from the Card into Tails OS, the private software enlisted by the Black Card team.

The Software:

The software, from what I've seen, is just as fluid and minimalistic as the Card itself. Tails OS (or The Amnesic Incognito Live System), an encrypted Linux OS that keeps all your docs and pics out of the snooping nose of hackers, Big Brother, and your neighbor's dog. (Although if the dog's getting your files in the first place, one of you has a problem.)

Tails is a derived from Debian, (like most Linux OS) and is open-source for the world to use. Additionally, there is a plethora of great tools to use pre-installed on the card. Which is good, because you can't really install your own.

Some of these tools include:

OFFICE:

-LibreOffice

-GIMP

-PDF Viewer

WEB/COMMUNICATIONS:

-TOR Browser

-Claws Mail

-Electrum (Bitcoin Wallet)

MISC:

-Disc Burner

-Sound Recorder

-Video Editor

-Audacity (Sound Recording/Mixing)

-Poedit (Code Editor)

...And much more. There's enough built in that any casual web-surfing, media editing, or even businesses could use this product successfully. But there are a few things you should know:

1. Make sure your peripherals are hardware-connected. I learned this the hard way when I tried booting the Card on my Mac with a Bluetooth Keyboard/Mouse. The new system doesn't know about preexisting wireless connections! So make sure those devices are hardwired in.

2. One smart feature of the Black Card is the Windows 8 Camouflague. This setting is picked when you boot up the card, and disguises the operating system to look like a standard Windows 8/10 OS, meaning that if you use the Black Card in a public place such as a library, you shouldn't get a million stares.

3. This system is as hard as a rock. A combination of LUKS storage encryption, PGP web encryption, and metadata scrubbing means that all your activities as virtually untraceable. It also utilizes randomized Mac addresses, Off-The-Record IM, and KeePassX (to safely store your passwords.)

I won't dwell too much on the web functions since everyone uses the web for different things, but you're locked and loaded there as well. The TOR Browser uses a relays your web data across routers all over the world, making those likes and +1s untraceable.

To learn more about how TOR works, visit https://www.torproject.org/

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And that wraps up my review! Once again, many thanks to Tim Almond, and if I interested you in buying one of these for yourself you can over to their store and pick one up for yourself!

Until next time,

..Carter..

Project: Preview | Interview with Nick Popov

What's up, everybody? I'm back with SL's second interview, this one with Nick Popov.



Nick is the founder and head of VIVID Storage, a Sydney, AU-based company that makes portable SSDs (Solid State Drives) in colorful, aluminum cases. Plus, they're based on USB 3.0 technology, making them incredibly fast and resilient.

Which is nice.

I was able to reach out to Nick just before the Christmas season and get some questions answered. (Which was very generous, because he has been quite busy lately.)

Enjoy the interview!

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Carter Schaap: How long have you been working on the VIVID SSD, and at what point did you decide to create your own SSD?
Nick Popov: Basically the VIVID SSD idea was born early 2104 and I worked on the project since then. The idea was taking form in my head for a couple of months, until I decided to start researching on the portable drive components and materials and to making the initial inquiries to the factories in April 2014.  It wasn’t called VIVID back then; it was just a hypothetical SSD portable drive in a very small form factor and simplified aluminum case, featuring multiple colour combinations.

CS: Is this your full-time job now, or do you work in another field of expertise, and this is more of a side project?
NP:No, VIVID SSD is not my full time job, but lately its becoming one as it is taking more and more of my daily work routine. I run a small B2B marketing agency for Consumer IT clients in Australia and New Zealand as my main occupation and this experience helped me a lot to make VIVIVD SSD project happen. Lots of great and successful ideas and products start as a side project, but I hope VIVID SSD will grow into something bigger and more independent.

CS: When designing the SSD, were there any difficulties while creating a drive than took full use of the USB 3.0 capabilities? Same with the external casing?
NP: There were difficulties at each step of making VIVID SSD, as developing a product from scratch was a new experience for everyone involved. We aimed to create the ultimate portable drive which meant using best components when designing the PCB and sourcing the top quality flash memory. The main challenge with PCB design was fitting all of the components we needed on a relatively small board to maintain the overall small form factor of the final product. Some major vital components, like ASMedia flash controllers that we use in VIVID SSD, had to be imported from TAIWAN, which became a massive challenge in terms of keeping the project in the projected timeline. Case wise, the main challenge was to get the colors we wanted right, during the color oxidation process, which meant back and forth production samples delivery from manufacturers to Australia, until we were satisfied with colors. Getting the right grade aluminum on the small test orders wasn’t easy either as larger manufactures were not interested in our initial order volumes

CS: How many prototypes or iterations of the drive did VIVID go through to reach the current design?

NP: For the PCB part, I would say we went through at least 12-15 prototypes to make sure the sped transfer is up to our high requirements. Then, at least 10 Case design and major alterations, from improving the looks and heat spread, to adjusting the case internal design to fit the latest PCB design. CS: Finally, does VIVID have any other product ideas or models of the SSD in mind for the (distant) future?
NP: Yes, we are working on a few new VIVID products at the moment, which include VIVID PRO storage solution (double/triple MSata slots in RAID 0) and even smaller consumer drive with USB-C connectivity.

They will be available soon through the vivivdstorage.com website. 

NP: Thank you for the questions and the opportunity to be heard.

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Thanks to the entire VIVID team for helping SL accomplish the interview! Especially Stas Svamin, the Digital Marketing and Planning leader, who coordinated between Nick and I to get the questions answered.

If you're interested in the VIVID SSD and would like to help them reach their goal, (as of this publishing, they're at 96% funded! Almost there!) you can head over to Kickstarter.com and pledge $181, which'll get you a Drive of your own.

Stay tuned for more project previews... Carter out!

..Carter..