You don’t have to splurge on an Amazon Echo or smartphone-specific technology to take complete control over your home. With the KlikR Universal Remote Control, you can control the home electronics of your choosing straight from your smartphone (iOS or Android).

Stick the KlikR on or next to any infrared remote controlled device, and boom, that device is instantly controllable from your smartphone.

Finally, KlikR is more than a universal remote. It comes equipped with voice control so you can give commands directly to your smartphone. For example, you can instruct the app to “Turn on the TV” or “Change the channel."

KlikR also has optional smart pausing and muting in case you get a phone call while you are watching a movie. KlikR is designed to control televisions, air-conditioners (window, through-wall, and mobile types), speakers, CD players, DVD players, Blu-Ray players, video recorders, Hi-Fi systems, amplifiers, streaming devices (Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV), setup boxes, satellite receivers, and projectors as long as they already operate with an infrared remote control.
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The device can be purchased online for $29.

Uber, the fast-growing and sometimes controversial ride-sharing company, has revealed aspirations not only to be the app of choice when you need transport on the road -- but also in the air.

While the company continues to host controversy with its many legal difficulties with traditional taxi cab companies, it has just moved into the spotlight again but this time for its future direction.

In a recent interview, Chief Product Officer at Uber, Jeff Holden revealed plans for Uber to perhaps, one day, offer commuters the chance to avoid traffic and delays by taking to the sky.

The executive said that Uber is seriously looking at short-haul flights for city residents. Uber is exploring vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) technology which allows aircraft to hover, take off and land with a minimum of noise and space.

Researchers at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are exploring the idea for military purposes and have developed the VTOL X-Plane, a prototype designed to increase the speed of VTOL vehicles beyond roughly 150 - 190mph but keep range, efficiency, and noise within acceptable limits.
Eventually, the researchers hope to create a model able to travel at a little over 450 mph, hover effectively and carry a payload of a "useful" weight.

Holden said VTOL is being explored by Uber now "so we can someday offer our customers as many options as possible to move around."

"It could change cities and how we work and live," the executive added.
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While the executive believes such technology could be used in cities within a decade, this may be a stretch. But considering how quickly drone development has come in the last few years with companies including Amazon looking at drone delivery business opportunities, who knows?

Imagine a world without credit card fraud. Impossible, you might say. And you'd probably be right. But any effort to rein it in helps.

Every time your bank card is cloned or skimmed from an ATM or by scammer, or stolen from a website or a phishing attack, your credit card is wide open for a thief to use until you catch on and cancel it.

That might soon be a thing of the past, thanks to one technological advancement: A credit card with a rotating security code.

The credit card, dubbed Motion Code, contains a small display in the reverse of the card across the signature strip which randomly generates the card's new security code -- the card verification value (CVV) -- every hour, according to The Memo, which spoke to the company, Oberthur Technologies. This makes the card useless for any thief who has the card's number without the new CVV.

The downside for the user is that they will have to enter the auto-generated security code every time they make a purchase. Bad news for anyone who's memorized the numbers on their card.

It's not the only downside, though. The card will prevent online credit card fraud, but won't help if a thief steals your physical credit card. For years, my CitiBank card had my picture on it and I never understood why all credit card issuers didn’t require a photo on the card to prevent use after the card is physically stolen. With a picture and this new chip, the problem would be solved.
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Two major French financial institutions, Société Générale and Groupe BPCE, are readying the cards for a wider rollout. Poland has already seen some successes with the cards in a separate trial.
If all goes well, a trial with a UK bank will soon begin. 

Phones. While Google’s hardware event this past week was packed with product announcements, one of the most important details didn't involve any particular feature for a revealed product. Rather, it involved how two of those products – Google's Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones – will be sold.

Whereas the Alphabet subsidiary's Nexus phones (apparently being discontinued) have been sold only by Google itself and a handful of retailers, major carriers will also sell the 5-inch Pixel and 5.5-inch Pixel XL. Verizon is Google's exclusive U.S. carrier provider for the phones, and top British carrier EE appears to have a similar role in the U.K. The phones will also be available through Google's Project Fi mobile/Wi-Fi service, which relies on Sprint and T-Mobile's networks. 

The relatively high prices being charged by Google are also a change of pace: The Pixel and Pixel XL, respectively, start at $649 and $769, or the same starting prices Apple has set, respectively, for the iPhone 7 and 7-Plus. Whereas Nexus phone buyers have typically had to pay the full price of a phone up-front, Pixel buyers will have access to carrier installment and smartphone upgrade plans, which in turn makes higher prices more palatable to consumers.

Another change: While hardware wasn't exactly an afterthought with Nexus phones, the main selling point of the devices, other than their reasonable prices, was the fact they ran "stock" Android. This meant they lacked a custom interface such as Samsung's TouchWiz, and could upgrade to the latest version of Android faster than most other phones. To a large extent, hardware design was handled by partners such as Huawei and LG.

This time, Google is selling users not just on stock Android, but also a premium end-to-end smartphone experience. While HTC is manufacturing the Pixel phones, Google insists HTC's role is no different from Foxconn's role in manufacturing iPhones.

At its annual hardware event one year ago, Alphabet Inc. unveiled the same gadgets Apple Inc. had earlier in the year, but at cheaper price points. This year, it went another way, unveiling two products in areas Apple has yet to enter at prices well lower than the iPhone maker typically touches.

Google Home Speaker. This Echo competitor retails for $129 while Amazon charges $180, speaks to the user in a conversational tone, similar to Echo, and has access to Google Search as well as a number of third-party apps, such as Spotify and Pandora. Users can also use their voice to cast YouTube content to any TV connected to a Chromecast, with integration expected from Netflix and other apps.

Apple could use a similar hub for Siri, which would allow users to use their voice to control their Apple TV device or interact with Siri in other ways that don’t involve using their hands. Apple also wants to get more into connected home devices, like Google’s Nest offering, and such a device would help in that area as well.

Virtual Reality Headset. Meanwhile, Google’s new fabric-laced VR headset will retail for $79, compared with $100 for Samsung’s Gear VR, and exclusive carrier partner Verizon Communications Inc. will offer the headset free with preorder of a Pixel. A major advantage for the Daydream View is that it could work with a number of different manufacturers’ phones (including Apple), as long as they have the Daydream app.
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 “It’s good that Google is championing VR today along with Samsung in mobility, but I don’t think Apple is missing out yet,” said Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “Apple undoubtedly is doing research and has prototypes, but in true Apple form, won’t release an end user product until they feel they have nailed the experience.”

At a recent Cisco Live conference, the company previewed a new digital assistant, currently named Monica. Digital assistants have moved into the mainstream, with attractive offers including Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana, Google Now, and Amazon Alexa. Each service is a bit different but follows a similar model: a local device for mic and speaker, and a powerful back-end cloud to interpret and process requests.

Cisco doesn't make personal devices like PCs, smartphones, or residential canisters (Amazon Echo), so Monica lives in Spark – which the company believes will soon be everywhere (desktops, smartphones, and meeting rooms).

Cisco does not believe that the world needs another personal digital assistant, and so Monica is intended as a work, or team-oriented, collaboration assistant. Monica isn't for shopping lists or reminders, but rather, to improve team productivity.

Speech has only become reasonable as a user interface (UI) in the past decade. Even now, it's limited and typically requires a nearby microphone. The break-through with Amazon's successful Echo device was its miniature seven-mic array that enabled room-based or far-field communications.

Cisco realized that it could also do far-field communications with its installed base of telepresence rooms, which are already equipped with microphone arrays. The WebEx and Spark clouds are already in place, so the only thing missing, until now, was the artificial intelligence to drive it. Cisco is evaluating several AI services to power Monica, and will likely also consider IBM's Watson, given its announced partnership last summer.
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Cisco provided few details on what Monica will do, when it will become available, and what its released product name will be. The product name "Monica" is unlikely to survive.