By Anne Whelton 
Bite-sized news, views and updates from the global tech industry, by Anne Whelton.
Catching fire
Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, recently entered the smartphone market with the launch of the Fire.
Introduced on June 18th – and available in the US from July 25th – the Fire is the only smartphone with Dynamic Perspective and Firefly.
Dynamic Perspective uses a new sensor system to respond to the way you hold, view, and move the phone and is supposed to make it much easier to use the phone with one hand; while Firefly combines Amazon’s catalogue of physical and digital content with multiple image, text and audio recognition technologies to quickly identify web and email addresses, phone numbers, QR and bar codes, plus over 100 million items, including movies and songs.
Price
Unsurprisingly, Amazon has yet to announce a release date for the UK and Ireland, however if you live in the US, you can get your hands on a 32GB or 64GB Fire exclusively from AT&T from $199.
Shot in the dark
In a welcome move for late-night TV fans, Logitech has just introduced an innovative keyboard that will literally illuminate your TV-watching experience.
The Logitech Illuminated Living-Room Keyboard K830 is a rechargeable keyboard that features backlit keys, an integrated touchpad, and wireless connectivity, so you can type and click from your couch or bed – even in the dark.
The keyboard also automatically dims or brightens its backlit keys based on the amount of light in the room.
Available from logitech.com, the keyboard is priced at €99.99
This pen is certainly mightier than the sword
It seems the 3D printing fad is only just beginning as the world’s first 3D printing pen is launched on the Irish market. The 3Doodler – which was selected as one of the top 25 inventions of 2013 by Time magazine – looks and feels like a regular pen but writes in plastic instead of ink and is now available at Maplins Ireland, CompuB, Art and Hobby shops, 3D Printing Dublin, and online at 3Doodler.ie with a RRP of €99.
Get doodling!
Reaching new heights
The first tranche of speakers for The Summit 2014 have been announced with some of the world’s largest tech companies represented.
Already announced to speak at the November 4th-6th event is Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and one of the most influential investors in Silicon Valley; Evernote CEO Phil Libin; Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley; Jay Bregman, founder of Hailo; and Sean Rad, founder and CEO of Tinder.
Three-day standard tickets are available now and are priced at €649+.
Life in the fast lane
Perfect for the business traveller, Fujitsu have just launched a new range of lifebooks, the S, T and U904. The T904 is a versatile 2-in-1 super lightweight ultrabook which offers a rotatable 13.3-inch display that supports pen and touch input.
Specs:
• 321 x 235 x 17.1 mm
• 13.3-inch display
• OS: Uses Windows 7 Professional or Windows 8.1
• Intel Core Processor
• RAM: 8GB
• LED backlight and glare IGZO touch display
• Up to 8.5 hours battery life
Price:
Available from dabs for €2,260.78 (inc. VAT)
All things to all people
According to Cisco, by 2015, about 25 billion devices will be connected through The Internet of Things.
The Internet of Things refers to devices that ‘sense’ aspects of the real world — such as temperature, lighting and the presence/absence of people or objects — and report that real world data or act on it. This represents the ability to power billions of everyday devices, from parking metres to TVs. The infographic below, by Exigent Networks, offers a further insight.
