Continue reading IRL: Verizon SCH-LC11 LTE hotspot, Sennheiser CXC 700 headphones and the Xperia Arc

IRL: Verizon SCH-LC11 LTE hotspot, Sennheiser CXC 700 headphones and the Xperia Arc originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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David Pogue finds a new way to charge his BlackBerry and cellphone: a magnetic power mat from WildCharge.

If warm milk before bed isn’t doing the job when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep, maybe it’s time for a bit of empirical data to help solve the mystery. Japanese company Tanita has just announced the Sleep Scan mat which monitors and records your body motion, breathing patterns and heart rate throughout the night. Using the mat is as easy as slipping it under your mattress, and the data that’s collected is stored on a removable SD card allowing it to be uploaded and analyzed on a PC via an included piece of software.

Using graphs and a calculated ’sleep score’ you might have a chance at figuring out why and when you toss and turn during the night, but it seems to me like you’d still want to seek out the opinion of a professional of insomnia is becoming a real issue for you. The Sleep Scan will be available in Japan come May for about $395, with no official announcement on international availability at this point.

[ Kaden Watch - Tanita Sleep Scan Mat ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

Leading health monitor manufacturer Tanita today announced [JP] a sensor-equipped mat that’s supposed to measure the deepness and quality of your sleep. The company, which is also active in the US, says placing the mat under your mattress is enough. The system will then keep track of your body motion, breath rate and pulse throughout the night.

All data from the so-called Sleep Scan system is stored on an SD or SDHC card and can be analyzed through a piece of software Tanita is bundling with the “hardware”. You can then evaluate the quality of your sleep (how long you really slept, how often you woke up during the night etc.) through graphs and a “sleep score” the software gives you, based on information coming from the capacitor microphone inside the mat that tracks vibrations.

The mat is sized at 863×314×26mm and weighs 1.3kg. A 2GB SD card is enough to store the data of about 500 sleep cycles.

Tanita plans to start selling the Sleep Scan in Japan from May (price: $395). As mentioned above, the company is active outside Japan but hasn’t said yet if the Sleep Scan will find its way to international markets as well.

Via Kaden Watch [JP]

I like the design of this felted mat that looks exactly like a small pile of stones sitting next to your bed. It was created by Ronel Jordaan and is made from 100% merino wool, but sadly the $498 price tag is keeping me from pressing the ‘Add To Cart’ button at VivaTerra. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to go back to using real rocks, at least stepping onto those each morning builds character.

[ Clustered Felted Stone Mat ] VIA [ The Green Head ]

By Chris Scott Barr

There’s little argument that inductive charging is the way of the future. After all, who wouldn’t want to eliminate cords from their mobile devices and charge one simply by setting it on a mat? Energizer is no stranger to the idea, and have been working on a new Wireless Charging Mat that they hope will help pave the way for this revolution.

Energizer has been working with the Wireless Power Consortium to craft a charging pad that will adhere to all forthcoming standards (dubbed Qi). The idea is that once the standards are set in place (which will hopefully be in the near future) people will be able to charge all compliant devices with this pad. Until such devices hit the market, you will still be able to use this with a Blackberry or iPhone using the available adapters, which come in the form of phone cases.

The Wireless Charging Pad will have two areas for charging, with one additional USB port that can be used to charge a third device if needed. The pad does not contain any magnets, which means credit cards and other magnetic devices are perfectly safe around it. Look for this sometime in the summer for an MSRP of $100.

[ Energizer ]

Originally posted at 30 Days of Innovation

By Chris Scott Barr

After the movie Home Alone came out, I’m pretty sure that every kid at the time (myself included) wanted to setup all kinds of booby-traps for their room, fort or whatever. Well we’re all grown-up now, and we can actually afford cool things like that. Take for instance this anti-burglar doormat.

Basically what you’ve got is a doormat that is really freaking sticky. You’re supposed to leave this on the inside of your door after you leave your home or business. If someone tries to break in, they’ll step on the mat and get stuck. Sure, they’ll eventually free themselves, but the idea is that they’ll get frustrated and leave. Of course on the other hand that might just make them angry and want to tear up the place a bit, in addition to robbing you. These will be released in Japan sometime this fall. There’s no word on a release for any other locations.

[ Rakuten ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

This is not for everybody, but if you have more than one handheld device (like me), you’d probably find this handy.

It’s called a Charge4All portable charging mat and it can charge up to four handheld devices at a time from a single source of …

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s….the Nav-Mat – the latest “crime-fighting device”. This is one of the strangest satnav accessories that I’ve come across. Its makers claim that “tell-tale sucker marks on windscreens” are one of the major reasons for satnav theft. So they’ve come up with the Nav-Mat, which basically looks like a beanbag for your satnav. It sits on the dashboard, therefore preventing those “tell-tale sucker marks”. Apparently “the contoured and weighted, anti-skid underside stops the device from sliding and, unlike traditional window mountings, leaves no suction marks on the windscreen”. It’s available here for a bargain £19.99 (plus £5 p&p). Alternatively, buy some window wipes here for 99p.