Archive for July 2014

Smart ‘Little Printer’ spews out slips of paper with messages, notifications & images

This device is ‘Web World meet Real World’ technology. Called the Little Printer, it’s a Web-connected, tiny printer that keeps you updated & connected about everything important that you want to know about. Yes, it actually prints out little slips of black & white paper.

As the name suggests, this dinky little printer connects wirelessly to a “Bridge” that is, in turn, hooked up to your broadband router. You control & configure the printer through an application that can be used from your desktops, smartphones & Tablets alike.

So what exactly does the Little Printer print? For starters, you can set it up to spew out newsfeeds & updates from over 160 free publications. It’s like the ticker tape of yore, only tinier & with pictures. Tear off a tab & read it while on your way to work, instead of peering down that smartphone of yours.

You may even use Little Printer as a social sharing tool to receive photos & messages. It’s also a fun way to communicate with other family members at home while you’re out, i.e. remotely-located. Eg: You are in London, shoot a pic at the London Bridge on your smartphone & send it across to the Little Printer in your New York home where someone will press a button & print out the image. Fun, right? The sharing & remote features allow the entire family to use it separately for their own subscriptions & for sending remote messages.

littleprinter

The compact ticker-like black & white messages which the printer spits out & the Cloud-based platform behind it makes it a wee bit different from your typical WiFi printer.

Little Printer connects the Internet with the real world in your home, & as such is a part of the Internet of Things that includes smart connected homes.

The aforementioned Bridge connects the Little Printer to the BERG Cloud. BERG is the London, UK-based firm that developed the Little Printer.

The connected technologies & platform they created to wirelessly connect & feed content to the printer worked out so well that they are now offering the BERG Cloud as a cloud-based platform that can support prototyping & development of new web-connected products.

Using BERG Cloud’s plug-&-play capabilities, innovators can skip the whole platform & software development part & jump right to the hardware aspects of product development.

Little Printer was launched by the London, UK-based product development company BERG in 2012. BERG was founded by Matt Webb & Jack Schulze. Webb is the company’s CEO while Schulze is Head of Product.

Development of the Little Printer was self-funded, but BERG has since raised $1.3 million in seed funding from investors including Index Ventures, Initial Capital & Connect Ventures. Thanks to this initial seed round of investments, BERG decided in late 2013 to get Little Printer into the world.

Here’s a short video to let you know how it works:

Editor’s Note: What grabbed our attention is a cute thing these guys have done. You can type a piece of code wherever you are & it will print on the Little Printer in the BERG office, which you can see ‘Live’.

Image Credit: Little Printer/BERG
Video Credit: YouTube/BERG

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Instagram’s one tap messaging app Bolt is here

Taptalk, you have competition. Photo messaging app Instagram has pulled the covers off its new messaging app, Bolt, that allows users to send off a photo or even a video to a friend which disappears once read.

As of now, Bolt for iOS & Android is available only in select countries. Like we said, Bolt seems to be a copy of messaging app Taptalk. Tap on a friend’s face to send a photo instantly, or long-press on their face to send a video.

Features:
* One tap takes a photo or records a video. As soon as you lift your finger, it sends.
* Photos & videos are always unedited so people can see the world as you do.
* Easily caption photos & videos.
* Go back and forth by replying to your friends with text, photos or videos.
* Swipe photos away & they’re gone.
* Organize your 20 Favorites in whatever order works for you.
* Sign up with your phone number, no email address needed.

Image Credit: Bolt/Google play

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