Life & Technology – 2GB 22nd February, 2015

I got to try something very cool this week, an Aussie innovation called Realm that's designed to add force into gaming. Unlike the Wiimote or Kinect, Realm is a motion control system that really needs you to put your back into it.

 

"When people get off of the couch, there's actual health and fitness benefits to it," said co-founder Matt Long. "This thing measures your force, what you put into it, it's what you get out of it. When you gamify that idea, that really means that to achieve what you want to achieve in that game, you can't achieve it unless you're putting in the workload that game requires you to."

 

Read about our hands on experience with Realm here.

 

I also had a chat to Energizer about their new EcoAdvanced batteries – the world's first battery to be made with recycled batteries. 4% of the EcoAdvanced's weight is recycled, but Energizer says this could be as high as 40% by 2025. These will be available in Australia around April!

 

If you’ve got a Samsung smartphone, you should definitely check out this app. It’s called Milk Music, and it’s a free music streaming service for Samsung’s Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets, including the S3, S4, S5, Note 2, 3 and 4, the Tab S, Tab 4 and Note Pro.

 

Unlike all you can eat music streaming apps like Spotify and Rdio, Milk Music is more radio style, in the sense that you choose stations based on genres such as dance, 80s and pop and then tweak it based on whether you want to hear popular or obscure music, new or old and so forth.

 

I was also joined by Tim Falinksi from Trend Micro to learn about the key security findings from 2014. The good news is that spam is down, but unfortunately, cyber criminals are now using that Tim calls social media lures instead. These lures can make use of recent big news ("find out what Kanye really said!") or extraordinary giveaways ("win a gold-plated iPhone 6!") to trick users into clicking these links on social networks, potentially exposing them to viruses.

 

A week in the tech world isn’t complete without some fresh Apple rumours, but this week’s story is a little bit different. Apple is apparently working on a self-driving, electric car. I know that sounds pretty odd, but it could actually make a lot of sense.

 

The technology and automotive industries seem to be converging, to the point where Tesla Motors’ CEO described their flagship car, the Model S, as a computer on wheels. If car companies are making computers, it makes sense for Apple to be making cars. Here's a few more reasons why Apple could be making a car…

 

LG this week unveiled the Watch Urbane, its third Android Wear powered smartwatch. Differentiating itself from the G Watch R has a thinner profile and is encased in an all-metal body – available in either gold or black. We don’t know about pricing or availability yet, but LG will be talking about it at MWC in March, so we should know then. Other than the new build, the Watch Urbane is almost identical to the G Watch R – it looks like it’s more so meant to provide customers with a different aesthetic. Click here for photos…