Life & Technology – 2GB 16th August, 2014

The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 is finally getting a release in Australia at the end of this month! It's a product I've been pretty excited about, so it was great sit down and talk with Matt Chapman, Microsoft's Product Marketing Manager for the Surface. What's different about the Surface Pro 3 when compared to other tablets is that it's a device that's not only designed to consume on, but to create. According to Matt, the Surface Pro 3 is a tablet designed for productivity, and is designed to replace both your existing tablet, and your laptop! We've been lucky enough to get our hands on one of the first the Surface Pro 3s in Australia, so check out our first impressions here!

 

In other Microsoft news, the company announced a new 19 euro (approximately $28 AUD) feature phone – the Nokia 130. While this phone isn't intended for Australia, it's pretty impressive what Microsoft have crammed into it, and it looks pretty slick too.

 

This week, Philips announced the Australian release of two new smart-lighting products to complement its Hue bulbs. Collectively known as Friends of Hue, LightStrips – literally a strip of lights – and LivingColors Bloom – a space age lamp – made their local debut. I was joined by George Yianni, Philips Lighting's Head of Technology for Connected Lighting, all the way from the Netherlands! George created the original Hue bulbs, and told me that the Friends of Hue products are designed to get people to use lighting in more exciting ways in their house, and make it more beautiful. Not only this, but there a whole bunch of apps that interact with these new lights, meaning you could have your Bloom flash a different colour when you get a text message or notification on Facebook! To learn more about Bloom and LightStrips, check out our review on CyberShack!

 

Not only is lighting getting smarter, but so are toothbrushes! Oral-B have announced the Australian launch of the first ever Bluetooth-enabled toothbrush. I had a chat to Dr. Chris Ho, a Sydney-based dentist about the benefits of such a toothbrush. Dr. Ho told me that he's seen huge improvements in the teeth of those who use electric toothbrushes, and thinks that Oral-B's Bluetooth toothbrush is going to help people save on their dental bills. For more information about the Oral-B SmartSeries 7000 with Bluetooth, click here.

 

Unfortunately, as everything gets smarter, we've got more and more passwords to remember. A great way to never forget a password again is to use a password manager. Three of the best are LastPass, 1Password and KeePass; we've taken a look at these in a password manager round-up over on CyberShack.

 

In other news, Woolworths has opened its first online-only store. No, this isn't a new Woolworths website, but a Woolworths outlet designed to be used to by company staff to fulfil online orders quicker. It looks almost the same as any other store, but has been organised in a way that makes it quicker to find the items require for an order! Now that's smart!