CES 2016: EyeForcer helps keep your gadget-obsessed kids in check

An eye-catching (pun unintended) device unveiled at CES hopes to help you and your children out to combat what has been called GameBoy disease. The illness is said to cause headaches, blurred vision, as well as neck and back pain associated with too much time playing or using electronic devices. The solution? EyeForcer from Vancouver-based Medical Wearable Solutions. It all started with one parent and doctor, Medical Wearable Solutions Co-founder Dr. Vahid Sahiholnasab, and how he got frustrated with how his children spent too much time using gadgets.

The EyeForcer keeps track of kid’s posture and how long they spend time staring at a screen. If it deems your kid has been on it for too long or they start to slouch, it will shut down your device. While it can improve their health, we can’t say if it’ll do the same for your children’s moods. No word yet though on how much the device will cost or when it will be available.

Source: Cult of Mac

Netflix promises to restore missing ‘Lost’ finale footage

(Mario Perez/ABC)

You can stop with your conspiracy theories. The missing footage (around 18 minutes worth) of Lost’s series finale didn’t disappear inside the baffling universe of the TV show when you rewatched it on Netflix. The current hypothesis is Netflix may have gotten a version cut down for syndication. But they plan to rectify this problem. The show’s creator Damon Lindelof expressed his “beffudlement” over the issue during an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

“Something tells me that this isn’t Netflix’s fault … that it’s an honest mistake and something got miscommunicated — I seem to remember ABC had to make an edit for rerun airings that tightened the show into ‘format’ (42 minutes to accommodate commercials), and somehow that [version] mistakenly got sent to Netflix," Lindelof said. "This sometimes happened with our finales—we’d ask for extra time and ABC would agree to air, but then we had to do another tighter version for subsequent airings and/or international [markets]. We usually left these (painful) cuts to the discretion of our editors… but as the show lives on in DVD form and on Netflix, there is ZERO reason to have the shorter version out there.” So, just hold off watching the finale again until Netflix fixes the issue.

Source: Entertainment Weekly + TV Guide

Bye-bye Motorola?

It looks like we will be losing one of the pioneers of the wireless technology industry—at least in name. Lenovo plans to phase out the Motorola name and integrate it more as a division under its brand, keeping their phone business under the Lenovo name. The Chinese tech company bought Motorola Mobility back in 2014. According to Motorola’s Chief Operating Officer Rick Osterloh, they will instead focus on the brand Moto. So, prepare to see Moto products with Lenovo’s logo on them. The iconic M “batwing” logo though will remain.

Osterloh told CNET that their business will keep the name organizationally with Motorola but they will eventually take over mobile operations of Lenovo. Moto products will also be marketed in areas where Lenovo is known as the more high-end products. On the opposite end though, Osterloh said they had plans to introduce Lenovo’s affordable lines, like the Vibe, to the US in the coming years.

Source: CNET

Update - January 8, 2016 - 5:00 PM -Motorola has issued a statement regarding their branding below.

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Netflix is now available in over 190 countries

Safe to say Netflix had a rather big announcement at CES 2016. The company just launched in over 130 new countries around the world. Netflix Co-founder and Chief Executive Reed Hastings made the announcement at a keynote during CES. This gives the new countries access to Netflix’s original shows and movies. The company promises that this year they will release “31 new and returning original series, two dozen original feature films and documentaries, a wide range of stand-up comedy specials and 30 original kids series—available at the same time to members everywhere.”

Netflix has also added Arabic, Korean, Traditional and Simplified Chines to the 17 languages it supports. At the moment though, they still aren’t available in China, a big market that comes with a lot of restrictions. But they are supposedly working on options to provide the service there. It’s also still not available in Crimea, North Korea, and Syria due to US government restrictions on American companies. Netflix launched its service in 2007 and has expanded globally, first to Canada, then to Latin America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan to include 60 countries.