Hyperkin Smart Boy Turns Your Android Phone Into A Modern Game Boy

Still hoarding the Game Boy cartridges of your youth for some reason you can’t quite explain? Well, the reason just presented itself in the form of the Hyperkin Smart Boy, a smartphone accessory that turns your powerful mobile device into a 90s-era video game handheld.

Originally conceived as an April Fool’s joke last year, the accessory seemed feasible enough that fan demand eventually convinced Hyperkin to actually produce the darn thing. And, yes, it’s coming this year with the same familiar buttons and taking the same familiar cartridges as the old handheld, all while playing everything on a modern high-res screen.

The Hyperkin Smart Boy docks your phone (Android only) in the integrated enclosure (where it plugs into a double-side micro-USB port), leaving only the top half of the screen for use by the companion app, which should put it a lot closer to the Game Boy’s original tiny display. A cartridge slot in the back takes both original Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges, so you can use it to play any games you’ve decided to hold on to for the last 20 years. It uses the same D-pad and four-button ensemble from the original console, so this should provide an authentic retro-gaming experience.

Do note, the upcoming release isn’t aimed at general consumers, as the software will be functional but half-baked. Instead, Hyperkin is aiming this at developers (complete with an open-source serial app and firmware), with the hope that the community will help fine-tune the software before releasing a final retail version.

Slated for availability on December, the Hyperkin Smart Boy is priced at $59.99.

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These Vi Earphones Come With An AI Personal Trainer

The natural evolution of activity tracking is a personal coach that feeds you real-time workout instructions and we’ve already seen several attempts to provide just that. Vi, however, takes it a step further by integrating a learning artificial intelligence into its activity tracking headphones to provide you with coaching that’s tailored to your training history and real-time performance.

More than a coach that barks instructions in your ears, though, Vi is actually designed for interactions. We're not entirely sure what kind of interactions you can have, but we're hoping you can complain about the workout and have it tweak things just a bit to accommodate your lack of willpower in real time. I mean, that's a life-like coach if they can pull that off.

Vi consists of a neckband with a pair of Harman Kardon earphones tethered to it. The neckband houses the various inputs and sensors for general activity tracking (measures speed, cadence, elevation, and so on), although the earbuds also integrate additional sensors for measuring heart rate and heart rate variability (they only measure if you pop them in your ear, though). Do note, it needs to be paired with the companion app (iOS and Android) to get the full experience (tracking and coaching), so you’ll have to bring your phone along during every workout.

Features include a battery life of 8 hours, Google Kit and Apple Health Kit compatibility, wind and noise filtering, and the ability to create workout plans based on your goals and previous performances. For the launch, Vi will only support running (and variations like brisk walking), with other activities set to be added as software updates over time.

A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for Vi. Pledges to reserve a unit starts at $199.

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Lenovo Phab2 Pro Brings Google’s Tango Technology To The World

If you’ve ever seen the various demos of Google’s Project Tango technology, then you have a pretty good idea of how impressive its potential applications are. Problem is, we haven’t quite had a proper hardware to play around with the tech. That changes with the release of the Lenovo Phab2 Pro, the first ever smartphone to fulfill Project Tango’s sensor and camera requirements.

Armed with Google’s spatially-aware camera tech, the phone uses a 16-megapixel camera to see its surroundings in 3D with precise depth perception, all while relying on extra sensors to monitor location and nearby objects. Those sensors perform the check at a rate of 250,000 times per second, so even minute movements and changes will immediately be registered by the system. With the tech onboard, it’s fully capable of performing all of Tango’s impressive tricks, from accurately measuring a room to augmented reality guided tours, among others.

We imagine calling the Lenovo Phab2 Pro a phone is a bit of a gray area, considering the darn thing has a screen measuring a whopping 6.4 inches. Naturally, it comes with some serious processing power, including an eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 CPU, 64GB of built-in storage (expandable via microSD), and 4GB of RAM. With the large size also comes a large 4,050mAh battery, although with everything the phone has to run, we’re guessing runtime won’t be that far off from other units. Features include a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution, an SD card slot, two SIM slots, an 8 megapixel front-facing camera, Dolby Atmos audio, and the usual roster of connectivity features.

Slated to arrive in September, the Lenovo Phab2 Pro is priced at $499.

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