, which takes away both the need for glasses and native 3D content. Using a combination of hardware, firmware, and software, Ultra-D (aka Ultra-D 2160p) works with autostereoscopic (that is, no glasses required) displays to deliver both display native 3D content as well as convert 2D to 3D. Two birds, meet one stone. The technology promises a wide viewing angle (no huddling the family onto the middle couch cushion) and users gets to control the amount of 3D depth produced. Ultra-D also adds pixels to video content to generate 2160p from a 1080p signal. I got a chance to see what the company calls a final production model, and can say that yes, I saw (some) 3D effect without glasses. No word yet, however, on how much the first TVs with Ultra-D will cost, or exactly when they’ll be available. But that’s par for the course at CES.
CES is packed with plenty of offbeat gadgets, but the Precision Guided Firearm that TrackingPoint brought to the show this year is the first lethal weapon I’ve ever seen at a tradeshow. Of course, the PGF isn’t just a rifle; it’s a system of devices designed to work together to make hunting safer and more enjoyable through technology. A processor inside the rifle collects environmental data like temperature, barometric pressure, distance to target, the orientation of the barrel and even the Earth’s magnetic fields from sensors built into the networked digital tracking scope on top of the rifle. The user can then choose to input more data like wind direction and speed, then use the digital tracking display inside the scope to find a target and “lock on” by pressing a big red button. The scope will then display a big red dot that automatically compensates for environmental variables like wind, distance and intervening objects to show the user where they need to point the rifle in order to hit their intended target. It will even track the target if it moves by employing digital image processing techniques to determine what object the user is trying to target (elk, deer, a paper cutout, etc.) and updating the targeting reticle as the object moves relative to the rifle. During our demonstration (which took place in a crowded Las Vegas convention center and thus did not involve any live ammunition) the PGF would not fire until the user held down the trigger to arm the system; at that point the rifle itself will fire automatically once it was lined up precisely with the tracking system. You can turn this feature off so the PGF works just like a normal “dumb” rifle, but hopefully this sort of computer-aided tracking cuts down on human error and helps make users more successful (and safer) hunters. Like pretty much every gadget we’ve seen at CES, there’s also a goofy social networking system built into the PGF. The rifle has a wireless server that streams images and video from the networked tracking scope (which has a 110m telephoto lens and a 14-megapixel image sensor) to mobile devices that connect to the rifle’s wireless network. Since the rifle is streaming the same digital video that’s being displayed inside the digital scope, this basically allows anyone nearby to connect their mobile device to the PGF and watch the action from the hunter’s perspective. You can also capture images and video from this stream at any time, so you could conceivably keep visual records of successful hunts on your smartphone and share them with friends and family on your social networks once you got back to civilization (or at least a place with decent cell reception.)
to a handheld the size of your smartphone, 2013 will have the tech you need to make it work. The big trend in gaming technology this year is making PC gaming more mobile, either by streaming games from a PC to a mobile device or simply packing decent performance into a portable tablet. aims to make PC gaming accessible to users who don’t have the time or funds to build a performance PC. A GRID sever combines stacks of high-powered Nvidia GPUs with custom algorithms built specifically to service players streaming games remotely. The system should allow Nvidia to dynamically allocate processing power to users as they play games on their mobile devices, PCs or HDTVs, eliminating the hassle of driver updates and system requirements which keep many people from enjoying the best PC games on the market. optimized for gaming.
If you've ever asked yourself WWLLT (What Would Lemmy Listen To), now you have your answer. Lemmy Kilmister, the frontman of the band Motörhead, was on hand at CES 2013 to introduce the new Motorheadphones line. This includes five headphones and earphones designed to bring out the midrange tones that other headphones sacrifice in the name of bass. The metal-themed (as in heavy metal) headphone designs come with features you'd expect—some with in-line mics and controls for use with mobile devices, others with turntable ear cups for DJs—but all are made to provide clear mids along with warm lows and well-defined highs. You can learn more, as well as order some for your bad self, at the now.
Steed (introductory price of 20 Euros, $26 on 1/7/2012) is a nicely minimalist FTP program which puts an emphasis on aesthetics, and looks like a 2012 program rather than a 1995 one. This simplicity also extends to its feature set, and whether that is a plus or a minus depends on the user. Steed is extremely straightforward: Connect to an FTP server and then transfer files up or down. There are very few bells and whistles: no scripting, no scheduled events, no pages of highly-technical options to fine-tune settings in ways only hardcore network users understand. Steed opens with a screen to enter a connection, and it assumes you know what you're doing, as there is no "Help" file. As most FTP locations these days are given in the form of URLs ("ftp://somesite.com"), and not in the expected address (ftp.somesite.com), you may need to edit a little bit to get the connection string in the format required. The only way to test this is to hit "Connect," and if it works, you're at the FTP screen. The only way to edit the connection, or to save it as a favorite, is to add a new tab; then rather than making a connection, go to the "History" menu, select your current active connection, and add it to your favorites. One nice utility feature is that, while browsing, you can enter a simple search string and filter the results in your current window. For large directories with many files and folders, this is very handy.
Tablets are just consumer toys, right? Well, that argument has been a tad dubious since it was first used against the original iPad, but the new breed of tablets running the full Windows 8 OS truly challenge the assertion. A new Windows 8 tablet offering from Dell promises to deliver a full PC experience in a tablet that starts at only $499. . It has the same 1.8GHz Intel Atom processor, and 2GB of RAM with a 10.1-inch IPS Corning Gorilla Glass display. It is lacking some of the features of its more robust sibling. It does not have a swappable battery, and the rear camera is missing the LED flash. It has a full USB port, but lacks the mini-USB and mini-HDMI ports. And, it can use a passive stylus, but it doesn’t support the Wacom Active Stylus. .
If you're looking for a tablet that's built like a tank, the sturdy Toughpad series is as far as you need go. Just expect to pay a premium. , Panasonic announced a pair of new ToughPad models to fill out its lineup. Already out is the Toughpad FZ-A1, a ruggedized 10.1-inch Android tablet that's aimed at business applications with its weatherproofing, daylight-readable display, and removable battery. "This is a business tool for somebody who wants to work outside in any kind of weather, including rain," explains Walls of the lineup, which starts in price at $1199 for the new 7-inch model, the Toughpad JT-B1. The Toughpad line supports such business-friendly features like encryption, IPsec VPN, trusted boot, root protection and FIPS compliance. There's even an enterprise-focused app store.
'It's been an interesting journey,' Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky said as he stood on stage at his company's first press event at CES 2013. The darling of Kickstarter raised more than $10 million from nearly 70,000 backers who wanted a stylish watch that connects with your smartphone, but now Migicovsky's company has to ship the product he promised. Pebble announced Wednesday that the final product would begin to ship to backers over a six-to-eight-week period beginning January 23, a few months later than originally planned. According to Migicovsky, the huge response on Kickstarter forced the company to learn about modern consumer-electronics manufacturing processes, but the result is a device that feels solid and professional, not like something hacked together in someone's garage. (Disclosure: I was a backer of this Kickstarter and am looking forward to getting my black Pebble in the mail sometime in February.)
Former President Bill Clinton is the ultimate scene-stealer. Samsung Digital Solutions President Stephen Woo talked new tech at the company’s keynote on Wednesday morning, but a new processing chip and flexible display prototypes didn’t make people leap to their feet the way Clinton’s on-stage appearance did. “When I became president, the average cell phone weighed 5 pounds,” Clinton joked in an off-the-cuff speech that tackled gun control, climate change, and the ways technology can topple governments and boost developing economies. Clinton capped an event that included the debut of a new chip, the eight-core Exynos 5 Octa, based on ARM’s big.LITTLE processing technology. Woo demonstrated the chip’s superfast speeds by downloading an app to make reservations at Las Vegas restaurant Honey Salt while mapping the eatery’s address. He also invited Electronic Arts’ Glenn Roland on stage to demonstrate the chip’s powerful game-playing experience.
G-Form very much wants to alert you of the damage that can be done to your gear if you store it in bags or cases that don’t provide the proper amount of protection. And it’s willing to use a bowling ball to smash some M&Ms to make its point. The case and athletic gear maker featured a demo at its CES 2013 booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center to demonstrate just how its (RTP) fares compared to more convention cases. The material in G-Form’s cases is soft and flexible most of the time, but whenever there’s an impact—say, when your smartphone falls out of your hand toward the unforgiving concrete below—the material stiffens, blocking out most of the collsion. And G-Form had quite a collision to show off at its booth. G-Form’s Bill Reifsnyder dropped an eight-pound bowling ball three feet on top of two layers of a generic neoprene laptop case and then repeated the test by dropping it on two layers of own his company’s own cases. Because you can only sacrifice so many mobile devices in the name of science, Reifsnyder used M&Ms instead of smartphones to gauge the effects of the impact. In the test with the generic neoprene case, those M&Ms were reduced to candied chocolate dust; the G-Form case, however, absorbed the brunt of the bowling ball’s impact, and the M&Ms lived to fight another day.
Before they even leave their eggs, embryonic bamboo sharks freeze in response to perceived danger ? a behavior that may help scientists develop a more effective shark repellent. The still-developing bamboo sharks are responding to electrical fields generated by predators, a study published today in PLoS ONE reports.
On Tuesday, Glenn Beck featured one of MakerBot's Replicators on his radio show/online broadcast, making it clear that he was impressed by the desktop device.
Indie horror-comedy
LAS VEGAS ? Pebble is finally shipping the first batch of its?much-hyped e-paper watches. No, really.[HTML1]The company announced today at CES that it will send the first batch of 15,000 watches to its faithful customers on Jan. 23. The other 70,000 Kickstarted units will ship "later." Sometime after that, Pebble will start taking orders from ...
We've heard it countless times from losers of courtroom showdowns who claim they're going to take their defeat all the way to the Supreme Court. But over a traffic citation? Jonathan Frieman, a 56-year-old Northern California man, is joining the ranks of pregnant women who have transformed carpool-lane violations into a soapbox of sorts.
Wired's continuing live coverage of CES 2013 from Las Vegas.
While the debate will go on about whether Microsoft made a good decision to dump CES starting this year, the lack of the giants of "PC" at the show must mean the post-PC era has arrived early, right? Or could it be the post-CES era has arrived?
This week on
Booking an appointment with a doctor through online services like ZocDoc or Teladoc is a piece of cake, and the idea behind these websites is to make it simple for people to easily access health care in their neighborhoods or through phone or video conferencing. HealthSpot takes this technology to the next level by combining teleconferencing with basic medical equipment like a stethoscope and blood pressure monitor in a kiosk that lets you see a doctor without actually visiting one.
You're late for a meeting. You pull up to the hotel entrance, but don't have time to wind your way through the 14-story garage looking for that lone space to park. No problem.
John Brennan is probably going to be the next CIA director. Just not before senators have a chance to grill him about national-security leaks, torture and killer drones.
You won't be interacting with boring old glass touchscreens in the future, if Displair has anything to say.
The new year is off to a rough start for Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner, with one plane catching fire and another being sidelined by a fuel leak discovered just after it left the gate. But an analyst says the problems are to be expected whenever a new airlliner enters service.
Still using pixels in your responsive designs? Pixels may work, but using pixels means fighting the inherent flexibility of the web. It also means you're probably doing more work than you need to.
It's been nearly a decade since contractors and U.S. soldiers worked together to torture Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Now, for the first time, one of those companies has been forced to pay the victims.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation announced yesterday that one of their two manufacturers has officially built their 500,000th Raspberry Pi unit, and the other is expected to be nearing the same amount ? an impressive pace for the $35 bare-board Linux computer that was released in February of 2012.
By closely mapping the mass of an enormous galactic collision, astronomers may have uncovered a type of force that only affects dark matter.
A long soak in the tub can wreak havoc on your fingertips, transforming your smooth digits into wrinkly eyesores. But this rumply skin may actually serve a purpose, according to a new study. It helps us get a stronger grip on slippery objects, especially those underwater.
A guided tour of locations used in Quentin Tarantino's movies -- from
The LED may be the future of lighting, and they're already pretty efficient, but they've got nothing on nature. A really close (scanning-electron-microscope close) look at some fireflies led scientists to a new refractive design that could dramatically increase efficiency in LEDs.
An outbreak of a previously unknown virus that causes fatal brain cancer in raccoons has been detected in northern California and southern Oregon. There's no reason to think the virus could be contagious to humans. Its emergence does, however, raise fascinating questions about how it evolved and whether patterns of suburban development actually fueled its rise.
In recent years, many people have noted that young scientists have it hard. Older scientists seem to be getting all the grants and fewer faculty positions are opening up. Wired Science blogger Samuel Arbesman explains why -- and it might be a surprise.
While Kickstarter?s hardware projects made headlines in 2012, film and gaming ideas (of both the video and board variety) were the real cash magnets for the crowdfunding site, raising a combined $176 million.
On April 9th of last year, someone called Iceeey proposed a change to an obscure document written by the federal government?s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The document wasn?t that important. It had something to do with transit subsidy requests. And the change was tiny, a typo fix. Iceeey suggested the agency change the line ?Daily rountrip cost? to ?Daily roundtrip cost.? But this small request was a very big deal.
Of all the craziness here in Las Vegas, the main attraction remains, of course, the gadgets. Here's a selection of the things we loved from day 3 at CES.
Late last month, former CIA analyst Allen Thomson went poking through Google Earth imagery -- and found something kind of weird in western China.
CES isn't important enough for the likes of Apple, Google or Microsoft to show up. But the Vegas convention is still a crucial launching pad for massive Chinese tech firms that are trying to reach U.S. consumers and retailers.
In their project Geolocation, Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman scan the public Twitter feed for tweets that are geotagged and then travel to those locations to take pictures where the original tweet was sent.
Italian astronomer Giovanni Riccioli discovers a faint glow on the night side of the planet Venus. Other astronomers over the ensuing centuries will also observe the Ashen Light, but one of the longest-running mysteries of astronomy still defies conclusive explanations.
A splash of red fills the screen. I?d made it to 97 total points before the sawblade sliced my bubble, my greed ensuring my demise.