CES can be an overwhelming experience. If you want to cut through a lot of the clutter and get straight to where the next-generation-computing action is, just make a beeline for Intel's booth. Not surprisingly, the chip maker goes all-out for this annual event, with demos of the cutting-edge technologies it's currently focusing on. It's a pretty good bellwether of the sorts of products we can expect to see in the near future. Because more so than many other exhibitors here, you can safely bet that any innovations backed by Intel stand a good chance of making their way to market, and thus into our lives. This year, the booth highlighted body sensors as a means of mass data collection and more pinpointed applications, and RealSense camera integration for more immersive experiences. For a better idea of what this means, check out the video.
The Internet of Things is evolving into a network of devices that sense the outside world. But how do you add sight to devices that are born sightless? In the case of toys, you might add a Mu module from Morpx. Within a few weeks, the Chinese developer plans to launch Mu for Toys, a small electronic eye module that can be added to Lego Mindstorms EV3, Hexbugs, and more. The price is cheap: $10 apiece, according to the company, which is launching the product on Indiegogo. The kicker is that the module contains an IR transmitter, so that what the Mu module “sees” can be communicated to the toy itself via the IR controls. In reality, what this means is that the toys can follow a line drawn on a piece of paper, track a hand as it “leads” the toy down a path, or even recognize a ball. Morpx claims that the Mu can also recognize colors and even faces. If you’d like, you can even program the Mu to play music or light up a pair of LEDs that serve as “eyes” of sorts.
Windows 2-in-1s are growing increasingly popular, and Panasonic is joining the fray in its own particular way with the Toughbook 20, a device that’s designed to take advantage of popular consumer trends while still being able to handle a hardcore environment. Like other 2-in-1s, the Toughbook sports a detachable screen that can be used as a tablet away from the device’s keyboard, with support for running Windows applications in tablet mode. The device was first announced in November, but I got a chance to take it for a spin at CES ahead of its launch sometime early in 2016. This computer isn’t going to take the consumer market by storm. It’s big, boxy, heavy, and its 10.1-inch display won’t turn any heads. But it makes up for that by being way tougher than the likes of the Lenovo Yoga series, while still providing key conveniences like a detachable touchscreen and 1080p webcam. It’s designed to meet several key ruggedness standards, including the IP65 water resistance standard.
If you enjoy cooking, you’re gonna hate this product. It’s called Cooki, and it’s a Keurig-like machine with a robotic arm that cooks meals made from prepackaged ingredients from a delivery service, like Blue Apron or Plated. I saw Cooki in action, and the whole thing is a little bizarre: You slot in the ingredient pods, then select the recipe you want to cook in the corresponding Cooki app. The app then proceeds to guide the machine through each step of the cooking process. I watched eggs fall into a pot on the machine’s induction cooktop, then the spinach, then cheese. The end result: scrambled eggs with spinach and cheese. It wasn’t fancy, and it didn’t look particularly appealing, but watching the robotic arm mix in each ingredient was incredibly cool.
Ever seen voice-activated, fitness-tracking sunglasses? Or musicians creating music with smartwatch-like devices? They were all on stage during Intel’s keynote at this year’s CES. The devices run on Intel’s Curie chip, which the company hopes to put in a wide range of wearables, sports equipment, fabrics, electronics, and Internet of Things sensors. Intel also showed a BMX bike and snowboard that had Curie inside, and which could provide real-time information like the height, angle, distance, and speed of jumps. But it was like a repeat of last year, when Intel gave Curie demos and said many products were under development. None went on sale in 2015, but Intel wants to go beyond simply demonstrating the promise of Curie, and an Intel spokeswoman said the company expects devices with the chip to be released starting in the second half this year.
Card-carrying members of the Radio Shack Battery of the Month Club, get ready to salivate: The Eco USBcell is the most exciting development we’ve seen in rechargeable batteries in a long time. Unlike most rechargeable AA and AAA cells that use nickel metal hydride chemistry, the USBcell’s are based on the same advanced lithium polymer technology that’s used in many smartphones. That may not sound like a big deal, but one limiting factor in using LiPo in a AA or AAA battery is voltage. LiPo and Lithium Ion’s typical minimum voltage is 3.7 volts and would fry a standard device looking for 1.5 volts. The Eco USBcell features a power control chip to match the voltage to the standard disposable alkalines we’re used to. Lithium batteries beat nickel metal batteries in recharge time and the number of times they can be recharged. And when compared to disposable alkaline batteries they have an even bigger advantage.
Talk all you want about AMD’s fairly well-regarded products, its struggling financials, and its emerging, stable semi-custom business that’s helping keep the company afloat. But what it all boils down to for AMD chief executive Lisa Su is AMD’s corporate reputation. “The idea that AMD is a cheap solution has to be replaced with the idea that AMD is a very competitive solution,” Su said in a roundtable with reporters here at CES. That’s not news. AMD has wrestled with that problem for years, as the company launched CPUs, GPUs, and eventually combined the two into APUs. And whatever advantages AMD has touted on paper apparently haven’t convinced hardware makers, as AMD has reported more quarterly losses then profits over the past few years, and lost $403 million for all of 2014. (AMD has yet to report its results for the fourth quarter of 2015 and the year.) Over the past several years, AMD has explored creative ways to cut costs including divesting itself of its manufacturing operations, leasing its corporate offices, layoffs, and pursuing joint ventures on portions of its business, such as assembly and testing.
Cellular network software that Ericsson announced at CES may help small, battery-powered devices like smartwatches and pet trackers get online and work longer without a recharge in a few years. It goes by the ungainly name of Ericsson Networks Software 17A for Massive IoT, but it has features for connecting the smallest of devices without making them use up too much power. Many of those will be meters and machines for cities and companies, but some could be long-lasting wearables and consumer gadgets of the future. Cellular networks were built to give smartphones as much speed as possible. Now they’re being adapted to trickle data to and from new kinds of things. Those could include street lights and parking meters, industrial machinery, and various consumer gadgets like clip-on devices that tell you where your stuff is.
Sony has developed a good-looking cylindrical Bluetooth speaker that should add some ambience to almost any space. The Glass Speaker is about the same diameter and height as a wine bottle. At its top is a vibrating membrane that pumps sound waves downwards into the glass tube and out through an opening in the bottom. The sound travels out at equal amplitude in all directions. In the center of the tube, Sony has located a handful of LEDs, which enable the speaker to double as a mood light. The lights don’t interact with the music, but their brightness can be controlled through the speaker or a compatible smartphone app. Speaker volume is also controlled through the app.
The CES show floor is chock full of gadgets designed help you live a healthy life, but few of those devices can actually save your life. That’s why I had to check out Veta, a Bluetooth EpiPen case that prevents you from leaving the house without the life-saving injection. EpiPens are essential to have on hand for people prone to severe allergic reactions, so Aterica Digital Health developed the Veta to send a push notification to your phone via its corresponding iOS and Android app when your case is out of Bluetooth range. The case also sounds the alarm when you can’t find it, by literally blaring and flashing a bright white light. For parents, the Veta might bring some peace of mind. The case sends a notification to an emergency contact when an EpiPen is removed from the case, so if a child is having an allergic reaction, the parent knows immediately. If the removal wasn’t due to an allergic reaction, the kid can send an “I’m OK” notification to prevent parental heart attack.
T-Mobile is tacking on 14 new streaming services to its popular, yet controversial, Binge On program. The nation’s third-largest carrier now has a total of The program, which allows you to stream from the approved services without eating into your high-speed data cap, has come under some fire from privacy groups. The
Gaming hardware maker Razer is back at CES with a new wearable for its The Nabu Watch is primarily a digital watch with limited smartwatch features throw in, such as fitness tracking and basic app notifications. Looking at the device you can tell right away that it borrows a lot of design hints from popular, chunky fitness watches such as the Casio G-Shock and Timex Ironman lines.
Forget the hype over universal That’s what I’m thinking after seeing demos of laptops being charged using WiTricity’s wireless charging technology. Rather than the typical inductive charging technology that’s been a fizzle on smartphones, WiTricity thinks it has the edge with its magnetic resonance technology that lets it beam more power farther using magnetic fields. Inductive charging, typically seen in electric toothbrushes, has a key weakness in its inability to beam through metal or dense materials; it also requires very short distances.
I’ve played thousands of hours of games over my lifetime, everything from I have a deep-seated fear of heights, you see. Like, it’s a serious problem. Merely standing on a stepstool to reach something on the top shelf of a closet gives me the heebie-jeebies. And cleaning out gutters? Whoa boy.
