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9:26 PM PST posted by Ariel Zambelich
— Robbie, Vegas meditations
8:19 PM PST posted by Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Morels at Palazzo, the sexy time steakhouse. ;D
7:54 PM PST posted by Roberto Baldwin
Some people hate CES. Well, more than some. It’s a spectacle that burns your eyes with lights, blasts your ears and sometimes offends your nostrils.
The biggest offenders are the small towns erected by the large companies. Every product is presented with the precision of a modern art gallery with an electronic-music soundtrack blasting in the background.
It’s the exact same modus operandi of the big-name casinos. Loud music, meticulous presentation and for some odd reason, perfume in the entryway.
Both are homogenized, sanitized and ultimately boring.
In direct contrast to these shrines of board-room created perfection are the tiny booths in the back of the hall and the small casinos off the strip.
I had more fun talking to small companies about their single innovative product than a large company’s slight updates to hundreds of products.
Karaoke at the off-the-strip Ellis Island casino was far funner than the clubs at the large casinos with bottle service and guys in tight shirts and mirrored sunglasses.
There’s fun to be had at CES and in Vegas. You just have to look past the manufactured facade of glamour.
7:40 PM PST posted by Michael Calore
— Ariel Zambelich
7:31 PM PST posted by Christina Bonnington
After Robbie told us about his emotional response test at Technicolor, I had to go try it out for myself. Result: Robbie is clearly a robot, and I have the emotional range of a two year old.
One of the first big red emotional responses was sparked by a hilarious clip of cats snapping; a second one was a clip rendering polar bears falling from the sky and dying. Horrible, right?? But now you have a comparison of responses from two over-stimulated tech reporters.
6:21 PM PST posted by Evan Hansen
Legendary. The Orpheus headphone system from Sennheiser. They made 300 of these puppies in 1991. If you’re lucky you can find a well maintained system on EBay for $30,000. Celebrity headphones may be the rage at #CES this year, but in this case the only rock star in the room is the product.
6:21 PM PST posted by Evan Hansen
If you don’t have a working prototype in time for CES, don’t worry – just break out some plastic and slap some decals on a few old phones. Phone Joy promises an accessory by April that will turn your iPhone or Samsung Galaxy into a full fledged game console. I think my Ouya is supposed to arrive about the same time….
6:20 PM PST posted by Evan Hansen
You have entered a series of twisty passages, all alike.
(Roberto got here first but I had to toss in that joke. Classic.)
6:19 PM PST posted by Evan Hansen
This watch prototype by Korea’s Moneual, for the hearing impaired, listens for danger and notifies the wearer with alerts. The sound of a fire alarm lights up a fire alert, honking horns create a traffic alert etc. Includes a one swipe emergency call function. Moneul plans to introduce its products in the US for the first time later this year.
6:06 PM PST posted by Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Today, I got to spend a little bit of time trying out a prototype of the first-generation YotaPhone, a handset built by Russian telecommunications company Yota. The phone is unique in that it has an e-Ink touchscreen on the rear, with a rear-facing camera located toward the bottom.
On the back, when you launch the camera app, the e-Ink display reads “please say cheese.” It can also display calendar appointments, plane tickets, Google Maps, text messages, alerts from Facebook and Twitter, photos and a few other things — each rendered in black and white. On the front of the phone is a 720p, 4.3-inch touchscreen running a stock version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, loaded up with Yota’s apps that work with the e-Ink display.
Vladislav Martynov, the CEO of Yota’s devices division, showed me the handset over drinks at the Encore hotel this afternoon. Yota doesn’t have a CES booth, or even a hotel suite this year. Instead, Martynov is meeting with carriers, parts supplier and smartphone brands to gauge interest in the YotaPhone.
“The e-Ink display is better for battery life than the LCD,” Martynov said. “It’s better for reading a book. It can always be left on, so you don’t miss an important message when it comes in. Or, if you’re phone is about to die and you’re lost, not sure where you are — you can still use Google maps for hours without your phone dying.”
He told me the company hopes to launch its handset in Russia later this year, and that it’s in talks with carriers in Asia, Europe, and North and South America in the hopes that they’ll sell the phone.
“This has been a good CES for us,” Martynov said Thursday. “We’ve been working on this for two years now, thinking oh, this is really cool. But this show has given us a lot of validation.”
5:50 PM PST posted by Christina Bonnington
Best.
5:22 PM PST posted by Christina Bonnington
I really like this backpack from a two and a half year old company called Ranipak. Its booth was hiding in the farthest corner of South Hall.
The backpack fits up to a 15.6-inch notebook (my personal one is a 15-inch MacBook Pro) in a padded section at the back and has a section in the middle with pockets and organizers for cables and whatnot. Behind that ruched look in the front is a third section that’s perfect for stuffing a jacket inside of as the ruching fills out to accommodate a decent amount of stuff.
It comes in a couple of different colors — this taupe, black, and purple — and will be available in March for $80-85.
I think I found my new backpack.
5:17 PM PST posted by Alexandra Chang
MakerBot’s Bre Pettis talks about the future of robotics with Willow Garage and Romotive, at a roundtable discussion in downtown Las Vegas.
5:06 PM PST posted by Roberto Baldwin
Nate met 50 Cent.
I saw fake Gene Simmons.
Totally the same.
4:58 PM PST posted by Ariel Zambelich
Nate OG and 50 Cent talkin’ hip hop and headphones. You know.
besties
4:29 PM PST posted by Roberto Baldwin
What a Feeling
Technicolor is testing using advanced biometric technology to gauge a person’s emotional response to video they are watching. By gauging the response of a group of individuals, creators of films, TV shows and even commercials can determine if a video is hitting that sweet spot emotionally.
So I gave it a go. My fingers were wrapped in the measurement cuff and a video filled with scenes that made me smile and broke my little nerd heart. But apparently my emotional response was bit more subdued than the average person. I blame the non-stop crush of CES and the lack of sleep.
Actually, there was one video scene where I had an emotional response that was higher than the average person. A scene of cats snapping their fingers.
I’ve become an Internet cliché.
4:05 PM PST posted by Christina Bonnington
2013 seems like the year of the Bluetooth speaker. EVERYONE seems to have a Jawbone Jambox alternative (or five) this year. Some are designed more cylindrically like the Beats Pill.
Another trend: This bright cyan hue. It’s a very popular color option in speakers and mobile accessories. Take note, fashionistas.
4:02 PM PST posted by Mat Honan
CES has destroyed Robbie
3:52 PM PST posted by Christina Bonnington
One interesting application of augmented reality is in virtual dressing rooms, using a display as a mirror with clothing or accessories superimposed over your visage. Texas Instruments showed off one such prototype, on a tablet sporting one of TI’s OMAP processors. It uses a 2D camera so you can virtually try on eyewear. The glasses adjust to their “actual” size on your face, and as you twist or turn, the glasses stay on as they would in real life. The lenses even have a glare and reflection that changes as you move. If you look closely, the reflection in the shades is actually a Paris street scene.
I looked best in these Ray-Bans. I do not look good in aviators.
3:00 PM PST posted by Evan Hansen
WiFi is notoriously bad at #CES, so backup plans are in order. Ivee makes a voice control system currently available in a line of alarm clocks and it’s about to launch a more general use WiFi controller for your home. The guys brought their developer board along (pictured), with Ethernet, just in case. Good thing too. WiFi in the LVCC was dead. Nice save. Cool demo, even without the Nest hack (sorry, need WiFi for that). Thanks Ivee!
2:51 PM PST posted by Evan Hansen
“Thanks for stopping by…The Valve booth is meow closed.”
2:50 PM PST posted by Roberto Baldwin
Candy dish of delight or Petri dish of doom?
Loose candy and 150,000 people is always a bad idea.
2:31 PM PST posted by Nathan Olivarez-Giles
TCL, a huge Chinese electronics maker that’s unknown in the U.S., brought a 110-inch 4K TV to CES this year. The company says this set is the world’s largest 4K TV, a claim Chinese rival Hisense also makes about the 110-inch 4K TV it’s showing off here in Vegas.
But while the “world’s largest” claim isn’t unique by any means, no other company has paid the endorsement cash to advertise its products as “Tony Stark’s Smart TV or choice.”
2:22 PM PST posted by Evan Hansen
Winbot is Roomba for windows. Now only if it could climb over those pesky frames…
2:05 PM PST posted by Evan Hansen
Chris Anderson makes his first appearance at #CES…(That’s a joke. Sort of.)
1:42 PM PST posted by Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Just got done interviewing 50 Cent at the booth for SMS Audio, a company he owns. These SMS headphones are the Street model, but every headset from the company can be bent like this without breaking. It’s a really fantastic feature.
1:11 PM PST posted by Evan Hansen
Wireless residential LTE broadband antenna from Wistron, service through Verizon. Promises a boost for satellite broadband customers in rural areas. This, or something like it, is going to be the future for broadband in the U.S. outside dense metro areas, where new copper and optical build outs are basically dead in the water.
1:02 PM PST posted by Mat Honan
The CES press room is for suckers (and the influenza virus). Wired has its own little fabric-sided room / workspace. We call it the box. Here are Mike, Christina and Mark, thinking inside the box.
12:51 PM PST posted by Mat Honan
Getting decent video on the floor in the crush of pushing coughing people is tough. Mike Ruocco deserves a medal. Or at least a cookie.
12:17 PM PST posted by Roberto Baldwin
Unless you’re Shawn White or you’ve taken a pretty hard tumble, helmet-cam footage can be pretty boring. The Geonaught 360-degree camera changes that.
The camera shoots nearly 360 degrees of video footage (the dead spot is directly below the camera) so post-ride, you can see everything around you.
Guy fell down behind you? You got it on camera. Got a group of friends riding in a circle around you? You got it. A bird flys over? You got that too.
There will be an accelerometer-powder mobile, a web app and computer player. The videos can also be output as panoramas. The camera will $400 and will launch this summer.
12:07 PM PST posted by Roberto Baldwin
This just came out of the women’s restroom.
12:07 PM PST posted by Roberto Baldwin
If you’re wondering what the physical representation of “doh!” looks like, Sculpteo could help you find out.
The 3D-printing company demoed its Vase #44 system at CES today. You just shout into the microphone and the software creates a 3D rendering of your voice. If the vase created by the software would look great on your bookcase, you could have it 3D printed and shipped to your phone.
So far, there are no plans for a release or pricing. Doh!
11:34 AM PST posted by Mark McClusky
— Mat Honan, hitting rock bottom.
11:33 AM PST posted by Christina Bonnington
This is a prototype smoke detector from a company called Argus, on display at TI’s off floor exhibit space. It is ringed by solar panels and uses a low power harnessing chip from TI so that its batteries will last for 8 to 10 years.
Imagine never hearing that annoying chirp that means you need to put in new AA’s for a full decade. Those things always seem to go off in the middle of the night, too.
11:26 AM PST posted by Michael Calore
At the Qi booth. Just standing here, I can feel my phone getting stronger.
Nice to see more devices and mobile handsets adopting the wireless charging tech. I think we’ll all be ditching our cables in 2-3 years. Go, standards!
11:21 AM PST posted by Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Beats Electronics, the high-end headphone brand from beat-maker Dr. Dre and music mogal Jimmy Iovine, didn’t have a booth at CES 2013, though they did have a swanky hotel suite at the Encore to show off their latest headphones and bluetooth speakers. But neither CES nor the suite were used to announce Beats’ new music service, called Daisy, on Thursday. Instead, in a conference call, Iovine and his executive team detailed the news that Daisy is set to go head-to-head with the likes of streaming services such as Spotify and Rdio when in launches sometime in the second half of this year.
The new, under-development Daisy will basically be a reboot of MOG, the subscription streaming service Beats purchased last year. But until Daisy launches — and it might get a new name when it does — MOG will remain operating as is. Now, so far, just what Daisy will end up being is unclear. But, Iovine, did say that Daisy won’t be just a rebranding for MOG, but a whole new vision for streaming music services.
As MOG already does, and Spotify and Rdio do too, Daisy will offer users access to an online library of music in exchange for a monthly subscription fee. How much that fee will be hasn’t be decided yet. But Daisy, unlike its rivals, will be a mobile-first service with apps coming for Android, iOS and Windows Phone. And it’ll provide some sort of context and curation around music in a bid to help users find new music.
And what would a Beats product be without a celebrity in the mix? Trent Reznor, of Nine Inch Nails fame, will be Daisy’s chief creative officer, working with newly appointed Beats CEO Ian Rogers to oversee Daisy’s progress.
Next up for Beats: a CES party tonight with a performance by rapper Rick Ross.
10:32 AM PST posted by Evan Hansen
Probably the best thing about CES is random encounters. Waiting forever in the cab line at the Wynn last night I jumped into the limo line and shared a ride with three complete strangers to the Cosmopolitan. Sitting next to me was Kate Opekar, Spotify’s director of global hardware partnerships. Spotify has been doing deals over the past few months with companies including TiVo, Roku and Samsung for presence on TVs, and they’re doubling down. It’s basically Netflix’s strategy to get on every connected device possible. And TVs have evolved now where they often have the best sound system in the house, so music apps are a natural. What about XBox (Microsoft has its own music streaming service)? “No, not XBox.”
10:28 AM PST posted by Roberto Baldwin
Rats in a maze. Just wandered into this labyrinth of grey meeting rooms. Send help.
9:52 AM PST posted by Alexandra Chang
Running a mile around the track is so old school. Kids can now play Dance Dance Revolution to get their daily exercise with a new classroom mode option. Several people can play at once and then compare scores at the end, though it’s less about competition than it is about fitness. I guess moving your feet around really fast is pretty good for your body? And c’mon, who needs actual sunlight when you can hole yourself up in a giant room and play DDR with your classmates?
9:13 AM PST posted by Roberto Baldwin
I left my DSLR behind this morning. This guarantees that will see the most amazing thing ever on the CES floor and I’ll need a zoom lens to capture it.
6:45 AM PST posted by Christina Bonnington
I wake up in a haze. I’m still in my robe, lying on my back on top of the sheets on my bed. This isn’t good, I never sleep on my back, I think to myself as “Marimba” blasts from my iPhone on the other side of the room, signaling it’s time to wake up. It’s 5:30 AM.
I stumble over and reset it for 6:00 AM because why did I think 5:30 AM was a good time to wake up again? The lights in my hotel room are all on. I turn them off. Oh right, I have a feature to write today. As I lay back in bed, vague memories start surfacing. Margaritas with coworkers at the Cosmopolitan, followed by Heinekens. Trying to learn how to play craps. Being utterly perplexed. Drinking more Heineken.
“Marimba” plays a second time. I get out of bed. And then I remember ordering room service at, what time? I don’t know, I don’t want to know, but I do know that I decided that the $23 “Linguini and Clams” was the best option for me to eat at that hour. Linguini and clams? What was I thinking? One of my editors just got over food poisoning from eating seafood in this city. I wonder if it’s sitting on a covered plate outside my door, but I check and nothing is there. Am I going to get charged for this? Crap. Why on earth did I order room service? Oh god, did I text people last night? Did I tweet anything? What time did I go to bed anyway? I check my phone and see I sent three texts to a friend just before 1 AM, mostly about the room service and whether I should get it or not. OK not too bad. The room service menu is still open to the page with the “Linguini and Clams” next to my laptop and I’m thankful I didn’t actually eat that, it sounds totally gross right now. My dress and tights from the night before are laid out on the couch like I got raptured. I wonder if I’m drunk or hungover or neither, I don’t have a headache at least and now I feel remarkably lucid. I drink some water, and remember Calore talking about how the hotel puts strychnine in the water here and I wonder what it’s doing to my brain, to my insides.
The dark sky has lightened a few shades to a dusty cerulean. Why am I awake again? Oh right, time to work.
