ces 2014
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ClamCase Pro for iPad mini appears at CES, available to order
If there's one accessory that I've been waiting for, it's the ClamCase Pro for iPad mini. Sure, there are a lot of keyboard cases for the iPad Air and iPad mini that have blossomed onto the market in the past few months, but I've been waiting for the ClamCase product for one good reason -- their ClamCase Pro for the iPad 2/3/4 is absolutely the best keyboard case I've ever used. It provides wrap-around protection for the iPad, while offering long battery life and a top-notch keyboard. Now the company has opened up orders for the ClamCase Pro for iPad mini. The $129 keyboard case looks like its bigger brother, but with a keyboard that is scaled down to fit the petite tablet. Noticeable changes include moving the various bracket keys, tilde and accent keys to function-enabled keys on the QWERTY row, some oddities with the comma, period, question mark and forward slash keys, moving the plus and equal signs out of the number row, and moving the colon and semicolon keys up to the right side of the QWERTY row. Whether those changes -- which are a necessity for almost any iPad mini keyboard -- make it difficult to type on is something that will have to wait for a full hands-on review. Like the existing ClamCase Pro for iPad and the upcoming ClamCase Pro for iPad Air, the mini keyboard case has a hinge that rotates a full 360 degrees for incredible flexibility in usage. The keyboard is made out of solid aluminum, while the case is hard polycarbonate with soft-touch accents. We'll be publishing a full review of the ClamCase Pro for iPad mini in the near future; in the meanwhile, if you have an iPad mini or iPad mini with Retina display, you should jump on the opportunity to order the case today for delivery later this month.
Pizza Hut Xbox 360 app made over $1 million in first four months
The Pizza Hut app on Xbox 360, which made its debut back in April and allows you to order food from the delivery chain directly through your console, has earned Pizza Hut quite a bit of dough – over $1 million in four months. That's around 166,667 P'Zones or 200,000 orders of breadsticks. The last notable collision between gaming and Pizza Hut was the implementation of "/pizza" in Everquest 2 back in 2005. When players typed in "/pizza," they'd be taken to Pizza Hut's online ordering page. "It's been a source of unbelievable growth for us," Pizza Hut PR head Doug Terfehr told Polygon. "Just the explosion of people who wanted to download it, experiment with it, play with it with Kinect. As soon as we did one, everyone was contacting us to do the next [one]." As for bringing a Pizza Hut app to other consoles, Terfehr says conversations are "ongoing."
Spree's head-worn fitness tracker doubles as a... sweatband
We've seen plenty of fitness watches, armbands and pedometers, but it's a rare moment when we see a pedometer that sits on your forehead. Spree believes that it's the top of your noggin that offers the most accurate physiological data, and that was enough for us to give the hardware a quick look. The device itself is a small, square, rubber brick with an optical sensor covering one of the sides. Naturally, that side has to be pressed up against your skin in order to monitor your heart rate and body temperature, while an accelerometer records your moment. In order to get the Spree into its intended position, there's a rubber headband, which doubles as a sweatband, so, no matter how frantic your nodding, you won't be left wiping your eyes in sticky frustration.
PowerUp's smartphone-controlled paper plane makes us jealous of modern kids
So, it turns out that people really like paper airplanes, and by that we don't mean the M.I.A. song, although that's pretty neat too. No, we're talking about PowerUp's Bluetooth propellor kit for paper planes that enables you to steer your origami aircraft. Creator Shai Goitein had already developed a propellor kit for kids, but took to Kickstarter to raise funds for a smartphone-controlled model with a rudder, and was staggered when it managed to raise its $50,000 goal in just seven hours. In fact, the current figure is hovering just beneath the million-dollar mark, and there's still 14 days worth of funding left to go.
Xbox's Marc Whitten 'not sweating' Steam Machines
Xbox Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten isn't worried about Steam Machines taking up precious Xbox real estate in the living room. During an interview with Engadget at CES, Whitten said he's "not sweating" Valve's new initiative. He thinks "there's space for both." Whitten admitted, "I personally don't know how to think about Steam Machines yet," which is becoming an increasingly more popular sentiment. "I'm not knocking it or whatever. I continue to think that PC gaming – the sort of uber configuration and I can change everything and I can mod – that's an important thing and there's a lot of people that wanna do that." Whitten elaborated when a product is in the living room, however, players want to be instantly entertained – they don't want to spend time doing anything else. "When you get into that living room environment, you don't want to spend any of your brain cells doing anything but being entertained. I don't want to work on it; I don't want to feel like I have to know how it works. I would like to be blowing things up now, or watching a thing now. That's the fundamental thing that you want to do." A total of 13 Steam Machines, from various manufacturers, have been revealed so far. The cheapest machines come in at $500, while the more expensive configurations can top out at $6,000. Each Steam Machine ships with SteamOS and Valve's new Steam Controller.
Polaroid is already planning to cut the price of its $1,000 4K TV
Like the high school kid who doesn't get invited to go out partying with the in-crowd, Polaroid decided that the best way that it could turn some jaded heads was with a dramatic reinvention. The company pulled up outside CES with a whole new range of cameras, tablets and a 4K TV, the latter of which was one of a small few that broke the $1,000 barrier. When we went to examine the 50-inch UHD panel, an executive remarked that this un-smart TV would likely get a price cut before it hits store shelves in order to undercut rivals from Vizio and Kogan. Of course, there's no word on just how much cheaper this unit will be, but we figure it'll be hashed out with the accountants in due course.
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MMObility: CES highlights for mobile gaming enthusiasts
Most years, I am unimpressed by CES, the Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas. Sure, I watch the feeds and keep an eye on the latest bits of technical glitter that pop out of the event, but generally I find 4K televisions that cost thousands of dollars to be about as exciting as a bag of dead hamsters. I don't care about the next wave of supercomputers, and I certainly have no interest in technically advanced cars that mostly innovate on ways to make people spend money. What excites me about almost any trade show is the stuff you find in the corners of the show room: the smaller booths, the indie developers or the hints of up-and-coming tech that will eventually make our lives easier and more fun. And of course, I'm always excited to see tech that might bring mobile MMOs to the place they deserve to be, a place in our everyday lives. CES is exciting to me because it shows the potential and possibly inexpensive future of tech. Thanks to Engadget, one of our sister sites, I was able to get more than an eyeful of neat mobile tech!
Hands-on with the Garmin Dash Cam
Garmin rolled into this year's CES with a ton of stuff, including a brand new camera which can be mounted on your windshield. Dubbed Dash Cam, the device can take WVGA, 720p or 1080p video, and the idea is to have it capture footage of daily drives and use that as evidence in case of an accident -- "It is fully automated and gives drivers peace of mind knowing any events that might occur will be captured," Garmin says. The Dash Cam, which features a 2.3-inch display, also comes with a built-in microphone, microSD card slot and a GPS receiver that makes it possible to have time-stamps and geo-tags on all recordings. After spending a bit of time using it, we can safely say it performs well and does exactly what it's meant to; unfortunately we weren't able to test it on the road, but the menus and settings are straightforward enough for any driver to use practically. While we can certainly see more than one use for Garmin's Dash Cam (read: monitor your teenager's driving habits), its starting price of $220 might end up being a bit too steep for some. Either way, there's a gallery past the jump for you to enjoy, so take a look and let us know what you think.
Xtreme: GoPro sports app coming to Xbox 360, Xbox One
The folks behind GoPro will launch an extreme sports channel on Xbox 360 and Xbox One, our sister site Engadget has learned. The app will make its debut on Xbox 360 before Xbox One, a representative told Engadget at CES today, though there is no established timeframe for the app's launch on either platform. GoPro high-definition cameras are a favorite for adrenaline seekers. They are categorized as being lightweight and rugged, and are easily mounted to vehicles or worn by individuals. One of Engadget's reporters wore one for an entire day while at CES this week. The GoPro sports channel is currently available on Virgin America flights, so if you've flown with Virgin recently you may have some idea of what to expect in terms of content.
Razer's Nabu smart band is your People's Choice Award Winner
No close call here: Razer's Nabu wearable accounted for nearly 50 percent of the 54,511 reader votes. We'd venture to say that Razer's promotion of its finalist selection had something to do with the overwhelming turnout, but the company couldn't pull off such a landslide victory without an extremely enthusiastic fan base. Though it didn't snag our award for Best Digital Health and Fitness Product, the Nabu is pretty cool; it sports two OLED displays rather than the standard one, and Razer's planning to add some of its gaming roots to the activity tracker with augmented-reality applications. Congratulations, Razer, and enjoy your 3D-printed trophy!
Presenting our Best of CES 2014 Awards winners
Curating the Best of CES Awards as an official CEA partner is not a responsibility we take lightly. Finding plenty of worthy finalists was easy, but narrowing down each category to just one winner? Not so much. Nevertheless, we spent two nights in the Engadget trailer considering products against our criteria and arguing the list down to 14 killer, innovative picks. Congrats to all our winners -- head past the break to check them out!
The Oculus Rift 'Crystal Cove' prototype is 2014's Best of CES winner
Virtual reality has captured the imagination of developers, consumers and businesses for decades, but most VR headsets produced so far have been notable more for their limitations than their capabilities. With its latest prototype, code-named "Crystal Cove," Oculus VR has taken a massive leap forward, eliminating the stomach-churning motion blur that has plagued previous generations of VR headsets, and adding sensors and a camera to track the position of both your head and body and provide more accurate simulated movement. With the latest Rift, Oculus has created a device that may usher in an era of truly immersive gaming and entertainment, and even create new opportunities for businesses to use virtual reality in everything from manufacturing to medical environments. Of all the exciting, innovative products we've seen at CES this year, the Oculus Rift "Crystal Cove" prototype is unquestionably the best of the best.
ION's Road Warrior Bluetooth speaker won't fit in your bag, costs $399 (hands-on)
ION Audio took to CES 2014 to reveal a number of new products, and the Road Warrior was among them. In typical trade show fashion, we thought it was only appropriate to stop by the company's booth to check out its not-so-portable Bluetooth speaker. As you can imagine, this thing is big and extremely loud -- we were playing Lorde at about half the maximum volume and walked away hugely impressed at the amount of noise it can push out. It wasn't exactly surprising given its 200-watt power and two 10-inch woofers, but the Road Warrior can definitely turn your tailgate party into one for the ages. ION Audio told us that the model being shown is a prototype, with the final retail version said to feature a thinner body and built-in kickstand. Priced at $399, the Road Warrior won't be shipping until June, though you can catch an early glimpse of it in our gallery after the break.
Kogan's ultra-budget 4K TV and 3G tablet arrive at CES
Kogan's name may not roll off your brain as easily as some companies we could mention, but the Australian outfit is attempting to bring premium technology to the masses with a focus on low prices. In fact, there's probably a comparison with Vizio to be made here, considering that Kogan's first 4K TV retails for $999 AUD, or around $890 USD. Then there's the Agora HD Mini 3G, a 7.85-inch tablet with a 3G modem that retails for $199 AUD, or about $180 in the US. Considering how frequently our antipodean friends are gouged by technology companies, it's good to see the locals fighting back.
Magellan's Echo is a remote control for your smartphone
Magellan is a company known for its GPS products, so it might surprise you to learn that its latest smartwatch doesn't contain any mapping hardware whatsoever. Instead, the Magellan Echo works more like a remote display for your phone, streaming data from apps like Wahoo Fitness, Strava and MapMyRun. Once inside an app, not only can you customize what information is available on your wrist, but you can also assign buttons to control specific features on the phone - like your music player. Considering that it looks as unthreatening as an old-school fashion watch, we imagine there's plenty of scope for this to catch on.
Here's a smart tennis racquet that'll improve your swing
Unless you're Novak Djokovic or John McEnroe, then it's highly unlikely that you're able to take advantage of the computer-assisted coaching used by tennis pros. Like Sony, French racquet maker Babolat is hoping to bring such tech to the masses with the Play Pure Drive, a smart racquet that's packed full of sensors. The gear inside measures gyroscopic and vibrational data to show how many backhand and forehand swings you've made and where they've hit on the strings. You needn't worry that the sensors will weigh you down either, as the handle was designed to weigh the same as a normal model. Naturally, all of this data is pushed over Bluetooth to your smartphone, where the accompanying app will analyze your data after the fact, and give you helpful hints. For instance, if you're hitting it too close to your open throat, then the app will advise you how to get better. There's also a social component that lets you see how far your skills match up to Babolat's team of professional testers - although given that the top-ranked name on that list is Rafael Nadal, it might add to that inferiority complex.
LifeTrak's new watch combines smartwatch, fitness tracker and ECG machine
Would you like an early clue as to the dominant trend of CES 2014? It's wearables, and, erm, more wearables. Another watch that's hoping to earn a space on your wrist is the LifeTrak Zone R415, which grabs a little of everything from the technology buffet with the aim of being all things to all people. From the "smartwatch" table, we've got vibrating smartphone notifications that'll let you know when you get calls, texts and emails. Then there's dynamic sleep tracking which, like the Jawbone Up, will record your slumber session and wake you when you're at your most well-rested. From the fitness tracker cart, the company has added a pedometer, calorie counter and activity tracker that'll keep you informed of how you're doing in hourly or weekly intervals. Rounding out the selection is an ECG, and by pushing the button on the side of the bezel, it'll give you your heart rate. Using just a single watch cell battery, the unit should last for up to nine months between replacements and is designed to remain on your wrist, even while you're in the pool. Holding it in our hand, we found it to be reasonably comfortable and light, and can certainly see some potential in the platform. Naturally, we'll reserve judgment until we see it launch in Q2, but for now, it seems like it could be worth the $130 price point.
This is the next generation of Meta's smart watch
MetaWatch, the wearables business that was spun out of watch maker Fossil, has lingered at the periphery of the space for quite a while. Now, however, the outfit has teamed up with the legendary Nokia and Vertu designer Frank Nuovo, who has helped redesign both the branding and the hardware in preparation for a relaunch as the Meta. The hope is that, when this new unit launches in the spring, Meta will be able to jostle as an equal with the Galaxy Gears and Pebbles of this world.
TUAW TV Live: A look at CES announcements (Updated)
The Consumer Electronics Show is still in full swing in Las Vegas today, bringing more hype and product announcements in one week than you'd ever think possible. While TUAW doesn't have a presence at this annual event, our siblings at Engadget and TechCrunch have been walking the floors, doing interviews and otherwise keeping an eye on the newest in consumer electronics. From the ridiculous to the sublime, my cohost Shawn "Doc Rock" Boyd and I will chat about what we think are some of the best announcements made this week. And of course, we'll have quite a few products to make fun of as well. To join in to watch the live feed and participate in the chat, just click here. You'll join us on the AOL On Network. If you can't watch the entire show today, come back to this page within 24 hours to see the latest video below. Past shows are also available on the TUAW YouTube channel. Due to some technical issues during today's episode, the video is in two parts: Part 1 Part 2 Show Notes Braven BRV-X Fast Camera Vizzywig LaCie: Fuel, 1 TB of wireless storage for iPad, iPhone and Mac. $199, is AirPlay compatible, uses Seagate Media App to allow you to browse and view media. Up to five devices at once can access storage, or you can stream HD movies to three devices at the same time. Can also act as a Wi-Fi hotspot by sharing a single connection for up to four other devices. Christofle Sphere, a $490 hand-silvered bus-powered USB hard drive. 1 TB. Way too expensive and slow. Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2 Tiny 1 TB SSD RAID array, with two Thunderbolt 2 ports, can be set up as RAID 0 or mirrored RAID 1. Mophie Space Pack 16 GB or 32 GB of storage with a 1700 mAh battery pack, $150 or $180. Available in March. Evernote PostIt Notes FINSix AC adapter - tiny laptop adapter Intel Edison, dual-core PC on an SD card 3D Systems iSense 3D scanner for iPad - $499 Parrot Jumping Sumo and Micro Drone Pebble Steel Romo
Live from the Engadget CES Stage: Polaroid CEO Scott Hardy
The one-time king of instant photography has been looking to branch out in recent years, and this CES is no doubt a prime example. Last week, the company announced two new budget TV sets and a low-cost tablet. We'll be joined by Polaroid's CEO Scott Hardy to discuss the way forward for the one-time imaging giant. January 8, 2014 12:00:00 PM EST Follow all the latest CES 2014 news at our event hub, and check out our full stage schedule here.
