ces 2010
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Toshiba demonstrates 64GB SDXC, pledges spring release
We've known since August that Toshiba was working to rule the roost when it came to voluminous and speedy SDXC storage, and at CES it took the time to beat its chest again, indicating that its new 64GB SDXC cards have started shipping in samples, putting them on a crash-course with card slots sometime this spring. The 64GB cards offer 60MB/s reads and 35MB/s writes, which should be enough to keep up with the Jonses, and the company's upcoming 32 and 16GB SDHC should be dropping about the same time. Toshiba is claiming this is the world's first 64GB model, but we're only interested in retail releases, and Panasonic and its February-bound offering might have something to say about who gets there first. The race is on.
Nanobrick Miyoul OLED media frames are for your luxurious inner-self
Remember those elegant mantelpieces with OLED infusion launched at CES? Turns out they're from a company called Nanobrick that dubs this product range Miyoul. Most of the 11 models sport multiple screens -- either 3.3-inch or 4.1-inch -- but such indulgence seems to be out of touch with current OLED prices, not to mention the cost of craftsmanship on top of that. Until the day we can afford a Miyoul in each room, just keep trying your lucky lottery numbers. %Gallery-82995%
Viliv N5 MID hands-on, HD5 PMP makes a cameo
For those of you hoping that Viliv's aesthetic excellence will somehow make magic out of the 4.8-inch flip MID form factor, you might want to look away right about now. We too were hoping that Viliv could somehow sprinkle fairy dust on the errors of something like the UMID mBook BZ, but sadly the N5 is no such MID. It's good looking, to be sure, and might even be better constructed than UMID's entry, but it has the same squint-inducing 1024 x 600 display and aggravating optical mouse pad holding it back. In reality, both of these little computers are more akin to "observing" what it's like to have a full computer running on an impossible form factor, instead of anything appropriate for actually using that computer. Perhaps the CE-based Viliv HD5 PMP will find a truer calling. We saw the slate unit pumping out some HD video at a steady clip, and its hardware is certainly refined -- if only just a little chubby. Unfortunately, none of the buttons were working, so we couldn't hop out of the video and see what the rest of the player has to offer. At least it's not Windows XP under there, daring us to use it. Videos of both devices are after the break. %Gallery-83019%
Hivision's $149 Android-based netbook reminds us we're not really shopping for a netbook right now
We know, we know, it's only $149! What could possibly be stopping us from entering the marvelous world of Android-powered netbooking? Well, maybe it's the fact that it's been tried before, and just didn't make any sense. Maybe for someone who doesn't have $50 more to get a "real" netbook, or $150 more to get a "great" netbook, it could make sense to be subjected to a 7-inch screen, 500MHz ARM Cortex A9 processor in the name of "lightweight" web surfing, but we'd like to imagine we have a little more self esteem than that. Oh shoot, we just accidentally bought four. Check out the Charbax-infused hands-on after the break.
LEGO Universe gameplay footage full of 'imagination'
It's been a long time coming, but we've finally got a good look at early alpha footage of LEGO Universe thanks to CES10. Gametrailers has a four part video of a developer walkthrough given by NetDevil's Scott Brown, and boy is it ever full of multicolored brick-y goodness. digg_url = 'http://digg.com/playable_web_games/Great_New_LEGO_Universe_Developer_Walkthrough_footage_Vids'; We're impressed by how much this game looks similar to its console brethren, especially where action and platforming elements are concerned. Of course, it wouldn't be an MMO without social elements, some of which we get to see here. More importantly, we get a look at how the developers are handling building with LEGOs in-game. The game simulates a kind of personal bubble around the player's avatar, which is strikingly similar to the metaphorical one all kids experience when sitting on the floor with a big pile of the toys. Hm, we're pretty sure NetDevil is on the right course with this one. Check out the video walkthrough after the break.
Wireless power takes another baby step at CES 2010 with Qi standard
It's our third year visiting with Fulton Innovation and the eCoupled wireless power booth at CES, and once again there's significant progress to be seen -- this time in the form of actual shipping products like the Case-mate Hug and the Dell Latitude Z. Fulton's really pushing the industry standard angle with eCoupled -- it's a founding member of the Wireless Power Consortium, which is just a few months away from finalizing a standard based on eCoupled called Qi. Qi's going to be backed by some pretty big names: Motorola, Nokia, RIM, Energizer, Duracell, Samsung, and Philips are all members of the WPC, along with several others, and the goal is for all this stuff to seamlessly play together. Fulton had some pretty hot demos to show off of the standard in action, including a Toyota Avalon interior with functional spots for two phones, a GPS, a Bluetooth headset, and a netbook, a slick first-class airline seat with a charging table, and a hotel room with several power points -- including a slick motorized dock built into the desk for the Dell. Our favorite demo, however, was a wall sconce: an eCoupled point in the wall was used to power a light fixture, which was then swapped for a digital photo frame. Nifty stuff, indeed. Still, the big challenge for Fulton and the WPC is going to be actually shipping a bunch of these products this year -- standards are nice, but without gear in hand they're meaningless, and the rival PowerMat crew has been making a pretty big push of its own. We'll see what happens in the next few months -- and how much has changed at CES 2011. Check a couple videos after the break! %Gallery-82951%
Parts of Darkness: The other side of CES
Every January, the consumer electronics industry (and those of us who write about it for a living) descend on Las Vegas for the undisputed Champion of American trade shows. CES has come to mean many things to many people, and let's be honest here -- most of us are a little conflicted. After all, this event is our raison d'etre, and while there is plenty of geeky fun to be had, Las Vegas and the milieu of consumer electronics in general can be creepy and unsettling -- at least as creepy and unsettling as a city that feels the need to simulate the New York City skyline within spitting distance of the Sphinx. What's this have to do with gadgets and gadgetry, you ask? Well, you may think you know all there is to know about CES -- you've pored over the keynotes and the hands-ons, and you've guffawed at the KIRFs and Crapgadgets. But there is more to this tale, dear readers. So sit back, relax, and click past the break for our thoughts and impressions on the other side of CES. %Gallery-82802%
Engadget's gear of CES 2010
CES is Engadget's biggest event of the year, but for the most part we don't have any requirements on what editors should bring other than "a laptop" and "a camera." That means there's usually quite an array of devices and tools on hand -- and every year we try some new things that make an immediate impression. We threw out some basic gear statistics in our annual CES wrap-up post, but we also wanted to highlight some super-useful new tools we brought to Vegas with us this year. Some of it is state-of-the-art expensive, some of it is brain-dead simple, but all of it helped us rock out our biggest CES ever. Read on!
Casio EX-10HG 'hybrid GPS' prototype taps into accelerometers for pinpoint accuracy
It's not a completely new idea, accelerometers have been enhancing GPS devices for a while now with additional velocity and directional information when the GPS signal is weak, but now Casio is giving it a shot in its new Exilim EX-H10 prototype camera. The "hybrid GPS" shooter does the regular geotagging thing with its onboard GPS, but when signal is weak (like when indoors, for instance), the camera augments the location data with guesstimates gleaned from its onboard accelerometers. The camera also has pretty detailed maps, so you could almost use the device for navigation, though the "pushpin" view is a good start. Hit up the source link for some more shots.
Liquavista's monochrome and color e-paper displays get demonstrated (video)
Philips' 2006 spin-off Liquavista hasn't exactly had a lot to show for itself since it earned its independence, but things seem to finally be coming together for the company, which had a suite of e-paper displays to demonstrate at CES last week, a show that was absolutely chock-full of e-readers. Our very own spin-off, Engadget Spanish, got a chance to peruse the company's suite of offerings, including a prototype device called Pebble. It's a lovely, thin reader that's unfortunately not intended for production -- at least not yet. The video after the break shows displays that not only redraw far more quickly than existing production screens, but also mix in RGB effects and even multi-color backlighting. It's good stuff; you'll want to check it out.
CES Watch: The good, the bad, the ugly
CES wrapped up in Las Vegas on Saturday, so here's our third and final wrapup of iPhone and Mac-related accessories from the show. Enjoy! Posimotion introduced a Helix gaming grip for the iPhone -- like the Wii wheel, only for Apple's device. $20, which seems pricey to me. Don't even bother looking at these high-heeled speakers. This actually has nothing to do with iPods or Mac, but I just thought it was awesome: A mechanical autotuning system for your guitar. I want one! Here's a twirling battery concept that could charge your iPhone in a pinch and let you work on that finger strength. Cydle is a South Korean company that's planning to release this digital broadcast TV tuner for the iPhone for $150 in March. Kind of an old-school solution (in 2010, we stream video, not receive it), but it could be cool. The Fingerist is... well, it's a guitar adapter for the iPhone. Go see for yourself. Engadget tried out the Mophie TV adapter, VIZIO's iPhone remote app, and the ION iType keyboard and iDiscover piano adapter. Altec Lansing has some good-looking speaker systems and headphones. And finally, Macworld has an overview of the iLounge pavilion itself and how it reflects the market in general. Whew! We weren't even at CES this year, and I'm still feeling the conference hangover. There were definitely a lot of interesting bits of technology introduced, but we have a feeling that the most interesting gadget of the year will actually be revealed later this month.
Nanosys offers better saturation of LED-backlit displays with nanoscale coating
While we all wait around for larger-sized OLED displays to become feasible for the consumer market, Nanosys has stolen in and demonstrated a new LED coating technique that proposes to radically improve color saturation in LED-backlit screens. Based on standard blue LEDs -- the most efficient kind -- this works by applying nanoparticles to the light and thereby endowing it with the desired hue. While the nano-coating can make standalone LED lights far richer in color, the real potential is in its deployment in LED-backlit displays, such as those becoming dominant on laptops today. By employing a coated array of blue LEDs instead of the standard white stuff, this can deliver greater color saturation while fitting within the same energy profile of current LED tech. Products boasting Nanosys' new hotness are said to be coming out later this year, with some appropriate premium slapped on the price for the fancier output.
Branex iTamTam iPod docking stool ensures your backside breaks it on day one
Hey, can you feel the vibe? That was actually your iPhone being snapped off by your reclining-inclined back. Anyhow, some genius at Branex Design of France decided that people would totally buy this $570, 11.5-pound speaker stool. Underneath the hood are four 1.5-inch 10W tweeters and a 5.25-inch 80W subwoofer to shudder your pelvis, all of which contribute to an overall power rating of 70W. There are over ten colors to choose from, too. Let's just hope that Philippe Starck doesn't see this and cry.
ASUS UL80JT spotted with automatic switchable graphics, brags 12 hour battery life
How we missed this at the ASUS booth is beyond us, but leave it to the eagle-eyes at Ars to hone in on the ASUS UL80JT with an overclockable Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GeForce 310 graphics. So it's just a run-of-the-mill gaming rig, right? Wrong. The 14-inch laptop has switchable graphics like we have never seen before; the laptop automatically switches, "second-by-second" between the NVIDIA card and the integrated Intel one, instead of the "standard" switchable graphics we've seen on laptops like the MacBook Pro 15 or ASUS UL80Vt which require users to switch manually. The major foreseeable benefit of this is longer battery life even when the system is using the discrete card, and ASUS touts 12 hours with the automatic solution turned on. No word on price or availability, but we're guessing ASUS will have more details soon and that we'll start seeing this this in more and more laptops as NVIDIA spreads the love around to the rest of the industry. Update: We jumped the gun here, we've actually seen this new automatic switching technology in the recently announced Sony Vaio Z.
CES 2010: all the stuff (and more)
While certainly less "depressed" than last year's recession-tainted affair, CES 2010 was a busy show without a stand-out, knock-em-down, blockbuster release. Last year the Pre stole the spotlight, while this year we were more focused on technologies and concepts like 3D, tablets and e-books. That said, there sure was plenty of it, and we've sifted through some of our favorites to present you with a highlight reel -- just in case your carpal tunnel or general lack of motivation prevents you from clicking through all 631+ posts we did last week.
Monsters vs. Aliens to be among the first 3D Blu-ray titles
Not sure how we missed this one in all the excitement at CES -- well, yeah we can -- but right up there with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Disney's A Christmas Carol, Dreamworks will offer Monsters vs. Aliens as its first 3D Blu-ray title (fuzzy picture of the back and full pr after the break). Now we said it before and we'll say it again, you're not going to sell 3D to the masses with animated features, but we have to wonder why Fox and Panasonic have yet to announce Avatar in 3D. Cameron came out and told MTV that the first Blu-ray release wouldn't be 3D, but we don't understand why. If you are releasing a new format like 3D wouldn't you want the hottest titles available as soon as possible? Of course we could be worrying for nothing and could learn that Fox is just waiting for the right moment to announce a 3D version of Avatar, but what about the rest of the studios? Then again, HD DVD and Blu-ray did launch with only a few titles and none were exactly recent blockbusters.
Intel uses iTunes for benchmarking
Here's a bit of interesting for you from the folks over at APC: during a press event at CES 2010, Intel used iTunes to tout its latest processors rather than one of the other oft-used performance-testing suites. Specifically, they showed off an i5 processor not by running some complex graphics simulation or commercial benchmarking algorithm, but by launching iTunes and synchronizing with an attached iPod. Intel is attempting to make processor specifications more useful to normal people by focusing less on engineering statistics and more on actual applications. What is interesting here is that Intel is essentially admitting the difficulty in quantifying the improvements of their latest hardware. It is, however, easier to qualify their improvements by showcasing their hardware using applications people use everyday. This de-obfuscation of a processor's ability is a good thing. It means that my mother-in-law can stroll through Best Buy and understand that a given set of hardware is going to perform better at the tasks she cares about most. In the end, it really is less about GHz and more about GTD.
Control 4 Home Automation system gets an app store too
We don't cover much Home Automation around here because as much as we love it, you don't seem to -- based on traffic that is. We assume this is because of the high price of entry into the market which is about $1500 thanks to the ridiculous pricing structure of even the most basic systems. Of all of 'em out there, Control 4 is the most affordable but thanks to the fact that it includes locks to protect professional integrators, it is still too expensive for most. Either way, this new 4Store app store looks pretty cool and is an easy way for users to add functionality to existing Control 4 systems. Our friend Julie from CEPro got a video of it (after the break) and we have to say it has us wishing Control 4 didn't cost more than $1000 to get started.
HD DVD rides again: TCL brings China Blue HD & Blu-ray together for a CES face-off
Ah, HD DVD, our old friend - we thought we'd never see you again. But there was no mistaking it, here's the logo tucked away in Chinese manufacturer TCL's booth on a China Blue HD deck next to a similar Blu-ray player. The Blu-ray demo appeared to be down when we stopped by making this not much of a fight -- although with recent gains by CBHD like adding studio support from Paramount, it may want to take this challenger more seriously. We'll move the threat level on this conflict to yellow. %Gallery-82741%
Rumor: The iPhone's next GPU
The Graphics Processing Unit, or GPU, of any modern computing device is an important piece of hardware that offloads 3D graphics rendering from the main processor. At CES 2010 last week, chip manufacturer Imagination Technologies may have spilled the beans on the GPU for the next generation of iPhones. Imagination unveiled the PowerVR SGX545 GPU core design at CES, which is the only mobile phone GPU capable of OpenGL 3.2 and DirectX 10 level effects. The SGX545 also includes OpenCL support, which means that unused processing cycles on the chip can be used to offload work from the main CPU. The SGX545 is also multithreading-aware, and can provide an additional speed jump when used with multi-core processor designs such as the ARM Cortex-A9. Imagination noted that they have produced a test chip for an unnamed "lead partner," which could very well be Apple. The Cupertino Kids have used PowerVR graphics in every iPhone and iPod touch, and many industry pundits believe the next generation of devices could be powered by a variant of the ARM Cortex-A9. Apple is also an investor in Imagination, having purchased a 9.5% stake in the chip manufacturer in 2008 and 2009. So it's very possible that the SGX545 could be churning out pixels in the next handheld you buy from the Apple Store.
