bestofces2020
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Razer's Kishi gamepad plugs into your phone for minimal latency
No, that's not a Razer Phone 3 in the photo, but it's a Pixel 3a XL wedged between two halves of a new Razer gamepad. Following the Junglecat, Razer chose CES to launch the Kishi controller, which plugs straight into your Android (via USB-C) or iPhone for lower latency and hence faster response. Obviously, this can be life or death in world of competitive mobile gaming, especially with cloud gaming being pitched as a growing trend in the 5G era. On a similar note, the Kishi provides passthrough charging at the bottom right side, so you wouldn't have to worry about battery life while busy shooting at enemies.
Insta360's modular action cam gets 360-degree and 'Leica' mods
Just as the few other 360 camera makers decided to focus on boosting resolution or sensor size, Insta360 took a surprisingly different route for its next flagship device. The One R announced at CES today is a modular action cam-type device, with the idea being that you can swap between a 360 camera mod and either of the two wide-angle camera mods to suit your needs. Better yet, advanced users can opt for the high-quality 5.3K 1-inch sensor mod which is co-engineered with Leica -- the first collaboration of such for Insta360.
Sunflower's $9,950 security drone aims to protect your home autonomously
Home security technology usually takes the form of smart cameras or intruder-detecting WiFi routers, but a new system from Sunflower Labs offers a more radical solution -- and autonomous drone which oversees your property.
TiVo's $50 Stream 4K dongle takes aim at cord-cutters in April
The name TiVo is going to apply to more than just cable-ready DVRs, as the company has confirmed rumors that it's working on a $50 dongle aimed at cord-cutters. It's also planning on selling the device via providers who want something to offer their internet-only customers, and don't have the ability to build a custom unit like Comcast's streaming box. While the TiVo Stream 4K keeps some of the grid-based UI that you'd expect from a DVR, the Android-powered unit focuses on TiVo's ability to present and sort information from multiple sources.
Teracube's smartphone combats e-waste with a 4-year warranty
If you've ever broken your phone's screen or dropped it in the toilet, you know the pain of coughing up the cash to either repair it, or replace it altogether. A company called Teracube, however, hopes to change that with a whole new concept: A phone with a four-year premium care warranty. For around $300, you can get a phone that comes with accident coverage insurance included in the price. Teracube claims that it's the "world's most reliable smartphone," but that's not telling the whole story.
Mercedes unveils crazy concept car inspired by 'Avatar'
Mercedes has made sure to play up its tech chops during the past few CES events, and this year is no different. But instead of a straight autonomous electric vehicle, it's gone a little wacky with a vehicle that's based on the Avatar movie. Yep, the James Cameron film.
Samsung made a rolling robot called Ballie that runs your smart home
Samsung's CES keynote got off to an intriguing start when HS Kim was joined onstage by a robot designed to help you around the home. The company says it made Ballie to understand and support your needs: Essentially, it can run your smart home for you.
Impossible Foods' faux pork is just as convincing as its fake beef
Last year, Impossible Foods made headlines at CES when it introduced a new formulation of its Impossible Burger. It tasted so close to the real deal that we even gave it a Best of CES award. Now, Impossible Foods is back again at the annual tech event to introduce its latest product: Impossible Pork.
AMD's Radeon RX 5600 XT is a huge upgrade for 1080p gamers
AMD is rounding out its Radeon family at CES -- but it's not the high-end video card that many were expecting. Instead, it's debuting the Radeon RX 5600 XT, a GPU focused on delivering killer 1080p performance between 90 and 120FPS. It sits between the entry-level Radeon 5500XT, which is more focused on steady 60FPS 1080p performance, and the 5700 XT, a more powerful card for 1440p gaming.
Toyota is building an insane smart city near Mount Fuji
Most automakers have test tracks. Toyota decided to take that idea to an entirely different level by transforming a former factory into a town where people will live, work, and research mobility.
You might not be able to avoid TCL's smartphones in 2020
Whether you knew it or not, TCL -- perhaps best known for its impressively cheap TVs -- has been making phones for years. Just about every Alcatel gadget you've ever seen? Forged in a factory by TCL. They've been around, in other words. What they haven't really gotten around to doing is develop TCL into a full-fledged, respectable smartphone brand all on its own. Granted, the company laid the groundwork late last year when it released the very first TCL-branded phone in a handful of markets around the world, but it didn't seem to move the needle much.
Lenovo's Ideapad Duet Chromebook is a tiny 2-in-1 for $279
Lenovo's awkwardly-named Ideapad Duet Chromebook is a bit of a throwback. For a long time, most Chrome OS devices were inexpensive and small, but in recent years they've become more expensive as Google and other manufacturers try to pit them against full-fledged Mac and Windows laptops. The Ideapad Duet goes in the other direction: It's a convertible tablet with a 10.1-inch screen that costs only $279, keyboard stand included.
Lenovo's Smart Frame puts your digital photos on a 21.9-inch canvas
Like many of us, you probably have hundreds and thousands of photos on your phone or the cloud, never to be seen again. Sure, you could print and hang them, but if you ever want to change photos, that can be a pain. A smart display can double as a digital photo frame, but you can't exactly mount it on a wall. Lenovo has come up with a potential solution to that with the Lenovo Smart Frame. It's not cheap at $400, and it is insanely large, but it is by far one of the most elegantly designed digital photo frames I've seen.
Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Fold is the first real foldable tablet
It's been more than seven months since I first laid eyes on Lenovo's foldable tablet PC prototype, and the company is now ready to launch the world's first laptop with a folding screen. The device also finally has a name -- the ThinkPad X1 Fold -- and Lenovo walked us through the painstaking process of putting such a tricky machine together. But first, we got some time with the new folding tablet to get a taste of the experiences it can offer.
LG's 2020 TVs: Massive 8K screens and the first 48-inch 4K OLED
Prior to LG's CES 2020 press conference this morning, the company had already revealed a slew of "Real 8K" televisions, and announced that the rollable 4K OLED TV we saw at last year's show will be ready to go on sale later this year. Both of those were present in its demo area, and looked impressive. 8K is sharp on LCD "NanoCell" screens, but the 8K OLED really popped, even if it was only playing demo content and hard to compare directly to what we've seen before from 4K OLED screens. Meanwhile, the rollable screen LG is planning on selling still only rolls one way, and won't have some of the features other new TVs have (like ATSC 3.0 compatibility to receive 4K via antenna) when it finally ships. Of course, those aren't the only TVs that LG will put on the market in 2020, and now the company is ready to talk about more of the lineup.
Weber's grilling hub equips any grill with WiFi smarts
It may seem unnecessary, but WiFi has become an essential barbecue tool. Companies like Traeger have been equipping pellet grills with the wireless connectivity that allows you to control and monitor your grill remotely -- even when you're not at home. The feature is very helpful for longer cooking sessions, so that you don't have to constantly check on a brisket, or stay near the grill, for the entire 12 hours it takes the smoked slab of meat to finish.
Samsung made an utterly gorgeous Chromebook with a 4K AMOLED screen
I come across a lot of laptops in my line of work, but few have struck me quite like the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook. Not only is it one of the most stunning notebooks I've seen, but Google's own senior director of product management Kan Liu called it the best Chromebook yet. (He certainly had plenty of brands and models he could have chosen from.) I could go on and on about how much I love the Galaxy Chromebook's eye-catching red finish and sleek lines, or how great it felt to hold during my hands-on demo at CES 2020, but there are other reasons this new laptop stands out.
The Mateo bath mat can monitor your weight, posture and even your shoe size
Bathroom scales are scary. When you step on one, it's rarely good news, especially in 2020, when you can beam the vital statistics to your phone, and see those holiday excesses in line graph form. Mateo is a smart bathmat that hides such horrors. In fact, it covers it in toweling. There are two parts: a machine-washable cloth cover that looks like your garden-variety bath mat, and a slim mat that houses the technology to detect a surprising number of metrics from you. While weight measurement is the most mainstream feature here (people have historically bought bathroom scales that languish in the corner), the Mateo has medical-grade 7,000-dot pressure mapping. What it can do is a little... intense. Not only can it identify users by their footprint, it can also create a heat map of how your foot makes contact with the ground. And an awful lot more.
Withings' new watch looks so nice you'll miss its best feature
You may know Withings as the company that pioneered WiFi scales. I know them as the people who make beautiful fitness trackers. At a glance, their watches all look like classic analog timepieces, with leather bands and round screens that never feel too large. The new ScanWatch, which made its debut this week at CES, is more of the same. Which is to say it's pretty, and also can do a lot more than than its timeless design would have you believe. On the back side of the watch is a pair of optical sensors: one to detect arrhythmias, or irregular heartbeats, and another for detecting sleep apnea. That latter feature is particularly interesting. Whereas ECG tests have become standard on smartwatches and some fitness trackers, few today can detect sleep apnea, a sleep disorder that can increase one's risk of various fatal outcomes, including strokes and heart attacks.
The Lioness 2 vibrator adds AI-assisted orgasms to its feature set
In 2018, the Lioness Generation 1 vibrator promised to improve users' orgasms through detailed data collection. Two years later, Lioness has unveiled the Generation 2, a new vibrator that implements more than 30,000 climactic data points to deliver AI-driven guidance on your own experience.
