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Coros smart bike helmet comes with bone-conduction audio
I've always wanted to cycle with a Spotify playlist pounding through my ear canals. In London, though, that's a dangerous idea given the relentless traffic that threatens to side-swipe you every five seconds. Coros Wearables has a solution: a smart cycling helmet with open-ear bone-conduction audio. The promise is that you can listen to music, make calls and follow directions while still hearing everything around you. The helmet connects to your phone over Bluetooth and promises eight hours of playback on a single charge — enough to last even the longest Tour de France climb.
Acer Swift 7 hands-on: a svelte and stylish laptop
HP, ASUS and Lenovo have all unveiled their take on Microsoft's always-connected PC, and it's time for Acer to throw its hat into the ring. The company's offering is not just the thinnest in the category but is also the skinniest laptop in the world. At least, according to Acer, anyway. At 8.98mm (0.35 inches), the Swift 7 certainly cuts a striking profile that I couldn't help but stare at.
Robomart autonomous bodegas will deliver produce to your door
Shopping for fresh produce online has always been a bit of a gamble, since you're not actually selecting the fruits and veggies yourself. Santa Clara, California–based startup Robomart aims to change that by bringing online produce shopping to your front door.
Cauldryn has made the swiss army knife of heated travel mugs
If you thought that the cutting edge of vacuum-insulated coffee mugs was to buy one in a color other than black then, boy, have we got news for you. Cauldryn Coffee is showing off its modular coffee cup that promises to revolutionize the way we carry around beverages. At its heart, is the coffee mug itself, which comes with a heating element in its base and a plug for an external battery.
Meet the selfie drone that lives in your phone case
Imagine you and a group of friends are at the peak of a mountain after a long hike. It's sunset and the sky is alight; you want to take a photo. You pull out your smartphone, but instead of flipping it around to take a long-armed selfie, you unclip a tiny drone from the back of your phone, make it hover at the perfect height and snap a series of photos, no extendo-arms required.
Volocopter hopes to have air taxis in the sky in five years
In addition to autonomous vehicles crawling the cities without drivers, we should start getting ready for the sky to be taken over by robot chauffeurs. One of the companies working on future air taxis is Germany-based Volocopter. Its 18-rotored human-sized drone took flight at Intel's CES keynote and was on display at the Las Vegas Convention Center. So naturally, we asked to sit in it.
Samsung's Bixby-powered Family Hub fridge is great at blasting tunes
The company is eagerly trying to squeeze Bixby into just about everything, and its latest Family Hub fridge is no exception. Now, this isn't the first time we've had the opportunity to yell at a refrigerator -- that was last year -- but Samsung promises we'll soon be able to ask for daily rundowns and control SmartThings-compatible gadgets, like connected lights and thermostats. In other words, you can expect the full-blown Bixby experience, not just the limited list of voice commands we got last time.
The Invi security bracelet repels assailants with a viscous stink
It's a dangerous world out there but walking around armed with knives or firearms isn't always an option for many people. That's where the Invi self-defense bracelet comes in. Its silver clasp holds a smelly secret that can stop an attacker in their tracks, nonviolently.
Watch Intel's CES 2018 keynote in under 10 minutes
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich held a blowout keynote to kick off CES last night, where we saw 100 mini-drones flying in unison, and a bonkers opening act with virtual instruments. The company revealed that it's partnering with Ferrari to have AI drones analyze races, moving further into autonomous driving, and that it's planning to patch all its most recent chips against Spectre and Meltdown exploits by the end of the month. It also announced the launch of Intel Studios, a huge facility for capturing 360-degree video, and revealed that it has a powerful new quantum chip.
Samsung knows exactly how to sell mobile VR to the public
Mobile VR has a reputation of being a sort of cheap, underwhelming experience. Samsung is rolling into CES trying its hardest to discourage that preconception. In the Grand Lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center (right next to Engadget's gorgeous stage), the company has the Samsung Galaxy Experience Zone. Here you can ski or snowboard down a virtual mountain, hurtle down a skeleton track or even fly through the air with dinosaurs. Each station is paired with additional paraphernalia, like a lateral ski trainer or rows of flight-sim seats, to bring the experience to life.
Razer's fantastical concept projects inform its future
Razer's Project Linda laptop dock might be grounded in reality, but that doesn't mean the company is out of wild ideas for the future. It's just that for this CES, Razer wanted to merge its lightweight Blade Stealth laptop with its recently released smartphone and see how people would react. "We still have the flexibility to do some of the more far-out stuff that everyone loves to see," Marketing Director Kevin Sather reassured. He was talking about Project Christine, the subscription-based modular PC system from 2014. Or last year's laptop with three displays, Project Valerie. While neither of those have come out -- same goes for the showstopping Project Ariana projector -- Razer doesn't see them as a waste. In fact, they're informing the company's future.
Peloton's $4,000 treadmill comes with a 32-inch TV
There's just something about spinning classes that inspires a level of cultish devotion in its followers, like the bond shared between the denizens of SoulCycle. Peloton is another such company, which launched a static bike that offered a live stream of classes from the company's New York fitness studio. Now, years after its initial 2013 launch, the company is branching out into a very different form of fitness: the treadmill.
Taro's camera stabilizer uses infrared for better tracking
If you want to capture any kind of sports on camera, it's incredibly valuable to have a camera stabilizer that can track the subject's movements for you. That's why many sports videographers have sung the praises of the DJI Osmo gimbal stabilizer, which can do just that -- you tap the person in a companion app, and the Osmo will follow the subject around for you. Except, it doesn't work all of the time. If the person moves too fast or if there's an obstruction, the Osmo will often just lose track. The Taro, however, aims to solve that with a series of new stabilizers that combines both infrared technology and artificial intelligence.
Former Psion designers return with a fresh take on the PDA
Way back when, in the days before smartphones, folks had to use a PDA to get work done when they were out and about on the go. The form factor was typified by Psion, which died off at the turn of the millennium when it was clear other devices would take its place. But now the spirit of Psion lives on in a couple of its former engineers, which have developed the Gemini, a clamshell smartphone with a physical keyboard.
Huawei's Mate 10 Pro and its Porsche Design variant are coming to the US
Huawei's deal to sell its Mate 10 Pro through a US carrier has fallen apart, but you'll still be able to get one around these parts. The company confirmed today that it will sell the Mate 10 Pro for $799, unlocked, through Best Buy, Amazon, Microsoft, Newegg and B&H, starting on February 18th. If you're really itching to nab one of Huawei's flagships, you'll be able to pre-order one on February 4th.
Huawei's new hybrid routers blend mesh and powerline connectivity
Huawei believes it has found the solution to two of the most common frustrations with WiFi routers -- blind spots and slower speeds at further distances. The company's new WiFi Q2 routers blend a conventional mesh system with power-line communication to extend coverage using your house's electrical wiring. Pricing and availability haven't been announced yet; confusingly, the "Q2" in the router's name does not refer to when it goes on sale -- but Huawei said the WiFi Q2 will launch globally.
GoBreath makes fixing your lung capacity fun
If you have issues with breathing after chest trauma, surgery or anesthesia, then there are breathing exercises designed to help. Normally, your ability to breathe is calculated by using a spirometer, which isn't that interactive -- or accurate. That's what prompted a team of Korean designers to begin working on GoBreath, a digital spirometer that tries to make breathing exercises fun. It's another one of Samsung's C-Lab projects to try and spin out neat product ideas from the Korean behemoth.
B&O will add Google Assistant to its connected speakers this year (updated)
Earlier today at CES, Google detailed how its Assistant would be available in more cars, headphones, speakers and other devices in 2018. Bang & Olufsen connected speakers are on that list. The Danish audio company already allows voice control through a Google Home speaker, but later this year, the feature will be available directly on some of the company's gear.
The Huawei VR2 is a stunningly comfortable virtual reality headset
Huawei started off CES by getting a bit of bad news from AT&T. But the company isn't letting the fact that its phones won't be featured in American stores rain on its parade. It's still showing off its latest wares in a giant shiny booth dead in the middle of the Las Vegas Convention Center. One surprise we found there was the Huawei VR2 headset. It was announced this past October in China, but CES 2018 appears to be its American debut.
Hands-on with NVIDIA's giant gaming displays and GeForce Now on PC
Nobody expected NVIDIA to get into the big screen TV world, but that's precisely what it's doing with its new Big Format Gaming Displays (BFGD). They're 65-inch 4K screens oriented more at games than movie viewing, with heaps of technology that players will appreciate, like low latency, G-Sync and NVIDIA's Shield built-in. We got a look at Destiny 2 being played on HP's set (more are coming from ASUS and Acer), and I can confirm that it delivers one of the smoothest gaming experiences I've seen yet from a big-screen TV.
