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Sony's 4K Handycam and HXR-IFR5 4K Interface Unit prototypes eyes-on
No question, today's Sony press conference was all about the 4K. TVs, media services and even 4K recording for consumers. The latter arrived in the form of a couple of prototypes. First off was the generically labelled 4K Consumer Camcorder, a prototype device that was hanging out in a glass case at the Sony booth after the event concluded -- though there was a Handycam logo on the side of the device. It's not a bad looking handheld -- about a standard size for a prosumer model, with a viewfinder, mic and handle at the top. As for specs? No such luck at this early stage. Directly to the right of the camcorder was another glass-encased device, the HXR-IFR5 Interface Unit, which scales video shot with an existing camcorder like the NEX-FS700 up to 4K. The RAW video files show up in 4096 x 2160 resolution. As with the camcorder, details are scarce at the moment.%Gallery-175137%
Engadget's CES 2013 Preview: Tablets
With CES looming like an electrically charged storm of news and announcements, it's time for us to give you our best bets on what you'll see come January. During the month of December, we'll bring you a series of CES preview posts, forecasting what you can expect when the news deluge begins. For more of what's to come, check out our hub. Tablets: the other living room screen. For a category that was once regarded as an odd-duck luxury for the early adopter, 2012 certainly saw the portable computing tech grow closer to becoming a true laptop alternative. With an ever-increasing number of high-resolution displays, faster multi-core processors, a range of form factors and varied price points, it seems there's now a tab for just about everyone. So while last January's CES brought us news of 1,920 x 1,200 screens, quad-core CPUs and a proliferation of Android Ice Cream Sandwich offerings, the year ahead aims to take that same tack and turn it up a few notches. That said, don't expect this upcoming CES to play host to a glut of next-gen tablet reveals -- from what we gather, many major manufacturers are holding off for Mobile World Congress 2013's more focused global stage.
Distro Issue 72: The CES 2013 preview
After a week off to take advantage of the holidays, the Distro crew is back in action. In the latest issue of our tablet mag, we run down all of the major categories with a preview of what our editors expect to see -- or not see -- when CES cranks up in a few days. On top of that, Eyes-On has a look at a Lomography panoramic camera, Hands-On offers impressions on some of the latest gadgetry and tech writer Taylor Hatmaker drops by for the Q&A. Once the annual Las Vegas tech madness gets started next week, we'll be publishing daily issues of this e-publication beginning Tuesday, January 8th to keep you up to speed with all of the happenings in the desert. Arriving just in time for the events, our Windows 8 Distro app is now available and can be procured like its Android and iOS counterparts, via the download links below. Distro Issue 72 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro in the Windows Store Distro APK (for sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
Engadget's CES 2013 Preview: Smartphones
With CES looming like an electrically charged storm of news and announcements, it's time for us to give you our best bets on what you'll see come January. During the month of December, we'll bring you a series of CES preview posts, forecasting what you can expect when the news deluge begins. For more of what's to come, check out our hub. It goes without saying that smartphones are now an integral part of the consumer electronics industry, and each January plenty of them are exhibited at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. While many companies are understandably silent about their plans for the massive trade show, we've been able to gather a pretty solid idea of what we can expect to see as the show descends upon us. Join us after the break as we tell you what types of products will delight or depress us at next month's event.
Samsung will showcase its Smart TV Evolution Kit at CES 2013
The Smart TV Evolution Kit that Samsung's been teasing us with since last year's CES will finally be revealed at the same trade show a full year later. The hardware kit will plug into the back of compatible Samsung Smart TVs and "evolve" 2012 models to the latest 2013 versions by adding a smorgasbord of hardware and software enhancements including CPU, memory and GPU upgrades, plus enhanced voice / motion control features. We reckon this just might help elevate your Angry Birds experience to a whole new level. Given that CES 2013 is just around the bend, it shouldn't be long before we get you a proper peek -- stay tuned!
Engadget's CES 2013 Preview: Laptops
With CES looming like an electrically charged storm of news and announcements, it's time for us to give you our best bets on what you'll see come January. During the month of December, we'll bring you a series of CES preview posts, forecasting what you can expect when the news deluge begins. For more of what's to come, check out our hub. It's incredible to think that when CES 2012 kicked off back in January we had only reviewed five Ultrabooks. Yep, five. Enough to count on one hand. Even weirder, we still hadn't seen that many by the time we wrapped our coverage of the show. Sure, a few companies teased ultraportables they planned to release later in the year, but these only represented a slice of the 100-plus models slated to launch in 2012. And that didn't even include all the Ultrabook imposters! Ever hear of Sleekbooks? Ultrathins? Whoever said PCs are dead clearly doesn't have to review them for a living.
Engadget's CES 2013 Preview: Household
With CES looming like an electrically charged storm of news and announcements, it's time for us to give you our best bets on what you'll see come January. During the month of December, we'll bring you a series of CES preview posts, forecasting what you can expect when the news deluge begins. For more of what's to come, check out our hub. Last year, we saw the likes of Motorola, LG and Samsung continue to demonstrate their technical skills on washing machines, fridges, home automation and even cars. While some Engadget editors struggled to see even half the appeal of those WiFi-connected washing machines at CES 2012, Motorola's Connected Home gateway showed a realistic vision of how a wireless home should work, with its gateway router tying your Android devices to your thermostat, security system and lighting. However, we haven't heard much since January from Motorola when it comes to its household system, so it wouldn't surprise us if the Google-owned manufacturer has a refreshed, possibly deeper system to show us this time. But what else will the middle of Nevada have to offer the forward-looking homemaker in the next year? We have more ideas after the break.
Engadget's CES 2013 Preview: Gaming
With CES looming like an electrically charged storm of news and announcements, it's time for us to give you our best bets on what you'll see come January. During the month of December, we'll bring you a series of CES preview posts, forecasting what you can expect when the news deluge begins. For more of what's to come, check out our hub. Gaming and CES are estranged partners -- CES spawned the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3 for short) way back in 1995, after gaming exhibitors required more space than CES could offer. As such, the game industry's presence at CES is ... well, there isn't much of a presence to speak of. Smart, smaller companies have traditionally taken good advantage of this; CES 2012 featured the unveiling of the Wikipad and Razer's Project Fiona, while Gaikai gave us our first hands-on with its LG-based game streaming service. As for the big three console manufacturers? Nintendo gave press another chance to check out the Wii U, but it was nothing more than the E3 demo many had seen months earlier.
Engadget's CES 2013 Preview: Displays
With CES looming like an electrically charged storm of news and announcements, it's time for us to give you our best bets on what you'll see come January. During the month of December, we'll bring you a series of CES preview posts, forecasting what you can expect when the news deluge begins. For more of what's to come, check out our hub. Looking for what's going to be new in home theaters for CES 2013 is largely a good news / bad news situation. The bad news? The list of tech we're expecting to see (Ultra HD -- aka 4K / 8K, OLED, connected TV and second-screen interaction) is almost an exact mirror of the high-profile launches from last year's show. The good news, however, is that there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic that this is the year we'll actually see the technology become available and / or more useful in our daily lives.
Engadget's CES 2013 Preview: Digital Cameras
With CES looming like an electrically charged storm of news and announcements, it's time for us to give you our best bets on what you'll see come January. During the month of December, we'll bring you a series of CES preview posts, forecasting what you can expect when the news deluge begins. For more of what's to come, check out our hub. Las Vegas has seen its fair share of digital camera launches, but with the PMA show all but defunct, manufacturers are shifting their focus to overseas events, like Photokina in Cologne, IFA in Berlin and even newcomer CP+ in Yokohama, Japan. That trade show trio helps to keep the international airlines in business, but it doesn't do us much good at CES, when nearly every other consumer electronics category gets a major products boost. That's not to say there won't be any new cameras at all -- PMA does have a small presence at the show, and major players like Canon, Nikon, Samsung and Sony all invest in significant floor space (they'll need some new products to fill their shelves, after all). But announcements are largely spread throughout the year.
Engadget's CES 2013 Preview: Autos
With CES looming like an electrically charged storm of news and announcements, it's time for us to give you our best bets on what you'll see come January. During the month of December, we'll bring you a series of CES preview posts, forecasting what you can expect when the news deluge begins. For more of what's to come, check out our hub. We love CES for many things, but primarily we're there for the gadgets -- the phones, the tablets, the laptops and even the HDTVS, plus all the random stuff we find on the show floor that defies polite categorization. Lately, though, we've come more and more to love CES for something else: cars. It's become a bit of a must-attend event for auto lovers too, with more and more major manufacturers showing up each year, rolling out their high-tech wares to show the industry just how well they're keeping in touch with the broader world of tech.
Engadget's CES 2013 Preview: Audio
With CES looming like an electrically charged storm of news and announcements, it's time for us to give you our best bets on what you'll see come January. During the month of December, we'll bring you a series of CES preview posts, forecasting what you can expect when the news deluge begins. For more of what's to come, check out our hub. Audio companies tend to march to their own drumbeats when it comes to new goods, but CES usually brings us a few crowd pleasers. We saw a bigger push for wireless at CES 2011 with the onset of AirPlay adoption and further dives into Bluetooth-equipped wares. Since then, nothing too exciting has shown up at the event, with companies focusing on expanding and evolving their existing product lines. While it's hard to know for sure, we don't expect to see anything that'll be exceptionally innovative on a widespread scale -- mostly. Naturally, you can count on a bigger assortment of wireless solutions, and likely the first big showing of the end of days for the speaker dock -- excluding anything that Apple's Lightning connector might make its way onto. Still, the idea of the dock can live on with additions like Qi inductive charging, as we've seen from the likes of JBL and TDK already. The appearance of still more celebrity-endorsed headphones is certainly something to expect as well, even if the trend has already jumped the shark -- don't tell Fiddy. That said, major companies like Sennheiser have joined the headphone bandwagon in their own ways, and we are likely to see more cans in the $100 to $400 range with street-focused looks and audiophile DNA. Of course, CES also sets aside a chunk of space in the LVCC for those into HiFi audio, with many boutique brands showing off their latest and best -- usually with price tags to make your wallet cringe. What has us really excited, though? We're hearing talk that transparent speaker technology is poised to make a comeback. Imagine the shell of your tablet, smartphone or laptop also serving as an essentially invisible speaker. Aside from the prospect of even svelter devices, the tech has the potential to sound miles better than the tinny-sounding speaker drivers most of our gadgets currently use. One thing is for sure, much of what we'll see will be in the early stages of development -- even products that seem ready to roll have taken more than six months to hit retail in the past. Aside from all that, stay patient, because sometimes surprises come when we least expect them. Darren Murph contributed to this post.
