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Qualcomm Halo wireless charging concept eyes-on
Let's run through the fundamentals of wireless charging: floor-mounted electromagnets pump out EM waves to your EV's engine to absorb. This means ripping up the floor to install and precisely driving your whip over the exact spot. There's no efficiency loss between wireless and wired charging, in case you were wondering. We got to speak to Qualcomm's Joe Barrett as he walked us through the chip foundry's innovative approach to the technology that it picked up from the University of Auckland. The Halo is a 28mm plate that can reportedly push 3.3kW/h to your vehicle without requiring it to park it precisely over the unit. The company's not talking about vertical range, but did insist that it would charge an SUV, so we can assume it'll travel at least a foot off the ground. The company is planning to foster an open standard for the technology through licensing and has joined the three-year design cycle that modern cars undergo -- with an expectation that we'll see the first commercial models of the technology surfacing in 2014, which you can just lay on the floor of your garage. A 50 unit trial led by Chargemaster and Polar is currently underway under the names of your favorite tier-one automaker. Sean Buckley contributed to this report.
Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with NVIDIA (update: video embedded)
Matt Wuebbling from NVIDIA will be kicking off Wednesday on the Engadget Stage at CES by demoing some of the chipmaker's latest technology. Join us at 12PM ET after the break to follow along. Update: Interview video is now live.
Samsung's Smart TV and Blu-ray players will be first to get FiOS TV App
Although not the first to announce, Samsung and Verizon have officially announced that Samsung Smart TVs and Blu-ray players "will be the first consumer electronics manufacturer" to get live HD and video on-demand including Flex View from Verizon FiOS TV. The embedded release after the break doesn't include a time frame, but the previously announced timeframe was the first half of 2012, so this would have to be released before that in order to, technically, be first -- and everything in a press release is always true. At this point we'd be shocked if the Verizon FiOS TV App wasn't on every app platform imaginable, other than TiVo and Google TV, by the end of 2012.
Crapgadget CES, round four: iBallz is the ultimate, intimate gadget protector
Grab your iPad by the iBallz. It's safer that way. Trust us.
Verizon's Droid 4 priced up: $249 on a two-year contract (video)
This slider was still lacking its most important spec when we went hands-on, but a carrier document outed over at Droid-life fills in the blank: it lists a "minimum advertised price" of $249 on 24-month bond to VZW. Of course, we're still waiting on the second most important spec -- the release date, which hopefully won't be as futuristic as the handset's appearance. [Thanks, Uto]
FCC chairman implores Congress to speed up spectrum auctions, does it with a Galaxy Tab 8.9
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski renewed his pleas for more broadband spectrum yesterday, and he chose a rather peculiar platform upon which to do it. In an address here at CES yesterday, Genachowski called upon Congress to hurry up and open auctions for spectrum, and to allow his commission to reserve some space for itself. "It would be a very serious mistake to pass incentive legislation and prohibit the FCC from using some spectrum for unlicensed (uses)," Genachowski explained, adding that these unlicensed appropriations would help spur innovation. "We may see innovations there that lead to more efficient use. To me, it's a no-brainer." It's an argument that he's been making for a while now, but as All Things D noticed, Wednesday's address was unique for an entirely different reason. For the first time yesterday, he displayed his comments on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9, rather than his standard iPad. His thoughts on the slate? "It was all good," Genachowski said. "It was a seamless experience." He then proceeded, however, to send an e-mail with his iPad.
Cut the Rope gets ported to HTML5, gets chronicled on the way
Outlined during Microsoft's CES keynote earlier this week, gaming app Cut The Rope has had its journey to the world of HTML5 published for the masses. Tying together features like CSS3 styling and canvas-rendered graphics, the blog post details in cheery technical detail how creators ZeptoLab and Pixel Lab (not related) transferred the game from Objective-C to Javascript. Check the game for yourself down at the source and expect to see some extra levels designed especially for the browser platform. We'd love to play through those new levels, but we're all a little busy here...
Archos G9 tablets getting Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade next month
Sure we haven't heard a lot from Archos at CES thus far, but the company subtly dropped some good news for customers. According to Android Police, the company narrowed its estimates, letting it be known that its G9 tablet will be receiving a hearty helping of Ice Cream Sandwich, come the first week of February. The Android update will start rolling out to devices around that time, with preloaded ICS units hitting shelves in the following weeks.
Plextor's PlexEasy backs up your photos, phone and tablet without a computer
It was first announced in Europe just about a month ago, but Pextor's PlexEasy stand-alone DVD burner is finally hitting the market. The drive backs up data to CDs and DVDs directly from a variety of sources -- including SD cards, cameras, smartphones or tablets over USB. While it's made to be used without a PC it can be connected to one and draw it's power from your computer's USB ports. Despite Plextor touting its release here at CES we couldn't actually track down any info about pricing, but we'll make sure to update this post as soon as we do. Check out the complete PR after the break.
SpareOne cellphone claims 15-year battery life, we go hands-on
Xpal Power (owners partners of Energizer and PowerSkin) has leveraged its battery-tech know-how into the SpareOne, a cellphone that can maintain its charge for up to 15 years on just a single AA battery. It's designed to be used for sponsorship, hotel use and (most importantly) emergencies, to throw into your trunk and forget about until you need to contact roadside assistance. Now at CES we've had a chance to get our mitts on the device to see what it's like in the flesh plastic. If you're just a little bit curious, why not join us for a short trip?
iFrogz releases Boost speaker, uses 'near field audio' to boost sound
iFrogz was back at CES this year. Last year, most of its new products were iPhone and iPad cases, but this year the company is branching out. In addition to a USB gaming headset called the Caliber (it vibrates when loud sounds are played, "enhancing" the audio), iFrogz also has a product called Boost, which is a little speaker about the size of the iPhone, which amplifies whatever you play. What's interesting is how it works. iFrogz calls it "near-field audio," but essentially what happens is that they've embedded a mic in the speaker itself, and whatever it "hears" coming in gets amplified and pushed out louder than before. It's actually pretty ingenious. As soon as you lay the iPhone (even in a case) on the speaker, any audio it puts out is amplified surprisingly well. Unfortunately, as you might imagine, the quality suffers quite a bit, so this isn't a device for audiophiles. You'll still hear the sound and even understand lyrics, but if you want your full range of highs and lows to come across, you'll probably just want a set of speakers you can plug into. Still, the novelty of just laying your iPhone on the speaker is neat, and the sound should work well for a desk situation, or even a quiet room. The speaker is US$39.99, which is actually a little pricey for what it is. But if the idea intrigues you anyway (and you can think of a good use for it), you can check out the Boost when it arrives at retail this Spring.
Verizon to enable global roaming for LG Spectrum and Droid 4
VZW's latest LTE handsets don't make the best travel companions right now. Aside from getting stressed in airports and talking too much on coach trips, they also lack support for global GSM roaming. However, Big Red says it's "working on a few network enhancements" that will let the LG Spectrum and Droid 4 (shown above) work outside CDMA areas -- probably by the first half of this year. It's a nice gesture, but it also reminds us that what we're going to need in future -- full-on data roaming at LTE speeds -- will be a lot trickier to achieve.
Double Fine's Happy Action Theater conjures up Kinect magic
Double Fine's next project, Happy Action Theater, just appeared on the floor of CES, right on time according to Tim Schafer's Twitter account. The game, available in February for what a Microsoft rep called a "reasonable" price, is basically a collection of 18 different minigames, featuring sandbox-style fun for the younger audience. But don't let that tame description fool you: Happy Action Theater isn't just a standard minigame collection made for kids. Instead, it appears to be one of the best experiences on Kinect yet, and a perfect marriage of Double Fine's expertise at finding almost instant fun, and its skill at wringing some impressive feats out of that Kinect camera.
GameChanger board uses your iPad for board games
We stopped by Identity Games' booth here at CES in Las Vegas to see its GameChanger game board (which you can basically see above, albeit in a very cheery/creepy PR picture setting). Despite the less-than-intriguing marketing, the GameChanger is a really great idea. It's a 1'x3' board with an iPad dock in the very middle. With the help of a free app and some plastic cutouts, you can play physical board games, using your iPad for various digital functions. In one of the games, licensed from the Magic School Bus brand, each player takes turns "spinning" a digital wheel on the iPad by swiping with a finger. After spinning, each player needs to move their piece around the board. The iPad tells that player where his/her piece should land. When you reach certain spots on the board, the iPad will give players puzzles to solve or trivia questions to answer to move forward. There will be eight games total on the free app in April, with 12 available by the end of August. In addition to the board games that use plastic overlays, there are also "Action Games" that just use the base board, and allow players to shoot back and forth or get involved in more real-time competition. The whole contraption, though a little flimsy (the plastic covers just basically sit on the gameboard, and the whole thing is colored with a weird gray look), works very well. The board always knows where it's being interacted with, and the iPad does a great job of keeping games rolling along and mixing physical pieces with digital interactions. I don't think this is the best example we'll ever see of real life and digital interaction like this (in other words, it doesn't change the proverbial game quite so much), but it's one of the first, and it's done very well. GameChanger is available now for US$79.99. One more thing. Identity Games is also working on an iPhone version of the GameChanger, and while it's not anywhere near done just yet, they did kindly show us an artist's rendering of the prototype, which you can see below. As shown, it's probably designed for four players, and includes options for answering trivia questions with A, B, or C, as well as moving in four different directions. Looks very interesting indeed. The iPhone version is supposed to be out and available sometime around this August, so we'll look for it then.
Tobii Gaze UI eyes-on (video)
We know what you're thinking: another CES post about Tobii's eye-tracking Gaze UI? Why yes, yes it is, because this time we were actually the ones behind the driver's seat. We tracked down the company's booth and got some personal one-on-one time with the laptop. As the first matter of business, we first needed to calibrate our eye movements with the sensor, a process that took a couple minutes to push through before we were ready to have at it. The prototype laptop is running an early build of Windows 8, so we navigated around the Metro interface, played a couple games, switched back and forth between tabs, zoomed in and out of screens and plenty more. Eye-tracking technology hasn't been around for incredibly long, and it still has a ways to go. There were a few occasions -- seen in the video below the break -- in which we tried to hit a smaller button several times before finally finding success. Bugs aside, we got the hang of the interface pretty fast after a few minutes of getting accustomed to the concept of using our eyes as the cursor. That doesn't mean we were completely used to it by the time we left the booth, but we could see how eye-tracking can come in handy at times. But it wasn't all Mission: Impossible as we'd secretly hoped. Contrary to our original expectations, we discovered that using the trackpad was still an integral and necessary part of the full experience; it wasn't a "blink twice to click" type of interface. Tobii tells us that by still using the trackpad to click on the screen (minus dragging your finger around as the cursor), you still have a natural user experience, since you're quickly able to use your fingers to scroll or click and override the movement of your eyes if absolutely necessary. We found it easy to switch back and forth between tabs and zoom in and out of pictures -- heck, we even were able to play games on the laptop by using our eyes, though admittedly we performed rather lousy and lost every time since many games require a certain amount of precision. That's obviously a situation that would call for the ability to override the eye-tracker and switch to manual mode, of course. All in all, we were very impressed to see how far the technology has come so far, and as Tobii is still in the early stages of implementing eye-tracking into the latest laptops -- CES is the company's first time showing it off in public, after all -- we're incredibly excited to see how it looks once it's all polished up. We've got plenty of pictures and a video to show off, so continue below to take a look. See what we did there?
Tamaggo 360-imager concept hands-on
Why settle for a boring 62-degree view (the field of view of a 35mm lens) when you could be taking in the full 360? Well, we suppose iPhone attachments are needlessly bulky, and throwable camera orbs can easily concuss bad catchers -- but that doesn't mean you shouldn't have options. The Tamaggo 360-imager, for instance, might be a pretty good option. This egg shaped (Tamaggo / Tamago, get it Japanese students?) camera natively snaps 360-degree images -- at least we trust it does, the non-functional unit we saw on the CES show floor mostly just fit our hand well. Snapping 360-degree images seemed like an easy enough task -- a large silver button sits comfortably on the device's top, representing the shutter. On the eggs bottom we found a spot reserved for a 2-inch touchscreen, specifically designed to be viewed while holding the device aloft. The images can be viewed on the PC using an included application, offering you a Google street-view like look at your latest vacation pics. All in all, the Tamaggo seems like a very comfortable camera to use, and promises a fun gimmick -- we're just sad we didn't get to actually use it. Either way, we'll take a crack at the panoramic egg once its ready for prime time. Daniel Cooper contributed to this post.
Crapgadget CES, round three: EZ Gas Check draws you into danger
Remember kids: when you're hovering over copious amounts of leaking gas, that yellow icon means you're basically safe. Maybe.
Samsung NaviBot-S hands-on (video)
If you're looking to control more than your washer and dryer with your mobile device, Samsung can oblige with an update to its NaviBot line. The latest smart vacuum model, NaviBot-S, can be summoned via the same app that is used with some of the company's other WiFi-enabled appliances, or the more traditional stock remote control. Featuring Visionary Mapping Plus, it uses a ceiling cam to seek out and remember the best route to and from its charging station. The robovac also uses a dust sensor to determine just how dirty your floors are and the exact location of those dropped Cheerios. Should the tech develop a mind of its own, there are some controls on the top panel that will allow you to get things under control right on the device. Now you can prep for those annoying 'drop by' guests while your on the drive home from the market -- with 90% efficiency. As far as cleaning time goes, you can expect around 100 minutes of work per three hour charge. For a demo of the NaviBot gathering up spillage, hop on past the break and peep the video.
Panasonic Viera touchpad controller prototype hands-on (video)
Looking for a more comfortable web browsing and app using experience on your Panasonic Viera Smart TV? The company is looking to lend a hand with upcoming peripherals like the Viera touchpad prototype that we took for a spin here in Vegas. Compatible with the 2012 line of televisions that share the same moniker, the controller enables you to peruse the web on your wall-mounted display via Panasonic's Webkit browser. We spent a few minutes browsing the Engadget site, so read on for our impressions. Using HTML5, the browser scrolled pages at a decent clip. Don't get your hopes up about Flash though, as in its absence you'll certainly be disappointed. Text wasn't as crisp as we'd like and a lack of font support made rendered pages look off. In terms of the prototype, we were able to navigate the web with ease despite the occasional hiccup with the touchpad's responsiveness -- a quirk you'd expect with a device still in beta. Some basic TV remote functions like volume and channel controls were also on the mouse-sized peripheral which can be paired with wired or wireless keyboards for some text-heavy couch surfing. We're hearing that it'll be included with a few models this spring and also offered as a solo option for those who may have already purchased a compatible HDTV. If you're itching for a look at the action, a short preview video awaits after the break.
Live from Las Vegas, it's Engadget Distro's CES Special Edition
If you're reading this, you likely know that CES 2012 is in full swing. Since things kicked off this past Sunday, we've posted some 575 different previews, posts and hands-on and sucked down countless gallons of coffee to avoid the slumber we so fondly remember. Of course, it's all in the name of keeping you informed, and to that point this very special edition of Distro is all about the Consumer Electronics Show. Doing what we do best, we've filtered out all of the noise to bring you the biggest breakouts of this year's show in an easily digestible timeline. In addition, we've compiled CES-flavored versions of all the content you've come to expect week after week. But this isn't the last you'll see of Distro this week, as we have yet another special edition coming your way from our doublewide, right here in the Nevada desert. We'll sleep when we're dead, but in the meantime, hit the download link and enjoy.Distro Issue 22 PDFDistro on the iTunes App StoreDistro in the Android MarketDistro APK (for sideloading)Like Distro on FacebookFollow Distro on Twitter
