ces-2013
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HAPIfork Kickstarter campaign goes live
Stick with us on this one: Yes, the HAPIfork is still just a Kickstarter project, as its US$100,000 campaign has just gone live on the fundraising site. And yes, most Kickstarter projects make better ideas than actual products. But the HAPIfork, unlikely as it may seem, was one of the biggest stars of CES 2013 back in January, so we figured it only right to let you know that you can now back and buy it if you're so inclined. Our friends at Engadget got to go hands-on with the latest version of the fork, which purports to help you track how quickly you eat (with the option to send your eating information back to an iPhone app if you like), and will vibrate to warn you if you're chowing down too fast. The bad news about the fork is that it's apparently very big -- the onboard electronics make the thing way bigger than your standard fork, which makes it a little unwieldy. But Engadget reports that the idea generally works: After a few vibrations, you get the idea, and the fork could actually slow down quicker eaters. At any rate, if that kind of thing sounds appetizing to you, you can get the HAPIfork at a discounted rate of $89 through the Kickstarter. That price is limited to the first 2,500 buyers, and then the price goes back up to the usual $99 (the company is planning to expand that in the future, to a cheaper model and a more premium model with a few extra features). If you've been waiting to get your hands on one of these since CES, there you go.
CES 2013 through the eyes of our contest winner (video)
Many entered, but it was Daniel Orren who sent in a great green-screened video that snagged him a temporary spot on the Engadget crew at this year's CES. Hanging with the team in our trusty trailer, getting comped meals, roaming the floor, wearing mind-controlled cat ears -- honestly, it's probably just easier to list all of the things the photographer didn't do the other week in Vegas. With the dust settled, we asked Orren how he enjoyed the trip. "The showroom floor was a lot bigger than I had anticipated originally, so naturally this was great as there were more gadgets." Amongst the highlights: "My favorite times would have to be hanging with the Engadget crew, it's nice just chatting with everyone about all the cool stuff you've seen that day/week and just geeking out." And as for that inevitable question, the one we ask ourselves right around this time each year, " I'd love to go back to CES if given the chance, and who knows, maybe I'll just go on my own in a few years." Also included in the prize package was an Engadget Show segment to call his very own. When he wasn't occupied with the Steambox and 4K TVs, our film crew was following Orren around to find out what it's like going to CES as a first-timer. Check in after the break for the results.
The Engadget Show 40: The Best of CES with Kaz Hirai, 50 Cent, Ken Block and Arianna Huffington
The craziest week of the tech year is at end, and we have to say, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Sure, it wasn't quite as epic as it has been in years past, but CES is still the show that sets the stage for the rest of 2013. By that measure, we may well be seeing an interesting shift. With the loss of Microsoft, some smaller companies have been using the show to make names for themselves amongst the 4K TVs released by the bigwigs like Samsung, Sony and LG. The Pebble smart watch, the Oculus Rift and the Razer Edge all scored big. We take a look at the products and discuss how things like crowdfunding are affecting the world of hardware startups. We've also got interviews galore -- we'll be talking with Sony CEO Kaz Hirai, SMS Audio CEO (and rapper, we're told) 50 Cent, rally car driver Ken Block, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, Stern Pinball CEO Gary Stern, MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis and CEA president Gary Shapiro among many, many others (including a very special appearance from Gallagher -- this is Vegas, after all). Daniel, the winner of our Bring a Reader to CES contest will show you what it's like going to the show for the first time and our editors discuss how this year's event compares to years past. And, of course, we've also got lots of floor time with our favorite gadgets from the show. Toss on a comfortable pair of walking shoes, because it's time to do CES all over again.
The many cases of CES 2013
Every year I walk the halls of CES snapping pics of the myriad iDevice cases offered from numerous vendors. I chuckle when I see the "no pictures" sign, as clearly someone was worried the charm would wear off were potential customers to see a picture of a product outside the auspices of a proper product shot. I lump those folks in the "no clue" department, but I'll have more ruminations on CES (and why it actually still does matter) later. For now, enjoy this random lineup of varied cases. %Gallery-176540%
Making the virtual a reality at CES 2013
Microsoft's decision to drop out of CES prompted a lot of questions with regards to the future relevance of CES, not the least of which was how much the industry really needed an in-person tech trade show in an age where business is primarily done online. Of course, there's still a fair amount of value in offering members of the media and buyers the opportunity to actually interact with the technology in person. And while software companies have long been a staple of the show, their presence is most often an acknowledgement of hardware partners. It's fitting, then, that many of the show's offbeat highlights came in the form of companies looking to offer hardware solutions to our increasingly virtual world. Parrot's always-amusing CEO, Henri Seydoux said it best while showing off the latest additions to the company's AR.Drone on our stage. "Today, the kids have video games," he told us. "They've replaced toys, because it's a much more interesting experience. With the drone, we've tried to make toys as fun as video games." And it's easy to see how such a product can be taken as a real-world answer to smartphone gaming, with video from the built-in camera being overlaid with AR content.
Runbo X5 and X3 rugged Android phones moonlight as walkie-talkies, cost just $320
We've seen a handful of rugged Androids in our time, but none are as affordable and as weird as these ones at CES. The backstory here is that a couple of Chinese guys in camouflage gear approached us at our CES stage, and after an awkward conversation, it turned out that they just wanted to show us the three rugged phones they brought all the way from Shenzhen. Starting from the right we have the Runbo (like Rambo?) X1 IP67-certified featurephone cum walkie-talkie, which packs a 2-inch 176 × 144 display, a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera, a laser pointer, quad-band GSM plus 800MHz CDMA cellular radios, 400 to 470MHz range for the software-configurable walkie-talkie (parts of the spectrum may require a licence, depending on your country), a surprisingly loud speaker and a 2,200mAh battery. This will be available for ¥980 or about $160 on Taobao online store (the Chinese equivalent of eBay) in the next couple of days, and we've been told that there will also be a variant with GPS added. But the real stars of the show are the two brick-sized vanilla Android 4.0.4 devices. The phone pictured in the middle is the Runbo X5, a device featuring a 1GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 MTK6577 chipset, 1GB RAM, 4GB storage, microSD expansion, a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 IPS display, an app-triggered laser pointer, an eight-megapixel main camera, a 0.3-megapixel front camera, a super loud speaker (again) and a massive removable 3,800mAh battery. And yes, this also comes with a 400 to 470MHz walkie-talkie radio (up to 10km range; with detachable antenna), along with the additional 850/1900/2100 WCDMA radio, two SIM slots (WCDMA plus GSM), WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS. These specs are the same for the Runbo X3 on the left, except for the smaller 3.5-inch 800 x 480 IPS panel to make space for the QWERTY keyboard below it. The best part here are the prices: both of these IP67-certified devices are available on Taobao or the official website for just ¥1,999 or about $320, which is a bargain for both the ruggedness and the fact that these double as standard walkie-talkies. US folks can also order directly from eBay for $380, which is also a steal. But does this surprisingly low price reflect the quality? Find out in our hands-on after the break.
How hardware startups changed the face of CES
It was all bad timing, really. Just ahead of CES 2012, Microsoft announced that year's event would be its last, blaming product schedules that just didn't match up with the annual show. There was no question that the tech giant's absence would be felt the following year, the first time in recent memory the Consumer Electronics Show wasn't kicked off by a Microsoft keynote. It signaled, perhaps, a slight shift away from the days of huge companies dominating the event's headlines -- a phenomenon helped along by the recent attention-grabbing successes of a number of crowdfunded projects, many of which were present at the show. The move from Bill Gates to Steve Ballmer was one thing, but a CES without Redmond? That was just unheard of, a specter that loomed over the show, even as the CEA happily announced it had sold out the company's floor space in "record time." In the end, of course, Microsoft was still at the show, albeit in a less overt form, by way of third-party machines from Sony, Samsung and the like, and in the form of a cameo by none other than Ballmer himself -- a sort of spiritual baton-passing to the company's keynote successor, Qualcomm. Heck, even the Surface Pro reared its head backstage at the show.
iHome offers a few Bluetooth solutions and a boombox at CES 2013
iHome is one of the biggest iOS accessory sellers out there, and they always have a huge presence at CES, with a big booth showing off all of the company's latest and greatest wares. Unfortunately, the product lines can often be hard to navigate -- lately, the company has insisted on using a numbering system for each of its products rather than individual names, instead relying on the popular "iHome" brand as an identifier. But there are some good products in there, among all of the relatively standard docks and connector cables that a lot of other CES vendors share. Like a lot of accessory makers, Lightning is probably the biggest story around iHome's booth, as it's just now releasing docks and connectors designed to work with Apple's new standard. So for all of the old docks out there previously, there's now a Lightning version available that will fit together with your iPhone 5, the latest iPad or the iPad mini. Bluetooth speakers are also a big deal for iHome lately, with one of the most popular being the IBT 97, a clock dock powered by a Bluetooth connection, with an extra USB port in the back for charging. The IBT 30 is very impressive as well: It's a Bluetooth speaker with a rechargeable base on it, so you can use the device as a speaker wherever you want, and simply return it to the base when it needs a charge. The iP4 is one of the company's most popular products this year: It's a retro boombox-style stereo system that's been seen out and about in famous performers' hands. There's a standard Lightning version now, along with a Bluetooth version, each available for about US$199 or so. And finally, the IBT 52 (ugh, these names) isn't the most iOS-specific device we saw, but it is handy. The IBT 52 is a little unit with a cord that leads off to a 3.5-inch plug, and it can be plugged into any speaker system in your house to make it Bluetooth-enabled, allowing you to send music from your iOS device to a stereo system that doesn't already have Bluetooth inside of it. It's a pretty handy little device, and it could be very useful for those of us with older stereo systems when it releases later on this year in May for $49.
CES 2013: Interview roundup
Our CES plates were jam-packed full of eye-opening conversations this year. We had the chance to speak to top tech luminaries, entrepreneurs, celebrities and fellow journalists. Much of that opportunity arose from the return of our stage, parked right in the middle of the Las Vegas Convention Center's Grand Lobby. We blew things out this year, packing the schedule from the show's opening on Tuesday morning to its close on Friday night. Below we have a list of the interviews we did at this year's show, both on-stage and off, so you can relive the thoughts, theories and comments that defined this year's Consumer Electronics Show.
Cygnett's ICON case contains the story behind the artists and art
Perusing the many, many iPhone cases on display at CES is always a daunting proposition: Not only does every case manufacturer appear at the show with hundreds if not thousands of cases to show off, but even when all of the cases on display are finally out on store shelves, customers tend to fall right into standard patterns when purchasing a new iPhone case. People who buy cases usually don't do a lot of shopping around or feature comparing -- usually they just go to a store near them, look through all of the cases there, and just buy the one that looks like what they want and has an agreeable price. Plus, while manufacturers always bring a rainbow of colored cases (and lots of popular licensed brands) to the CES floor every year, we invariably get told time and time again by manufacturers that only one kind of case routinely tops the charts: Simple, clean, black. For all of the fashion trends and choices out there, black always seems to sell the best. Still, there are always a few cases worth pointing out every year, and this year the honor goes to Cygnett's ICON Art Series of iPhone cases. Cygnett is an Australian company, and the ICON series is a group of iPhone cases that boasts some amazing art from around the world, including Aborigine artist Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, graffiti artists Tats Cru and Scarygirl creator Nathan Jurevicius. In addition to offering iPhone cases with these artists' works on the back of them, the ICON line also provides a writeup inside each case, that informs you about the work and the artist. It's a little thing (and when your iPhone is actually inside the case, you can't read the writeup anyway), but I definitely like that the company is aiming to use this art for something other than to just make your case look good. The money raised from the cases (each is available for US$29.99) goes partly to the artists as well, so wrapping your iPhone in this way is a nice way of respecting some really great work. When it comes down to choosing an iPhone case, the choice is more or less up to you -- obviously there are more heavy duty options if you're looking for protection, or more practical options if you want a wallet-style case or some extra gadgets on it like a battery pack or a stand. But cosmetic cases are all pretty plain, and it's cool to see Cygnett pushing not only the art on the back of the case, but the story behind it as well.
CES 2013: Laptop and Ultrabook roundup
CES is done for another year, but before we can drop the microphone, we need to put together a reminisci-package to summarize the week in notebook computing. This year's show was chock-full with Ultrabooks, leading many to believe that full-fat notebooks are going the way of the Dodo. However, Intel's Kirk Skaugen feels that rumors of the laptop's demise at the hands of the Ultrabook are greatly exaggerated -- seeing the latter as merely a subset of the overall mobile PC firmament. Intel announced its power-sipping Haswell architecture and revealed its highly desirable North Cape reference design, which offered us a tantalizing glimpse of what future hardware could be like. However, before we get to that, we need to deal with the hardware hitting stores this year, so if you'd like to know more, follow us after the break.
Mobi-Lens smartphone / tablet camera attachment hands-on
Here's the sort of thing Kickstarter is all about: those ideas that are so head-bangingly simple you get genuinely angry you didn't come up with them yourself. Someone from Mobi-Lens popped by the Engadget stage this week to show off the company's new crowdfunded creations, lenses for smartphone and tablet cameras that clip onto the side of the device. The company brought by the macro and fisheye versions, which we got to play around with a bit. After a bit of adjusting on our handset, we were more than happy to take them for a ride, shooting some shots of Tim's Ken Block interview. We didn't get the greatest shots in the world for the few minutes we played around with it, but what the company has managed to get over on its site should give you a decent idea of what's possible. The macro took some interesting shots as well, but you've really got to get in extremely close to get it to work as intended. The lenses aren't cheap, at $40 bucks a pop, or $65 for two, but they're definitely cool additions for those looking to mix up their own smartphone photography a touch.
Parrot's eBee drone eyes-on
It wouldn't have been a proper Engadget CES stage without a few surprises. During his appearance, the company's CEO, Henri Seydoux, showed off one of its lesser-known drones, the eBee, a GPS-packing foam beast created in collaboration with Sensefly. The eBee can carry a camera (a Canon Powershot, in this case). Shake it to start the motor and then toss it off like a paper airplane. It's capable of shooting video and doing 3D mapping, and the removable wings mean you can stick it into a carrying case, as seen in the images below.
Just Mobile's early-2013 range: AluCup, black HeadStand, AluFrame, AluPocket and Gum Max Duo
What we love about CES is that we get to see so many familiar faces in one week, and Just Mobile was one of them this year. Since our visit to its Taiwan office a few months ago, the award-winning accessory maker had been preparing several new products for CES: (from left to right in the above picture) AluCup, black HeadStand, AluFrame, AluPocket and Gum Max Duo. Starting in chronological order we have the black edition of the minimalistic aluminum HeadStand headphone stand, which will join its silver-colored sibling for the same $49.95 price tag at the end of this month. As before, the HeadStand's base comes in two layers for cable management, as well as a spun-metal finish. Check out the rest of the product range after the break.
Noit Joystick makes an appearance at CES, promises more face time at CTIA
We get pitched plenty at our CES stage, but not everyone is as capable of stopping us in our tracks as Noit founder Lael Alexander, who busted out a dummy version of the Joystick (or Joistick, depending on which part of the company's catalog you read). It's a phone / controller, with calling capabilities, Bluetooth, WiFi and NFC jammed into a uniquely holdable design. Flip it open to reveal the screen and a QWERTY keyboard, a la messaging phones of the past. There are mouse buttons and a gyroscope built in, so you can also use the Android device as a controller, if you're so inclined. It's also got NFC, an HDMI port, Bluetooth, 64GB of storage and "the best sound design," according to Alexander, who promised his company would have something more concrete to show at CTIA.
BBK Vivo X1 hands-on
Even though we focus a lot of our CES coverage on the biggest (read: flagship) products announced at the show, we revel in the opportunity to find the little gems scattered in various corners of Las Vegas that may not receive quite as much attention. One such product is the BBK Vivo X1, a phone that was recently launched in China but hasn't seen any time on this side of the Pacific. Up until this week, this particular piece of circuitry was the title holder for "world's thinnest smartphone," measuring in at 6.55mm thick. (The Alcatel Idol Ultra now claims this title at 6.45mm, although it's technically not on sale yet.) Despite the small package, it also professes to pack a hefty audio punch, boasting a pair of Beyerdynamic MMX 71 iE earphones and Cirrus Logic CS4398 DAC. We weren't able to test the audio prowess of the device in our brief interaction, but it felt reasonably good to hold in our hands overall. The Vivo X1 is one of the more sleek phones we've played with recently, but there's one piece of baggage that comes with that statement: it's slick. Our small concern with smartphones this thin is how well we can hang onto the ¥2,498 ($400) handset without dropping it on a regular basis, and its incredibly light chassis combined with its smooth plastic back add to that worry. At the very least, the 4.7-inch frame is easy to grip despite its slippery material. Spec-wise, you aren't looking anything out of the ordinary: a dual-core 1.2GHz MediaTek MT6577T processor and 1GB RAM help the phone get stuff done; it's powered by a non-removable 2,000mAh battery (rather large for such a slim phone) and offers a qHD IPS display, 16GB internal storage, a 3.5mm headphone jack, 8MP rear-facing camera and 1.3MP front cam. This device is geared primarily for China, so it's quite likely that we won't see it in many other parts of the world. But if you fancy a closer look at the Vivo X1, take a look at our extensive gallery of images below.
CES: Roccat's Power-Grid is almost ready to be switched on
Roccat first showed us the Power-Grid system (that uses an iPhone app to control various functions on a PC and the company's PC accessories) at CES in 2012 before officially announcing it last March. And now, a year later, the service is almost ready for launch. It's not quite good to go, but Roccat kindly showed off the near-finished version to us at this week's CES in Las Vegas, and man, is it ever impressive. Before I start going on and on about how just versatile and useful Roccat's app will be, I'll get the one major catch out of the way first: This product isn't for a Mac. It does of course use an iPhone, but the app ties over wi-fi into a desktop app that, Roccat has confirmed, is only going to be available for PCs. Mac compatibility is a remote future possibility, but Roccat told me that "it will take some time" -- the company has a long history of Windows accessory customization, and not so much with OS X. So for now, the Power-Grid service will only work using the iPhone app to control and PC and the software on it. But if you do happen to use a PC with your iPhone, you'll love what Power-Grid can do. Just as we heard last year, the app will have a series of screens with control buttons on them, and those controls will hook into PC functions. One screen will be full of various status updates (tracking your PC's CPUs, RAM, hard drive space and so on), and some of those controls will be interactive (tapping on the C: space listing, for example, will open up a Windows Explorer window on the PC set to the C: directory). A sound control screen will offer access to system audio, including the main volume as well as sliders for mic volume and other options. There's also a controller for your music client that Roccat says will work with all of the major players, including iTunes. Another screen will have updates from various social networks and programs like Twitter, Facebook, TeamSpeak, Skype and even RSS feeds, so you can browse through everything while a game is running on your PC's screen. And a final screen is called the "News Center", and will feature a series of curated feeds (including great blogs like TUAW, Joystiq and Engadget) and content to include if you want. Any of these tabs can be deleted or moved, but those are the main core tabs available to everyone. Where the Power-Grid gets really interesting, however, is after the default tabs. First up, Roccat will offer a number of other tabs built to offer functionality in various games or apps. I was able to play with a Skyrim tab, for example, that offered macro buttons on the iPhone to do things like change the game's camera, or bring up the skills or map screen automatically. The whole thing was surprisingly responsive: Just pull up the Skyrim tab on the iPhone, hit a button and then immediately the effects appeared on screen. And thanks to Roccat's experience with keyboard macros, the iPhone buttons are very powerful: One button toggled moving in the game, and another one attacked with a weapon or cast a spell, which put a surprising amount of functionality just on the iPhone. There are also tabs like that planned for League of Legends, Starcraft (think of just setting up a production queue by tapping a button on your phone), and a number of other games. And there will be a few non-game tabs available as well, according to Roccat, including functionality for Word, Photoshop and other popular apps. But even that's not the most interesting part. Tabs can also be custom made by users button by button, through a very simple process of first setting the button's attributes, and then just dropping and placing it on to the tab and syncing up to the iPhone app. Anything you can do on your PC with a keyboard can be placed into a button macro, and then you can drag and set that button up however you like, turning your iPhone into a custom-made controller for your PC. It's really unbelievable, and even if you don't have the time or interest to create a custom tab for yourself, users will be able to share and favorite tabs online, so you can just wait until someone else makes the one you want. The Power-Grid was an interesting idea when I first heard about it at last year's CES, but it's about to become a really incredible reality. Roccat said the biggest difficulty right now is getting Apple's approval on the whole system, but hopefully we'll see both the PC desktop app and the iPhone app (both of which are set up to be free!) available within the next few weeks.
CES 2013: Wilson Electronics introduces the Sleek 4G booster to get your iPhone more signal
Wilson Electronics has been making cell phone signal boosters for a while now, both for home use and for larger scale settings like offices and commercial use. But the company is turning to something more personal with its new Sleek 4G cell phone booster, which is a phone stand that will make your iPhone's signal (or a signal from any phone, really) up to 10 times more powerful. The booster, which is shipping next week, basically consists of a phone stand that you can either place on your desk or stick on your car's dashboard, and then a cord leading off of it that connects to an antenna with a magnetic base. That's it -- you don't need to actually connect your phone up at all, because the stand will just grab the signal automatically. The stand itself has a few different prongs on the sides that you can adjust depending on what phone you're using, but other than that, it just boosts a signal, and well. A normal phone signal, according to Wilson, runs at about 200 mW, but with the Sleek 4G adding a boost, the signal can reach up to 2,000 mW. Wilson's reps told us that most people think of using cell phone boosters out in more rural areas, but given all of the holes and issues in more populated areas, it can be helpful in bigger cities, too. And the booster has one other big benefit: It'll increase the battery life on the phone. By making sure the signal is always strong, Wilson says that many users have seen phones last longer than before. At $199, this isn't a small investment for sure. But if you constantly have problems with your iPhone's signal and could use a way to keep it going whether you're in a home or office or out and about in your car, Wilson's Sleek 4G booster could help.
Live from the Engadget CES Stage: the Engadget Podcast CES closer (update: video embedded)
Hoooooooo-boy. We did it, guys! The craziest week of the year is finally over. It's time for a little R&R -- well, once we've spoken to our entire staff about the CES that is. We're tired, we're loopy and we're in it to win it. You're not gonna want to miss this one, kids. January 10, 2013 11:00 PM EST Check out our full CES 2013 stage schedule here! Update: video embedded
