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Vote for the Best of CES People's Choice award!
We've announced our Best of CES finalists so now it's time for you to cast your vote for your favorite gadget at CES 2016! Just head over here (or below) to pick your three favorite items from our pool of finalists. You have until 6 p.m. EST tomorrow, January 8th, to get your votes in. Photo: Will Lipman
Three Vegas psychics predict the year in tech
The idea hit me as I deleted yet another email from yet another eager publicist desperately seeking an outlet for their analyst client's technology predictions. I'd get a psychic reading. But instead of asking about my personal life, I'd get the download on what technology's going to be hot and what's not in 2016 straight from a "higher source."
Intel's RealSense camera made me the star of 'Fallout 4'
Over the holidays, I've really been putting the hours into Fallout 4. So when Intel and Uraniom said that it'd be demonstrating its RealSense 3D camera to embed people into that vault suit, I knew what I had to do. Uraniom's tech includes machine learning, geometry processing and 3D game engineering to ensure anyone that plants themselves into games (including GTA, FIFA and Skyrim) gets suitably freaked the heck out by the fluid, not-too-out-of-place results. After getting scanned by a HP tablet with RealSense cameras, the data was transferred to a work PC, where one of Uraniom's guys added trackers around my eyes and and mouth. (My fluffy Tintin hair isn't usually well-suited to 3D scanning, but the results this time are still uncanny.) Less than a minute later, I was looking slender and radiation-free in my vault suit and soon I was equipped with a jetpack powersuit and flying around a devastated Boston.
This wearable wants you to spend more time with your friends
How much time do you spend with the people you love? That's the question that Concepter wants you to ask yourself with its off-beat wearable, the Soul time tracker. Its hardware couldn't be simpler -- just a black-and-silver wristband (or a keyfob) with a bluetooth chip inside and a battery that's good for a year. It's innocuous enough that I'd have no issue wearing it. But it's the software for the band that's interesting here. See, the Soul app keeps tabs on other Souls you meet, logging how long you spend with the various people in your life, and prompting you to do something about it.
Funimation is launching its own streaming anime service
Funimation announced on Thursday that it is partnering with Sony DADC to create its own ad-free Crunchyroll-style streaming platform, called FunimationNow. The new service will begin rolling out in February and complement the company's existing streaming offerings through its website. It will be available through not only iOS, Android and Kindle apps as well as directly through the Apple or Amazon Fire TVs. Subscribers will have access to more than 400 titles from the studio's expansive archive including full series of Dragon Ball Z, Attack on Titan, Fairy Tail, One Piece, Tokyo Ghoul and Space Dandy. There's no word yet on pricing.
The Oculus Rift made you forget what the first iPhone cost
Yesterday, Oculus VR finally announced the price of its first consumer virtual reality headset: $599, plus shipping. Fans reacted quickly, shocked that the price was twice as much as the original developer kit and furious that the company was charging so much. During Palmer Luckey's evening AMA on Reddit, fans were petitioning the company to remove the Rift's audio tech and packaged Xbox One controller to bring the price down. That's denial, anger and bargaining, guys. Let's skip the fourth stage of grief and jump to the end: acceptance. The Oculus Rift's launch price is completely normal.
Nick Woodman talks Karma and the future of GoPro
GoPro head honcho Nick Woodman joined Engadget on stage at CES, and took the chance to tease more info about the much talked about quadcopter, Karma. Not much is known about how it will look, but Woodman explained that "We make everything backwards compatible, our goal is that your older GoPro will work with anything new we make, and vice versa." Near confirmation that Karma will work with its existing line of cameras, and won't have one built in.
Audio-Technica has a turntable for your wireless speakers
There's no doubting the vinyl resurgence, and this year's CES has a few turntable options for those hobbyists. In addition to Sony's new model that digitizes vinyl tunes and a Technics revival, Audio-Technica has a turntable for your wireless speaker setup. The company's AT-LP60-BT offers Bluetooth connectivity in a fully automatic belt-drive stereo turntable. This means that in addition to speakers, you can also pair the device with your wireless headphones (more on that in a second). You can connect up to eight different speakers as well, which would seem to make it a solid option for multi-room audio. However, we'd want to test the range before confirming you can use it in that manner.
This is the first object 3D-printed from alien metal
So-called "asteroid mining" company Planetary Resources is built on the belief that asteroids and other objects in space are loaded with resources that we can take advantage of, both here on Earth and as we begin to explore space in earnest. The essentially infinite supply of rocks floating through space, filled with valuable minerals that we'll eventually run out of on our home planet, sounds like a great resource to take advantage of. But the idea of mining, processing and building with alien metals also sounds like a massive and daunting undertaking.
Intel's RealSense phone with Project Tango up for pre-order
We heard back in August that Intel was creating a Project Tango developer kit, which also happened to be the first phone to include its RealSense 3D cameras. Now, it's available for pre-order for $399 on Intel's website. The RealSense Smartphone Developer Kit, as its officially called, packs in a 6-inch screen, Atom X7-Z8700 processor and 2 gigabytes of RAM. But its real unique feature is its array of 3D cameras, which can be used to detect objects, gestures and map space in three dimensions. There's no telling when Intel will start shipping out the dev kits, and right now it's only offering them in the United States.
Recon's HUD mask transfers your gaming skills to paintball
Recon Instruments and Empire Paintball's paintball mask is fun to wear — and I didn't even get to shoot anyone. The Empire EVS houses Recon's Snow2 heads-up display in bottom-right of the goggles, running on Android, with nine-axis sensors, Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS, while the helmet itself looks like a color-saturated Darth Vader pretender -- and I mean that in the best possible way. Slipping into it is easy, and an armband control unit with directional buttons makes navigation through menus (as well as zooming in and out of maps) hard to screw up. The mask itself, coming from paintball equipment maker Empire has UVA/UVB radiation protection and doesn't fog up inside when the action picks up and your breathing gets heavy. The heads-up display (HUD) can also talk with action cams like the GoPro, which you can mount on your paintball gun to peek around corners and, as one Engadget editor calls it: "cheat".
What you missed on day three at CES
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-728192{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-728192, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-728192{width:100%;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-728192").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Day three of CES wasn't quite as crazy as day two, but it was still a massive gadget overload. Never fear, though, because we've once again wrapped up the highlights here with a nice neat bow. Topping the list was Chevy's new all-electric Bolt, an EV that lets you travel more than 200 miles on a charge, then top back up to 80 percent within an hour. More insane but far less likely is Ehang's 184 personal drone that can ferry you up to 10 miles, well above the traffic jams. We also saw the stunning, rollable OLED displays from LG. We don't know why we want one, we just know that we do. To catch up, we've got more details in our gallery and the video above.
iHeart and Universal are partnering for VR concerts
iHeartMedia and Universal Music Group are teaming up to take music into virtual reality. From the sounds of it, this isn't going to be just a music visualizer a la what game developer Harmonix is doing. Nope, this will work to "leverage" the strengths of both companies, like UMG's massive roster of artists (including Katy Perry) and iHeart's hundreds of millions of listeners, to sell you stuff. "The companies will create entertainment experiences that leverage cutting-edge technology, making immersive VR performances and experiences accessible to U.S. audiences for the first time at scale," the prepared statement reads.
The Fitbit Blaze doesn't feel nice enough to wear every day
The Fitbit Blaze is a new type of device for the company. It's the first hardware Fitbit has made that could be classified as a smartwatch, albeit one with a major focus on fitness rather than the more flexible and relatively feature-packed approach that characterizes Android Wear and the Apple Watch. But just as with other smartwatches, the Fitbit Blaze aspires to be something you'll want to wear on your wrist: Beyond the fluoroelastomer bands that resemble those found in other Fitbit devices, the company is also selling more-premium leather and metal straps. The question is whether the whole package is desirable enough to want to wear on your wrist every day.
ICYMI: Smart dumbbells, robot car seat and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-471864{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-471864, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-471864{width:100%;display:block;} #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-471864{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-471864, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-471864{width:100%;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-471864").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It: We are continuing our special Las Vegas coverage with a round-up of our favorite tech from Pepcom, a pre-CES event that showcases some of the technology at the show. Bowflex got our attention with a smart dumbbell that can count your reps and sync with an app over bluetooth. The dumbbells will cost $499 and are available later this month. But the stand that makes it fun to use is an additional $149.
What goes down at a Vegas drone rodeo?
The Mandalay Bay hotel and conference center sits toward the south end of the Las Vegas strip. Inside it, past all the smokey slot machines and brightly lit restaurants, you'll find sharks rubbing shoulders with Michael Jackson. It is the very essence of Vegas. It's also the pick up point for this year's drone rodeo -- a spin off event from CES proper out in the desert, away from the hustle and bustle of the show floor.
BlackBerry is dumping BB10 for Android in 2016 (update)
BlackBerry spent years fine-tuning BB10, but its homegrown mobile OS will have to take a backseat for now. During an interview at CES in Las Vegas, CEO John Chen has revealed that the company plans to release at least one new Android phone this year. A second one might follow, but it likely depends on how well the first one sells. Chen chose to keep all the details and release dates a secret, but computer renders of what could be the company's next Android device, code-named "Vienna," were leaked last year.
David Pogue hates 3D TVs, but loves HDR and autonomous cars
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-344625{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-344625, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-344625{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-344625").style.display="none";}catch(e){}David Pogue is renowned for his musical talents, technological expertise and strong opinions. On the Engadget stage at CES 2016, he waxed poetic about the virtues of self-driving cars, told me why HDR is something we should all be excited about, and even explained his theory that 80 percent of everything "is crap." Like I said... the man is highly opinionated.
Solar-powered action camera charges itself in about an hour
Mountable action cameras are pretty cool, but almost all of them share the same fatal flaw: limited battery life. At best, most cameras will only record continuously for a few hours before calling it quits for the day. What if you could get more recording time without swapping out batteries? That's the idea behind the Activeon Solar X -- a solar-powered action camera.
FAA's B4UFLY app tells drone operators if it's okay to fly
Flying drones is a lot more complicated than it used to be. These days, drone pilots need to register their toys with the FAA, be aware of drone-specific laws and even notify local airports of their flights in certain sceneries. It's a lot to keep track of, which is why the FAA has released B4UFLY, a smartphone app designed to keep drone users informed.
