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Vortx blows air at your face while you're gaming, and it's great
Vortx is ridiculous. It's a cube that you place on your desk, next to your PC or laptop, and it blows hot or cold air in your face, depending on what's happening on-screen. The air responds dynamically to the action: If you're running through the fiery hellscape of Doom, the fan blows hot and fast, but if you're watching a YouTube video about climbing Mount Everest, it shoots out gusts of frigid air. So, yes, it's ridiculous -- but it's also really cool in action.
A first-time CES entrepreneur, age 82
On the first official morning of CES, Carol Staninger stopped and started her motorized wheelchair through the cavernous Sands Expo and Convention Center, trying -- sometimes failing -- not to clip the herd of eager attendees who overlooked the octogenarian at chest height.
There’s a new sex robot in town: Say hello to Solana
It's been just short of a year since I locked eyes with Harmony, RealDoll's first sex robot, at her home in Southern California. It was an arresting experience that has remained cemented in memory. In that moment, I suddenly understood the uncanny valley, a theory posited by roboticist Masahiro Mori, nearly half a century prior. It attempts to explain the feeling of revulsion and eeriness that human onlookers experience when they encounter an artificial life-form that appears nearly, but not quite human.
Cruising around on the Onewheel+ XR
The Onewheel has always been an exhilarating ride. When you step onto the board and lean down on the nose, there's a rush of adrenaline as you wait for the electric motor to kick into gear. You are, for a split second, trusting that the board will carry you forward and build the momentum necessary to keep you upright. Just carving is a blast, too, as you lean on the heel or toe edge to guide the board left or right. As an extreme-sports plaything, it's a unique and immediately joyous experience. But as a serious mode of urban transportation? That's a tougher sell.
Inside Byton’s experience-driven SUV concept
It's difficult to spin up a car company basically out of thin air. Byton not only is trying to accomplish that but also going against more than 100 years of automotive history by highlighting the car's interior over the horsepower and handling. Yes, other luxury automakers also tout the poshness of their interiors, but Byton has decided to go even further: It hopes to lure customers with an SUV it refers to as a smart device. You know, like your phone.
Looxid Labs' brain-monitoring VR headset could be invaluable for therapy
Taking in imaginary worlds or a gripping immersive video via VR can elicit strong reactions, and a startup called Looxid Labs wants to know how your brain reacts to all of it. To that end, it built the unimaginatively named LooxidVR system, a phone-based VR headset that packs two eye-tracking cameras and six EEG brain wave sensors.
A first look at Panasonic's GH5s mirrorless camera
When Panasonic announced the GH5s earlier this week, it was clear that the company created it with one simple goal in mind: to be the best 4K prosumer video camera on the market. The GH5s is being billed as the ultimate low-light shooter and a direct competitor to the king of the category, Sony's A7S II. One of the most notable features of the new camera is its 10.2-megapixel dual-ISO, multi-aspect sensor, which is half the resolution of Panasonic's 20.2-megapixel GH5. But while the GH5s may shoot at a lower res than its flagship sibling, Panasonic says that actually helps the chip handle low-light sensitivity much better.
Reflexion's big-screen concussion tester is heading to schools
We met Reflexion and its Edge screen last year, and even then we were pretty taken with the idea: A Whac-A-Mole-style test for athletes that improves coordination and helps spot concussions after a big hit? It's uniquely odd, but valuable nonetheless. This year, the team is back with an essentially final version of its six-foot-long display, and it has one crucial trick its predecessor didn't: You can fold it up and squeeze it into a backpack, perfect for high school coaches who need to lug these things to games.
Presenting the Best of CES 2018 finalists!
Our editors have been on the ground for the better part of this week scouring every nook and cranny in Las Vegas to bring you the latest and greatest from CES 2018. And now we're ready to announce our finalists for the official Best of CES awards. Below you'll find our selections for all 16 categories, which range from best wearables to the most innovative tech we've seen at the show. We'll announce our category winners tomorrow, which is also when we'll reveal our Best of the Best award recipient, the most coveted prize of all. That special award is selected from our pool of category winners. If you want your voice heard too, no worries! There's an additional category for the People's Choice, where you can vote for your favorite entry from our compilation of finalists. Just head on over to our poll right here to vote and the one with the most votes will win our special People's Choice award. All award winners will be announced at a special ceremony tomorrow at our CES stage, so be sure to come back right here on Engadget around 5PM PST Thursday afternoon to watch it all unfold.
Mercedes-Benz on the global training of AI for cars
As the development of autonomous cars moves forward, there are some hurdles that require researchers to travel to countries other than their own. For example, Mercedes-Benz just completed a five-month drive through five continents to encounter situations specific to each region to help the automaker train its AI. Christoph Von Hugo, head of active safety for Daimler AG, joined us onstage to talk about the drive and how the data will be used as a foundation for future self-driving car development. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.
Xfinity's Gigabit router will soon double as a smart home hub
Comcast's Xfinity division has made some forays into the smart home world already: Xfinity Home started out as a home security product, but it now handles a number of common devices like locks, thermostats, lightbulbs and so on. However, the millions of people who subscribe just to Xfinity Internet haven't been able to take advantage of these features; you need to also have an Xfinity Home subscription. That's going to change this year: Comcast just announced that millions of its internet customers will be able to use their Xfinity Gateway routers as smart home automation hubs, free of charge.
BMW used virtual reality to bring its latest crossover SUV to CES
When you're in Las Vegas for CES and want to show off a brand-new car before its debut at the North American Auto Show, what do you do? Well, if you're BMW, you do it virtually. The German automaker "brought" its new X2 crossover SUV to the desert with virtual reality, in a first-of-its-kind (for BMW, at least) demo experience that lets potential customers get behind the wheel and poke around the vehicle's nooks and crannies. BMW sees this as a natural bridge between looking at pictures online and reading brochures, and for the automaker, the medium seems like a logical next step to updating the shopping experience for the future.
Into the darkness at CES 2018
Shortly after 11 AM, the power went out in the central hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), bringing CES to a near standstill. The cavernous hall, measuring more than 632,000 square feet -- bigger than some aircraft hangars -- fell into silence, save for the backbeat of a few battery-powered speakers. A Tesla, parked with its doors open and headlights on, provided one of the few sources of light in an otherwise pitch-black hall.
Netflix hid a fake biotech booth in the middle of CES
Venture beyond tech whales like Samsung and Sony, beyond the rows of smart speakers and giant TVs, and you'll discover that there are weirder things to be found at CES. That might be why Netflix's trojan horse public relations move, establishing a fictional vendor booth deep within the Las Vegas Convention Center, worked a little too well.
Arable's Mark crop sensors give farmers a data-driven edge
I've never actually set foot on a farm, but I'm inexplicably still drawn to agriculture startups -- after all, farming is one of the world's oldest professions, and nothing is quite as helpful as pure hard data. Fortunately, that's exactly what Arable specializes in: It built a crop sensor that's absolutely packed with instruments to give farmers greater insight into how their fields are doing. That's great for business, sure, but it also helps ensure that quality produce eventually ends up on our plates.
Lights out at CES 2018
Possibly the worst thing that could happen at a tech show, power went down across several halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center during CES at 11:15 PT. Several booths suffered power outages, including swathes of TVs at LG. The South Hall is also affected, as people are being stopped getting to and from the exhibition areas. Security staff told Engadget that a "power outage" has affecting all halls except East. Attendees were blocked from entering Central Hall, where the main lighting was briefly down. -- this included Engadget's own stage presence at CES. (Update: our livestream is back and running.) Our staff also saw one man being escorted away from the convention center by police. Attendees at the Cosmopolitan Hotel reported "flickering lights" around the same time. Update: With power restored at the convention center, the CTA has issued the following statement: "Today at approximately 11:15 AM, the Central Hall and South Hall bridge meeting rooms at the Las Vegas Convention Center lost power. Power in the South Hall was restored within minutes, and power has now been fully restored to all areas. A preliminary assessment indicates that condensation from heavy rainfall caused a flashover on one of the facility's transformers. We are grateful to NV Energy for their swift assistance, to our customers and their clients for their patience and to the staff for ensuring the safety and security of all attendees and exhibitors."
Fitbit, Fossil and Samsung on the challenges for wearables in 2018
The first official day of CES 2018 is all wrapped up, and things were quite busy at the Engadget CES stage. Along with people like GoPro CEO Nick Woodman joining us at the show, we had other companies from the tech industry there as well. In one of our chats, we talked to executives from Fitbit, Fossil and Samsung about where they see wearables going in 2018, and what will be the biggest challenges ahead for the category. A main point of emphasis was that moving battery life from days to months is key to the success of wearables in the long term, which may seem obvious but will continue to be a main topic of discussion until there's a major breakthrough.
Black Box VR plans to open a boutique, high-tech gym
When I was in high school, my workout regimen involved marching band, Denise Austin VHS tapes and copious rounds of Dance Dance Revolution. Not only did I play DDR in bowling alleys and arcades whenever I had the chance, but I had a metal dance pad at home (PlayStation 2 with a converter to make it run on my Xbox 360). Late last year, a decade after graduating from high school, I bought a plastic dance pad and busted out my PS3 just to play DDR again, with the idea of incorporating it into my workout routine. Which is to say, I'm no stranger to the idea of video games as exercise. Neither is Black Box VR.
Wi-Fiber’s streetlights are an easy way to make cities smart
The difference between the technology in our pockets and that lining our streets is growing ever more pronounced, and that's a problem. It's one of the reasons that smart city technology is going to become an increasingly visible part of the world over the next few years. Communities need to catch up, and companies such as Wi-Fiber are hoping that offering a way to retrofit new equipment into existing infrastructure is the solution.
GoPro's Nick Woodman confirms he's 'open' to selling
It's barely the second week of 2018, and GoPro's already been through the media mill. Reports first surfaced that the company was about to begin another round of layoffs, and that it would shutter its drone business for good. Those proved to be true. Then, just two days ago, a second story claimed that GoPro was actively looking to sell off its business.
