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The stuff that launched at CES 2017 but never came out
CES is the busiest time of year for Engadget, with our team spending a week on the ground in Las Vegas looking for the latest and greatest products from companies of all sizes and persuasions. Last CES was no different, with our editors checking out a plethora of smart televisions, wireless earbuds and mesh routers. And there's always a few oddball things -- remember Razer's three-screened laptop? But while Project Valerie was just a prototype never really meant to see the light of day, most of the stuff we see does hit store shelves... eventually. Now that it's mid-December and CES 2018 is mere weeks away, we thought we'd check on a few of the products that haven't made it to market. Some were pushed back and will join the class of 2018, while others will only live on in Engadget's post archives.
Polaroid has a Nest Cam-like security camera, too
There are a number of options when it comes to wireless home security cameras that beam footage to your phone in a similar fashion to Nest Cam. Polaroid got into video a couple years ago with the tiny Cube, and here at CES it's showing off the Hoop camera that watches over your house. The company touts ease of use as a key feature for the $199 unit, so hopefully your parents won't nag you to come over and install it. Like Nest and other cameras, Polaroid says the Hoop can easily distinguish between humans and pets and that it will also stop recording when you get home.
Ball-throwing robot seal has a talent for basketball, embarrassing humans (video)
You pick up your first tan leather roundball at the age of 9, you practice religiously for a decade before you can even feel worthy of calling yourself a basketball player, and then you find a video online of a robotic seal that can shoot better than you after just a few weeks in the lab. Yep, some Taiwanese know-it-alls have put together a robo-seal that converts 99 percent of shots (admittedly with a toy ball launched at a toy hoop) within a three-meter range. It's basically just an articulating arm with stereo vision for some good old depth perception, but it's sophisticated enough to maintain its killer accuracy even if the target is moved from its spot. That's more lethal that Shaq or Karl Malone's elbows ever were. Video's after the break, skip to the 1:05 mark if you don't care about the details of how it's done.
Go skydiving, do archery, shoot hoops in Wii Sports Resort
Nintendo has just announced three more activities in their upcoming Wii Sports Resort title. The game will make full use of the Wii MotionPlus controller for skydiving, archery, and basketball -- to skydive, your Mii will be falling through the air, and you'll be able to twist and turn the controller in a 1:1 ratio to twist and turn your skydiver as well. Archery looks a little more fun: hit the Z button on the controller and then hold the Wiimote up while pulling back on the nunchuck like a bowstring. And basketball is basically a game of hoops -- instead of dribbling or passing, you just flip the Wii remote up towards the onscreen hoop to try and grab nothing but net.Wii Sports Resort is due out July 26 of this year, all bundled up with Wii MotionPlus.
