ces 2012 - page 3

LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 — Over the past year, Nokia has been making steady incremental improvements to reshape the company’s image by showing the world that greatness doesn’t come to those who merely copy what the best company is doing. Greatness is achieved by setting yourself apart from the competition by taking a radically different path than everyone else. Apple has known this fact for decades and have used it become the most admired company in the world, and during Nokia’s press conference today it was readily apparent that the only company that should be viewed as a truly worthy adversary to Apple in the mobile market is Nokia.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 — I’ve personally been waiting a very long time for this sort of thing, disappointed by idle promises and vaporware. This set of LEDs paired with audible announcements isn’t exactly what I’ve been waiting for, but I’ll take it. Question is, does Lance already have a pair?

LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 – Professional audio and music equipment maker Behringer wants to sell you an iPhone sound bar, but if that doesn’t interest you, they’ve got 49 other new just-announced-at-CES consumer electronic products that just might.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 — “We feel like Airplay is going to be the next media,” Product Manager Gavin Reeg said during Klipsch’s 30 minute press event. Then it was VP of Product Development Mark Casavant’s turn (pictured above), and he made it very clear: their future is in Apple’s Airplay.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 – Pioneer is bringing the smartphone experience to the car.

Pioneer’s new AppRadio2 head unit, announced here at CES, promises to be able to run dozens of apps when it ships in the spring, including access to 45,000 internet radio stations.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Last night the Cult of Mac staff was given a sneak peek at the latest and greatest products at the CES Unveiled event. Here is a small sample of what was shown.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 — Toshiba’s Excite X10, a tablet the company calls the world’s lightest and thinnest, is finally landing on U.S. shores, and we got our first hands-on experience with it at CES last night as Toshiba readies to release it here in a few months.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – One of the challenges facing audiophiles these days is keeping their cherished old speakers while still taking advantage of your iPhone, iPad or Mac’s advanced AirStream capability. The Griffin Twenty is a sleek new accessory that lets you keep your old warm, room-filling speakers and make them AirPlay-compatible. And it looks damn nice to boot.

Las Vegas, CES 2012 — If you’re going to drop a wad of bills on a serious phone you might as well find one that looks like it was destined to cradle your iPhone or iPad in its loving arms. That’s the mission that French upstart Invoxia has come up with for their newest VOIP desktop conference phone that embodies both beauty and braun.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Although most of Intel’s ultrabook presser was a wash for Mac fans, the chipmaker did drop one extraordinarily interesting slide, showing exactly how Apple could make its next MacBook Air redesign almost 66% thinner. Holy crap. Here’s how Apple would do it.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Hundreds of tech journalists are huddled in the Galileo Showroom at the Venetian Casino this morning to hear the latest from Intel, and surprise surprise, Intel wants to talk about ultrabooks… the ultra-slim laptop form factor that the whole PC making industry is hoping will save them from being eaten at both ends by the iPad and MacBook Air.

Unfortunately, after all is said and done, most of what Intel had to offer to PC makers were a grab bag of gimmicks.

All that was missing was Steve Jobs. That’s how close Acer’s promotion of its new AcerCloud service was to Apple’s iCloud. Although imitation is flattering, some observers charged Acer of a ‘blatant ripoff’ of iCloud – down to even the promotion images used by netbook kingpin.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – This is my friend Sergio Miranda, editor of the Brazilian Apple magazine MAC+. When I ran into Sergio last night, he complained that he’d lost his glasses on arriving here at CES. He couldn’t work without them. But no worries, a friend is already flying back to Sao Paulo in Brazil to pick up a spare pair from Sergio’s home! The friend will then hop on a return flight and bring them back to Sergio in Vegas.

“What!” I said, incredulous. That’s a 12,000 mile round trip. Each leg takes more than 12 hours. Surely it’d be easier to get a pair from Walgreens on the Strip?

The explanation?

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA — Intel talked a lot at their press conference today about ways PC makers could take the ultabook form factor and distinguish it from the juggernaut that is the MacBook Air, but perhaps the most interesting concept of just what a MacBook Air-killing ultrabook would look like was the Nikiski, a hybrid ultrabook that looks like it just leaped straight from a sci-fi concept design.

If Research in Motion is gambling on its future, it picked the right venue: the Las Vegas-based CES 2012. The Waterloo, Ont. company plans to introduce an updated version of its PlayBook Operating System, as well as its new BlackBerry 7.1 software amid a storm of criticism. But can new software alone resurrect a troubled tech company?

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – You’ve probably never looked at a nice ceramic vase and thought, “Geez, I would love to have one of those made based on my self portrait!” but the guys at Sculpteo are here to help you out just in case. Sculpteo is a free app that allows users to instantly covert a 2D image into a 3D image in the shape of an object such as a vase. So if you’re one of those types that is jealous of everyone who gets to look at your beautiful outline all day, you’re now in luck.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – iPhone cases are like the condoms of CES: with an insinuating wink, everyone’s always handing you a free one. Speck’s latest case, though, managed to impress us despite the perpetual bombardment of its competitors. It’s called the Candy Shell grip, and it’s a sporty looking case aimed at gamers with a couple of neat little twists.

The popular video sharing service Vimeo is at CES in Las Vegas this week to announce new mobile apps for the Android and Windows Phone platforms. However, it also has some exciting news to share about its existing iOS app.

An update set to hit the App Store later this month will not only bring support for the iPad, but also full HD video streaming, and lots of great new features.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Debuting here at CES 2012, the GoPano Micro ($80) is an odd-looking little device that lets you record 360° panoramic videos on your iPhone 4 and 4S. You can then scroll around those videos in a way similar to how you move around in Google Maps street view, watching your video from a ton of different angles and perspectives.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Remember those old “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” ads (and the never-ending parodies that followed) for LifeAlert in the ’80s? Zomm has leveraged the new Bluetooth v4.0 technology to create a device with features that harken back to that older gadget; it too comes with a live operator — but the Zomm Lifestyle Connect‘s inclusion of Bluetooth makes it way cooler and vastly more useful.

ION Audio is showing off two new iCade products at CES in Las Vegas this week that provide retro gamers with physical controls while they’re on the go.

Unlike its original iCade Arcade Cabinet, which you wouldn’t dream of carrying around in your rucksack, the iCade Core and iCade Mobile accessories from ION are compact, lightweight, and ready to follow you about.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – We figured health and fitness was going to have a large footprint at CES this year, and so far we haven’t been disappointed. Case in point, the Zensorium Tinke dongle: it measures heart rate, respiratory rate and the amount of oxygen in your bloodstream — all just by pressing your thumb on it.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – With an eye on improving the way parents monitor their children’s health, French company Withings announced their Internet-connected baby and toddler scale, the Withings Smart Baby Scale. Providing a new way to monitor children’s growth, from birth to age 8, the Withings Smart Baby Scale integrates with iOS via the WiScale App that gives parents quick access to growth statistics to monitor their child’s health and compare measurements with child growth health standards.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – We’ve seen countless solutions to finding lost car keys over the past few decades, but this latest solution from Treehouse Labs makes the attempt to be practical and fun while solving one of mankind’s greatest problems through an iPhone app. Bikn is a location tracking solution to help you find anything that has a tendency to get lost: dogs, purses, cameras, your grandparents at Wal-Mart, you name it. By attaching a small location tracker to any item you tend to lose, Bikn makes finding things easier than ever.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Fish and chips and Jony Ive may remain Britain’s most favorite imports among Cult staffers, but maybe Pure’s new Contour 200i Air will get close.