Hasta La Gadget!

If you’ve heard of Fibaro already, you’ll just have to forgive us this post: although the home automation system is already available in 43 countries, it’s just arriving in the US, with the main box about to go on sale for $699. In a nutshell, the system works not over WiFi, but using the Z-wave protocol. The base station itself can connect to as many as 240 lights and switches, with support for all sorts of devices: heat and cooling systems, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, doorbells, dehumidifiers and motion sensors. For each of these, you can program any number of macros — e.g., “close the shades when the temperature reaches 68 degrees”. Like Nest (a North America-only product) it eventually learns your usage habits, and offers up tips on how to conserve energy.

In particular, though, the system uses geolocation to track members of the household, so you an also do things like set the heat to come on when you’re a mile away from home. Separately, the company is also releasing a smart power strip, which logs your energy use for various gadgets, and then sends that data to an iOS app. (An Android version is in development.) No word on how much it’ll cost in the US, though in Europe it’ll cost 64 euro, tax included.

Continue reading Fibaro home automation system comes to the US, company releases smart power strip (video)

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We’ve already had a handful of 3D printing companies swing by our stage this year, but what sets Formlabs apart from the increasing competition is a focus on bringing professional level printing to the consumer. We’ll be speaking with one of the company’s founders, Maxim Lobovsky about Formalabs’ vision.

Check out our full CES 2013 stage schedule here!

Update: video embedded

Continue reading Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Formlabs’ Maxim Lobovsky (update: video embedded)

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JVC Kenwood has released a set of bewildering wireless wooden speakers in Japan. Looking more like just a speaker frame, the pair vibrate to produce sounds, which unfortunately means their bass performance is non-existent. More »

This year at CES 2013 we took on the full gamut, everything from ultra HD televisions to smartphone cases, and all things good in-between. While we’ll be presenting several CES wrap-up posts for you over the next few days so you can get caught up in a collection of nutshells, we’d like to take the opportunity here to say thank you to all of the individuals, companies, and institutions that helped us make it easy to present all the newest innovations to you, the readers.

What we’ve seen this week is a wide variety of devices, services, and events that collectively give us a basic idea of what we’ll be seeing from developers, manufacturers, and creators of all kinds over the coming set of months. CES 2013 has presented the usual undeniably intense next-generation in televisions, too massive to use, more accessories than we’ll ever have time to use, and whispers of this Spring and Summer’s mobile device offerings.

NOTE: We brought more people than the photo above suggests, but planes take off early, and it’s rare you get a minute to take a photo with the SlashGear truck!

Interestingly enough, we only saw a few devices in the mobile market that we’d not seen before. Groups like NVIDIA and Lenovo presented smart mobile devices while Samsung, LG, Nokia, and Motorola all but abstained from the “CES reveal” method. Instead they stuck to their refrigerators, software upgrades, and re-commitments to the devices they’ve already got out.

What we’re expecting from the companies that did not present (only represented) is either a big showing at Mobile World Congress (next month) or their own device reveals spattered throughout the coming weeks. We shall see soon enough!

So for now you’ll want to head to our massive CES portal for everything CES 2013 and stay tuned to SlashGear for a set of wrap-up posts you wont want to miss!

Goodbye CES 2013: It’s been fun! is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Rounding up the best laptops at CES 2013 is a weird assignment. Sure, we’ve done it before. But this year, it’s different. The fact is, there are no freaking laptops anywhere. More »