Hasta La Gadget!

CES: part tech fest, part carnival, and all fun. Sadly we couldn’t bring you everything we saw in the booths as they’re so full and have become so immense that we’d need the entire week to take it all in; we did, however, drop by a few of the showier booths and take a handful of pics of each for your ocular entertainment. So without further ado, hop past the break and see what the likes of Samsung, Microsoft, Intel, Sharp, Panasonic, and more had to offer at CES 2011.

Continue reading CES 2011 booth tours: the best of the rest

CES 2011 booth tours: the best of the rest originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The future of auto isn’t flying cars. It’s puny, slow, electric-powered pods that can drive themselves.

That’s what General Motors thinks, at least. The EN-V (pronounced “envy” and short for Electric Network Vehicle) line of cars is GM’s concept vehicle that’s energized by electricity and hydrogen. It has a maximum speed of 25 mph, and it’s controlled with a touchscreen steering wheel and wireless technologies.

GM predicts that in roughly 20 years, 80 percent of the world’s population will live in urban areas, which means congestion, parking and environmental issues will become major problems.

So, future drivers might consider the EN-V. Each EN-V vehicle measures about one-sixth the size of a traditional car; it’s powered by a battery so you won’t be polluting with gas. The pod is also equipped with a wireless antenna and GPS sensors communicating with a network to enable autonomous driving.

Tap a button and the EN-V will use its geoawareness to automatically park in a spot. Six of these EN-Vs can squeeze into one parking space.

Or if you’re feeling especially lazy (or drunk), you can also choose to automatically follow another EN-V — the sensors ensure you move in the same direction and constantly retain a safe distance from the EN-V in front of you.

The steering-wheel touchscreen even includes a videophone to chat with other EN-V drivers, since you don’t have to pay attention to the road when the car is driving itself.

“We call it virtual ballet,” said Dr. Chris Borroni-Bird, program director for GM’s AUTOnomy group. “Clearly you can see benefits for this in terms of your daily life and saving energy.”

While it’s difficult to imagine an EN-V in your neighborhood in the near future, these cars will likely be very affordable thanks to their small body size and light weight, Borroni-Bird said.

You won’t want one of these, however, in a city with lots of hills like San Francisco: The EN-V is a self-balancing vehicle, and company officials told me it’s not good at handling steep inclines just yet.

Check out the video above for a driving demonstration of the EN-V in a Las Vegas parking lot at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show.

Blue Microphones’ Yeti Pro a ‘lil rich for your blood? Have a gander at Samson Technologies, who is also introducing a new USB microphone to usher in the year 2011. The company’s foldable USB mic — better known as the Meteor Mic — looks a lot like any number of retro mics you might find in an older recording studio, or any number of brand new ones designed to look just like the old ones we just mentioned. There’s also a stereo 1/8-inch headphone output for no-latency monitoring, not to mention a headphone volume control and a trio of legs to tinker with. There’s even a microphone mute switch for those who prefer to grumble while the boss blabbers on, and it’ll be out and about in Best Buy this April for $99. Demonstrative video is just past the break, if you really need to enlighten yourself further.

Continue reading Samson’s USB Meteor Mic packs retro flair, $99 price tag

Samson’s USB Meteor Mic packs retro flair, $99 price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Jan 2011 06:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We came. We saw. We conquered (in our own, gadget-obsessed way). Yes, CES 2011 happened, and we were there for every heart stopping minute of it. This was definitely one for the record books; not only did we bring the biggest team we’ve ever had to the show, but the gear we saw this year was some of the most interesting and career-affirming stuff we’ve looked at in a long time. From Motorola’s awesome Android offerings (the crazy, modular Atrix and Honeycomb-sporting Xoom), loads of terrific new smartphones, to really innovative auto tech, and connected TVs and set top boxes that actually make sense — this feels like the right place to be at the right time.

But really, what makes CES 2011 so amazing for the Engadget team are two things: the fact that all of our editors get to be in the same room, living and breathing our shared obsession (and trust us, we have an absolute blast), and that we can bring all of the craziness of this show to you guys. We’re psyched to have come together and just gone nuts this year, but between the lack of sleep and ridiculous amount of posts we’ve done, we’re also really happy to see our homes again.

Of course, there’s always the next event (hello, Verizon iPhone) and even the next CES (hello, 2012), but until then, enjoy the pics below and feast your eyes on some of these staggering stats from Engadget’s CES 2011 coverage!

Vital stats

Number of posts: approx. 720 (January 3rd to 9th; up 14 percent over 2010)
Number of photo galleries: 336
Number of videos: approx. 173
Number of podcasts: 11 (5 Classic, 3 HD, 3 Mobile)

Most commented post: Google shows off Android 3.0, the ‘Entirely for Tablet’ Honeycomb (1,001 comments)
Most watched video: Gaming on the Motorola Atrix laptop dock… upside down

Time spent sleeping, per editor per 24-hour cycle: 3 hours (down 14 percent over 2010)
3G cards: 32
WiMAX cards: 28
LTE cards: 1
Hypermacs: 2
DSLRs: 28
This year’s song: Rihanna ft Drake – What’s My Name (Chopped… and screwed)
Most orders of In-N-Out fries at once: 32 (16 regular, 13 Animal Style, 3 well done)

Team Engadget

Ground crew: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Thomas Ricker, Paul Miller, Ross Miller, Darren Murph, Vladislav Savov, Sean Hollister, Chris Ziegler, Richard Lawler, Joanna Stern, Ben Drawbaugh, Sean Cooper, Don Melanson, Tim Stevens, Richard Lai, Myriam Joire, Ben Bowers

Home team: Joe Flatley, Laura June (poet laureate)

Special teams: Dan Chilton, Justin Glow, Trent Wolbe, Chad Mumm, Jason Miller, Nina Sokoler, Jacob Schulman, Kevin Wong, Sam Sheffer, Joshua Fruhlinger, Christopher Grant

International: José Andrade, Carlos Martinez, Alberto Ballestin, Alexandra Guerrero (Drita), Ittousai, Andy Yang

Engadget has left the building: this was CES 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 22:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Honestly, we never thought people could get this high and drunk in Vegas, but the guys from WVIL were really pushing it. Their crime? A blatantly staged viral campaign for an “unbelievable” smartphone that sports a 31 megapixel CMOS full frame sensor. Oh, and it has an interchangeable lens, too, with which you can use the main body as a wireless viewfinder (like the Samsung SH100 paired up with an Android phone). Nice concept, WVIL, just too bad your mom called to disown you at CES. Video after the break.

Update: The Artefact Group, a Seattle design firm, just emailed to inform us that the idea is their own — see the whole concept at our more coverage link below.

Continue reading WVIL’s unbelievable 31 megapixel cameraphone is unbelievably fake, attempts pathetic viral campaign (update)

WVIL’s unbelievable 31 megapixel cameraphone is unbelievably fake, attempts pathetic viral campaign (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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