Hasta La Gadget!

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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Remember Bug Labs, the guys building open-source hardware modules that make it easy (and relatively inexpensive) to prototype new gadgets of your own creation? The last time we visited with these guys at the spring CTIA show last year, the company’s upgraded BUGbase 2.0 was still in mockup form — and carrier deals were little more than a gleam in CEO Peter Semmelhack’s eye. Nearly a year has passed since then, and Bug’s ecosystem has grown considerably to encompass a bunch of third-party modules, prototyped products, and carrier-specific packs for Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon that let your meticulously hacked-together hardware communicate over the network of your choice.

Of course, this all necessitated a follow-up meeting, which we were delighted to have at CES a couple days ago. Read on!

Continue reading Bug Labs’ BUGswarm and Verizon BUGbundle hands-on

Bug Labs’ BUGswarm and Verizon BUGbundle hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS may not be anywhere close to ready for its Wavi Xtion to hit retail shelves (we’re hearing Q2 of 2012), but that didn’t stop our brethren over at Engadget Spanish from stopping by for a hands-on demonstration at CES. We’ll spare you the details on how it works, but in practice, we learned that it’s quite similar to Kinect. Not shocking considering that PrimeSense is behind both boxes, but the primarily difference seemed to be the reaction time. ASUS’ solution wasn’t quite as snappy as the Kinect, being slower to recognize and translate motions in testing. Of course, we wouldn’t expect a product that’s 18 months out from mass production to be completely on top of its game, but feel free to head on past the break to see exactly what we mean.

Continue reading ASUS Wavi Xtion motion sensing control system demoed at CES (video)

ASUS Wavi Xtion motion sensing control system demoed at CES (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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