Hasta La Gadget!

Maybe, just maybe, you’ve noticed that Engadget relocated this past week to the City of Sin for CES 2011. Oh yes, we set up camp in a double-wide trailer, liveblogged our hearts out, combed the show floor, and worked our rear ends off to bring you more gadget news than you ever thought possible. It’s true, we’ve written over 720 posts (40 or so about tablets alone!), shot more than 180 videos, and brought you over 350 photo galleries in the last seven days. That’s a ton of technology news and products, but naturally, only certain ones have been able to rise above the rest and stick out in our scary collective hive-mind. With that said, we’ve complied our annual best of list for you, so hit the break and feast your eyes on what are bound to be some of the best products of the new year.

Continue reading Best of CES 2011

Best of CES 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve always liked the idea of having a Bluetooth watch streaming feeds from our phones, because deep down inside, we all want to act like special agents in public. Sadly, there aren’t many of these wearables to choose from in the present market. In fact, with the inPulse smartwatch for BlackBerry seemingly stuck in limbo, what we have left is the Europe-only Sony Ericsson LiveView for Android, and maybe something nice from Fossil as well if its concept design gets picked up. To seize this opportunity, Velocity Micro is now working on its own connected Android watch — currently known as the Cruz Watch — that’s destined for the sub-$200 market in mid-Q2 2011.

Here’s what we learned about this cool-looking prototype during our exclusive hands-on at CES: in many ways, it’s conceptually identical to the LiveView — it’s a watch, it’s a Facebook feeds reader, it’s a multimedia remote control (for Android’s music app and Android-powered TVs), and it can show you incoming caller IDs. While the Cruz Watch may be a bit of a lightweight when it comes to apps, its hardware certainly bests SE’s offering in several ways: for starters, it has a full touchscreen that takes swipe and tap gesture inputs (instead of using navigation touch controls on the bezel), and it sports a 1.8-inch LCD instead of a 1.3-inch OLED display. There are also a few software features that we dig, especially with the interchangeable clock face: two analog, two digital; and the incoming call notifier pulls the caller’s profile photo from your contact list, which is something that the LiveView can’t do. We’re told that since this watch is powered by Android 2.0 (and possibly something different on retail units), Velocity Micro might be able to implement app installation in the near future, so we shall see. Video walkthrough after the break.

Continue reading Velocity Micro Cruz Watch hands-on preview

Velocity Micro Cruz Watch hands-on preview originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 13:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At CES last week, we saw top tablets from some of the biggest names in the consumer electronics industry–Motorola, Samsung, RIM, ASUS, Toshiba, Lenovo–the list goes on. And while it will no doubt be a long time before any can be considered a serious iPad competitor, there are a few that certainly seem capable of snagging the number two spot in that race, next year.

And where waws Sony on that front? The technology giant was nowhere to be seen, in spite of speculation to the contrary. Even though the company was a no show in the 80-strong tablet race, it’s still making some bold predictions for 2011. Kunimasa Suzuki, the head of the company’s computer division said that Sony has its eyes firmly on the number two spot.

“For sure iPad is the king of tablets. But what is the second, what is the third? Who is taking the second position? That is our focus,” the executive told Reuters. “We would like to really take the number two position in a year.”

How will it snag that coveted second spot? Why, 3D, of course! The company has been considering that tact to help set its still unnamed tablet apart from the ever-increasing competition. “If I want to differentiate it from others, do I release it tomorrow, or do I wait till I differentiate it?” Suzuki put the rather rhetorical question to the new agency.

Perhaps there’s still a lot to be said for striking while the iron is hot–i.e. several weeks ago.

Etymotic, a company we’ve seen here at CES and in the past, has developed a pair of earplugs that protect your hearing against things like loud explosions and gunfire. The EB1 and EB15 Electronic Blast PLG Earplugs, retailing for $449 and $499, respectively, are aimed toward buyers such as hunters, musicians and soldiers — folks who are exposed to loud noises and need protection. The analog earpieces are powered by a 312 hearing-aid battery and will last three weeks. There’s no on/off switch — just a high and low gain control. High gain is used for environments that require an amplification and the opposite applies for low gain. In other words, if a soldier is out on the battlefield and needs to hear an enemy inside a house, he’d switch to high gain to generate a louder sound. The difference between the plugs is simple: the EB1 is for people who are going to be around one-off noises and the EB15 are for those who are going to be exposed to prolonged noises. We got a chance to test out the plugs on the loud show floor and we gotta say, the difference between high- and low-gain modes is easily recognizable and we feel like these earplugs will make superb head-hole protectors. Plenty of complicated graphs and numbers in the gallery below.

Etymotic EB1 and EB15 earplugs hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 05:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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