Jan 10
Mee ow…
Daniel Orren contributed his brain and dignity for this report.
Continue reading Crapgadget CES, round two: Necomimi brainwave cat ears (video)
Jan 10
This Is the Most Badass PC Case
Posted in: Today's Chili
Need to protect your PC from earthquakes and catastrophic clumsiness? Not opposed to ridiculous design? In-Win’s D-Frame PC case might be up your alley. This little monster is so ugly it wraps back around to awesome. More »
Jan 10
Rapoo TV claims to make ‘any HDTV smart,’ is compatible with iOS and Android
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Less than 24 hours after announcing the H9080 wireless headphones, Rapoo’s let it be known that its CES 2013 repertoire also includes a little something for the living room (or bedroom, depending on where you prefer to enjoy your downtime). With its Rapoo TV, the company’s touting the ability to turn any HDTV into one with intelligent features — essentially, though, it is a wireless receiver that allows iOS and Android devices to connect to it, allowing them to mirror mostly any content on the bigger screen. Of course, there might be some better options for iOS users (and Android soon, we imagine) in the market already, but the company’s still hoping some folks may have room for yet another set-top-like unit in their home. The company says the Rapoo TV will be available sometime in Q1 of this year, however there’s no word on pricing just yet.
Filed under: Misc, Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Rapoo
Jan 10
Oculus Shows Off Its Virtual Reality Goggles For Genuinely Immersive Gaming
Posted in: Today's Chili
As someone who devours way too much science fiction, I’ve always secretly believed that I’ll be wearing giant VR goggles at some point in the future. (I’m patiently waiting for my jetpack, too.) Now it looks like I might not be crazy after all — Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus, is hoping to take VR goggles out of the lab and put them into the hands of gamers at an affordable price.
The company held a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign for its Oculus Rift headset last year, raising $2.4 million (nearly 10 times the original goal) from 9,522 backers. The company plans to ship its first developer kits in a couple of months, and Luckey dropped by the TechCrunch booth at the Consumer Electronics Show with an early version of the goggles.
He compared the experience to “having an enormous screen suspended in front of you,” which is true enough, but doesn’t quite do justice to what it’s like to put the headset on, watch the game respond to your movements, and feel like you’re moving through a real space. I’m eager to try it out in a real game, but it sounds like I might still have a while to wait on that front.
“It wouldn’t be really responsible for us to go out and say, ‘This is when we think it’s going to be done,’ when we haven’t gotten any developer feedback on what they think should be in the consumer version,” Luckey said.
The developer kits are still available for pre-order for a price of $300 on the Oculus site. When the consumer version is released, Luckey said he’s aiming to deliver it at the same price or lower.
Jan 10
Geonaute’s 360 degree sports camera catches all the action, even our hands on
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Sport and action cameras are big business, and even though there are a couple of main players, it doesn’t stop other’s trying to get a bite of the apple. Geonaute, however, have come at the situation from a different angle. Heck, they’re coming at it from every angle, with its 360-degree offering. Equipped with three 8-megapixel wide-angle lenses the camera captures an almost spherical field of view. This might initially sound like a strange idea… after all, who wants all of that in one video, won’t it all be warped beyond recognition? The short answer is no, in fact it’s much better than you would ever have thought, and we’ll explain why shortly. Going back to the camera itself, it looks a little like the innards of those security cameras you find in government buildings etc that peer at you ominously. However, in this case, the three lenses have color detail around them which makes them look anything but sinister, and the circular base section might look a little large, but in fact it’s light in the hand — and actually helps it sit quite comfortably atop a helmet.
In 360 video mode the advertised resolution is up to 2,048 x 1,024. In photo mode you’ll get single shot, burst and time-lapse modes with a top resolution of 4,096 x 2,048. The actual FOV is 360 degrees on the horizontal, and 150 degrees vertically, but the end result is a fairly complete viewing sphere. The 3,000 mAh battery should be good for two hours of footage, and the microSD card slot will take cards of up to 32GB. While there is a waterproof housing, the camera itself will take the elements on pretty well thanks to its IPX7 rating. Read on after the break for more impressions.
Continue reading Geonaute’s 360 degree sports camera catches all the action, even our hands on
Filed under: Cameras, Portable Audio/Video
Jan 10
Chinese manufacturer TCL has a rather significant showing at CES 2013, with a number of TVs and TV-related products. We’re not sure if we’ll be seeing any of these debut in the US, but among them were a 110-inch “China Star” 3D 4K TV that’s got a brand tie-in with Iron Man 3, and its MoVo Google TV product. Its Google TV set-top box is powered by the same Marvell Armada 1500 SoC as many others, but features a custom skin and uses facial recognition to provide personalized experiences for every family member. It seemed to run equally to other Google TVs, although we wonder if that custom skin may slow down the pace of future updates. Also on display in the booth are TCL’s iCE Screen that debuted last year, and its super thin V101 Blade TV. There’s more details on the products in the press release after the break, as well as some in person pics (including the 36+ sq ft China Star and accompanying costumed Iron Man) in the gallery.
Gallery: TCL CES 2013 booth
Continue reading TCL shows off MoVo Google TV box, ‘China Star’ 110-inch 4K TV
Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, HD
Jan 10
We’re often disappointed when ‘cool‘-looking inventions never come to market, but it looks like the dual-piezo jet fans we saw in GE’s labs recently have a fighting chance. The company told us at CES 2013 that it wants to team with Texas Instruments to put the millimeter-thick, bellows-like units inside upcoming Ultrabooks and other devices that have no room for a traditional fan. Such a partnership could work out since GE has little experience in the gadget-space, and TI has all the power conversion bits necessary to make the tech work, since they’re similar to the latter outfit’s circuits used in so-called high-definition haptics, a tactile feedback system. Representatives from the two outfits said that manufacturers are already working with the tech, meaning we could see the technology in slimmed down products like Ultrabooks within a year — perhaps just in time to meet Haswell’s demanding specs.
Filed under: Peripherals
Jan 10
Translusense clear keyboard eyes-on
Posted in: Today's Chili 
You might have forgotten about this guy. It’s been over a year since Jason Giddings put his clear keyboard concept up on Kickstarter. Well, the infrared-based touch board may not have found enough backers to get off the ground, but some other investors saw potential and now Translusense is making its way towards a reality. The company wasn’t quite ready to show off working prototype at CES — there’s still a number of issues to work out with the firmware. But we were able to get a glimpse of what the final hardware will look like. The main platform is a relatively thick piece of glass with a surprisingly pleasant curve, while the base is a heavy chunk of plastic and metal. The smooth surface feels nice, but we are concerned about the effect it’ll have on our touch typing skills.
The keyboard actually starts completely blank. The “keys” you see above are actually a print out that is laid over the glass and can be peeled off, replaced or customized with a piece of software. This will allow users to create custom layouts specifically for use with games or applications like Photoshop. Unfortunately, Translusense hasn’t escaped vaporware status just yet. While we did see what appears to be a nearly production-ready piece of hardware there are still many software issues to work out. To see what this piece of science fiction (nearly) come to life looks like from a few different angles hit up the gallery below.
Gallery: Translusense clear keyboard Eyes-on
Filed under: Peripherals
Jan 10
Jan 10
Founder James Park Reports That Fitbit Users Average About 6,000 Steps A Day, Introduces Us To The Flex
Posted in: Today's Chili
The Fitbit pedometer is a fun way to track your daily perambulations. They’ve launched a number of products over the past year including the One and the Aria scale.
At CES the company just announced the Fitbit Flex, a tiny wrist-worn pedometer that syncs wirelessly with your phone or PC and, in a world seemingly full of pedometers these days, is a cool little device.
We sat down with James Park, founder, and talked about the service and the new pedometer. He noted that many users are surprised by how few steps they take each day and that the average active Fitbit user hits about 6,000 steps a day.
The Flex will be shipping later this year for $99.
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