We have no faces. We have no names. Please take these free buy these headphones from an unremarkable company you’ve never heard of and won’t remember tomorrow. Someone is paying us to be here. More »
It’s normally hard to spruce up a USB power charger, but Osungo gave us a pleasant little treat at its CES booth. It’s readying a Flower Power series of wall adapters that are unabashedly cute and, more importantly, can save as much as 95 percent of the energy that’s wasted when devices already have a full charge. No, it’s not extremely sophisticated, but it doesn’t have to be to do some good — and we’ll admit that the pseudo-organic cord wrap is a nice touch. Versions are coming with both 1A of current for phones and 2.1A for tablets, and we’re told they should be on sale in March. US-friendly adapters will cost about $25 to $30.
Gallery: Osungo Flower Power hands-on
Filed under: Peripherals
Source: Osungo
Remember Romo, the adorable iPhone-faced track-equipped robot? We met up with Romotive in Vegas at CES 2013 to play with the 3rd generation model that was recently launched on Kickstarter. The company also gave us an exclusive first look at a 3rd generation prototype with Lightning connector. We sat down with CEO Keller Rinaudo to discuss the new robot and catch up on what the team’s achieved over the past year.
As a refresher, we first encountered Romo when we covered it for our Insert Coin feature in October 2011. Back then, the robot used rudimentary analog electronics and plugged into the iPhone’s headphone jack. After a successful initial Kickstarter campaign, Romotive moved from Seattle to Las Vegas where we caught up the team on our stage during CES 2012. The 2nd generation model was available both pre-assembled and it kit form with support for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. It was upgraded to digital electronics but still used the audio interface to control its tracks and featured hacker-friendly auxiliary ports. Hit the break for more.
Gallery: Romo gen 3 hands-on
Continue reading Romo gen 3 gains Lightning connector, we go hands-on (video)
Filed under: Cellphones, Robots, Mobile, Apple
In the early ’90s, Sennheiser gave its engineers a mission: make the best headphones ever, irrespective of price. They came up with the Orpheus HE90. Only 300 were made. They initially sold for $16,000. Today they sell phone upwards of $30,000 on eBay. More »
Transparent displays are nothing new, but while trawling the labyrinthine backstreets of CES in search of hidden gems, we couldn’t help but stop at IL WOO’s booth and ogle one. The company was demoing a couple of its Transview display cases with see-through Samsung panels, intended for interactive advertising and other commercial uses. We were particularly drawn to the 22-inch, 1,680 x 1,050 model with infrared touch control, mainly because of the nifty Flash program running on it, which did a great job of showing how the cases could be used. It was very much a treat for the eyes, so we’ll leave it there and just point you to the gallery and video below.
Kevin Wong contributed to this report.
Continue reading Transview touch-sensitive transparent display case eyes-on (video)
While some have declared 3D dead, Chinese electronics firm Gadmei doesn’t appear to have received the memo. Cruising the outskirts of the Las Vegas Convention Center, we came across the company’s forthcoming glasses-free 3D HD Pad. The device packs an 8.1-inch 1,280 x 800 display, a 1.5GHz Cortex-A9 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, a 5,000 mAh battery and Android 4.2. Sure, these specs aren’t much to gawk at, but the real draw here is the tablet’s display-altering software that allows users to toggle between 2D and 3D viewing on select applications.
Entering this demonstration with skepticism, we must say that we were pleasantly surprised with the 3D HD Pad’s visual effects. Somewhat reminiscent of using a Nintendo 3DS, viewing angles were limited, but once we found a sweet spot we were good to go. The tablet’s 3D capabilities would likely be most effective resting against some type of stand. Visual gimmicks aside, the device has a solid build quality and Jelly Bean ran fairly smooth on its modest hardware.
Continue reading Gadmei 3D HD Pad hands-on (video)
We never thought our day could get any better after Huawei’s Consumer Business Group CEO Richard Yu became available again for our CES stage interview (there was originally a “last minute urgent conflict”), but our man was also kind enough to share a couple more scoops with us. First of all, Huawei will be joining Samsung at the octa-core Cortex-A15 party in the second half of this year, and given what Yu’s told us earlier this week, our guess is that this will either be the HiSilicon K3V3 or a sister chipset, again manufactured by TSMC.
The second scoop of the day was delivered fresh off the stage after the interview. Yu told us exclusively that at MWC next month, Huawei will be unveiling a super slim follow-up to the current P series Android phones. We asked if it’ll be even thinner than 6.45mm (the thickness of the Alcatel One Touch Idol Ultra announced at CES), and Yu said yes. The exec added that the new phone will have a beautiful metallic body as well. Exciting times, right?
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Via: Engadget Chinese
The enticing plate of stale gummy bears is supposed to interest you in visiting a booth that sells Chinese iPhone cases. Or something. More »
We’ve seen Sony SimulView in action before — the system was first unveiled on Sony’s tiny 24-inch PlayStation 3D Display back at E3 2011 — but never quite like this. An 84-inch 4K LED Sony television at CES 2013 upscaled Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo 5 to 4K resolution, but instead of employing said resolution for graphics, it was used to deliver two full HD images to two separate players. Those two separate HD feeds are then pumped into the same screen, which can be viewed fully independently by two separate people wearing polarized glasses, all at the same time.
Did we lose you? Let’s break it down: since 4K TV delivers twice the number of lines vertically as well as horizontally, the television is upscaling GT5‘s HD visuals by double. Rather than employing those lavish numbers on single player, the duty’s divided between each player’s video feed, allowing two-player gaming all on one screen. The two images are then overlaid, a la 3D, resulting in a simultaneous feed that looks crazy until you put on polarized glasses. Once you’re wearing those glasses, though, you only see one of the two feeds in full HD. It’s … it’s kinda messed up. The system is incredibly impressive, but boy is it weird how effectively it works. Even better, it works without the game developer having to actually do anything (other than making a 3D-enabled game, that is) — the splitting is handled by the television rather than the software. It’s similar to systems that LG has in Dual Play and Samsung has in Multi-View, and it’s not exactly brand new, but it’s as impressive as ever. We’ve captured a variety of stills and dropped a video after the break showing the system in action, should you wish to join in our amazement.
Continue reading Sony SimulView gets even more bananas in 4K, we go eyes-on
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Sony
After a long week of schlepping around the Las Vegas Convention Center, there are few things we’d like more than a good shoulder rub. iMusic’s BodyRhythm musical shiatsu vest promises to turn your favorite tunes into some muscle-pounding with its iOS device. Launching on Kickstarter to coincide with CES, the product needs to raise $50,000 before we’ll see one available in stores. Ever eager to put our bodies on the line in order to bring you tech news, we strapped one on and saw what a double team of it and Carly Rae Jepsen could do to our bodies. If you’d like to watch the results, there’s plenty of stuff after the break.
Continue reading iMusic BodyRhythm musical shiatsu vest shoulders-on (video)
Filed under: Wearables
Source: Kickstarter
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