Hasta La Gadget!

Dacor’s ninth-generation oven pulls together a 1GHz processor, 512MB of DDR2 RAM and Android 4.0.3. It also cooks food. At the front of the Discovery Wall Oven, there’s a 7-inch LCD touch panel, while the UI behind its oven-centric widgets is apparently the product of a design collaboration between Dacor and BMW’s DesigworksUSA — they’re all simple enough to navigate and get things done. The oven-maker’s Discovery IQ controller cooking app will offer up interactive cooking guides, recipes and all other things cooking, although you’ll still be able to install more standard apps from Google Play. The built-in cooking app offers preprogrammed dishes and adjustable timings for several dishes, while you can even program the oven to cook food remotely from any Android device.

You’ll also get notifications (text message or on-screen) through your other Android device when your meal is done. An iOS version of the app will be ready to launch alongside the oven sometime this summer, with the double unit priced at a wallet-trembling $7,499 and the single oven at $4,499 — so there’s the price for convenience. It’ll arrive in three different finishes, but sounds like it should go well with our other digital white goods and digital cutlery. We’ve got our hands-on video uploading at the moment, but take a look at our gallery for a closer look.

Continue reading Dacor’s Android oven packs 1GHz processor, 7-inch screen, heat (hands-on)

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3D Systems isn’t exactly new to the consumer 3D printing space, but its history lies in professional additive manufacturing. Its machines have found homes around the globe in high profile businesses like Boeing. That hasn’t stopped the company from rolling out a pair of impressive home options at CES. The company’s CEO Avi Reichental stopped by our stage chat for a while and let us play with the two new devices, the CubeX and the second-generation Cube.

The Cube X is a rather beastly device. While technically it might able to sit on a desk, we wouldn’t exactly call it a desktop printer. The 1,030 cubic inch-build platform is large enough print a basketball, though, one that wouldn’t bounce very high. Such a build would take quite a long time however, with the lower 500 micron resolution taking up to 12 hours to spit out. If you bumped it up to 125 microns an easily breakable sphere would be yours in about 24 hours. Still, that’s quite a bit faster than some printers out there, and it can accomplish the feat in three colors — something no other consumer model we’ve seen is capable of. Even though we’ve seen high resolutions out of machines like the Replicator 2, the difference 25 microns makes is practically indistinguishable. Everything from chain mail to mugs are within reach. Rather impressively, just like its little brother, the CubeX relies on cartridges instead of spools for dispensing plastic — either ABS or PLA. 3D Systems even calls them “smart cartridges” since it can distinguish between the two plastics and adjust the properties accordingly.

Continue reading Eyes-on with 3D System’s CubeX and next-generation Cube (Update: video)

Filed under: Misc

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The surprisingly small and light Jamstik is, in short, one of the coolest things I’ve seen at CES Today. It is a MIDI guitar that is actually a musical controller. By playing and plucking the strings you can play music using synthesized sounds and it recognizes chords, notes, and nuances including bends and hammers.

“The end result is fast, accurate and cost effective to make,” said Chad Koehler, Zivix VP. The device connects to a PC or tablet and you can play it just like a regular guitar. To go up the neck you simply slap a button on the body to play higher notes.

“Our goal is to provide a platform for making music more meaningful, accessible and fun for the masses. While the Jamstik is instantly compatible with Garage Band and hundreds of other core-midi applications, we are developing apps for teaching, interactive Tab and a fun music re-mix experience,” said Koehler. The Jamstik uses IR sensors to see your fingers as you press the strings so you never have to tune the guitar and it can notify you before you tap the wrong notes. It’s a great teaching tool and a fun portable music maker.

We got the chance to sit down with the Zivix team and talk about their creation. The plan is to gain distributors here at CES and launch the product this summer. While it’s not as “guitar-like” as the similar GTar, it’s definitely an amazing addition to the world of musical gadgets.

Always be charging. That’s what we do at CES. But there isn’t always an outlet around, which is why Hyper’s Pico charger is so awesome—it juices up three smartphones at the same time. More »

Yep, pinball at CES. We’ll be chatting up Gary Stern, the CEO of Stern Pinball, one of the remaining few companies out there keeping the silver ball dream alive. We’ll be discussing the state of the game in an era dominated by console and mobile gaming and what the future holds for pinball.

Check out our full CES 2013 stage schedule here!

Update: video embedded

Continue reading Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Stern Pinball’s Gary Stern (update: video embedded)

Filed under: Gaming

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