Hasta La Gadget!

CES hasn’t even really started yet, but already some prevailing themes of the show have begun to emerge — I’m talking about tech that helps tie together disparate systems in your home into a a single, mobile-friendly experience. LG has already shown off its vision, complete with NFC-enabled ovens and washing machines that send diagnostic information to your smartphone, but AT&T’s Digital Life takes things in a different direction.

Put simply, Digital Life is equal parts home automation and security system, with users able to trick out their domiciles with cameras, appliance/lighting controls, door locks, and even thermostats. AT&T is gearing up to offer these devices in preset packages catered to people’s specific needs. A water package, for instance, is geared toward detecting moisture and controlling water flow should a leak be detected, while the energy package focuses mostly on remotely controlling lights and appliances. While the initial setup has to be performed by a third-party installer, users can later customize their own home load-outs by adding and subtracting components as needed.

Sure it’s a slightly kooky move to see from a company that most people equate with phone service, but the biggest upshot here? Using the Digital Life system doesn’t actually require users to own an AT&T phone/contract or broadband plan. As Jon Fingas at Engadget notes, it’s a strictly “go-between” service. AT&T expects to roll out its Digital Life system to eight initial markets in March, with up to another 50 being prepped for launch by the end of the year.

Self-driving cars aren’t just the future, they’re the present. Sort of. They’re out there, but you can’t buy one just yet. Google of course has made waves with its driverless car and not too long ago Nissan impressed us at CEATEC with its self-driving NSC-2015. Toyota, perhaps feeling a little left out, has taken to CES to show off the Lexus Advanced Active Safety Research Vehicle, a machine capable of self-driving that, regardless, is still quite reliant on a fleshbag driver behind the wheel. Join us after the break for an explanation.

Continue reading Lexus’ autonomous Advanced Active Safety Research Vehicle and why we’re not ready for self-driving cars

Filed under: Transportation

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The Engadget crew has rolled into Las Vegas, but for now the gates to CES remain closed. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to talk about. Whether it’s the steady flow of pre-show hardware teases, or chewing over what this year’s show will bring, Tim and Brian have got it covered.

Hosts: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater

Producer: James Trew

Hear the podcast

Continue reading Engadget Podcast 322: pre-CES special 01.07.2013

Filed under: Podcasts

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LG held its press conference this morning at CES 2013 in Las Vegas, and while there wasn’t much unveiled that we haven’t seen before from the Korean company, there were smart home appliance updates that promise to make the connected home a much more easy-to-use experience for the average consumer. LG was clearly pushing smart home tech, and made a point of illustrating what it means by the concept of “smart,” vs. what the term is generally used to imply.

The LG smart appliances shown off at the company’s press event included connected washers and dryers, refrigerators, an oven and the company’s new HOM-BOT successor, a Roomba-type vacuum with more advanced features than the version originally debuted in 2011. All of the devices are also now able to accept natural language input, a big step up in making them more user-accessible.

Click to view slideshow.

The new line all include features that make it easy to connect your appliances to your smartphone without having to worry about complicated pairing processes. NFC means you can simply wave your smartphones over your devices to connect them to get them tied to one another. The idea, according to LG North America President and CEO Wayne Park is to make it so that consumers can engage with their smart home in a way that’s natural and automatic, rather than convoluted and anti-intuitive.

The new washer and dryer in the LG smart appliance line offers self-diagnosis capabilities, so it can tell a user via their smartphone when and why it’s experiencing a problem. It can also allow the machine to get better over time via washing cycle downloads – so if LG engineers a better way to wash your undies, theoretically they’ll be able to push it out to your smartphone and your washer whenever you choose to connect. All of this can also take place remotely via any data connection using LG’s smart home apps.

The smart oven also offers self-diagnosis capabilities, as well as downloadable recipes and new cooking modes. The 2013 smart refrigerator can grab recipes, too, as well as provide health information, do self-diagnosis, and work with smart grid tech in order to be able to maximize energy efficiency. It also gives you a look at what is or isn’t in your fridge for shopping trips.

Finally the new HOM-BOT robot vacuum can be remote-controlled via smartphone, and features an onboard camera to allow you to check its cleaning progress remotely from your devices. All of the above appliances are also tied into LG’s Smart TV platform for home control and monitoring, too.

Smart home used to be more of a tech demo, but LG is turning it into a shipping reality. They’ve laid the groundwork in the past, but these new systems (all of which appear to be Android-based, though a rep couldn’t confirm) take things a step further towards wide adoption thanks to easier setup and more intuitive implementation.

We heard about it some time ago and managed to get some fingers on time with LG’s new 23-inch Windows 8 optimized monitor at today’s CES press conference. It’s a nice looking peripheral, for sure. The IPS panel is cocooned by a black bezel, which meets a white shiny plastic rear at its tips. Along the bottom bezel are a number of touchscreen controls, including things like Menu, for adjusting picture quality and the like. The screen sits on a leg with a large hinge for adjusting your viewing angle. Unfortunately, the single leg support shake a bit when you tap the screen, so you’re going to want go a bit easy when tapping on those Metro tiles.

All in all, its quite responsive. We were able to tap and slide through the Microsoft UI in a breeze. As long as you’re not too aggressive with you’re touchscreening, it looks to be a pretty nice compliment to Microsoft’s latest desktop operating system.

Filed under: Desktops, Displays, LG

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