Hasta La Gadget!

A virtual touchpad projected onto limbs and other everyday surfaces? That’s the type of crazy idea we’d normally expect to see from Microsoft Research, not Google. Heck, maybe we even did, but Google is now applying to patent the concept specifically in relation to Project Glass. The system would use a tiny laser projector mounted on the arm of the spectacles to beam out QWERTY and other buttons, and then the built-in camera and processor would try to interpret finger movements in the region of those buttons. Hey presto! No more fiddling with your face.

Filed under: Displays, Wearables

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Source: USPTO

Sony outs in Japan a new S-Frame Digital Picture frame with the DPF-HD800! Announced for a launch at the end of January at around 14,000 Yen, the DPF-HD800 is a nice little 8″ Digital Frame with a 800×480 Display with a 200cd/m2 Brightness and full support of full HD AVCHD Videos at 28Mbps in 60p as well as Mp4, Motion JPEG and even MPEG-1 Videos! This new frame comes by default with 2GB of internal memory and support of Memory Stick Duo (PRO/PRO-HG) and SDXC Cards.

Our CES plates were jam-packed full of eye-opening conversations this year. We had the chance to speak to top tech luminaries, entrepreneurs, celebrities and fellow journalists. Much of that opportunity arose from the return of our stage, parked right in the middle of the Las Vegas Convention Center’s Grand Lobby. We blew things out this year, packing the schedule from the show’s opening on Tuesday morning to its close on Friday night.

Below we have a list of the interviews we did at this year’s show, both on-stage and off, so you can relive the thoughts, theories and comments that defined this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.

Continue reading CES 2013: Interview roundup

Filed under: Announcements, Cellphones, Desktops, Cameras, Displays, Misc, Gaming, GPS, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, Household, Laptops, Peripherals, Podcasts, Robots, Tablets, Transportation, Wearables, Wireless, Storage, Networking, Internet, Software, HD, Mobile, Sony, HTC, Nokia, Verizon, Sprint, LG, AMD, RIM, Lenovo, NVIDIA

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Haier had a pretty formidable booth here at CES, so naturally, we had to swing by and cast our eyeballs over anything and everything there. A wall of TVs greeted us, which turned out to be the company’s 2013 Roku-ready HDTVs and Android-packing smart models. Screens were everywhere, but there was also a table with some finger-friendly equipment like 9.7-, 7- and 5.3-inch HaiPads, as well as a Windows 8 laptop, touchscreen all-in-one and tab / laptop slider. The slider looked pretty nice, but all the aforementioned hardware was set up in Chinese, so we lost interest pretty quickly. A central hall booth wouldn’t be the same without a 4K TV, but not to worry, Haier had a couple on display — unfortunately, glare from all the other screens dotted around kind of dampened their impact.

What we were most interested in was all the prototype technologies on show, but all the Haier reps were from the US sales department, so not a soul could talk about the demonstrations. The eye-controlled TV we saw at IFA last year was getting quite a lot of attention, while the mind-controlled set we’ve also seen before was almost certainly playing a looping video to give the illusion something was happening. There were also several gesture-controlled models, but one wasn’t working and the other was hosting a very basic Kinect-type game. A ping-pong game played with a “Sensory Remote” was also up on one TV, but looked unresponsive and therefore, unfun. A multi-view demo using dual 3D specs did what it was supposed to, and a glasses-free 3D TV prototype showed nice depth as long as you were 12+ ft away (the camera can’t really replicate the effect, but there’s a quick video of it below anyway).

The booth also had a household section which we thought was safe to ignore, until a “wireless blender” caught the eye. “It’s just a blender with a battery in it, surely?” this editor asked. “No, there’s an inductive coil built into to the underside of the counter,” was the reply. Thus was our Haier experience at CES, and to revisit it through our eyes lens, check out the gallery below.

Kevin Wong contributed to this report.

Continue reading A look around Haier’s CES 2013 booth: HaiPads, plenty of panels and a wireless blender

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Displays, Household, Laptops, Tablets, HD

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CES rolls on, and BenQ‘s got a new monitor to vie for your gaming dollars. The new RL2455HM “professional gaming monitor” is based off last year’s RL2450HT but with increased GTG response time, 2-watt stereo speakers as well as a pair of HDMI ports. BenQ’s Black eQualizer, Display Mode and Smart Scaling custom settings will also be in attendance, but the company is pitching its new monitor at console gamers, with that zippy response time and 60Hz refresh rate hopefully making all the difference in high-tempo FPS’ and fighting games. It’ll arrive inside gaming dens this March, priced at $229.

Continue reading BenQ’s RL2455HM gaming monitor cranks up response time to 1ms

Filed under: Displays, Gaming

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