CES 2013 Day 4 review: the round up

Day 4 took us to the North Hall and the show within show iLounge, as in everything specifically designed for your iPhone/iPad/iPod touch.

Headphones

No celebrity headphones here but plenty of potential to be seen. Endless manufacturers with names that shall remain unspoken often displayed product that would use a variation on the same future-looking curved plastics and colorful ear cups. One company that caught my eye as being just a little more interesting was Tribeca. Already in the business of iPad and iPhone cases to major retailers across the country, Tribeca was launching a line of headphones based on using different types of wood in the ear cups based on the type of music you preferred to listen to. Intriguing to say the least.

Cases

 

Protecting your device seemed to be the initial theme as the lead-in vendor touted a case that protected your iPhone or iPad from the all the major destructive elements: water, cold, desert heat, and one vendor even had a demo of putting a hammer and/or drill to your phone.

   

 

But as we moved deeper in the aisles, cases ranged from designer / artist licensing, colorful Lego cases, a notable 3D film cover and associated app, as well as old school distractions like ball-and-maze game play and creating a horizontal angle functionality to the camera (not shown).

Health

iHealth was the major player in this department with a booth set up in the center of the iLounge area giving free blood pressure and blood sugar readings often using wireless, Bluetooth peripherals delivering almost instant results. Also shown from other vendors were custom earplugs for musicians who want to preserve their hearing, and in-ear and behind-the-ear hearing aids both of which were outside the iLounge area.

 

iHealth was the major player in this department with a booth set up in the center of the iLounge area giving free blood pressure and blood sugar readings often using wireless, Bluetooth peripherals delivering almost instant results. Also shown from other vendors were custom earplugs for musicians who want to preserve their hearing, and in-ear and behind-the-ear hearing aids both of which were outside the iLounge area.

Mounts

More than a few iPad mounts were displayed both for the car or truck and for businesses such as a doctor’s offices. This booth impressed me with the versatility of the clamps and the ease to mount the product to your vehicle.

Action Cam

 

Not ready to commit to a GoPro camera but still want to take awesome action shots. There’s an appbooth for that. Helmet, surfboard, your son’s BMX bike, this product seems to stick to almost everything and solve your action cam dilemma.

 

iPad man (cases)

Couldn’t resisting stopping this guy to ask him about his product. Their company makes the sturdy casing that you can see around the edges of the iPad.

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CES 2013 Day 3 Review: Fit and Fun

Fitness: Fit for all

Fitbit made a biggish announcement today regarding a new online software package. Already pretty well known as the (arguably) more social and family-friendly version of the Nike Fuelband, the Fitbit uses a tiny sensor to track any kind of movement you do throughout the day. The kicker is that you can track it in conjunction with family and friends, giving you the opportunity to challenge, encourage, and taunt each other into becoming a little more active each day. The new software, announced on the heels of the new Flex wireless activity and sleep band release, is app for select Android smartphones that support Bluetooth 4.0 like the Samsung Galaxy S III and Note II. Already available for the iPhone, this new app potentially adds over 400 million customers and makes the FitBit less of a premium product for only those who can afford an iPhone.

 

Headphones: Put a bow on it.

More celebrity-backed headphones released today with both Tim Tebow’s athlete and Jet-set targeted headphones under Ludacris’ Soul Headphones branding and Bill Clinton’s Snooki’s hair bow-accented headphones under the Snooki Couture by Nicole Polizzi from iHip. Monster Cable released a statement saying that they had a similar headphone look on the way. (Courtesy of Mashable)

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CES 2013 Day 3 Review: the round up

Took a trip MommyTech and Kids@Play sections today to get a look at a few electronics that might be classed as toys and a few do-hickeys and thingamajigs that might make you go, “Brilliant!”

Kids’ tablets

 

 

Of course, education (and distraction) of small children is the primary concern of any reputable mommy-focused event, focus-group, blog, or consortium. And the MommyTech at CES was no different. From the popular Leap Pad 2 created by youth educational pioneers, Leap Frog to the equally ambitious Android-based Vinci tablet that pushes the lower limits of the category to include children as young as 1 ½ years old. When asked what such a young child might do with a tablet, the Vinci rep proceeded to show me a few of the apps that mainly involved beating virtual drums and identifying shapes. As with the Nabi tablet and the forthcoming XO3 tablet from OLPC, parents are able to track their child’s progress using an included password-protected dashboard. One advantage of the Vinci is that it can be used as an Android device with the same ability to download apps. So who’s “toy” is it now?

R/C Robots: Death by robot chicken

 

Okay, not robot chicken but Combat Creatures are more closely related to spiders… with an intimidating robot head and array of futuristic weaponry. From flying foam discs and rockets to Ping-Pong balls, the object of the match between these modular robots is to knock your opponents’ armor off. Seemingly easy… not so much. The best play is in a group and in an area where you can retrieve your ammunition easily as they fly quite far if the intended target is missed.

Notable: 3D Printers

Get your crafting skills sharpened as 3D printers may be coming to store near you. Definitely more affordable, this 3D printer from Cube featured easy to use software that created toys, statues, shoes, and a bass guitar (okay, it made the parts and the booth team put it together.

For live coverage and images from CES, follow us on twitter @walmartgeeksKB or via hashtag #walmartCES and @kblackgeeks on instagram.  Or see the full gallery here.

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CES 2013 Day 2 review: the quick round up

 

Apple iPad Mini with 3G/4G connectivity. So badly needed and couldn’t come soon enough. So many consumers thought that the proliferation of WiFi would be so great by now but oh, how wrong we were. Consumers are demanding uninterrupted access to content that often includes online content, especially with so many cloud-based applications. 3G and/or 4G connectivity will definitely raise the bar for the iPad mini to must-have status. See the news over at CNET.

Connected cameras – Manufacturers like Canon and Nikon are reviving the point-and-shoot / novice market with low and mid-level cameras that are Wi-Fi enabled, have an Android OS and apps built in, but some can also can sync with your smartphone via Bluetooth in case you’re nowhere near a Wi-Fi connection, which is almost every time you are taking pictures.

Clear OLED TV – Hisense (Chinese TV Mfg.) showed off a transparent, no glasses-3D TV. More for in-store displays and design firms but very cool. Also showed off an array of connected home products see future post on the connected-home and Z-wave technology.

Parlor games connect the family

Take a look at Sifteo and their game Chroma Splash. It looks novel but the game is fun, and addictive in that Angry Birds, Temple Run kind of way. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is their claim to mainstream notoriety but the other games are way more during “family time”. Play with a group. College drinking game in the making.

Images courtesy of CNET.com

 Beautiful, paper thin TVs

Both Sony and Panasonic announce OLED 4K TVs. See Panasonic’s announcement about a 56” OLED 4K TV creating using a printing technique. And Sony’s unveiling here

Paper thin prototypes and a forecast of good things to come. No current pricing, but the consensus is if you have to ask…

More to come…

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CES 2013 Day 2 review: celebrities

Guess who we ran into when we trying to squeeze by the crowd at the Monster (audio) booth on Tuesday?

Tyson Beckford.

I totally forgot to ask him about what it’s like to work with the great Ben Stiller and the always amusing, Owen Wilson.

As with every celebrity at the show, it’s all about getting those business cards in a fish bowl. Holla!

Evidently Nick Cannon, Shiela E, and a host of others. Guess I missed out.

Oh, you know who else says, “hello!”? That’s right. Dear ole 50 Cent and his crew from SMS Audioappeared on Wednesday in their booth. Signed a few autographs, shook some hands, even smiled a little for the pictures. He’s usually so solemn and stern so it was nice to see Mr. Cent smile. Tata for now.

For live coverage and images from CES, follow us on twitter @walmartgeeksKB or via hashtag #walmartCES and @kblackgeeks on instagram.  Or see the full gallery here.

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CES 2013 Day 1 review: One Laptop Per Child premiere XO Learning and XO Tablet

Quick update for your child’s future. More than a few us allow our children to play with our precious iPad or similar tablet PC. Manufacturers have recognized this and are putting out innovative products like the Nabi, the InnoTab, and the Fun Tab kids’ tablets with age-appropriate content that lets children learn as they play. So another player with a much broader scope is jumping into the fray. One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is most famous for its promise to deliver an education through technology to underprivileged children around the world. Here are a few pics and a portion of the press release for both the OLPC xo-3 tablet and the learning system software that will help deliver on their promise on education for every child.

Every child has dreams and XO Learning directs the child’s passion, creativity and energy for these dreams into a new user interface that has 12 dreams. Such dreams include “I want to be” an artist, a musician and a scientist. Each dream features a rich learning experience and applications, books, games and videos that allow children ages 3 to 12 to naturally explore their dreams and learn at the same time. Content within a dream has three levels, so as the child advances in his/her learning, there is no need to pay for additional apps or content. Every dream features a “hero”, a real person who personifies the dream.

“The challenge in computing and education is to use the technology to develop new ways for children to learn. The rich content of the dreams allows the child’s natural passion to be directed into learning experiences,” said Giulia D’Amico, the lead designer of XO Learning.

OLPC teamed with the legendary designer Yves Behar of Fuse Project and his team to create the XO Learning user interface and cover.All of the content in XO Learning has been curated and selected for appropriateness and educational value by both OLPC and Common Sense Media, the leading non-profit reviewer of age appropriate computer-based content in the U.S. XO Learning also offers a full range of parental controls and user IDs for up to three children, a dashboard where the child or the parent can review usage, types of content and the skills the child is developing.

Read the full press release here.

For live coverage and images from CES 2014, follow us on twitter @walmartgeeksKB or via hashtag #walmartCES and @kblackgeeks on instagram.  Or see the full gallery here.

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