You’ve probably noticed how a lot of tech news lately revolved around CES 2017. The formally known Consumer Electronics Show is an established event for both professionals and members of the public.
Dedicated to the latest consumer electronics technologies, the event started in 1967 in New York City. As an interesting detail, it derived out of the Chicago Music Show, where producers used to exhibit the latest electronics. Beginning with 1978, it also featured a winter edition, held in Las Vegas. This location became the only host from 1998 onward.
This year’s edition took place between January 5-8. It managed to remain in the news not only for the exhibits, but also for the shocking theft of a Razer triple screen gaming laptop. The prototype simply vanished, in what the Razer company deemed as an industrial espionage gesture.
Let’s see what else caught the media’s attention at CES 2017.
Amazing gadgets at CES 2017 – media selection
With all the continuous R&D novelties on the tech market seem like a regular thing. We have the announcements of concepts, the prototyping phase, the launches. Once a new piece of technology is available, the specialists and the media are inspecting its every feature, hardware and software-wise. Sometimes the actual technologies does not meet the induced expectations. Nevertheless, this does not take the fun out of the entire “enthusiasm for progress” audience phase.
In this regard, CES embodies perfectly the spirit of technological progress. A new year begins, new horizons open up for gadgets and devices.
Let’s see some of the most talked about gadgets. We scanned three cool gadgets tops coming from Tech Crunch, CNET and Time and we were mainly curious about the technology that managed to appear in all three articles. Well, CNET featured a selection of 50 gadgets, which is pretty impressive, so we got lost a bit in it. However we managed to form an idea on what was hot this year.
1. The Kuri Robot
Similar to Google Home or Amazon Echo, Kuri is a home assistant coming from Mayfield robotics. It bounds to her (yes, it’s a she-robot) owners via image and voice recognition features and it is basically a mobile security camera that moves around and looks friendly. Also introduced as a robotic nanny, Kuri apparently has a “lovely personality” supported by a lot of innovation, tech-wise.
The Redwood City company presents its team members as “romantics about robots”. Marketing or more, we have to admit that the projection they induce about a nice (of course, connected) robot that provides a second pair of eyes around a busy household looks promising.
2. The Underwater Drone
Is that a modern vacuum cleaner? Nope – although the overall shape resembles one, it is actually an aquatic drone. Coming from PowerVision, the PowerRay underwater drone submerges up to 98 feet and takes 4K video images. In order to always be able to provide interesting images, it can attract fish with the (optional) Fishfinder sonar, whose detection range is of up to 131 feet.
It can withstand both fresh and salt water. It is a fishing assistant – that is how PowerVision presents it. Its goal – to provide a “revolutionary immersive fishing experience”. It also pairs up with PowerVision’s VR Google for a complete experience. Makes one wonder what will the fishes think of it – luring them into its blue light and straight into the hook. Looks like they have no chance left with this gadget.
3. The Smart Baby Monitor
Coming from the toy-making company Mattel, this gadget is also a top choice, for some reason. Another smart assistant, Amazon Alexa voice-activated this time, Aristotle by Nabi provides a baby-related array of functions.
The “world’s first baby monitor that grows with you”, this gadget is meant to comfort, tech and entertain tech parents’ offspring. Although the dedicated webpage is a bit too minimalist, Aristotle managed to capture the attention of the AI fans at this year’s CES.
If you wondered about Nabi and where have you heard of them before – we did too. Here‘s an Inc.com article on “Fuhu, maker of the Nabi”, as the fastest-growing company in America (in September 2013). Here‘s the company overview from Bloomberg. Their concept resides in providing kids with high-tech devices instead of make-believe toys, and apparently with Aristotle they extended their reach to babies.
4. The smart TVs section – LG W-series
As Tech Crunch puts it, it was difficult for any new TV to stand out in the thematic crowd of devices featured at CES. The TC team went with Sony’s flagship for the Bravia line. Nevertheless, the other two sources we consulted both included the LG W-Series TV in their lists. This pick owns to the fact that LG just went for a revolutionary design, separating the screen from the system. This allowed the Tv screen to weigh a mere 27 pounds. CNET deems it “featherweight… the thinnest, lightest and potentially the best-picture quality” TV featured at this year’s event.
The new OLED announces the LG’s Signature W Series. Tech Radar offers more insights in its Hands-on review, with four pros and two cons. If you find the time, check their article here.
5. Asus Zenfone AR
It was surely not a shortage of Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality gadgets at CES 2017. Yet, when we had to name just one of them, we couldn’t leave the Asus Zenfone AR unmentioned.
The Asus team counts on an expanded functionality for our future smartphones. They built this smartphone so it would support AR and VR experiences, counting on Google’s Tango and Daydream technologies. In a strategic move, Asus designed a product that would be compatible with Google’s emerging technologies.
Here’s a hands-on Zenfone AR review coming from the same Tech Radar.
