CES this year saw a tremendous number of “evolution” announcements. There weren’t any mind-blowing reveals, but we saw an entire industry looking to iterate and improve on products far faster than previous entries into new territory. Where wearable tech and home automation were buzzwords last year, we saw real practical application this year.
Every show, my goal is to find something I think is cool. It might not be the most practical, or revolutionary, but I want to see a company try something different, something novel. Here are a few of my favorite finds from this year’s show floor!
Click on ANY of the pics below to watch our video coverage from the show floor!
***WATCHES***
I’ve been reviewing smartwatches for a while now, but this year saw a fantastic number of “dumb” watches with smarter features.
Garmin showed off an incredible, rugged update to their Fenix line. The Fenix 3 will feature an outdoor viewable display, and it’s own dedicated GPS for fitness tracking, alongside traditional features like notifications and alarms. It’s also made out of some exotically rugged materials.
Also on the rugged front, Casio’s new G-Shock is a beast of a watch, with it’s own GPS system on tap to offer up one of the most accurate clocks you can strap to your wrist. Featuring carbon fiber in the band, a special resin protecting the body, and sapphire crystal for the front face. And we ALL know how durable sapphire is…
But one of the most popular Watch booths was Withings. The Activite Pop is a low cost fitness tracker which looks like a simple analog watch. A tiny like gauge marked from 0-100 tells you how much of your goal you have left to work on, and it tracks that info on your phone. Again, showing that the wearables market is WIDE open, and there’s a whole spectrum of solutions that consumers might be interested in.
***FASHION***
We also saw brands trying to move their products more upscale.
Incipio looks like it’ll be a fantastic partner for Kate Spade New York, in offering up a premium fashion brand of phone and tablet cases, clutches, bags, and batteries. Geek is chic, and I’m always excited to see more options for incorporating tech into our daily lives.
Martian watches also showed off a new partnership with Guess, which will mark one of the first lines of tech watches to push into retailers like Nordstrom.
Lastly, OtterBox took a large step in crafting a new system of accessories for protecting our tablets in a more business stylish look. Their agility line will offer durable frames with magnetic clips, which can quickly move your tablet from wall mount, to desktop stand, to their folio case.
***LIVING ROOM STREAMING***
Razer’s booth had demos on had to show off their new ForgeTV, a $100 Android Game console that can also be used to stream games from a PC to your TV. They also showed off a new lap Keyboard & Mouse combo allowing PC gamers superior control over their games while kicking back on a couch.
IOGear was also in the mix with their new 5×2 Matrix Pro, a wireless HDMI streaming solution that send an uncompressed HD signal to up to 5 receivers, and connects to a variety of inputs like DVR’s, game consoles, and other HD sources.
***THE QUIRKY COOL***
With all of the hot new gear coming from PC favorite Lenovo, one of the things I most enjoyed was their demo of their new Stack system of accessories. Small bricks, with magnetic feet, clip together to offer up a variety of mobile solutions like BT speakerphones, 1TB hard drives, Ethernet and WiFi access points, and 10,000 mAh batteries. Once connected, the bricks communicate via pogo pins, making cable management much easier for the road warrior business professional.
At the polar opposite end of the spectrum, OutdoorTech featured their new line up of accessories for the Chips line of headphone gear. Chips is a modular earphone, basically just the drivers connected to a cable, which you can tuck into a helmet for music and calls while doing your extreme stunts, biking, etc. They’re adding to the Chips line a series of hats and caps. Knit caps, workout gear, pouches for helmets, and a traditional headphone headband all to expand the versatility of these little earphones.
***A GREAT SHOW***
I had a lot of fun at CES this year, and there were tons of cool announcements. From Samsung’s tiny 1TB SSD and NX1 camera, to LG’s G Flex 2. We saw Sennheiser’s fantastic Wireless Momentum Headphones with active noise cancellation, and Moshi impressed with a terrific Airplay/WiFi Direct home speaker.
I’m still recovering from this last Vegas trek, and we’ll return to our normal coverage, posts, and reviews soon, but you should definitely be on the lookout for some really cool gear coming to retail channels soon!