This week on The CultCast: We run you through the most ridiculous gizmos at CES 2017 — stuff that nobody on earth actually needs. Then we spice things up with our most hotly anticipated tech of 2017.
And finally, we’re gonna be real with you guys…. Apple had a rough 2016. But that’s all behind us now. It’s a new year. It’s a fresh start. We discuss what Apple needs to get right in 2017.
The jury’s still out on whether HomeKit will really take over our homes and all the smart devices in them, but new HomeKit-compatible devices continue to pop up all the time. At CES 2017 in Las Vegas this week, vendors showed off a bunch of them, from light switches to security cameras.
Here’s our roundup of the best.
Apple got some serious flak from fans when it unveiled its new MacBook Pro at the end of 2016, but if CES 2017 is any indicator, Apple’s not in danger of being out innovated by PCs anytime soon.
The MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar may not be a phenomenal innovation. And its four USB-C ports mean you’ll need some dongles. But when looking at the competition, the MacBook Pro is hands-down the sleekest, most useful and most beautiful laptop you can get in the world right now.
Look at these embarrassing Windows laptops:
Getting a reading of your blood-alcohol content levels is about to become as easy as glancing at your Apple Watch.
The first-ever wearable alcohol monitor made its debut at CES in Las Vegas this week, giving drinkers a new option for keeping track of whether or not they’re fit to get behind the wheel.
The iPhone and Instagram get credit for being the first shoot-and-share social network, but even Steve Jobs would say that’s wrong. The Polaroid camera introduced a social component to taking pictures in the late 1940s, the first instant photography with three steps — shoot, shake and share.
Polaroid brought disruptive innovation to the market and also became a casualty of it when it failed to change course in time to be part of the digital photography revolution.
But a new version of Polaroid is thriving and even stirring up some buzz this week at CES in Las Vegas with new products covering iPhone photography, consumer 3D printing, camera drones and fun cameras that produce an on-the-spot print.
At a time when most headphone manufacturers are embracing the wireless earbuds, Sennheiser has decided to unveil one of the smartest pairs of wired earbuds ever created.
Yes, you can listen to your tunes on the new AMBEO Smart Surround earphones and the music will sound great. But what sets the new buds apart from every other pair debuting at CES is these ones come with the ability to record 3D audio using only your iPhone.
SAN FRANCISCO — Apple packed some amazing tech into its weird-looking AirPods. But to Nuheara co-founder David Cannington, Apple’s white-hot wireless earphones are just “dumb wireless.”
Sure, AirPods let you listen to music, take phone calls and tap into Siri, but they represent a missed opportunity because they don’t solve a crucial problem faced by many people in the modern world: hearing what’s going on around them.
As you might have guessed, Cannington’s company tackled this problem with a new product that launched at CES this week. Nuheara’s IQbuds are smart, truly wireless earbuds that do more than just make calls and deliver high-fidelity audio to your ears. They make it possible to carry on conversations in noisy environments like restaurants, bars and even massive Las Vegas trade shows.
Macs are ideal for many things, but gaming isn’t one of them. Apple just doesn’t have gamers in mind when designing its products. Fortunately, NVIDIA does, and its upcoming GeForce Now service will make almost any Mac fit for gaming.
Razer’s gaming laptops are some of the finest you can get your greasy mitts on, but none of them compare to the insane prototype the company teased today at CES in Las Vegas.
Dubbed “Project Valerie,” it’s the world’s first laptop with three screens — two of which gracefully slide away when you don’t need them.
iPhone 7 users no longer must choose between charging their device or listening to headphones, thanks to a new case that restores the headphone jack to its rightful place.
Getting a headphone jack back on the iPhone 7 comes at the cost of some serious bulk, but with Incipio’s new OX case, at least you won’t have to carry around a dongle anymore.
Step up your home security with the new Ring Floodlight Cam.
Making its debut at CES 2017 in Las Vegas this week, the Floodlight Cam keeps an eye on your property with 1080p video recording, motion detection and the loudest siren available on an outdoor camera. What’s more, it’s incredibly easy to install.
MacBook Pro owners that wish Apple included more ports alongside the Touch Bar can now have the best of both worlds — if they don’t mind slapping a huge dock on their machines.
OWC teased a new accessory called the DEC dock for MacBook Pro at CES, the monstrous gadget show happening in Las Vegas this week. The dock is comically large, but it adds a bevy of new features to the MacBook Pro, including extra storage.
Many of today’s toddlers are addicted to tablets, which means they like to sit around for hours on end playing games and watching videos. Fisher-Price wants to make this activity a little less sedentary with the Think & Learn Smart Cycle.
Unveiled at CES 2017 in Las Vegas this week, it’s a stationary bike for kids with a built-in tablet stand that lets them cram in some much-needed exercise while their little minds remain focused on other things.
Accessory maker Elgato unveiled its new Thunderbolt 3 Dock at CES, offering a way for users to connect a pair of 4K displays to their new MacBook Pro, in addition to plenty of other legacy connection options.
Costing $299, it promises to stand in for the plethora of dongles you’ll need as the tech world makes the jump to Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C.
Every year at CES, there’s one gadget that epitomizes the crazier side of Silicon Valley’s “connected tech” smart devices mania.
In 2017, that prize may well belong to Withings and L’Oreal’s newly unveiled smart hairbrush — a device that critiques your hair-brushing technique, then feeds the results back to your smartphone.
MacBook Air owners patiently waiting for Apple to come out with a touchscreen laptop can now take matters into their own hands: A new product called AirBar turns the laptop’s display into a touchscreen.
Neonode, the company that created AirBar, unveiled the new sensor — which is specifically designed for the 13-inch MacBook Air — at CES, the world’s largest electronic show taking place in Las Vegas this week.
Just because Apple ignores CES, the gigantic electronics show that slams Las Vegas each January, doesn’t mean you should. If you’re interested in the next wave of tech innovation, the annual show should definitely be on your radar.
You won’t glimpse the next iPhone or the rumored Apple Car, but there’s plenty of great tech breakthroughs that should get you salivating over next week’s big event. Here’s a rundown of all the cool stuff we expect to see at CES 2017.
