Las Vegas, CES 2012 — If you’re going to drop a wad of bills on a serious phone you might as well find one that looks like it was destined to cradle your iPhone or iPad in its loving arms. That’s the mission that French upstart Invoxia has come up with for their newest VOIP desktop conference phone that embodies both beauty and braun.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Although most of Intel’s ultrabook presser was a wash for Mac fans, the chipmaker did drop one extraordinarily interesting slide, showing exactly how Apple could make its next MacBook Air redesign almost 66% thinner. Holy crap. Here’s how Apple would do it.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Hundreds of tech journalists are huddled in the Galileo Showroom at the Venetian Casino this morning to hear the latest from Intel, and surprise surprise, Intel wants to talk about ultrabooks… the ultra-slim laptop form factor that the whole PC making industry is hoping will save them from being eaten at both ends by the iPad and MacBook Air.
Unfortunately, after all is said and done, most of what Intel had to offer to PC makers were a grab bag of gimmicks.
All that was missing was Steve Jobs. That’s how close Acer’s promotion of its new AcerCloud service was to Apple’s iCloud. Although imitation is flattering, some observers charged Acer of a ‘blatant ripoff’ of iCloud – down to even the promotion images used by netbook kingpin.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – This is my friend Sergio Miranda, editor of the Brazilian Apple magazine MAC+. When I ran into Sergio last night, he complained that he’d lost his glasses on arriving here at CES. He couldn’t work without them. But no worries, a friend is already flying back to Sao Paulo in Brazil to pick up a spare pair from Sergio’s home! The friend will then hop on a return flight and bring them back to Sergio in Vegas.
“What!” I said, incredulous. That’s a 12,000 mile round trip. Each leg takes more than 12 hours. Surely it’d be easier to get a pair from Walgreens on the Strip?
The explanation?
Despite the Las Vegas floor of CES 2012 being filled with new smartphones, the iPhone is still hot with prospective handset buyers, a new survey finds. The iPhone tops the list with 54 percent of consumers planning to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days. That’s down from 65 percent in September, a surprise to experts. The nearest Android handset cam in a distant second.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA — Intel talked a lot at their press conference today about ways PC makers could take the ultabook form factor and distinguish it from the juggernaut that is the MacBook Air, but perhaps the most interesting concept of just what a MacBook Air-killing ultrabook would look like was the Nikiski, a hybrid ultrabook that looks like it just leaped straight from a sci-fi concept design.
If Research in Motion is gambling on its future, it picked the right venue: the Las Vegas-based CES 2012. The Waterloo, Ont. company plans to introduce an updated version of its PlayBook Operating System, as well as its new BlackBerry 7.1 software amid a storm of criticism. But can new software alone resurrect a troubled tech company?
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – You’ve probably never looked at a nice ceramic vase and thought, “Geez, I would love to have one of those made based on my self portrait!” but the guys at Sculpteo are here to help you out just in case. Sculpteo is a free app that allows users to instantly covert a 2D image into a 3D image in the shape of an object such as a vase. So if you’re one of those types that is jealous of everyone who gets to look at your beautiful outline all day, you’re now in luck.
A group of Chinese authors have reportedly filed a lawsuit against Apple in Beijing claiming that the Cupertino company is infringing copyright with books sold through its iBookstore. The Chinese financial magazine Caixin reports that nine authors from the China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) are involved in the suit, which is hoping to secure 11.9 million yuan ($1.9 million) in compensation.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – iPhone cases are like the condoms of CES: with an insinuating wink, everyone’s always handing you a free one. Speck’s latest case, though, managed to impress us despite the perpetual bombardment of its competitors. It’s called the Candy Shell grip, and it’s a sporty looking case aimed at gamers with a couple of neat little twists.
Don’t you wish your iOS device would do something a little more spectacular when you use that “slide to unlock” button? Well UnlockFX from Filippo Biga might be the answer. It’s a tweak that offers all kinds of fancy effects designed to transform the unlock animation on your jailbroken iOS device from boring to beautiful.
The popular video sharing service Vimeo is at CES in Las Vegas this week to announce new mobile apps for the Android and Windows Phone platforms. However, it also has some exciting news to share about its existing iOS app.
An update set to hit the App Store later this month will not only bring support for the iPad, but also full HD video streaming, and lots of great new features.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Debuting here at CES 2012, the GoPano Micro ($80) is an odd-looking little device that lets you record 360° panoramic videos on your iPhone 4 and 4S. You can then scroll around those videos in a way similar to how you move around in Google Maps street view, watching your video from a ton of different angles and perspectives.
Microsoft has recently shown a surprising willingness to develop all sorts of software for rival mobile operating systems, with a number of popular releases for iOS devices in particular. Many believed, however, Microsoft would make Xbox LIVE games exclusive to its Windows Phone platform in a bid to encourage gamers to adopt Windows Phone devices.
But according to a recent Microsoft job listing, it seems that may not be the case. The software giant is currently looking for an experienced developer who will “bring the latest and greatest gaming and entertainment experience to mobile platforms including Windows Phone, iOS, and other mobile platforms.”
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Remember those old “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” ads (and the never-ending parodies that followed) for LifeAlert in the ’80s? Zomm has leveraged the new Bluetooth v4.0 technology to create a device with features that harken back to that older gadget; it too comes with a live operator — but the Zomm Lifestyle Connect‘s inclusion of Bluetooth makes it way cooler and vastly more useful.
ION Audio is showing off two new iCade products at CES in Las Vegas this week that provide retro gamers with physical controls while they’re on the go.
Unlike its original iCade Arcade Cabinet, which you wouldn’t dream of carrying around in your rucksack, the iCade Core and iCade Mobile accessories from ION are compact, lightweight, and ready to follow you about.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – We figured health and fitness was going to have a large footprint at CES this year, and so far we haven’t been disappointed. Case in point, the Zensorium Tinke dongle: it measures heart rate, respiratory rate and the amount of oxygen in your bloodstream — all just by pressing your thumb on it.
While popular iOS games can make their developers a small fortune in the App Store, not every title is a huge success. With over half a billion iOS apps currently available, some are bound to go unnoticed. However, one developer is attempting to make money from his iOS game in a different way.
With his latest game struggling to take off in the App Store, indie game developer Adam Schwartz is looking to bring in some cash by selling the title’s source code on eBay.
Las Vegas, CES 2012 — The French have done it again. Dolled up in their designer suits and dreamy accents, Parrot’s French Legion of PR Reps hit the show floors of CES with another amazing quadricopter that is controlled by an iOS device. Their newest product is called the Parrot AR. Drone 2.0, but it’s more than just a modest upgrade, it’s a beast of flying machine that flies smoother and captures breathtaking video better than any comparable product on the market.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – With an eye on improving the way parents monitor their children’s health, French company Withings announced their Internet-connected baby and toddler scale, the Withings Smart Baby Scale. Providing a new way to monitor children’s growth, from birth to age 8, the Withings Smart Baby Scale integrates with iOS via the WiScale App that gives parents quick access to growth statistics to monitor their child’s health and compare measurements with child growth health standards.
Nikon Rumors has put out a good comparison chart showing the differences between Canon and Nikon’s new flagship D-SLRs, the Canon EOS 1D X and the Nikon D4. Specs-wise, the cameras look quite similar, but there are some notable differences.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – We’ve seen countless solutions to finding lost car keys over the past few decades, but this latest solution from Treehouse Labs makes the attempt to be practical and fun while solving one of mankind’s greatest problems through an iPhone app. Bikn is a location tracking solution to help you find anything that has a tendency to get lost: dogs, purses, cameras, your grandparents at Wal-Mart, you name it. By attaching a small location tracker to any item you tend to lose, Bikn makes finding things easier than ever.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Fish and chips and Jony Ive may remain Britain’s most favorite imports among Cult staffers, but maybe Pure’s new Contour 200i Air will get close.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Go to House of Marley’s booth at CES and the first thing you’ll see is Bob Marley’s sell-out son mugging and aping for the press with not a care in the world, artlessly singing along to the lyrics of his father’s songs.
It can be embarrassing, not just for spiritual rastafarians but for any person who appreciates legacy and finds himself cringing in embarrassment at the betrayal of what they might think to be a grander, less capitalistic ideal. That said, as silly as you might think the motif of House of Marley’s gadgets (“Stereo for stoners”), it’s hard not to admire their design or construction. These are sound systems that are trying to make a point.