CES 2015 - page 2

LAS VEGAS — When Garmin launches a $600 smartwatch just a few weeks before Apple is about to introduce its category killer, the company must be pretty confident.

Here at International CES, Garmin is showing off its new line of Fenix 3 Sports Watches — multisport fitness trackers with built-in GPS that can pair with a smartphone to show various alerts and notifications. It comes in three models, including the handsome Sapphire, which has a hard sapphire crystal face. It’s a beauty, but surely doomed, right?

When asked if Garmin was worried about the Apple Watch, due to be launched sometime this spring, a spokeswoman confidently said absolutely not. She explained that Garmin’s watches are unapologetically outdoor fitness devices built for sportspeople who want a watch to do very specific things — track workouts – and aren’t interested in beaming heartbeats or sending emojis.

“They are purpose-built,” she said, gesturing at the display. “They’re built for hiking, biking and running. Garmin has been in the wearables market for 10 years. We’re not worried at all.”

LAS VEGAS — With its wide base and gently sloping sides, the Archt one speaker looks a little like an egg pod from Alien or the business end of a bomb.

Its outer shell is sleek black plastic, with a flat ring around the top that gives it a space-age feel. If the killer looks aren’t enough to grab your attention, the speaker’s ground-thumping bass will.

“It gets really loud,” Archt CEO Evan Foo told Cult of Mac.

While the all-in-one wireless speaker is certainly loud — it was ballsy enough to cut through the background noise here at the International CES trade show — the goal is to deliver CD-quality sound, no matter the source of the audio.

This new Android-powered ZX2 Walkman is for serious audiophiles only. Sony’s pushing the device as a high-resolution sound machine, and it’s set a price to match.

$1,119.99 seems a bit much for a portable music player, but I really can’t seem to stop wanting one. The design is gorgeous, with a black matte finish and glorious actual buttons that just beg me to touch it.

LAS VEGAS — On the surface, there’s nothing very exciting about a portable flash drive. It doesn’t excite me at all. But make that drive a sleek, Lightning-equipped, 256GB beast of a thing, and now we’re talking.

The Leef iBridge, on display here at International CES, packs the most storage of any iOS-compatible hard drive on the market. But all that space comes at a steep price.

$399.99, to be exact. Certainly jaw-dropping, but something in me, and obviously in the Leef team, believes there’s at least a few people out there who will buy it. If not, the cheaper 128GB ($200), 64GB ($120), 32GB ($80) and 16GB ($60) models should appeal to the layman.

There’s a nice companion iOS app that reads what you’ve stored and even lets you shoot photos/video directly to the drive. Not a bad thing to have for a photo adventure in the wilderness. Or if you still don’t have enough storage available to install iOS 8.

LAS VEGAS — An iPhone battery case is kinda like insurance: You don’t really want it, but you know you need it. It’s been months since Apple started selling the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but we have yet to see any battery cases from established brands … until now.

Otterbox unveiled its Resurgence power case for the iPhone 6 at International CES this week. The case packs a 2,600-mAh battery that will charge your iPhone’s battery twice over. And, like everything Otterbox makes, it’s designed with military-grade drop protection.

The case charges itself via a micro-USB connector, and it has a button on the back that needs to be pressed when your iPhone requires more life. Otterbox is offering four colors, and the case should be available in a couple weeks for $100.

LAS VEGAS — Gardening isn’t easy. Especially if you leave home for weeks at a time and your plants go unwatered.

You could hire a gardener, but Parrot is ready to make it easier and cheaper with their new automated watering pot. The device will keep your leafy friends hydrated with just a tap of your phone.

LAS VEGAS — Who ever thought a blood-pressure monitor could look cool?

Qardio did. The U.S. medical device maker is obsessed with crafting hospital-grade gear that wouldn’t look out of place sitting alongside your iMac.

The company’s latest product, unveiled during the International CES trade show here, is a smart scale that delivers feedback in the form of a smile or a frown, depending on how your weight is trending.

“It makes you feel good,” said Rosario Iannella, Qardio’s chief information officer.

LAS VEGAS — It seems like everyone is selling some kind of smart light bulb these days, but Sengled is setting itself apart by incorporating wild add-ons like Bluetooth speakers and Wi-Fi repeaters.

That’s right, a light bulb with a speaker.

At a demo during CES Unveiled here, the company showed me its lineup of four smart bulbs, all of which have their own gimmick beyond the to-be-expected remote control functionality through an app.

LAS VEGAS — For eight years, Paul Chavand been working hard to bring the world a pair of motorized skates. Why? To revolutionize the simple act of walking. Chavand’s dream is turn a simple stroll into an effortless glide on motorized wheels.

But don’t call them skates. Chavand, a mathematics teacher from France’s Burgundy region, gets rather upset at that. Skates imply imbalance, falling over and wildly flailing arms. Chavand’s Rollkers require no “skating.” You just stand still and the motorized wheels zip you along. Balancing is as simple as standing up, the inventor says.

So instead of “skates,” he calls his invention, rather comically, “under shoes.”

The big question is why you’d want them.

LAS VEGAS — Football in America is under attack after the revelation that concussions cause serious brain damage rocked the NFL. Youth participation has plummeted in the last two years but the folks at Linx have a new solution that will help parents keep track of when their kids are getting pounded too hard on the field.

The Linx IAS sports monitor is a tiny Bluetooth sensor athletes can wear in a skull cap or headband to keep track of every impact on the field, no matter if they’re playing football, lacrosse, soccer, hockey or pretty much any other contact sport.

LAS VEGAS — The small but humbling act of loosening your belt after a big meal is finally over!

Inventor Bertrand Duplat has developed a motorized belt that automatically loosens its grip when your gut bulges.

“The experience of the belt hasn’t changed in centuries,” Duplat told Cult of Mac at CES International. He calls his invention, which certainly will change your belt experience, Belty.

“When you sit down and eat a long dinner, it loosens automatically. It tightens up when you stand up,” he said.

LAS VEGAS — What if your entire life was like a Russian dash cam? Our phones already know where we are and what we’re doing every moment of the day, but the Narrative Clip takes things to the next level.

This tiny little square clips onto your person and takes a 5 megapixel photo every 30 seconds. Apparently wearing such a thing makes you a “lifelogger,” which sounds like a great term to drop on a first date. Then again, once you admit that you’re wearing an always-on camera during a date, it won’t really matter if you call it lifelogging or not. You’re not getting a second shot.

LAS VEGAS — Not every wearable launched this year will get slapped on your wrist.

Quell, a new electrical-stimulation device designed to help alleviate chronic pain, gets wrapped around the wearer’s calf.

“I like to say it’s like a USB port into your central nervous system,” said Frank McGillin, SVP and general manger of Quell.

While a wave of fitness trackers and the upcoming Apple Watch are drumming up a healthy buzz about wearables, more and more medical devices work with smartphone apps and tap into Apple’s HealthKit platform. Quell doesn’t yet work with HealthKit, but McGillin told Cult of Mac that’s certainly in the cards.

LAS VEGAS — Everyone hates loudmouth jerks who talk too loudly on their cellphones in public. If this is you know or someone you love, a new startup may have the answer.

Onvocal’s Mix360 is a Bluetooth headset with a microphone that detects ambient sound. So if you’re talking on your cell, you can hear exactly how loud you are and modulate your voice accordingly.

“It’ll end those annoying calls where people can’t hear how loud they are and are shouting into their phones,” said Ashley Waters, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts-based startup.

LAS VEGAS — For more than 10 years, Michael Wallace and Darin Barri were toy designers. Depressed about plummeting sales because of video games, the pair went on a week long bender to drown their sorrows.

They both loved lychee martinis, which are tricky to make. They dreamed of a smart cocktail mixer that uses weight — rather than volume — to make mixed drinks. So they hacked a kitchen scale with some electronics and coded an app. The resulting system, called Perfect Drink, makes it impossible to screw up martinis and dozens of other cocktails. They took it to Brookstone, who loved it and put it on the market. Eighteen months later, they’ve sold 120,000 units.

Now they’re back with Perfect Bake, a foolproof baking system that uses the weight of ingredients, rather than volume, to guide clueless home bakers.

LAS VEGAS — As soon as I saw this Wi-Fi-connected kettle, I wondered to myself: “Why on earth would anyone want a Wi-Fi-connected kettle?”

This is crazy. Connectivity gone mad. It’s got Wi-Fi for the sake of it. It’s a gimmick. Tech trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.

But I talked to the CEO, and his answer surprised me. Now I totally want one.

The Smarter Wi-Fi-connected kettle, called the iKettle in the U.K., is so British it’s not funny. Every household in the U.K. has an electric kettle. It’s on all day, every day, making cuppa after cuppa, all day long.

LAS VEGAS — I love basketball, but I have a weakness — I can’t jump.

I’ve hit the gym. I’ve tried jumping exercises.

None of it has worked, but a new fitness sensor called VERT might be the first wearable that finally helps me get above the rim, thanks to its workouts, which are designed to help you improve your leaping ability, while also preventing injuries on the court.

LAS VEGAS — When it comes to the smart home, there are two key players right now: Apple and Nest, the latter of which is owned by Google. While plenty of smart lock and thermostat makers are starting to support Apple’s HomeKit, the “Works with Nest” family is also growing.

Apple won’t be at the mammoth International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, but once again, it’s setting the agenda from afar.

While Korean electronics giants like Samsung will dominate the show floor, Apple is laying the future path for the entire tech industry.

In the coming year, the tech industry’s big battlegrounds will be your body, your home and your car. At CES, thousands of companies will showing off new and prototype products to do battle in these arenas. But Apple is the company to beat. With the upcoming Apple Watch, in addition to HealthKit, HomeKit and CarPlay, Apple is setting the agenda for the entire tech industry, and it’s not even there.