CES 2014: The grandeur of gadgets and gizmos

The Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show is the Mecca for all things tech.

The yearly event occurs every January in Sin City and it is the equivalent of extending the 12 Days of Christmas by another four days.

The show will be attended by more than 150,000 people where there will be more than 3,200 products and services on display.

If you are a gadget lover or tech buff, it’s the one event that is a ‘must attend’ in their lifetime.

The Bermuda Sun will take a look at just a fraction of the products on display at this year’s show in both today’s and Friday’s editions. 

Post it like a Polaroid

It would be easy to think Polaroid was an outcast with the advent of digital cameras, but the company has reinvented itself.

A unique blend of the old and new schools, the Polaroid Socialmatic camera combines the nostalgic appeal of vintage Polaroid instant cameras with the modern convenience of being able to instantly connect and share via major social media networks using the camera’s built in Wi-Fi and Android interface. 

The Polaroid Socialmatic camera will change the way consumers look at digital cameras with its unique square shape and vintage design. 

Consumers will have the choice of using the 14 megapixel front-side camera or two megapixel rear-side camera to capture and immediately post images to their favourite social networking sites, via built in Wi-Fi. If Wi-Fi isn’t immediately available, the camera will easily pair with consumer’s smartphones via Bluetooth to enable instant sharing from virtually anywhere.

And you also get that vintage feel as the Socialmatic will allow users to select, print and share images instantly.

 Prior to printing, images can be touched up, edited, and consumers can add clip art, icons, or text to any image prior to printing or posting. When ready, the user just presses print and the Socialmatic camera will automatically print a 2X3 inch full-colour sticker-backed ZINK photo in under a minute.

The camera is expected to retail for around $300 in the US. 

Boost your iPad, iPhone storage to 1TB

Why buy a 32GB or 64GB iPad and pay the upcharge when you can get more 15 or 30 times storage for just $199?

LaCie’sFuel is a go-anywhere wireless hard drive for iPads, iPhones and Macs. 

It doesn’t require Internet access and the LaCie Fuel adds 1TB of external storage capacity to compatible mobile devices. 

Users can store up to 500 movies, 160,000 songs or 190,000 photos, and share them with up to five devices at a time. 

What’s more, AirPlay compatibility means users can easily stream movies onto the big screen via Apple TV® or music to compatible speakers.

The LaCie Fuel lets users access enormous media libraries right from their iPad. 

With 1TB of storage at their fingertips, they don’t need to pick and choose what they load onto their mobile device. 

Because Fuel uses WiFi, you can access it with other connected devices.

The Fuel has an up to 10-hour battery life before it needs recharging.

The 1TB LaCie Fuel will be available soon at www.lacie.com. 

Ultra HD 4K laptops

Toshiba showcased the world’s first laptops featuring Ultra HD 4K displays.

 The Tecra W50 mobile workstation is aimed for engineers and 3D designers and the Satellite P50t for professional photographers, graphic designers and 4K movie enthusiasts. 

Both laptops will be available for purchase in mid-2014. The Tecra will retail for around $1,900 while the Satellite will be priced around $1,500.

Packed with premium features and sophisticated styling, the Satellite P50t is designed to kick mobile entertainment into high gear with a responsive touchscreen display and a powerful fourth generation Intel Core processor. 

The 15.6-inch diagonal displays of the Tecra W50 and Satellite P50t deliver native 3840 x 2160 resolution at 282 PPI. To further enhance the viewing experience, the displays are also colour calibrated with accurate colour gamut and feature wide viewing angles. 

Up your game with the 94Fifty

It just goes to show that technology can be embedded into anything.

The 94Fifty Smart Sensor Basketball is the first product from InfoMotion Sports Technologies. The 94Fifty uses point-of-force technology to help athletes more rapidly develop muscle-memory.  

The ball measures muscle memory, learns the strengths and weaknesses of players at any level, adapts as the player improves, and provides basic, intermediate, and advanced level training to build better shooting and ball-handling skills. It retails for $300. The 94Fifty includes:

• Shot Arc Analyzer – Soften your shot for more consistency by learning to shoot with ideal arc.

• Shot Release Speed Timer – Increase scoring opportunities with more shot attempts by always shooting at game speed.

• Shot Backspin Analyzer – Improve accuracy by developing a strong wrist for better follow through and a shooters touch.

• Dribble Power Metre – Become more versatile by learning to dribble harder under pressure with either hand. 

New android dongle  to help stream content

Are you clamouring to access digital content faster and across a variety of devices?

The Netgear NeoMediacast HDMI Dongle that enables telecommunications service providers to use the latest Android applications to offer their subscribers a veritable “curated content store” of both premium and free Over-the-Top (OTT) content. 

The NeoMediacast is a simple plug-and-play solution.

It offers enabled wireless display, so that consumers experience sharing of content from their mobile screens to big screen TVs.  Equipped with full HD 1080p/60 decode, there is no compromise in accessing the best content available from the web. 

Defeat the concrete with range extender

If your house is of any size, and you have wireless Internet, you’ve probably experienced the frustration of your WiFi dropping out on you.

I currently have a range extender in the back of my house and still lose my Internet connection because of the cement block walls.

NetGear has introduced two WiFi range extenders that could address my problem. 

Both are 2014 CES Innovations Award honourees for this year’s CES show.

The AC750 WiFi Range Extender (EX6100) (www.netgear.com/ex6100) and AC1200 High Power WiFi Range Extender (EX6200) (www.netgear.com/ex6200) promise to deliver the next-generation WiFi performance for the new mobile devices demanding WiFi throughout the home. 

Both extenders support older a/b/g/n WiFi devices while providing additional performance to the latest 802.11ac WiFi devices.

The AC750 is an industry-first extender providing up to 750 Mbps 802.11ac WiFi performance in a convenient wall-plug form factor. 

The AC1200 High Power WiFi Range Extender is designed with ultimate performance in mind, supporting latest generation 802.11ac WiFi technology with up to 1200 Mbps speed, 700mW high power amplifiers, high gain 5dBi external antennas, and a dual core processor (CPU) to enable ultimate range extension at groundbreaking next-generation WiFi speeds.

Both extenders are ideal for improving the range of a home network and eliminating frustrating WiFi dead zones while enabling lag-free gaming and uninterrupted video streaming with the ultimate in 802.11ac speed and performance. 

The AC750 WiFi Range Extender is available at a suggested retail price of $89.99 in the US while the AC1200 goes for $129.99 in the US. 

Keep track of Grandma

The guard2me is a CES Innovations Design Engineering Honouree.

The watch uses GPS so you can keep track of loved ones who have Alzheimer’s or dementia, just in case they wander off. 

The watch sends a signal to a smart phone so you can have peace of mind knowing where they are. 

I suppose you could also outfit your children with it too. It retails for around $649. 

World’s fastest router?

Everyone loves faster Internet speeds.

Quantenna is claiming it makes the world’s fastest 802.11ac home router with its RT-AC87U.

In a press release issued at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, Tenlong Deng, associate vice president with Quantenna, said: “Our customers value high-performance Wi-Fi and know the impact a reliable wireless connection has on their ability to stream bandwidth-intensive data, including video content

“As wireless devices in the home continue to increase and consumers’ reliance on keeping connected at all times to live their daily lives is the norm, the importance people are putting on a great Wi-Fi experience is vastly elevated. 

“That’s why we are so pleased to create this latest flagship router product with Quantenna.” 

Linksys unveils new powerful router

Linksys is bringing back the heritage of the best-selling router of all time — the Linksys WRT54G but updated and modernized.

The new router will have the most leading edge available Wireless-AC technology on the market. 

The new Linksys WRT1900AC Dual Band Wi-Fi Router is inspired by the original WRT54G iconic blue/black stackable form factor but with a modernized spin as well as more powerful hardware such as a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, four removable antennas (instead of the standard three) and eSata and USB 2.0/3.0 connectivity ports. The new WRT1900AC ships with Linksys Smart Wi-Fi set-up and management tools and will be the first Linksys router to include the Network Map feature. 

Linksys has also been working with the OpenWRT community to make an open source firmware downloadable when product is available.

Born to run

One of the cooler gadgets is the RunPhones is a headphone worn as a headband. No more worrying about your earbuds popping out as you hit the roads. The wire version costs $39.99 while the wireless version retails for $100.

Be master of the sky

Last year I went on a men’s trip and several of the guys bought heliocopters — boys will be boys.

The Phantom 2 Vision takes this to a completely different level with a mounted camera and 25 minutes of flight time. 

It takes 14 megapixel images with the camera, which is better than the vast majority of cellphones. It can also record video and comes with a 140 degree wide angle lens. 

It can support various 46mm lens filters to add to the flight and camera experience. 

The quality is good enough that you could film a Hollywood documentary on it. 

It gives the operator a first person view on your mobile device and has a wireless connection of up to 300 metres. 

The Phantom comes equipped with a GPS auto-pilot system. This allows for position holding and provides altitude lock along with stable hovering, which can give the user a consistent flight so they can focus on taking the photos. 

If you’re worried about losing it because you flew it out of range, everything will work out as the Phantom has a ‘return-to’ home feature that is automatically triggered to prevent you from losing the drone. 

Released in the fourth quarter of 2013, the official website of the Phantom (www.dji.com) has plenty of videos of people who have purchased it. 

The Phantom’s suggested retail price is $1,399, but there are places on the Internet where you can get it for $1,199.

One user on Amazon wrote: “Incredible to see this machine hover at any place you want. Just remove your finger from the stick and it stops.”

A few users have had battery problems with the Phantom but many have raved about the ability to take quality photos from an aerial advantage point. 

Personal massager you can use anytime or anywhere

One of the items generating the most buzz at is the OhMiBod Lovelife wearable massager.

It’s already creating quite a sensation and been featured on several media websites. 

OhMiBod unveilied a wearable massager that uses Bluetooth technology. It is compatible with Android and iOS smartphones, blueMotion delivers pleasure — with complete discretion — anytime, anywhere. The massager will hit the market in March 2014 and retail for $129.

OhMiBod equipped the lightweight, slimline massager with a powerful motor that takes advantage of built-in smartphone features such as the accelerometer, touch screen, and volume controls. blueMotion can even record ambient sound up to 60 seconds.

Users can enjoy the vibrations generated by a partner’s voice or their favourite beats when and wherever they want. 

The massager connects to smartphones via OhMiBod Remote. Customers can download OhMiBod Remote at no cost from the iTunes and Play Stores.