A treasure trove of new health devices unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show promise to make us healthier by more accurately measuring what makes people thin and athletic. Calorie counting, for instance, can be a terribly misleading way to lose weight, since research shows what and how we eat can affect our love handles more so than the total calories consumed. But such brute-force measures… → Read More
Being geeky is awesome; number-obsessed performance geeks should be able to wear their devices loud and proud. Last year saw an explosion of calorie-tracking wearable devices, but none of these plastic-looking gadgets were fit for the runway. At the Consumer Electronics Show, BodyMedia revealed an upgraded armband that aims to make data-driven weight loss a fashion-forward accessory by embedding… → Read More
The Affordable Care Act will flood the resource-strapped national emergency room system with 30 million more insured citizens, increasing already-long wait times to see a doctor. A new hospital-in-a-box, HealthSpot, aims to alleviate congestion with medical stations capable of treating emergency room visits for minor inflictions by beaming in idol doctors via video conference. “Emergency… → Read More
Beyond their own pet projects, members of Congress often know little more than the public about what the legislature will actually accomplish in a given year. The International Consumer Electronics Show provides a rare escape for America’s tech-savviest policymakers, who are normally inundated with budgets and crises, to focus on their geeky agenda. We sat down with the members in attendance… → Read More
The government wants to help ensure that conference Internet Wi-Fi actually works. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced a new plan to open up a portion of the wireless spectrum for faster and more reliable Wi-Fi devices. Specifically, the FCC will work to open up the unlicensed slice of 5 Mhz spectrum to make way for gigabit Internet devices, “to relieve Wi-Fi congestion at conferences, at… → Read More
Just in time for the CES show, a major media outlet is spinning out a little business out of Twitter. The Associated Press today announced that it has inked a deal with Samsung for the consumer electronics giant to have two tweeting slots a day on the API’s main Twitter account (1.53 million users) for the five days the show runs, January 7-11. → Read More
Attention dumbphones, point-and-shoot cameras and music players: sorry to tell you this, but it looks like your days may be numbered. According to a new survey out from Accenture (embedded below and released to coincide with the CES show), consumers are moving away from buying “single-use” devices and opting instead for those that offer the ability to do many things, with smartphones (at 41% of… → Read More
Polaroid’s newish image as a digital media company got one more boost today, with the launch of a new, $150 Android tablet aimed specifically at children. Simply/obviously branded the “Polaroid kids tablet,” the 7-inch device has sidestepped the holiday shopping rush to try its luck instead launching among the throng at the CES show later this month in Las Vegas. The news comes… → Read More
The Consumer Electronics Show, the turgid January gadget fest in Las Vegas, has been widely seen in the industry as a great place to show off your wares if you’re not Apple. But is that true? SigFig, the stealth investing startup that’s growing out of stock portfolio manager Wikinvest, has run some numbers on the market performance of the show’s big-company attendees during the event.
The main… → Read More
Makerbot creator Bre Pettis and his musician friends from Scary Car made this cute little video featuring 3D printed action figures being created in (near) real-time and then discovering love. → Read More
Our readers are probably familiar in passing with UltraViolet, a new content rights management system that is supposed to unify the rights architecture on the web, allowing cross-platform sharing and authentication of movies and TV. But for such a major effort by so many device makers and content producers, very little has been heard or said about it. Probably because it’s still in its infancy… → Read More
As I noted earlier this week, I’m not a fan of all of the “Company X Won CES!” jibberjabber that goes on around this time of year. It’s posturing for the sake of posturing, with the “winner” generally determined by anecdotal evidence and perceived mindshare.
If only someone could find a way to graph the show! To chart each company’s buzz (be it good or bad) over time, using cold, hard numbers… → Read More
We’ve all seen the Kinect, or at least heard about its wonders. Well, the same company that hooked up Microsoft during “Project Natal” development has showed off some pretty wonderful technology at CES last week.
It uses a 3D camera on top of your TV to let you interact with your television through gestures. To be honest, it looks a lot like any touchscreen interface you’re already used to… → Read More
There are plenty of smart watches out there in the world. The iPod Nano doubles as one, and the new MotoACTV watch is a pretty solid offering, as well. But over at Wimm Labs, they’re taking the concept to a whole new level.
We got the opportunity to sit down with Wimm Labs VP Tim Twerdahl who let us get up close and personal with the new Wimm One Smart watch. It’s “a wearable platform” as… → Read More
CES was a blast this year. It was the best show in recent memory. Everyone from the press to vendors were upbeat and seemingly truly happy to be there. Attendance was up. The show was the largest ever (too big for some). Best of all, we shared a wonderful booth with the Engadget crew, which allowed us to conduct more interviews and chill on some comfy couches when not livestreaming from the show… → Read More
At CES 2012, there are quite a few products that would totally change the way you do things (or at least save you some money) that just don’t get enough coverage. We reported on Ooma’s new HD2 VoIP handset, but nothing beats getting the facts straight from the CEO of the company.
Luckily, Eric Stang had a chance to meet with us and chat it up. → Read More
If you were paying attention last week, you can probably surmise that we have about a billion hours worth of footage to process from last week’s CES International show. There’s live streaming coverage that has now been archived, as well as quite a few recorded interviews including this one with Greg Duffy, Dropcam CEO.
Speaking with John Biggs, Duffy shows off the new Dropcam HD and speaks on… → Read More
CES 2012 has come and gone, and it’s time for the inevitable summary and think pieces on the directions the industry is heading, the highlights of the show, and so on. We’ll also be posting some interviews and highlights from our live coverage this week, but before that it is, of course, necessary to publish some sort of top 10 list.
So here are five winners and five losers of CES, as judged by… → Read More
If you needed any more proof that the future is already upon us, take a gander at the LG Styler. It looks like a refrigerator at first glance, but opening the door reveals that it isn’t meant for food — rather, it’s your clothes are meant to go inside. → Read More
Walking around CES this week it’s easy to see the future: just look at the components being sold in the nether regions of the show. These include specific things – Bluetooth powered electrical cords, for example – and “pieces” like smaller motherboards, cases, and materials. When planning a launch line-up, major manufacturers peruse catalogs of potential hardware and materials solutions to decide… → Read More
It’s true. CES is out of control. I have no reference point since this was my first visit, but from the first second you disembark the monorail and look down over the sprawling campus of the LVCC, you know you won’t see everything. The inkling gets stronger as you enter the building, and find that the Samsung booth is about as big as a mall.
Luckily for you, John Biggs and I ventured into the… → Read More
Blue Mics showed up to CES 2012 with three swanky mics. No, really. They look great but that’s because Blue Mics knows how to make a good looking mic. Brian Biggott, Blue Mics’ CTO, sat down with me on the TechCrunch CES couch for a quick chat about the company’s upcoming mics. → Read More
Here at CES 2012, phones are a bit in short supply. At least, new phones are. LG is one of the few companies to officially announce a new smartphone at the show, and I have to say it’s one of the best phones we’ve seen out of LG. Unfortunately, that still leaves the Spectrum quite a ways behind some of the other new phones we’ve seen recently like the Xperia S, Titan 2, or the Galaxy Nexus (of… → Read More
We couldn’t go to CES and not see what Razer had on display, and fortunately, CEO Min-Liang Tan was on hand to take us on a quick tour through the company’s booth. In between talking about the company’s new gaming accessories and their Synapse cloud storage system for game settings, we were (thankfully) able to get our hands on the Project Fiona tablet and the long-awaited Razer Blade gaming… → Read More
In our last TechCrunch Gadgets Webcast on the CES 2012 show floor, we interviewed Henri Seydoux, CEO of Parrot. We had the opportunity to watch the drone in action – it was wildly terrifying having this thing floating above our heads while we talked – and we recapped the show including some of our Best of Show picks and, important, interviews with actual event-goers who loved to talk about what… → Read More
ESPN, the Worldwide Leader In Tim Tebow news, attended CES this year in the name of 3D TV. The network is fully committed to providing content in 3D and in fact hosted a live boxing match here at CES, which was broadcasted in 3D. I sat down with Bryan Burns, ESPN’s VP of Strategic Business Planning to talk about ESPN, lack of 3D content and the boring 2012 BCS Championship game. → Read More
This was the year of the sensors. From Fitbit’s new Aria Wi-Fi scale to the Basis sports watch, I saw more devices to keep you healthy and lean than ever.
I sat down with the folks from Fitbit and Striiv who both saw the power of self-reporting and mindfulness when it comes to weight loss. Striiv, for example, has a new feature that allows you to connect to your friends wirelessly to compete… → Read More
Smart TVs were everywhere at CES. I must have seen two hundred of them while I was there. I could report on specs, resolution or 3D screens, but really, I am more curious about that word “smart” than I am about the raw specs. Is it merely the sum of new features that defines what a Smart TV is or should be? Just what exactly is it that makes a Smart TV, well…smart?
It probably has… → Read More
From a great distance, a massive waterfall is a beautiful thing. From a lesser distance, it’s deafening. Directly beneath it, it’ll crush your bones to salt.
Each year, we make our voyage through the waterfall that is CES. Each year, the noise gets a bit louder, the water a bit more torrential. This year is the first in which I’ve felt my bones begin to give.
Enough metaphor? Fine: CES… → Read More
