January 15th, 2013

The Best And Worst Of CES 2013 NSFW Blooper Reel

You’ve seen the Best and Worst of CES 2013. Here’s the blooper reel. Don’t watch it around your boss or small children. The video is not safe for work – just like CES and Vegas in general. → Read More

January 13th, 2013

Shenzen New Degree’s Touch Panel Tech Doesn’t Mind The Rain And Still Delivers Killer Input Detection [Video]

Shenzen New Degree Technology was one of the companies showing its stuff in the Eureka Park portion of CES 2013, and this China-based hardware startup had some impressive tech to show off related to touch input. Combining capacitive and resistive touch-based input with a means to make it work even on solid stainless steel surfaces, Shenzen New Degree hopes to pave the way for a wide range of new… → Read More

January 13th, 2013

Never Lose Your Keys Again Thanks To StickNFind’s Bluetooth Stickers

Here’s a novel way to keep track of your wallet, your cat, or, yes, your keys.

Jimmy Buchheim stopped by the the TechCrunch booth at the Consumer Electronics Show to demo StickNFind, a bluetooth sticker technology that you can use to track almost anything. Once you’ve attached the sticker to an object of your choice, you can track it down again using the StickNFind iOS and Android apps, which… → Read More

January 13th, 2013

The Best And Worst Of CES 2013

CES has come and gone, but the memory of this year’s show will live on forever. Not necessarily because the 15-20 TechCrunch staffers who attended will remember it — chances are the night-time debauchery has wiped away all recollection of the past week — but because this post exists.

We met a bunch of celebrities. We discovered a phone with an e-ink display on the back, a giant… → Read More

January 13th, 2013

Cars Are The Next Playground For App Developers

ChevyImpalaNextGenMyLink04-medium

This year’s CES may have been about startups more than ever before, but over the last few years, the car industry has also increased its presence at the show. In previous years, we heard a lot about the connected car, but until now, those cars remained virtually closed for developers. In one fell swoop, that changed this year, as Ford and GM announced concrete programs with SDKs and APIs that are… → Read More

January 13th, 2013

The Playsurface Brings A Lot More To The Touchscreen Table Than Just Touch [Video]

Playsurface Templeman Automation First Look

The Playsurface, a spin-off project from Templeman Automation that aims to provide a low-cost alternative to interactive touch table devices like Microsoft’s PixelSense (formerly known as the surface), was at CES showing off their functioning units in action, which the company will be shipping out to 40 or so Kickstarter backers this month. The Playsurface made headlines when it launched on… → Read More

January 13th, 2013

Hands-On: Tactus Technology Gives Flat Touchscreens The Middle Finger With Pop-Up Buttons

This actually works. I touched it. I played with it. And I fantasized about a bubble wrap app.

Tactus Technology stopped by our CES booth for a short demo of its crazy touch screen technology. Using microfluid technology (and a bit of magic), Tactus’s solution produces honest-to-goodness buttons that raise out of the touchscreen. And then, just as quickly as they appear, they disappear when… → Read More

January 12th, 2013

In Defense Of The HAPIfork

hapifork

There’s been no shortage of jokes lobbed at the HAPIfork, as you’ve seen from the Colbert video above. The overwhelming consensus seems to be that the technology in the fork is solving a first-world problem, and that, people who really want to lose weight by eating more slowly should just, uh, eat more slowly. So why do I love it? → Read More

January 11th, 2013

iRig HD Surfaces At CES

iRig HD

I spent a lot of time at CES 2013 searching for new audio goodness and one of the cool things I found was IK Multimedia’s latest product called the iRig HD. Not “officially” announced yet and missing a release date, there were still a few demo units at their booth in the South Hall. → Read More

January 11th, 2013

In A Sea Of iPad Cases, Lazy-Hands Stands Out With Little More Than Velcro, Cloth, and Ingenuity

LazyHands Thumbs Free First Look

Lazy-Hands is the epitome of one of those self-made, little-guy CES gems that we love so much. Armed with little more than velcro, a humble booth, and a dash of ingenuity, they managed to catch our eye amongst thousands of competitors who were twice their size and nth as loud. → Read More

January 11th, 2013

Almond+ Expands The Router’s Domain, Adds Zigbee And Z-Wave Smart Home Control

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The Almond, a router with a small touch screen that achieved significant success on Amazon thanks to a decent price point and excellent reviews, has a successor from parent company Securifi hitting Kickstarter soon. The Almond+ comes with 802.11ac support, boasts a 2.8-inch touchscreen, and can be set up without even connecting to a PC. It’s the perfect router for a mobile-first generation, and… → Read More

January 11th, 2013

Swivl Introduces Their Updated Camera With DSLR, Tablet Support

The Swivl is an odd duck. When you first look at it you wonder what it’s for. But anyone who has given a speech or performed onstage will immediately appreciate this clever little device. The Swivl essentially follows you around the room as you speak, allowing you to record your video without a separate camera operator. → Read More

January 11th, 2013

Just Give The Dish DVR Its Nomination Back, CNET

Lee-Strasberg-as-Hyman-Roth-in-The-Godfather-Part-II-150x150

Here we go again. There is a CONFLICT OF INTEREST in the tech news media. Well I just can’t believe how this could happen in an industry that pays bloggers to review products from companies that then get advertised on those bloggers’ websites which pay those bloggers’ salaries … Ohhhhh.

This time the victim of the business we’ve chosen is CNET.* CNET’s parent company CBS is in a lawsuit with→ Read More

January 11th, 2013

Sony May Kiss Low-End Smartphones Goodbye To Better Compete With Samsung And Apple

xperia-z

Sony Mobile’s top-tier Xperia Z may have been one of CES’s most pleasant non-surprises (seriously, is there anyone Sony didn’t brief about that thing?), and it turns out that the company’s future efforts may be more of the same. According to a recent CNET interview with Xperia Product Manager Stephen Sneeden, Sony is contemplating leaving the entry-level smartphone market to other companies. → Read More

January 11th, 2013

Fleksy Eyes-Free Mobile Keyboard Comes To Android At CES 2013 [Video]

fleksy

Fleksy, the new mobile keyboard that debuted on iOS back in August, was showing its stuff at CES this year. The trick of automatically predicting what you’re typing without requiring much more than your relative tap position and word length is no less impressive than it has been in the past, but Fleksy now has a new trick up its sleeve, too: an Android version that can actually replace your stock… → Read More

January 11th, 2013

Why CES Matters (For Now)

CES Dinosaur Mouse

It’s easy to hate CES. It’s a vapid, broken wunderkammer filled with booze, waste, and gadgets no one will buy for months if not years if ever at all. The show floor is a crass place where marketers try out ways to get into our wallets and manufacturers, caught in a spiral of “design-build-trash” have to pump out new hardware just because they have to pump out new hardware – like a toothless… → Read More

January 11th, 2013

Want To Beat The Crap Out Of Your iPhone? This Guy’s Got You Covered

integrated surface tech

At Eureka Park at CES in the Venetian, we saw a ton of cool startups. But some of them really stood out. Like this guy. He was very excited about giving us a demo of his company’s technology for letting you do amazingly horrible things to your mobile electronics. The company is called Integrated Surface Technologies, and it coats your phone with stuff that protects it from being destroyed. → Read More

January 11th, 2013

Sensory Acumen’s Game Skunk Is Part Video Game Enhancer, Part Therapy Tool

sensoryacumen_logo1

Eureka Park played home to a whole host of interesting companies and projects (some of which were arguably more interesting than the stuff you’d find on the actual CES show floor) and our first stop was clearly a winner. Meet California-based Sensory Acumen, the creators of curious a scent-generating device called the GameSkunk. → Read More

January 11th, 2013

BodyMedia’s Jewelry Upgrade Makes Data-Driven Weight Loss Super-Chic

edited

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

January 11th, 2013

Philips uWand Motion Controller Makes Another CES Appearance, Plays Fruit Ninja [Video]

philips-uwand

The Philips uWand is no stranger to CES. It’s been at the show in the past, and as a prototype it has been around for even longer, but this time around it got an updated look and feel, along with refined control that now puts it pretty much at one-to-one sensitivity, and makes for a satisfying experience when playing games on the motion-enabled set top box it’s paired with. → Read More

January 11th, 2013

TC Cribs: SmartThings Gambles On The Connected Home In Vegas

TC Cribs: CES Edition from the SmartThings House

SmartThings doesn’t just come to Vegas and set up a boring old booth. These guys rented out a palatial villa just outside of downtown, both for the practical purposes of giving themselves a place to crash, and also to give them an easy way to show off their product and platform for building a whole home “open physical graph.” Home automation and mobile remote control were a tent pole theme of this… → Read More

January 11th, 2013

Skullcandy’s $100 Crusher Headphones Promise To Rattle Your Head, Actually Do

Skullcandy Crushers

With their new Crusher headphones, Skullcandy promises something that many a headphone company has promised to do before: to physically rattle your head as a subwoofer might. Unlike the past attempts we’ve seen, these ones actually seem to do it. We sat down with Skullcandy Acoustics Engineer Sam Noertker at our big ol’ CES broadcast booth to chat about how it all works. → Read More

January 11th, 2013

BMW Wants To Make Your Next Car A Truly Mobile 4G LTE Hotspot

Screen Shot 2013-01-10 at 7.49.11 PM

BMW has rolled out a new feature that will let riders stay connected, by adding 4G LTE WiFi connectivity to its cars. BMW owners will be able to buy an optional hotspot that connects with the car and can use its antenna to provide blazing-fast wireless Internet speeds. → Read More

January 11th, 2013

Connected Bike Looks To Up Your Cycling Game With Automatic Gear-Shifting

Connected Bike

When peak performance is your goal, every second counts. I guess milliseconds count too. Product development consultancy Cambridge Consultants had this in mind when they developed their new automatic gear-shifting system for performance bicycles called The Connected Bike. The idea is to shave off those precious seconds of time you use both considering and shifting gears while riding. We took an… → Read More

January 10th, 2013

Hands-On With The Lockitron, The Easiest Way To Control Your House’s Locks With A Smartphone

lockitron1

Lockitron’s Cameron Robertson stopped by our CES booth for a little demo. It doesn’t take much to demo the Lockitron. It’s a little wireless device that slips onto a deadbolt and can be controlled by a smartphone. Put it on your house. Put it on a rental property. Put it on your cat.

To be honest, the story of Lockitron is much more interesting than the Lockitron itself. → Read More

January 10th, 2013

Bad Dog Tools Demos Drill Bits That Cut Through Basically Everything There Is [Video]

Screen Shot 2013-01-10 at 7.11.40 PM

The CES show floor was packed with tons of companies that you’ve probably heard plenty about this week, such as Panasonic, Sony, LG, etc. But the hidden gems and oddballs among the consumer electronic giants were the real treat for world-weary attendees who felt it was hard not to stifle a yawn at yet another 4K TV. Bad Dog Tools, a company demonstrating its super-hard drill bits, is one of… → Read More

January 10th, 2013

Talking To Your TV, Your Car, Maybe Your Fridge? Maluuba Is Connecting Users To Their Favorite Devices By Voice

You might remember Maluuba from TechCrunch Disrupt, where the company launched its Personal Assistant app for Android last year, combining voice recognition and natural language processing with search to create a really smart way to easily find the things you want quickly. If you’ve already forgotten: It’s kind of like Siri, except it works. → Read More

January 10th, 2013

Samsung Says It Will Not Release Its Windows RT Tablet In The U.S.

Samsung ATIV Tab

Samsung’s Windows RT tablet, the Ativ Tab, will not be sold in the U.S. Mike Abary, head of Samsung’s PC and tablet business in the U.S., told CNET at CES that it will not release the device in the U.S. because its retail partners do not see enough demand. (Abary did not specify if the Ativ Tab will be launched in non-U.S. markets). → Read More

January 10th, 2013

ScottEVest Shows Off Their Latest Pocket-Ful Travel Jacket

SCOTTEVEST Demo at CES

As geeks, it’s hard for us to carry all of our geek accoutrements to our various geek events. That’s why I, for one, love ScottEVest: they’re durable, fun, and pocket-ful pieces of clothing for the nerd on the go. → Read More

January 10th, 2013

Withings Shows Off Its New Smart Scale And Smart Activity Tracker At CES [Video]

Withings was one of a pretty busy section of the CES 2013 show floor demoing health, fitness and lifestyle monitoring apps, and it had a couple of new things to add to its line of Wi-Fi scales and monitoring devices. One was the new Withings Smart Body Analyzer, which is a version of its Wi-Fi scale that, for the first time, measures heart rate. The other was the Smart Activity Tracker, a… → Read More