Over the past year an trend is happening with midrange Android phones: They are becoming more niche targeting consumers with a feature that’s not designed for everyone. That’s the case with the Moviphone a midrange Android device with a built-in projector: No mods needed.
The company Wireless Mobi Solution (WMS) from San Diego introduced the Moviphone at CES 2018.
As the name so rudimentarily suggests, it’s all about movies. And what better way to watch a movie than projecting it onto a wall as big as you can? The 50-lumen projector supports a 720p HD image that can be projected up 100 inches in size.
Watch this: Moviphone looks like a OnePlus 5 with a built-in projector 1:25
The projector simply mirrors whatever is on the screen. If you’re watching Netflix or YouTube on the phone’s display, it’s projected. If you have a PowerPoint presentation or just want to show off some snaps, then they go up on the wall.
The 720p HD projector can project an image up to a 100 inches big.Josh Miller/CNET
What’s exciting about the Moviphone is when the projector is off, you would never know the phone had one. Svelte, with a 5.5-inch display, it looks like a OnePlus 5 had a phone baby with a Motorola Z2 Play.
The Moviphone is unlocked and comes with 128GB of storage. It has a fingerprint reader on the back — conveniently located in the middle like a Google Pixel 2. It runs a stock version of Android Nougat and is available now for $599, which converts to about £445 or AU$765, from the WMS website. Part of the reason WMS is at CES is to connect with carriers and third-party retailers in hopes of having the Moviphone become more widely available.
All the new phones at CES 201833 PHOTOS
We only had a quick look at the Moviphone, but look forward to testing one out more in-depth.
CES 2019 is almost here and Earthquake Sound would like to announce that we are teaming up with SimXperience this year. We will have a SimXperience Stage 4 Motion Racing Simulator Kit equipped with full roll, pitch, yaw, and G-Force simulation. Those who can attend CES this year will have the opportunity to demo some of the latest racing simulation products from SimXperience. In addition, we have our own personal touch with some of our products to further enhance this virtual racing experience such as the MPower 8 and award-winning Supernova MKVI.
Beyond the standard 2.1 setup, Earthquake’s Q10B and MQB-1 tactile transducers will be placed on the simulator to provide you with the most immersive racing experience you will ever have by simulating road noise, impact, RPM and much more. We invite all who can attend to stop by our booth and witness what our technologies can do for virtual reality. Earthquake Sound is shaking things up at CES so come by for one hell of a test drive.
Not only were we impressed by Chinese electric car maker Byton’s M-Byte concept SUV in general, but its cabin, which featured a 49-inch LCD dashboard display, wowed us too. The screen, which the company calls its Shared Experience Display, can be viewed by all passengers. And when the car switches to autonomous mode, the display can show entertainment content in addition to driving info.
Byton demoed the same car and its display at MWC Shanghai in June and in August, the company began to test drive the car on tracks located in Nanjing, China, under real-world traffic conditions. Byton aims to kick off production of the M-Byte by Fall 2019.
RoboSense http://www.robosense.ai, a leader in LiDAR perception technology solutions and CES 2019 Innovation Award Honoree, announced today that next week at CES 2019, they will publicly demonstrate an upgraded version of their MEMS solid-state LiDAR, anautomotive grade solid-state LiDAR designed for the mass production of autonomous vehicles. The new RS-LiDAR-M1 with patented MEMS technology offers ground-breaking vehicle intelligence awareness to fully support Level 5 driverless automated driving. A breakthrough on the measurement range limit based on 905nm LiDAR with a detection distance to 200 meters, the upgraded optical system and signal processing technology brings remarkable final output point cloud effect which can now clearly recognize even small objects, such as railings and fences.
At last year’s CES 2018, RoboSense demonstrated the first generation MEMS solid-state LiDAR RS-LiDAR-M1Pre. Just four months later, in May 2018, it was loaded on the Cainiao unmanned logistics vehicle and unveiled at the Ali Cainiao Global Intelligent Logistics Conference, becoming the world’s first solid-state LiDAR for unmanned vehicles. RoboSense has already been sending the MEMS LiDAR product to the world’s top OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. At CES 2019, RoboSense will launch the new RS-LiDAR-M1, showcasing the potential of their MEMS optomechanical system design, with breakthrough improvements in detection distance, resolution, Field of View (FOV), reliability, and other RoboSense award-winning LiDAR sensing technologies.
Double the Horizontal Field of View to 120 Degrees
A major step forward from the previous version award-winning RoboSense RS-LiDAR-M1Pre, the new RS-LiDAR-M1 MEMS optomechanical LiDAR provides an increased horizontal field of view by nearly 100% compared to the previous generation, reaching an amazing 120° field of view, so that only a few RS-LiDAR-M1s are needed to cover the 360° field of view. In addition, with only five RS-LiDAR-M1s, there is no blind zone around the car with dual LiDAR sensing redundancy provided in front of the car for a L5 level of automatic driving — full driverless driving. Based on the target production cost at $200 each, the cost of five RS-LiDAR-M1 is only 1/100th the highest mechanical LiDAR available to the market, which is more in line with the cost requirements for the mass production of autonomous vehicles.
Measurement Range to 200 Meters
The battle between 1550nm and 905nm LiDAR is about cost and performance. When aiming for a low-cost 905nm LiDAR, it is necessary to overcome the technical difficulties of achieving sufficient measurement range. The RS-LiDAR-M1 achieves a breakthrough on the measurement range limit based on the 905nm LiDAR, with a detection distance to 200 meters.
A Leap Forward in Point Cloud Effect Technology — Even Small Objects
The unique RS-LiDAR-M1 LiDAR system provides massive improvements, the most remarkable being the final output point cloud effect. The M1’s detection capability is greatly improved through the upgraded optical system and signal processing technology, which can now clearly recognize even small objects, such as railings and fences.
“The RoboSense RS-LiDAR-M1 LiDAR system is a giant leap forward for driverless technology,” said Mark Qiu, Co-founder, RoboSense.“We are committed to developing high-performance automotive-grade LiDAR at a low-cost to advance the LiDAR market, so that LiDAR can be used in fully unmanned vehicles, as well as assisted autonomous driving with superior environmental information detection that ensures driving safety. ”
A CES 2019 Innovation Award Honoree, the RS-IPLS first hardware and software algorithm based solution for the mass production of safer autonomous cars includes the RS-LiDAR-M1Pre first generation RoboSense MEMS LiDAR system and AI algorithms. RoboSense will be exhibiting the new upgraded MEMS LiDAR, the RS-LiDAR-M1, at CES 2019, Booth #9310, North Hall. CES is held January 8-11, 2019 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV. For more information about RoboSense, see http://www.robosense.ai.
About RoboSense
RoboSense is the world’s leading provider of LiDAR environmental awareness solutions. Founded in 2014, the company is headquartered in Shenzhen, China, with offices in the United States, Germany, and Beijing, Shanghai, and Suzhou, China. The core R&D team comes from the world’s top universities and world-class technology companies. For many years, RoboSense’s main design team has been developing the LiDAR sensing environment based on experience in many core technical fields, such as chips, LiDAR sensors, and AI algorithms. Market-oriented, providing customers with different combinations of intelligent environment-aware LiDAR systems, RoboSense’s core products include MEMS solid-state LiDAR system technology solutions and mechanical LiDAR system technology solutions. Customers include the world’s major autonomous driving technology companies, car manufacturers, and first-tier suppliers. RoboSense’s technologies are widely employed in a variety uses, including autonomous driving logistics vehicles, buses, passenger cars, and more. RoboSense’scutting-edge LiDAR system works with you to keep your autonomous driving safe. For more information, see http://www.robosense.ai.
Status: Available, but more intended for niche commercial applications rather than consumer use
The PowerSpot transmitter powers devices like keyboards, remotes and wearables wirelessly. And when it says wirelessly, it means wirelessly — there are no charging mats here. The transmitter works by emitting radio frequency energy on a certain band. Special receivers inside other devices convert that radio energy into direct current, which power the devices and charge their batteries. The PowerSpot promises to charge up to 30 devices as far as 80 feet away.
You can purchase the PowerSpot for $100 from certain distributors, which includes a power cord and a USB wall outlet adapter. The company also plans to sell a development kit for $400.
CNET’s Scott Stein called this one of his favorite things at CES 2018. The Merge Blaster is like an AR Nerf Gun, and it lets you play Laser Tag with your iOS or Android phone. The gun also allows players six degrees of freedom and tracks movement, meaning you can duck, aim and walk around quickly.
Exact timing, price and availability is still unknown, and Merge didn’t immediately reply for a request to comment. In March, TechRadar had a chance to check out a pre-production model and said it hoped that the device would launch “later in the year.” That doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen so for now, you can settle for a Merge AR cube, a headset or some shirts at its online store.
Welcome to the unintended hassle of the internet of things.
“If you have a lot of IoT devices, you’re essentially an IT manager,” Gary Davis, McAfee’s vice president of global consumer marketing, said last month at CES 2018.
It’s telling that many security firms were at the massive gadget expo to hawk their services. CES is typically a place for companies to show off physical goods that people can buy in stores in the near future. The pitch for security as a product itself — like a new television or washing machine — underscores the growing interest and need for better protection, a notion reinforced by the wave of cyberattacks in 2017.
Keeping everything safe sounds like a hassle, but security companies are willing to make it easy — for a price.
Nearly every company I spoke with at the show boasted about how their products were the solution to looming IoT risks. But prices for that benefit ranged from $99 to $249, in some cases as an annual payment. While technically you can do it yourself, many consumers are willing to accept the premium for protection.
“It used to be hard selling security to the mass market,” said Sameer Nayar, the co-founder of Cujo Smart Firewall. “Not anymore. If it’s simple, it definitely helps sales.”
Cujo is one of the many “plug and play” security measures I spotted during CES — the sales pitch being that it’s simple enough that your grandparents or kids can figure it out. With Cujo, you don’t have to tweak your settings and manually run an antivirus scan. The firewall device plugs into your router and is supposed to protect everything that’s connected to the network. It warns you if any connected smart devices are outdated, and blocks out malicious traffic.
Like many security companies at CES, Cujo is selling itself on simplicity. The firewall costs $249 and has no subscription fees. It looks like an air freshener with LED eyes, almost as if it’s a cute assistant by your bedside table.
That’s part of Cujo’s sales approach too. Nayar said the company doesn’t want security to be this scary obstacle for people, so it gave its device a friendly robot look.
“The more barriers you can remove, the easier it becomes to sell,” he said.
The Vive Pro was a VR system that needed a high-end PC and a cable attaching the two together. But as an update to 2016’s HTC Vive, the Pro had a sharper, more higher-resolution display, built-in headphones and a redesigned headstrap.
In March, HTC announced the Vive Pro would go on sale on April 5 for $799. But that price only included the headset, not the controllers or base stations. If you wanted those required accessories, a controller cost $130 separately, and each base station is $135.
HTC later offered a Vive Pro Starter Kit bundle that included the headset, two first-generation controllers and two first-gen base stations for $1,099. There was also a Vive Pro Full Kit with second-gen controllers that briefly went on sale during this year’s Black Friday.
Also new from Razer is a trio of PC speaker sets, called the Nommo, Nommo Chroma and Nommo Pro. The first two are 2.0 PC speaker systems with three-inch drivers. The Chroma version adds, you guessed it, Razer’s Chroma lighting system. Those will be $99 and $149 in the US (converts to AU$60, £35 and AU$189, £109).
More interesting is the Nommo Pro. This $499 system (roughly AU$635, £365) is THX certified (it helps that Razer owns THX), adds a separate tweeter on top of each driver and a standalone subwoofer. The Nommo and Nommo Chroma are available now, while the Pro version doesn’t have a set release date yet.
Perhaps one of the most eye-catching demos on the show floor was an LG 4K TV. The 64-inch TV had a flexible, paper-thin display and it rolled into a tube that could fit inside a box the size of a sound bar. The TV was an iteration of a smaller, 18-inch TV that showed up at CES 2016.
The rollable TV was more of a “proof of concept” and LG didn’t offer any details about its pricing, availability or even product name. It seems as if not much has changed on the consumer end since then. As of December, LG stated that are “no updates at this point” about the TV. Bummer.
After the lights went dark in the Monte Carlo resort’s Park Theater, a buzzing army of 110 small drones with flickering red lights started to float up to the ceiling from offstage.
While Kygo‘s dreamy pop song “Stargazing” played, the drones pulled together into pulsing, swirling clouds that reached into the audience, at times forming rotating stars or shimmering sheets of light.
That was the finale of Intel’s keynote event at the CES tech show last month in Las Vegas, where CEO Brian Krzanich introduced to the world these hand-sized Shooting Star Mini drones, the next generation of drones Intel’s made specifically for drone light shows.
The chipmaker made a splash with its bigger sister Shooting Star drones at last year’s Super Bowl, with an array of 300 drones turning themselves into an American flag in the sky behind Lady Gaga during a pretaped portion of the halftime show. The new younger sibling Mini drones were built to perform light shows indoors, part of Intel’s plans to bring this new form of entertainment to many more places this year.
“This is a new way to tell storytelling in the sky, where you have a blank canvas, like a night canvas in the sky,” Natalie Cheung, Intel’s general manager of drone light shows, told me a few hours before the keynote presentation. “It’s sort of like digital fireworks.”
Now playing: Intel’s drone show turns Las Vegas into a real bright-light… 2:32
Cheung said she sees the light-show drones as offering a lot more than some passing distraction at a football game or concert. Intel plans to apply what it’s learning from light shows to industrial uses for its other drones, like coordinated drone search parties and inspections of cell towers. More broadly, Cheung views the light shows as a way of introducing drones to the general public in a more positive way, as a balance against controversies like delivery drones potentially taking away people’s jobs.
“We’re able to change how people are looking at drones,” she said. “They see it as a fascination.”
Merging tech and art
Cheung joined Intel in 2011 after graduating that year from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a master’s in electrical engineering and computer science. After a rotational program for engineers, she landed an opportunity as a research analyst for the CEO.
That led to a chat in the hallway with Krzanich in 2015 about using 100 drones to create the Intel logo in front of a company building.
“We didn’t know the answer at that time, but said OK, I think we can do this. What do we need to do to make this possible,” she said.
A close-up look at an Intel Shooting Star drone.Ben Fox Rubin/CNET
In November of that year, Cheung helped organize a team in Germany that flew 100 Hummingbird drones made by Ascending Technology, snagging a Guinness World Record for the most drones that were airborne simultaneously.
“I realized there that we were just scratching the surface and we had just gotten into something that was much bigger than I expected,” Cheung said with a Shooting Star drone sitting by her during our conversation.
After the Germany test run, Cheung took over the new light-show team and helped pulled off four international shows using 100 drones in 2016. That year, Intel also acquired Ascending Technologies and later introduced its own Shooting Star drone.
The hardware of a Shooting Star is fairly simple. The drone weighs about as much as a volleyball, is made of foam and plastic, and carries an LED payload that can flash red, green, blue or white. It doesn’t have cameras. The Shooting Star, flying outdoors, is guided by GPS, and the Mini drones use a similar tech called the Intel Indoor Location System. And, no, neither drone is available for sale to the public.
Intel built software to program groups of hundreds of these drones that can be operated by a single drone pilot, helping it create intricate moving shapes and logos for festivals, sporting events and movie premieres all over the world.
Each show can take months to plan, needing to coordinate the aerial animations, local permits and on-site preparation. To ensure safety, the drones are programmed with two geofences to protect the audience and with multiple emergency protocols, Cheung said.
Ovie Smarterware will let you know if you need to hurry up and eat that spaghetti before it goes bad. Smarterware is basically a Bluetooth button you can stick on your container of leftovers. Using it is supposedly as simple as sticking it to your container when you scoop in your leftovers, and telling Alexa what they are. Ovie’s database will take care of the rest.
Ovie Smarterware buttons can stick on your existing food containers or be used with Ovie’s own bag clips and plastic containers.Joshua Goldman/CNET
The Smarterware button made its debut at this year’s CES, and the Chicago-based startup is now launching a Kickstarter campaign with the goal of shipping it in February.
There are also specialized containers and bag clips to go along with the button, but these are just holders for the tech. The button is the star.
Smarterware will work with both Amazon’s assistant Alexa and Google’s assistant (just called Google Assistant). If you have a smart speaker with either assistant (an Amazon Echo or a Google Home, for example), you can hit the button and tell your speaker what’s in your container. Alexa and Google will communicate with Ovie’s cloud, which has a database supposedly containing all common foods and how long they tend to last in the fridge.
Pressing the button sends a Bluetooth signal to your phone, and Alexa or Google will talk to Ovie to match that particular button with the food you just identified. If you don’t have a smart speaker, you can just hit the button, then use the Ovie app to identify your food.
Once you’ve matched your button to a container of leftovers, Ovie will track the elapsed time, and a light ring on the button will slowly change from green to yellow to red as it gets closer to when you need to throw it out.
Tracking your leftovers with Alexa or Google sounds cool, and I’d also imagine the colors of the button will help you prioritize at a glance when you look at the fridge. A yellow light means you better eat up soon — and you’ll get a phone alert so you don’t forget about it.
The functionality is similar to what we’ve seen on the Samsung Family Hub fridge, but instead of spending thousands for a new appliance, a three-pack of buttons will cost $90 when Smarterware hits the market. The price converts to roughly £67 and AU$119.
