The Morning After: Thursday, January 11th 2018


Hey, good morning!

CES 2018 day two was interrupted by a two-hour power cut. It was as ridiculous as you'd imagine: The world's biggest tech show meets a severe lack of electricity. Rest assured, we had time on either side to delve deeper into this year's biggest incoming tech.

Big news from CESLights out at CES 2018

Possibly the worst thing that could happen at a tech show: Power went down across several halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center during this morning's CES at 11:15 PT. Multiple booths suffered power outages, including swaths of TVs at LG. The South Hall was also affected as people were stopped getting to and from the exhibition areas. Security staff told Engadget that a power outage affected the majority of the halls. We looked at the resultant mess.

A projector with an expensive marble topSony's $30,000 4K short-throw projector hides powerful sound

We've been eying Sony's short-throw projectors for the past few years, but they've always been too obscenely expensive to really take seriously. Well, that's not changing this year. In fact, the new LSPX-A1 is actually more expensive than last year's $25,000 model at $30,000. But, with that extra cost comes a major new feature: six speakers that simulate 360-degree atmospheric sound.

Abyss Creations debuts its second robotic RealDoll at CES 2018There's a new sex robot in town: Say hello to Solana

RealDoll's first sex robot, at her home in Southern California. It was an arresting experience that has remained cemented in my memory. In that moment, I suddenly understood the uncanny valley, a theory posited by roboticist Masahiro Mori, nearly half a century ago. In it, he attempted to explain the feeling of revulsion and eeriness that humans experience when they encounter an artificial life form that appears nearly, but not quite human.

Oblivious attendees might have been the best part.Netflix hid a fake biotech booth in the middle of CES

To promote its new show, Netflix established a fictional exhibitor booth deep within Las Vegas Convention Center -- and it worked a little too well.

The encryption debate rages on.FBI chief says phone encryption is a 'major public safety issue'

The FBI's stance on phone encryption hasn't changed even if the president fired former director James Comey. At a cybersecurity conference in New York, current chief, Christopher Wray, reiterated that the agency failed to access the content inside 7,775 devices within the fiscal year that ended on September 30th, 2017 despite having the proper warrants. That's over half the devices the FBI tried to crack open within that period, making encryption, according to Wray, a "major public safety issue."

But wait, there's more...

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