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Vuzix has been a regular at CES for years , crafting head-mounted displays and smartglasses often aimed at businesses -- or very enthused wearable fans . The Vuzix Blade, its latest pair of augmented reality spectacles, tries to balance that B2B / consumer sales pitch by adding a voice assistant. Amazon Alexa's newest home is a pair of smartglasses. Firstly, the crush of a CES evening show is never the best place to test out a voice assistant: You need a strong connection to make her receptive to your requests. So, pretty much all my Alexa queries fell on deaf robot ears. Fortunately, the Blade worked in every other way -- and most of us know how Alexa works by now, so I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt. A Vuzix spokesman reiterated that the smartglasses work with every Alexa skill open to developers. If you can do it with a smart speaker, then you can do it with these. The Blade has one advantage over your audio-only Echo speaker, however. In typical Vuzix fashion, th...

Skincare company Foreo is adding a bit of tech into a beloved pampering ritual with its new UFO and UFO Mini devices. The company is calling these smart masks, and UFO stands for Ur Future Obsession -- both of which are sort of misnomers. The UFOs are more like palm-sized pucks that vibrate, similar to the Neutrogena Wave cleansers . You attach a mini sheet mask, which Foreo is selling at $9.99 for seven, and rub the device all over your face. During this, the UFO is going through a preset cycle -- heating up for 30 seconds, followed by a period of vibrating, and finishing with 30 seconds of cooling down. There are benefits to having these extras when applying a sheet mask -- the heat opens up your skin's pores to help you better absorb the juicy goodness. A light ring on the UFO also glows red, green and blue to signal whether you're in the heat, vibrate or cool phases respectively. But they also offer other benefits. The red light is supposed to stimulate collagen product...

After adding new features like live TV and DVR (with automated commercial removal ), news and Android Auto support over the last year, Plex didn't seem to bring anything new during tonight's CES event. However, soon the streaming platform will add another new element as it tries to cover all media consumed across devices: podcasts. We spoke to co-founder Scott Olechowski, who explained that when it launches, users won't need a server, and as you'd expect with Plex , it will sync access across devices like desktop and mobile. "Where it makes sense" you can expect downloads for offline listening as well. What could come next, however, is the integration of podcasts with other media accessible on Plex, like TV shows and movies. For example, if you get deep into a new show, it could suggest the official podcast, a fan cast or even a related online video series. By working with content creators to add their shows directly to Plex, it could make its platform e...

The folks at Merge picked a fitting name for their augmented-reality company, considering that their latest product combines the fun of Nerf guns with the fantasy of first-person shooters. The 6DoF Blaster is a lightweight plastic gun with four clickable buttons, including the trigger, and a space for a smartphone to rest horizontally across its top. The game plays out on the screen, with players ducking, walking and shooting as if the action were taking place in the real world. The game Merge is showing off for the 6DoF Blaster looks a lot like Superhot , and it's a lot of fun. Players shoot neon robots in a simplistic 3D environment, and the extra buttons allow them to zoom in, slow down time and reload in an instant. It plays seamlessly, following crouching and walking movements just fine. Think of it like a Nerf gun, but without the mess of squishy bullets to pick up when the fun is done. The 6DoF Blaster will cost about $30 when it's available this summer (in a few dif...

Sony revived its robodog series late last year, offering a limited first run of next-generation Aibos for keen Japanese fans. Despite a killer $1,800 price-tag , the company apparently sold plenty, and those preordered Aibos are finally on their way to their new owners. Finally, the company has brought the new robotic pet out of Japan, and while I could coo in Aibo's general direction, unfortunately no petting was allowed. Regardless, it was disarmingly cute. The dog dunderstood a handful of English-language directions, including hand-shaking and commands to sit. The revived Aibo has cute, glassy OLED eyes and a camera inside its nose, which can act as a webcam for your home when you're away. The robopup contains a quad-core CPU, built-in LTE and WiFi, as well as motors and gyroscopes to augment the 22 different articulated parts. It has speaker for robotic yips and yaps and four microphones to pick up voice commands -- something it was capable of doing despite the noise o...

Makeblock , a maker of Lego-compatible electronic blocks to teach kids how to code, has ventured into robotics. At CES 2018, it's showing off the Codey Rocky , a cute little robot that serves to be your coding companion. It boasts easy to-use robotics hardware plus a graphical programming interface so even your precocious little six-year-old can get started on her engineering career. The face of the Codey Rocky is comprised of blue LEDs that light up to look a bit like pixel-based art. Underneath are three buttons labeled A, B and C respectively, plus a speaker. The overall construction is made out of a high gloss plastic and the wheel portion of it is comprised of army tank-like treads. What's especially cool is that there's a module on the back that shares the same pogo pins as the rest of the Makeblock lineup, so you can easily attach it to not just Makeblock materials but also standard Lego bricks. Ah, but the Codey Rocky is not just a robot. Snap the detachable fac...

Last year at CES, router specialist Linksys revealed its take on home mesh networking . Each tri-band 'Velop' tower could serve as a router, range extender, access point and bridge, giving you ultra-fast connectivity in every corner of your home. The only problem? They were fairly expensive — not everyone wants to spend $500 on a three-node bundle. If you fall into this camp, fear not — Velop is working on a cheaper, but slower dual-band mesh system too. The new towers are slightly smaller and will work with any tri-band module you might have already purchased. Bingo. To get into the nitty-gritty for a moment — each node is a Dual-Band AC 2x2 802.11ac Wave 2 with MU-MIMO radio configuration, delivering combined speeds of up to 1300 Mbps. You can monitor your network through a companion app or by using a selection of custom Velop Alexa skills. I was able to get up close with the new dual-band nodes at CES. They look, well, just like the old ones — plain and plastic, with few...

It's been almost three months since Intel announced a 17-qubit superconducting chip, meant to pave the way for a future powered by quantum computers. Today at CES, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich showed off its latest superconducting test chip, the 49-qubit "Tangle Lake." Off the bat, let's be clear: quantum computing is still quite theoretical, and it's estimated that we'll need to over a million qubits to have something viable. Dr. Michael Mayberry, corporate vice president and managing director of Intel Labs, predicts it will be "five to seven years" before the industry even begins to tackle the problems of engineering such vastly complex chips. In addition to working on superconducting qubits, Intel is also investing in "spin qubits," a relatively new development which requires (bear with us) quantum control of the electron and the nuclear spin of a single atom in silicon. The benefit of spin qubit chips is they should be much smaller th...

Rokid's AR glasses aren't ready for public consumption, but the company is releasing them this year anyway. Rokid is an AI company based in China and it's made a name for itself building smart home products, but its latest gadget is a pair of frames that aim to be the AR glasses of our sci-fi dreams. Right now, however, their functionality is limited. The Rokid glasses respond to basic hand gestures like sliding tiles of a menu left and right simply by swiping the air, or selecting one by making a fist. The images appear in the upper-right corner of the lenses, superimposed over the real world. The images are clear enough to read the bold, basic text on them, but they're far from high-def. The coolest thing Rokid's lenses can do at the moment is facial recognition, with contact information appearing for any face you've programmed in. For now, that's about it. The Rokid glasses are more streamlined than a complete headset like HoloLens or even the Magic ...

Intel built a high-tech soundstage in Los Angeles for capturing volumetric video in real-time. More than that, the chipmaker has forged an "exploratory partnership" with Paramount Pictures to see what's possible with the technology that can capture a scene from pretty much any point of view -- even that of a horse during a Wild West shootout. Paramount's chairman Jim Gianopolulos said that he thinks filmmakers will adapt to the technology well. The slow-mo panning (think The Matrix 's bullet-time shots) and perspective-swapping might not have a place in traditional movies, but VR tie-ins could benefit from the data-rich tech. The chipmaker has spent over a year building out the 25,000 square-foot studio with 10,000 square feet dedicated just for video capture. To house all the data generated from shooting, there are 10 petabytes of local storage. Needless to say, if you're making 360 degree video, this is where you'll want to shoot. Click here to c...

Now that Intel's MobilEye acquisition is complete , the tech titan is ready to get the ball rolling. In fact, we might see semi-autonomous vehicles powered by MobilEye's Road Experiment Management (REM) system as soon as this year. Intel has signed contracts with 11 carmakers, which will use the Level 2+ autonomous driving tech MobilEye developed, on vehicles slated to be released throughout 2018 and 2019. This particular technology will add semi-autonomous features, such as simple braking, steering and acceleration, to cars. It's worth noting, though, that REM was created to make fully autonomous cars possible, and that's still Intel's ultimate goal. Intel and MobilEye will also begin gathering data to create near real-time maps for autonomous driving systems. They'll be relying on the software built into MobilEye's EyeQ4 system-on-a-chip that's embedded in 2 million cars -- BMWs, VWs, Nissans and other brands -- already on the road. The chip will ...

Dabs aren't just for Cam Newton. It's also a great way to consume cannabis concentrates. Problem is, dabbing traditionally requires the use of either a butane blowtorch and titanium nail or a clunky electronic heating ring (aka enails). But no longer! With the advent of the Peak by Puffco, consuming concentrates is now as easy as pressing a button. The Peak is to concentrates as the Pax 3 is to looseleaf vaping -- that is, dead simple. The rig itself stands under a foot tall and weighs a bit over a pound. The battery needs just 2 hours to fully charge and offers between 25 and 30 hits before it depletes. You just need to add the concentrate of your preference -- whether its shatter, crumble, wax, or oil -- to the heating chamber, double click the the activation button. The rig requires only 20 seconds to fully heat, regardless of which of the four temperature settings you've selected. That's magnitudes faster than enails and far safer than wielding a blowtorch. Wha...

The potential impact of the major processor security flaw that went public last week can't be understated. But hardware and software companies alike have been quick to patch fixes for the first two reported exploits, Meltdown and Spectre. Intel, which to date is the company most affected by the exploits, already committed to patching "90 percent" of affected processors made in the past five years by the end of this week. Today on stage at CES, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich promised the remaining 10 percent would see fixes by the end of the month. "We believe the performance impact of these updates is highly workload dependent," Krzanich said, referring to claims that processors may be slowed by as much as 30 percent as a result of the fixes. "We expect some may have a larger impact than others, so we'll continue working with the industry to minimize the impact on those workloads over time." Krzanich reiterated Intel's stance that there's n...

Normally when you think Intel, your mind wanders to computer chips and those four tones from their commercials. You definitely don't imagine Ferraris racing around a track with drones overhead capturing video and analyzing it with AI. But that's exactly what's going to happen. At CES, the chipmaker unveiled a partnership with Ferrari North America to deploy during races video-capturing drones that use artificial intelligence. The captured footage will be analyzed in real time and offer up telematic information to drivers and their crews to help them tighten up lap times. Intel also says that the data can be used by broadcasters to help create a race narrative with data not previously available to TV crews. Of course, the data could also be shared with viewers interested in stats about individual drivers or how the whole pack is taking a certain corner. Intel says the data gleaned from the cars will be far more detailed than anything a human could produce since the AI ...

Nokia has announced the Nokia Sleep, a bed sensor that sits under your mattress to provide you with data about what you get up to while unconscious. Like many of its rivals, the device will track your sleep duration, interruptions and the quality of the shut-eye you're getting each night. In addition, the pad integrates with IFTTT, letting you automate your smart home to operate in tandem with your rest periods. If you're having trouble sleeping, then you will also be entitled to try out an eight-week course on improving your sleep, designed by Dr. Christopher Winter. Those with long memories will remember that Withings, which Nokia bought in 2016 , produced a device that was pretty much this, called the Aura . Back then, the Aura was a combination lamp and bed sensor that worked in tandem to help you get better sleep. The lamp would blast you with red light to help you doze off in the evenings, waking you with whiter and bluer shades the following morning. The bed sensor wo...

Some of Samsung's biggest announcements broke cover before the company's big CES press conference, but that didn't stop a parade of execs from sharing their vision of a Samsung-fueled future. If they have their way, we'll be brainstorming on connected whiteboards , commuting in DRVLINE -powered autonomous cars and talking to Bixby a lot . More than anything, though, Samsung tried to paint a picture of how it will take all of its disparate products and weave them together into a cohesive ecosystem — it's fascinating stuff, but we're not sure the presentation had to be an hour long. To prove it (and to help you easily catch up on the company's biggest news), we put together a 12-minute supercut you can check out above. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018. via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2qJzEZB"

Netgear is rolling out two new products designed for hardcore gamers . Launched today at CES 2018, the Nighthawk Pro Gaming WiFi Router (XR500) and Nighthawk Pro Gaming SX10 10G/Multi-Gig LAN Switch (GS810EMX) have been designed for heavy-duty, uninterrupted gameplay, offering best in class features neatly packaged in formidable black casing. The Pro Gaming Router streams simultaneously to multiple devices on the same network, so you can game online at the same time as your friends without eating up one another's performance. Its geo filter guarantees a local connection and lets you create preferred server lists, while the Dual-Core 1.7GHz processor supports multiple devices for better 4K streaming . It's pretty nippy, too, with up to 800+1733 Mbps wireless speeds and dual-band WiFi doubling available bandwidth. Plus there's the usual network tools that let you check for performance-hogging devices and view real-time usage across multiple parameters. The Pro Gaming Swi...

Once again, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich is ushering in the beginning of CES with a major keynote. This year, the big focus is on data and it's "power to transform the world." But we also hope that he says more about how Intel plans to tackle the fallout from Meltdown and Spectre . We also expect to hear plenty about how Intel is using data in its artificial intelligence initiatives. And of course, the company will likely highlight some of its upcoming products. In particular, we hope to see Krzanich demo machines using the new 8th generation Core CPU with AMD RX Vega M graphics . Join us at 6:30pm PT/9:30pm ET when the keynote kicks off. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018. via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2D3wMJI"

The first official keynote speech of CES will come courtesy of Intel CEO Brian Krzanich , who will surely discuss "how data is transforming the world around us," autonomous vehicles and AI, but there's a significant elephant in the room. This speech comes just days after the Meltdown and Spectre CPU exploits were revealed, and surely the exec will want to address his company's response. Watch what happens with a live video stream embedded below (or read along on our liveblog ) that starts at 9:30 PM ET. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018. via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2CFEloR"