Day two of CES, January 8, brought a lot of new and innovative things to the table. Some of my favorite products:
The Pebble was revealed – it’s an e-paper watch for iPhone and Android. You can pre-order them for $150 in five colors (the other two are orange and grey). The watch connects to your phone via Bluetooth, which means that you don’t even have to think about it. The company says that “while designing Pebble, we strove to create a minimalist yet fashionable product that seamlessly blends into everyday life.” I’m not a watch girl at all, but this is pretty awesome – you can use the watch for fitness tracking, to control your music, and even a golf rangefinder. The watch also has customizable faces and apps for download, and you can even program your own apps for your Pebble.
Facecake’s Swivel allows you to virtually try on clothes, different hairstyles and colors, and varied makeup styles without ever taking off what you’re wearing or making a horrible dyeing mistake (and I’m sure we’ve all been there). You can move around and the clothes and accessories will move with you. Pretty sweet if you want to see what something will look like on you – nothing can replace actually feeling how something fits, but this is a great first step to see if the colors work for you and things like that.
Lexus showed its prototype of a driverless car, joining companies among Google and Audi (I’m not sure if I want Google designing a car – seems like it’s out of their scope). Lexus emphasized that the car is still only a prototype and that we shouldn’t expect to see any on the road anytime soon. I think it would freak me out to see a car on the road with no one behind the wheel, but the concept is awesome to even think about. Lexus says that its ultimate goal “goal is to eliminate future traffic fatalities and injuries.” General Manager Mark Templin went on to say that “Technology is important, but technology alone is not the answer. Our vision isn’t necessarily a car that drives itself, but rather a car equipped with an intelligent, always-attentive co-pilot whose skills contribute to safer driving.” So, basically, we’re getting our very own KITT. Someday.
Kingston is developing the very first 1-terabyte flash drive, making it the largest one on the market. The price is unknown so far, but for reference, the company’s 512GB drive retails for $1,750…so this isn’t going to be affordable for the average person. I guess you’d never have to buy another flash drive again though.
The Puzzlebox Orbit is a brain-controlled helicopter. I didn’t know I wanted one of these until just now, but come on, guys. The project was funded through a Kickstarter, which is awesome. Puzzlebox has been producing the helicopters for the past two years for classroom and television use, but now you can own one too! The helicopter uses Brain-Control Interface (BCI) to control it. According to Puzzlebox, the helicopter works like this: “A NeuroSky MindWave Mobile EEG headset is required to communicate with the device over Bluetooth. Our software then extracts and visualizes your brainwaves in realtime. Command signals are issued to the Puzzlebox Orbit via an infrared adapter connected to the audio port (for compatibility with Apple’s iOS).” It basically runs on awesome.
Last but not least, Razer is coming out with a gaming tablet called the Razer Edge (formerly Project Fiona). The tablet was designed specifically with gamers in mind and runs on Windows 8. Razer also solicited a huge amount of feedback from gamers, so the Razer is a real crowdsourced effort. There will be two models available, the Razer Edge and the Razer Edge Pro, starting at $999. You can use it with a gamepad, a keyboard, or as a tablet. It also has multi-touch technology.
Stay tuned to Nerdy But Flirty for a roundup of CES day three!