We are back. The Engadget team sent a dozen staffers to Las Vegas this week, including reporters, editors and videographers, after they canceled their plans to attend the Consumer Electronics Show in 2020. It is too early to say how many stories and videos we have published, but suffice to say it was a lot. The show was busy enough that it felt like a return to form for the tech industry as a whole.
This year marks the first time in three years that we've been able to base our judgments off of a full slate of in-person hands-on experiences. The Best of the Best is one of the 12 awards we are giving out this year. Our awards try to capture what people will be talking about for weeks or even months after the show is over.
We tried to get rid of the vaporware and the things that got attention for being dumb. There are multiple smart pee gadgets and a self- driving stroller that only works when the baby is not on board. If you're interested in all the frivolity, you can find all of our coverage here. You are in the right place for the good stuff.
Rather than showing up to the Consumer Electronics Show with a beauty product that has been downloaded millions of times, L'Oréal came up with an invention that will be useful to millions of people. Hapta was created by the cosmetics company and Verily, which makes stabilizing and leveling utensils for people with limited mobility. Those with limited finger dexterity or strength can use the grip-and-gimbal system to apply lipstick. Though there are some quirks the company needs to iron out before releasing the Hapta in December, it's impressive that this is both a finished product and has a relatively affordable suggested retail price. It is a device that caters to an often overlooked group of consumers and can be expanded to work with more makeup applications. The Hapta is the most unique and helpful accessibility product we've seen so far.
Project Leonardo is Sony's first piece of gaming hardware designed for people with limited motor control and it looks pretty neat. Project Leonardo is a controller kit that works out of the box with the PS5. The controllers can either lie flat on a table or be mounted on a tripod, and they can be combined with a dualsense to make a single gamepad.
The new PS5 accessory was built with the help of advocacy organizations such as Able Gamers and SpecialEffect. Project Leonardo is a positive step for accessibility tech in video games, a market that is filled with surprises and is poised for growth in the years to come.
Valencell has been making optical heart-rate sensors for years, but at the Consumer Electronics Show it unveiled a new monitor that is cuffless. This clip uses photoplethysmography to measure blood flow. This information is combined with the user's age, weight, gender and height to make a blood pressure measurement. Valencell's technique of combining data makes for the most compelling device yet. The FDA is expected to approve the over-the-counter version of the blood pressure monitor.
The Signature OLED M3 is a 97-inch 4K giant and was the star of the show at the Consumer Electronics Show. The tech inside of the M3 is the most interesting thing about it. The M3 is designed to receive video and audio via a separate box that can be placed up to 30 feet away from the television. Outside of a power cord, the M3 itself is cable-free; instead you plug your media streamers, cable box or game consoles into the breakouts box, and all of it is beamed over a wireless link.
According to the company, the Zero connect standard can provide three times the speed of the internet. One eARC port is included in the Zero Connect box, as well as threeHDMI ports that can play in 4K at 120Hz. In our brief experience with the set, the signal quality remained steady even in a crowded room, despite the fact that it requires line-of- sight to work. It could provide an exciting new level ofVersatility if Zero Connect can eventually make its way down to the more affordable TVs of the more well known brands.
We haven't seen a laptop design like this since the original Surface Pro 10 years ago. There are some issues that need to be fixed, but the potential of this new design is very high. The Yoga Book is more than a standard clamshell when you prop it up. It is possible to have two screens on top of each other. In standard laptop mode, you can choose between a virtual or a detachable keyboard, with built-in stylus support, and also have the freedom to make your own settings. Traditional laptops simply can't match it's level of flexibility. This dual-screen notebook is coming out this spring so we can see how it will fare in the real world.
When Apple added MagSafe charging to the iPhone, it created an incredibly simple and convenient way to juice up its phones. At the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Wireless Power Consortium has released details on the Qi2 charging standard that will bring similar functions to the rest of the phone market. Magnetic Power Profiles will pave the way for handy charging disks that can snap onto the back of your phone, and it will also allow for important features such as foreign object detection and up to 15- watt charging with the potential to raise power output even further. When it arrives on retail devices later this year in Q4 2023, it shouldn't be a weak MagSafe knock-off.
The cutesy department tends to be missing when it comes to robot pets. The futuristic companion from KEYi has an adorable thing locked down. The real magic of Loona is that it is smart enough to not run into walls or off of countertops in your home. You can do a lot with a small display, four wheels and twoears.
Beyond her charms, Loona comes loaded with sensors for responding to your voice, gestures and touch, as well as a collection of games that turn the virtual pet into a clever companion. The same sensors make her a capable home security bot and something of a tool for kids to use in school.
You have a capable home robot that loves being tickled. James Trew is the Editor-at- Large.
Baking can feel like a juggling act if the recipe is not perfect. We were impressed by GE Profile's Smart Mixer, which has a built-in scale to accurately weigh ingredients, plus voice control, so you don't have to push buttons when your hands aren't occupied. The Smart Mixer has a motor that is fast enough to whip up emulsions. It gets its smart home edge from that scale and app.
Over a dozen step-by-step recipes are offered in the app component. App guidance for cooking is nothing new, but here the mixer knows what you are making and will adjust mixing speeds as needed to make sure everything is perfect.
The scale, timer and voice control are more popular with bakers. The mixer's current speed setting can be seen on the front-facing digital display. You can change that setting if you have a smart speaker linked to it. The suite of innovative smart features made this one of the more memorable smart home gadgets we saw at the show.
The Ram 1500 is charging into the 21st century with a "revolutionary" battery electric pickup concept. The Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept is a sleek and aggressive design. The BEV concept has a dual motor, four wheel steering, animated grille emblems, and badging. There is an integrated movie projector, as well as a Shadow Mode that trains the truck to follow behind its driver from a safe distance.
If this feature were to be used on job sites, workers would no longer have to get in and out of the truck multiple times. The BEV Concept won't be entering production, but it will be used in the design of the Ram 1500 EV, which will launch next year with a fully electric Jeep.
At the show, tier-one manufacturers show off the latest and greatest in TV technology, giving us a glimpse of how normal people will be able to deck out their home theater setup once the tech goes mainstream. Even though Sony didn't show off any new TVs this year, it was no different than previous years. The advancement of its MicroLED TVs was the most significant in the year. The company's 146-inch TV dubbed "The Wall" cost as much as a house, but now they're bringing it to 50 and 63-inch TVs that will fit in people's living rooms. The cost will be prohibitive for all but the wealthy, but hopefully in a few years we will see these screens available at a price more households can afford.
It takes technology beyond the wrist-bound devices we are used to and puts it on your hips and shoulders. The company showed off the Apogee exosuit at the Consumer Electronics Show. The Apogee exosuit helps workers complete physical tasks with less strain on their bodies. The suit can help reduce fatigue by reducing the load on the lower back.
The Apogee is German Bionics lightest exosuit to date and it is designed to be worn for long periods of time. The company's IO architecture constantly collects and analyzes data about workers' activity while they're wearing the suit so it can give feedback via the onboard display or audio alert when unsafe movements are detected. We are almost disappointed that the Apogee will only be available in warehouses and other commercial settings, as many of our staffers suffer from chronic back pain and want to give it a try.
Project Leonardo is Sony's first piece of gaming hardware designed specifically for people with disabilities and it is a positive step in the world of accessibility tech. Project Leonardo is a controller kit that will be plug-and-play with the PS5 and will work in conjunction with existing Sony hardware. The controller kit has two circular game pads lined with swappable buttons.
The controllers were designed so that they don't need to be held, and they can be mounted on a tripod or stand. It's possible to pair the controllers with the dualsense to turn all three devices into a single game pad.
Microsoft had a similar partnership with advocacy organizations to build its new adaptive controller. Sony is taking advantage of the opportunity to expand the PS5 player base while making its hardware more inclusive, and we're likely to hear more about the controller kit in the coming months.
Project Leonardo is at the forefront of the market for accessibility tech in video games and is poised for growth in the years to come.
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