CES 2013

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CES 2013
Toshiba's Smart TVs Become Cloud TVs
Barb Gonzalez  |  Jan 08, 2013  |  1 comments
Toshiba is taking their Smart TV streaming capabilities a step further, announcing that their new TVs will have the Toshiba "Cloud TV." A list of features includes a Toshiba server based system for ongoing upgradability.

The Smart TV ePortal hub has a redesigned multi-page ePortal for "ease of use." The ePortal not only displays streaming media apps, it now includes a constantly updating news feed, weather, personal messaging and a family calendar. There is also a new MediaGuide with recommendations of TV shows and movies that you might like to watch.

All Toshiba Cloud TVs work with their wireless keyboard with touchpad accessory that is included with the L7300 TV models and above.

To make it easier to stream media from other devices, the Cloud TVs feature "Miracast" to mirror Android tablets and phones to the TV and are WiDi enabled to use the TV as a second display for your laptop.

The Cloud TV was announced at a mixer Sunday night where Toshiba demonstrated the features of its new TV line. While I'm not a fan of playing games on a TV, a poker game they demonstrated looked fun. Each player connects using the KontrolTV app on their device or on the Toshiba TV and can see their poker hand. Rather than challenging one other player, a group of friends or family can play.

CES 2013
Terk Digital Antenna With Roku
Barb Gonzalez  |  Jan 08, 2013  |  1 comments
Although the idea of a digital antenna to receive over-the-air broadcasts with a built in media streamer makes odd bedfellows, it could be the answer to cutting the cable cord. Voxx Accessories announced that it is developing a digital TV antenna with Roku streaming capabilities. The product will be released under the RCA and Terk brands.

Part of Voxx's Roku-Ready partnership, the photo showed a Roku stick attached to a flat omnidirectional powered antenna. It is slated to be released in the fourth quarter of 2013. Few other details are available and I have a lot of questions about how it will work.

For now, it looks like a great solution for TV viewers who like network broadcast TV and a variety of streaming movie options like those available from Roku. We'll keep you posted as we get more details.

CES 2013
High-Tech TV: Samsung Announces First OLED & Ultra HD TVs
Bob Ankosko  |  Jan 08, 2013  |  2 comments
Samsung helped usher in a new era of television on the eve of CES 2013 with the announcement of two next-generation TVs: the super-sleek 85-inch S9 Ultra High Definition (UHD) TV, boasting four times the resolution of today’s 1080p sets, and the 55-inch F9500 OLED TV with a Multi-View feature that enables two people to watch different programs simultaneously from the same screen. Pricing and availability was not announced for either model.

The S9 (shown) boasts a striking design with a screen that appears to float within a frame. Highlights include “extremely high contrast ratio,” a proprietary upscaling engine that converts high-def images to UHD quality, and a 1.35 GHz quad-core processor that’s more than three times faster than last year’s processor for improved content/app multitasking. The set has enhanced voice and gesture control and uses a new version of Samsung’s Smart Hub interface with five content discovery panels that appear onscreen as thumbnail images.

At the heart of the F9500 OLED TV are self-emitting red, green and blue sub-pixels that eliminate the need for backlighting, which is said to ensure absolute blacks and pure whites with no motion blur. The Multi-View feature is enabled by special 3D glasses with built-in speakers that deliver a personalized audio experience. The set also uses a quad-core processor and the updated Smart Hub interface.

CES 2013
CES 2013: Sony Press Event
Al Griffin  |  Jan 07, 2013  |  0 comments

Breaking with tradition, Sony’s press event at CES was a celeb-free affair. No Will Smith, no Taylor Swift, no that guy who acted in the most recent Spider-Man movie. The star of the show was clearly the company’s new Xperia Z smartphone, but I’m not going to talk about that. What I am going to discuss is 4K, aka “Ultra HD,” as the rest of the industry seems to be calling it. 

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CES 2013
Wireless NuVo System Doesn’t Stream – It Gushes
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Jan 07, 2013  |  0 comments
Call it a wireless musical gulleywasher. NuVo’s (accurately but very dryly named “Wireless Audio System”) uses both dual-band Wi-Fi and MIMO technologies to transmit up to 16 simultaneous audio streams at 600 kbps each, a feat that NuVo claims is the highest throughput of any Wi-Fi music network system. The system connects to home networks to play iTunes and Windows Media libraries and to the internet to access streaming services (Pandora, Rhapsody, SiriusXM, etc.) The system consists of three primary components, including two music player devices with built-in stereo amplifiers (P200, 60-watts x 2; and P100, 20-watts x2) and a network gateway (GW100). The P200 includes built-in aptX Bluetooth technology for wireless music streaming from tablets and smartphones. Each GW100 gateway has a range of about 300 ft (enough to cover an “average” 4,000 sq ft home), and multiple GW100s can be used in combination for larger homes. Prices are: P200, $599; P100, $479; GW100, $199. And, unlike when I first saw (and really liked) the system at CEDIA last year, NuVo says the Wireless Audio System is shipping now.
CES 2013
CES 2013: Sharp Stays Big
Geoffrey Morrison  |  Jan 07, 2013  |  0 comments

Sharp wanted to be the name in massive flat panel TVs, and that it achieved. With other companies “making do” with 65-inch TVs, Sharp’s 70-, 80-, and 90-inch models make them seem puny.

Lots of models, after the jump.

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CES 2013
iFork You
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Jan 07, 2013  |  0 comments
Just when you thought eating utensils couldn’t get any better than the plastic spork, HAPILABS develops the HAPIfork – “an electronic fork that monitors your eating habits…and alerts you with the help of indicator lights and gentle vibrations when you are eating too fast.” In addition to larding it over the knife and spoon, the HAPIfork also connects to your iOS/Android/Windows device and keeps track of your eating performance, or you can use an online dashboard at HAPILABS website. (Now that I think of it, it could also be used to aid in training aspiring eating contest champions…) The HAPIfork has a unique HAPIbutton that lets you track HAPImoments by pressing and holding in the HAPIbutton from 1 (“meh”) to 10 (“orgasmic”) seconds. No doubt the next HAPIgadget to appear will be a HAPIremote that will warn you when you’ve been sitting on your butt for too long in front of the TV. It should also track how often you change the channel. And how often your family fights over who gets to hold the remote control.
CES 2013
Dish Adds Sling Capability to its Hopper DVR
Bob Ankosko  |  Jan 07, 2013  |  0 comments
Dish, the satellite TV provider that pleased TV viewers and upset broadcasters last year with the introduction of the Hopper DVR that automatically skips commercials on recorded prime-time shows, today introduced a second-generation Hopper with built-in Sling capability. The upgraded box lets users watch and control live TV and DVR recordings from smartphones, tablets and PCs, essentially replicating the living room TV experience wherever they go, and has built-in Wi-Fi for accessing a home network. Dish also upgraded processor speed to 1.3 GHz, which is said to deliver the fastest guide scrolling in the pay-TV industry.

Dish officials said the new Hopper, which has a 2-terabyte hard drive that holds more than 500 hours of high-def programming, will be offered to new customers at the same price as its predecessor with no monthly fee for the Sling functionality.

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CES 2013
GoldenEar Rolls Out Plucky Number Seven in Vegas
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Jan 07, 2013  |  0 comments
Thanks to a bit of serendipitous timing, GoldenEar Technology's Sandy Gross gave a lucky trio of us a sneak peak at (and a quick listen to) the company’s newest tower speaker, the Triton Seven. Although the speaker is short on inches compared to the other Triton Towers (it’s only 40 1/4 inches tall) and is the first GoldenEar tower to come without a built-in powered subwoofer, the new Triton Seven is extremely long on performance. The Seven features a D’Appolito array of two 5.25-inch bass-midrange drivers above/below the same High Velocity Folded Ribbon Driver (HVFR) tweeter that’s in the taller Triton Two and Three siblings. Bass output is enhanced by a pair of side-mounted sub-bass radiators placed near the floor on the sides of the angled cabinet.

The clarity of sound and super-silky imaging definitely make the new Seven speaker a worthy addition to the stunning Triton family, but the depth and authenticity of the bass response makes it hard to believe there’s not a built-in powered subwoofer hidden behind the grille cloth. Even though we were limited on time for the demo and it’s always hard to truly evaluate speakers in a show environment, the combination of modest dimensions, phenomenal sound, and high affordability ($699.99 each), make it a good bet that the Triton Seven Tower is going to be on nearly everyone’s short list for Speaker of the Year in 2013.

CES 2013
OLED, 4K, Laser TV Top LG's CES Intros
Rob Sabin  |  Jan 07, 2013  |  0 comments
At its pre-CES press conference, LG Electronics announced that 2013 will see the release of new uber-TVs—two new 4K-resolution UltraHD models and a long-awaited 55-inch OLED display.

The OLED, which went to market in Asia late last year, will be arriving at U.S. retailers in March, LG representatives said, at a suggested retail price of $12,000.

Two new UltraHD models at the 55-inch and 65-inch sizes...

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CES 2013
NETGEAR Releases NeoTV PRIME with Google TV
Barb Gonzalez  |  Jan 07, 2013  |  0 comments
At the CES 2013 NETGEAR press conference, the company announced NeoTV PRIME, a Google TV streaming player that is available now for $129.99. Like other Google TVs, a growing number of apps can be added from the Google Play store. And like other Google TVs, it has global search to find the titles you want whether they are on live TV, streaming Internet services, web pages, or your own media on your home network.

What NETGEAR brings to the PRIME is a full access Chrome web browser. With Flash and HTML 5 plug-ins, it will (theoretically) play videos from any website (though certain websites have blocked Google TV access).

The included two-sided remote has a QWERTY keyboard, appears to be identical to the Vizio's Co-Star Google TV keyboard. The other side has a touchpad mouse control, directional navigation buttons and direct play buttons to immediately access Amazon on Demand, HBO Go, Crackle, Netflix, and YouTube. The YouTube smartphone app will have a "play to Google TV" button to send a video directly to the Google TV YouTube app. There is also a button for MyMedia that brings up the network attached storage (NAS) drives and other DLNA sources including ReadyShare available on NETGEAR routers.

CES 2013
Monster Fuses Fashion and Tech with New Headphones
Bob Ankosko  |  Jan 07, 2013  |  0 comments
When it comes to headphones, for Monster it’s all about fashion with lots of color and style, a parade of headphone-wearing models, celebrity endorsements and marketing—lots of marketing. A host of celebrities—including recording artist and former Prince collaborator Sheila E, boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard, America’s Got Talent host Nick Cannon and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees—were on hand at Monster’s pre-CES 2013 press event to help Monster introduce a slew of new headphones.

Highlights include the gaming-focused EA Sports MVP Carbon by Monster headphone ($270), featuring proprietary surround processing and available in black or white beginning in February/March; the in-ear ClarityMobile line with three models aimed at business travelers—a $50 model with an in-line microphone and two $70 models—slated to hit stores in April; an angular on-ear addition to the Diesel VEKTR line offered in military green and chrome ($280); three washable iSport in-ear models for the work-out crowd, ranging from $80 to $160; seven on-ear and in-ear DNA models, featuring a triangular ear cups and dual inputs that allow five ‘phones to be connected at once, ranging in price from $130 to $230; new on-ear and in-ear Bluetooth-powered wireless models with noise cancellation for the Nokia Purity line; and the youth-focused N-Pulse headphones, a new addition to the NCredible line developed with Nick Cannon and available in black or white for $200.

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CES 2013
CES 2013: Monster press event
Brent Butterworth  |  Jan 07, 2013  |  0 comments

Monster has earned a rep for some of CES's flashiest press events, but this year, the company outdid itself with an event that was so heavy on celebs, strutting models, and co-marketing announcements that the products themselves seemed lost in all the glamor.

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CES 2013
CES 2013, Day One: LG Press Event
Al Griffin  |  Jan 07, 2013  |  0 comments

For me, LG’s CES press conference was an anti-climax: The company had already announced its 2013 TV and Blu-ray/audio offerings in a conference call a few weeks prior to the event. The upside was I didn’t have to take many notes —something that’s not always easy to do at 8 a.m. when you’re jet-lagged. Here are the highlights.

Smart TV

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CES 2013
CES 2013: Unveiled
Brent Butterworth  |  Jan 06, 2013  |  0 comments
The annual Consumer Electronics Show, America's biggest tech bash, kicked off tonight with CES Unveiled, an event that answers the question "How many journalists can one possibly pack into a convention center ballroom?" (Answer: a zillion.)
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