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CES 2014
Is This One a KEEKER?
Darryl Wilkinson  |  Jan 07, 2014
Paris-based KEEKER was one of more than a dozen participants using an appearance at ShowStoppers LaunchIt Power Session at CES2014 to give the company’s pitch for higher-level funding and partnerships to a panel of judges. KEEKER is part mobile computer, part robot, part home entertainment system, and part security system. It looks a bit like a large, 16-inch wide by 25-inch tall egg on wheels; and it contains a built-in projector, 360-degree sound system, and a lot more. It’s either one of the silliest ideas here at CES2014, or it’s going to be a paradigm breaker. For example, one of the benefits touted in the brief pitch session was the ability of KEEKER to bring the TV to the viewer, rather than force the viewer to sit passively in front of the traditional “black box” TV set. The built-in projector can be used to display an image on any wall or ceiling. Since KEEKER is on a motorized, wheeled platform, it can be instructed to move anywhere in your home – displaying the news on the wall in your dining room, for example, and then rolling into your bedroom and shining a late-night TV show on the ceiling. (Or substitute a variety of viewing situations and content based on your own experiences.) In fact, later in the day, KEEKER was out and about in the hotel hallways displaying video on the vaulted ceiling above. KEEKER is shooting for a release date of sometime in the fourth quarter of 2014 with a tentative selling price of $5,000.
CES 2014
DJI: Own Your Own Drone
Al Griffin  |  Jan 07, 2014
Drones are big news these days (a recent 60 Minutes piece on Amazon’s drone package-delivery plans drove the hype machine to full throttle), so it comes as no surprise that drones—or Unmanned Aerial Systems, as manufacturers of consumer-grade drones like to call them—are a category here at CES. One maker, DJI, even held a press conference to introduce its new Phantom 2 Vision, a quadcopter with a built-in 14 megapixel camera capable of recording 1080p video (4 GB micro SD card included).
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CES 2014
Family Innovations Press Conference - Moms and Kids get Connected
Leslie Shapiro  |  Jan 07, 2014
While most press conferences here at CES are geared towards big, life-changing electronics, there is a growing segment of conferences and products devoted to kids and families. While most companies target products to women by making them smaller and well, cuter, other companies are recognizing that moms also purchase serious technology to make their lives easier. Another oft-overlooked segment is the educational and children’s technology market.

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CES 2014
Hisense’s Flat 55-inch OLED TV
Al Griffin  |  Jan 07, 2014
As promising as the first two OLED TVs to hit the market, a pair of 55-inchers from LG and Samsung, were, there was one problem with both: their screens were curved. That’s why the 55-inch OLED model hanging in Chinese TV-maker Hisense’s booth caught my eye.
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CES 2014
The Business of Interactive TV
Al Griffin  |  Jan 07, 2014
Despite the word “Consumer” in its title, the Consumer Electronic Show is basically a B2B event: It’s for companies to introduce products, technologies, and concepts to other companies with the goal of getting down to bizness and making money. That’s one reason why there are hundreds of conference sessions and press events related to stuff other than huge TVs, headphones, and other gadgets.
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CES 2014
Amps & Watts' Wireless Wonder: The BeatBlock Studio
Brent Butterworth  |  Jan 07, 2014  |  First Published: Jan 08, 2014

Amps & Watts is a new company that specializes in wireless speakers. But this isn't your usual Bluetooth or WiFi stuff. Instead of hard-to-find buttons and cryptic controls, all of the company's speakers include a conventional remote.

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CES 2014
Hybrid Audio Technology's Functional Audio Art
Brent Butterworth  |  Jan 07, 2014

I didn't expect to find any high-end tower speakers amongst the car audio stuff in the North Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center -- until I stumbled upon this new model from Hybrid Audio Technologies.

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CES 2014
The Coolest Door Lock You’ve Seen
John Sciacca  |  Jan 07, 2014
Door locks are not meant to be cool. Door locks are not meant to be sexy. Door lock are supposed to be utilitarian devices that keep the bad people out of your house when you’re not home, and require limited access by using a good, old-fashioned key, the way our forefathers intended.

These are all things that Goji has clearly never heard, because the company’s new Smart Lock is by far the sexiest industrial design I’ve seen on a door lock. In fact, I think that Goji might do for the smart lock what Nest did for the smart thermostat.

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CES 2014
All Together Now: Korus Speakers Connect to Your Music in a New Way
Lauren Dragan  |  Jan 07, 2014
Just when you thought you had found every way possible to connect your audio devices to portable speakers, Korus introduces their premium wireless speaker system. But wait! They’re not Bluetooth! Bucking the Bluetooth trend, Korus connects your device via the proprietary SKAA protocol which actually sends a signal from a plug-and-play dongle at a claimed near-zero-latency (40ms). The dongles come in every (30 pin/USB/lightning) configuration you could need and can broadcast to up to 4 separate speakers. Inside, those speakers can be up to 35 feet apart, outside up to 65 feet apart. The distance itself is rather impressive as most Bluetooth gets a few yards at best before beginning to crackle and sputter.

Also potentially handy is the fact that the dongle is literally plug in and press play easy to use. So no pairing with devices or entering passwords. What comes out of the device to which the dongle is attached is what you hear in the speakers. And because of the low latency, the Korus can also be used in conjunction with a TV specific dongle (they call it a Baton) to create a temporary TV speaker setup for a meeting, or as a permanent/ modular solution for TVs that have small speakers.

Available in two sizes, the V400 is 4.4 lbs with a low range of 125Hz and retails for $299 each, and the V600 is 11 lbs with a low range of 80Hz for $399 each.
CES 2014
Sennheiser Quests for the Ultimate Gaming Headset
Lauren Dragan  |  Jan 07, 2014
Sennheiser has announced that they moving into the realm of the gamer with the introduction of two new PC gaming headsets: G4ME™ ZERO and G4ME™ ONE. Working in conjunction with Sennheiser was Io-Interactive (part of the Square Enix group that made games like the Hitman and the Kane & Lynch franchises.) The partnership included the Io-Interactive developers using Sennheiser equipment and headsets when creating the audio for their game releases. The goal was for he headset user to experience at home precisely what the developers intended in the studio. It's a pretty novel approach to mixing audio for games. The headphones themselves have been designed with not only comfort and ergonomics taken into account, but also with extra attention to things gamers need like: better noise canceling in the microphone, a boom that mutes the mic when raised, and volume controls in the ear cup. While G4ME™ ONE is focused on the home user, allowing for breathable long-wearing earcups, G4ME™ ZERO is made for tournament play, with a foldable design, hard carry case, and aviation level sound isolation factored into the design process. What all this will mean in real-time usage remains to be seen, but overall, I'm excited to see what Sennheiser brings to the lan-party.

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