Hisense is not exactly a household brand but the Chinese-based company came out swinging at a pre-CES press conference touting aggressive plans to grow its business in the U.S. and become one of the world’s top three TV manufacturers. The company, which opened a U.S.-based subsidiary in Atlanta more than a decade ago, sells boatloads of TVs, refrigerators, air conditioners, and other products through Walmart, Best Buy, hhgregg, and Costco.com. In TV alone, it produces more than 10 million sets a year globally.
Hisense executives are counting on the new Android-powered H7 VIDAA series smart televisions to meet their goals.
Skullcandy has an image as a badass headphone manufacturer. They showed up at CES set on keeping that reputation. The Air Raid (MSRP $150) is a portable Bluetooth speaker that plays loud, and has drop-resistance and weather-resistance to take on all the abuses you can throw at it. I chatted with Sam Noertker, one of the engineers behind the Air Raid for some inside perspective.
Texas Instruments is touting miniaturization at 2014 CES with a showcase of 30 products based on its DLP Pico video projection technology. Several implementations were demonstrated at the Digital Experience exhibition on the eve of the show, including the “smallest video projector in the world” from Korea-based Sekonix.
If you’ve never seen a 3D printer in action, well, then you are missing out my friend. Watching the printer head whizzing back and forth, slowly growing, building and creating a 3D creation, it is just totally cool and like magic. And in the world of 3D printing, MakerBot is at the forefront.
MakerBot’s Chief Executive, Ben Petti, says that his company and product is about unleashing your creativity and to date there are over 44,000 MakerBots in the world. And they see this number growing to over 1,000,000.
SOL assures us that their newest headphone release will stay in your ears no matter how you move. Intended to be fashionable enough to wear on your commute, but rugged enough to handle use while jogging, SOUL Relays have a fit they call FreeFlex. FreeFlex is more or less a squishy rubbery ring around the earbud itself that SOL says helps to conform to any ear shape and enable the earbuds to stay put. Water and sweat resistant, they also feature a cable clip and in-line remote and mic. Also worth noting is that SOL offers free tips for life, so if you lose any of the four pairs of included tips, you can just simply request that more be sent to you.
Retailing for $79.99, they're available now in black and red, "lemon/lime" and blue in February. We're excited to take them for a test run.
For 2014, Sony is extending its Ultra HD offerings to include nine new models, ranging from 49- to 85-inches. They’re all LCD/LED designs—no sign of commercial OLEDs from Sony as yet. All of these new 4K sets employ Sony’s new X-tended Dynamic Range PRO technology, which sounds a lot like a new High Dynamic Range technology being promoted by Dolby, which we expect to see later at the show. In any case, this is said to increase the contrast ratio for greater image punch.
Sony realizes that without 4K content, a 4k Ultra HD set isn't fully complete. There is, of course, the movie server the company has offered recently and continues to offer, with 120 movies now available for download onto it. There's also the promise, not yet in place, for downloading or streamimg 4K material from a range of Internet movie sites.
But perhaps the most interesting potential source may come from you, via Sony's new FDR-AX100 4K Handycam Camcorder. With 14-megapixel resolution, a Zeiss lens, Optical SteadyShot Image Stabilization, and more, for $2000 you can record and play back your own timeless videos, either exasperating or thrilling friends and family alike with your inner Steven Spielberg.
Voxx isn’t one of those names that every consumer knows and owns. Standing in line for the press conference today, the guy behind me had to ask me what they make. While not one of the biggest names at CES, they unveiled quite a few new products that might make them one of the most interesting names at CES.