CES 2016

Parent company Invoxia calls Triby “the next generation voice-controlled speaker for the kitchen”, which is a relatively boring, generic description for a device that is much more exciting than that tag line makes it seem to be. And now that Triby is “the first third-party device to announce integration with the Amazon Alexa Voice Service” it’s even more exciting.

Head Monster Noel Lee knows how to kick off CES with enthusiasm that’s hard to ignore. Monster is attempting to rethink, revamp and reinvent themselves with an almost-overwhelming number of new products.

Netflix Co-founder and Chief Executive Reed Hastings joined Consumer Technology Association President Gary Shapiro in the opening Keynote of CES 2016 to discuss the history of TV from three broadcast networks to pay TV and VCRs to DVRs and now streaming. The emphasis was that we are moving toward what people want from TV—being able to watch anything we want, anywhere we want—and ended with an announcement that Netflix is now making that happen globally.

You probably haven’t heard of Maroo Audio. The company, after all, is just launching this year. But based on the sound quality of its initial products, you might want to hear more from Maroo Audio.

Anyone who ever writes about consumer electronics—especially at shows like CES and CEDIA—runs the risk of praising a really cool product that, unfortunately, never sees the light of day. (It’s also the curse of anyone who covers Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns.) So I’ll begin this post with the following caveat: I have no idea whether or not the folks at Senic in Germany will be able to bring their Nuimo “Universal Control for Your Smart Home” to life as a real, honest-to-goodness product. But I sure as hell hope they do.

This morning I climbed Mt. Everest and floated outside the space station over earth. Of course, I was actually in the Nvidia suite at CES, but my experience was that of having a grand adventure. Nvidia demo’d two different Virtual Reality headsets to showcase the company’s video card capabilities and how well they handle VR.

We had a word with Onkyo USA marketing director Kevin Brannan about the future of two storied A/V receiver brands now that Onkyo is in the midst of absorbing Pioneer.