The annual Consumer Electronics Show did not fail to deliver the craziest, newest, most baffling, fun and clever gadgets this year around either. We already took a look at some of the most exciting gadgets here, but we felt like that list didn’t include all the contenders. This is why we decided to take a look at some other great innovations.
Some of the devices were there just to tease us with the possibilities of the future, while others are actually slated to become available for purchase (yet, mind you, most will probably be way out of your regular shopper’s budget) later this year for the comfortable, the tech savvy and people who just enjoy the wonders of new technology.
The halls were filled with all sorts of robotics, handheld devices, computerized wearables, crazy smart automobiles and… levitation magic? I guess you could call it magic even though it’s mostly based on magnets. But more on that later on. Here’s a list of 10 things that were exhibited at CES 2015 that deserve attention or are just too cool to not mention.
1. ZANO – The Miniature Selfie Drone
We’re starting off with something less hardcore than some of the rest of the list. Even so, this is a pretty sweet addition to the world of electronics. Ok, it’s not the most useful thing you’ll crave for in your household but fun enough to earn an excited “aah”.
Flying drones are not even remotely shocking anymore. With developers such as DJI running the market and improving their technology by the day, piloting your flying camera remotely as it zooms around your neighborhood or the tourist attraction you’re visiting is possible and easy to do. Such drones have found their way into more artistic and professional filmmaking as well, proving to be the best tools you can get when it comes to time lapse projects for example.
Here’s the next installment, more consumer-friendly version of the flying drone. The SELFIE drone. That’s right, the tiny ZANO miniature drone will make sure that your arm doesn’t even show in your future selfies by letting you capture photos from a height and make sure your entire group fits in the picture.
But selfies isn’t the only thing it specializes in, especially given the fact that it includes digital image stabilization in its design. Even given its size, ZANO can take on lengthy adventures and shoot from an altitude almost just like other flying drones would. However, its operating range is only 15 – 30 meters long so don’t expect to be shooting off of Empire State Building.
ZANO is no larger than the palm of your hand and is capable of shooting photos and HD video just as well. The little drone is remotely controlled through your smartphone but also has autonomous operation capabilities, knowing how to avoid obstacles by itself and knowing to return to your mobile device’s signal whenever it feels it has strayed too far, is nearing the edge of signal strength or its battery is running low. It can take care of itself for approximately 15 minutes and can zip around as fast as 25 miles per hour.
2. LG G Flex 2
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 has been out since the end of last year, promising to deliver never before seen performance for mobile devices that would come out in early / Q1 of 2015. The first happy owner of the innovative processor chip is not Samsung Galaxy S6 as many people thought would be, but the eccentric looking LG G Flex 2.
The reason I call it eccentric is because it introduces itself with the most peculiar shape you have yet to see – say hello to the curved display technology that has made its way around this past year in a new, cleverer and better way. The LG G Flex 2 is the second attempt the company made at the curved phone idea, but this time around it seems to have nailed it – or at least, managed to nail it enough to make it into a top 10 CES innovation list.
The 5.5 inch display phone has a curved, bent design that gives the phone a godly feel in the palm of your hand and is made to endure. Not only that the LG G Flex 2 literally flexes when you drop it or apply weight and pressure on it.
The display itself isn’t special just because it adopted the curved technology, it’s special because it’s a true warrior of resilience – it was built to be resistant to cracking and hold next level self-healing capabilities, allowing for scratches to repair themselves in a matter of hours. No joke.
3. Levitating Air2 Speaker
It’s pronounced Air squared and it’s the coolest looking thing I’ve ever seen next to old school lava lamps and plasma spheres. That’s pretty much all about it though, just like lava lamps and plasma spheres. Okay, I don’t mean to bash the device before I even start off giving you details about it, but as amazing as the magnetic speaker is, it won’t exceed the “cool looking gadget” status.
The Air2 is comprised of two parts – the base that does most of the software and sensor work and the actual speaker – a metallic round shaped pad that fits in the palm of your hand. The base includes a microphone for conference calls and a micro-USB port used for charging the device.
Considering the design of the Air2, actually getting the speaker to magnetically levitate on the round base involves quite a bit of effort if you manage to do it by hand but luckily the package includes a device that you place the speaker in then settle on top of the base for easy setup.
Since it’s magnetic, the speaker can also be attached to any metallic surface such as refrigerators if you want to listen to your favorite tunes when getting dinner done. Its Bluetooth capability extends to 33 feet distances and it won’t require any juice for up to 12 hours of playtime. Air2 is already available for purchase off of Amazon as we speak, for a price of $199.
4. Toyota Mirai
Dr. Michio Kaku, famous theoretical physicist, futurist and popularize of science was the lovely and charismatic person to present the next step in automotive technology. And we’re talking realistic next step here, given that the Mirai will be available for purchase later this year.
What made the Mirai so special to be endorsed by Dr. Kaku is the purely hydrogen-fueled car. The way fuel-cell engines work is transforming the hydrogen and oxygen chemical reaction into electrical power to fuel the engine while instead of CO2 emissions, you get… water. Indeed, the Toyota Mirai uses the one element that’s the most abundant in our universe and exhaust something that will not ensure our atmospheric demise inside a couple dozen years.
From many perspectives, Dr. Michio Kaku insists that the Mirai is the perfect car – no pollution, vast quantities existent for fuelling it, no internal moving engine parts that reduce the regular wear and tear that kicks in in regular automobiles, and lastly – the expected demise in prices for hydrogen fueled vehicles expected in the near future.
The Mirai has a range of 300 miles per “fill” and accelerates from 0 to 60 miles an hour in 9 seconds. A hydrogen tank refill doesn’t last longer than 5 minutes so the fuel-cell car is on par with combustion engine vehicles and not as time taxing as electric ones. The Toyota Mirai will be available for purchase later this year for the price of $57,000 – a bit of a luxury for now – but Dr. Michio Kaku is certain that once governments begin funding and encouraging production of hydrogen fueled cars over oil ones, prices will plummet.
Toyota also announced that the entirety of the 5,680 patents behind the construction of the Mirai will be made available, royalty free and given to anyone wishing to innovate more on the concept.
5. Mercedes-Benz F015 Luxury in Motion
Possibly the most eye catching exhibit at Las Vegas’ CES 2015 was Mercedes’ concept model for the autonomous car of the future. Eye candy is an understatement – not only that, but the things that it promises to deliver on top are almost hard to believe.
Mercedes CEO held a speech when presenting the F 015, depicting what inspired building this different car – the belief that the future of automobiles turns them into more than just means of transportation, but something he called “private retreats”. Thus the car was built as a haven of comfort.
While the outside of the car is not even close to any other car made so far in human history, depicting a very unusual shape and face, the inside of the F 015 is the real bomb.
Considering it’s meant to be a self-driving car, the first thing that catches your eye are the 4 chairs facing each other two and two, with large glass panels giving you snippets of your surroundings on the front, back, sides and roof of the vehicle.
All around the inside of the car there is a number of 6 LED displays that change color from a blue glow when the car is in autonomous mode and a white glow when it’s turned on to manual; yes, the F 015 will also let you drive it by popping the steering wheel out from under the dash and revolving your driver’s chair the other way around.
The 6 displays are there to allow you to control your car through motion and gesture, and along with the audio capturing devices allow you to give spoken instructions as well. The technology that allows the car to be autonomous is a series of laser projection systems that allow the F 015 to sense traffic, obstacles and map a complete 3D map of its surroundings.
There’s no telling when a car such as Mercedes-Benz’ wonder will come to fruition; but CES attendees can tell you themselves that stepping into the F 015 is like warping at least a few decades into the future.
6. Intel’s Computer Stick
Not sure what else I should call this tiny device other than “computer in a stick”. Forget about laptops, notebooks, Alienware Alphas or whatnot. Intel has done it. Intel has managed to fit an entire computer inside a 4 inch stick. Here are the specs: 2 GB of RAM, 32 GB of storage and even a microSD slot if you want some more.
This portable computer is not much of a machine by itself. Its power truly kicks in when you plug it into any HDMI port host device and connect a USB cable to it to give it power. Bear witness as your flat screen TV, LCD monitor or any other HDMI capable device transforms into a computer.
With the specifications mentioned above, it won’t be smoothly running Photoshop, Ableton or your favorite video game, but for anything else that you would ever want to use a computer, it’s there. The Intel Compute Stick will start going on sale in March and even ship with Windows already installed, for a price of $150. Intel is also considering offering a variant to the Windows based stick – a Linux model that will be sold for even less: $89.
7. CyberPowerPC’s Fang Trinity Gaming PC
We may have mentioned the Trinity Gaming PC in our previous overview of CES innovations, but it deserves a lengthier introduction. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Hell yes it’s a plane. A gaming plane. Downright rocket science gaming computer. God knows why the Fang Trinity looks the way it does, but I’ll be damned if it’s not the coolest, craziest desktop that your eyes have ever set upon.
Its alien and Sci-Fi appearance is nowhere near to where it ends though. The components held in the 3 separate pods of the computer are great, state of the art parts that will run any single game coming out now or even next year on Ultra settings for sure.
The prototype presented at CES 2015 packs a foot long nVidia GeForce GTX 980 4 GB graphics processing unit, packed with an extra fan to keep things cool (metaphorically AND literally), and anywhere between 3 to 5 SSD hard drives in the first pod. The second houses the power supply, an optical drive and two SATA hard drives. The third is host to the liquid-cooled Intel Core i7-4790K quad-core 4.7 GHz processor, a Mini ITX motherboard and more fans.
The Fang Trinity is planned to make it in stores in about 3 months but don’t expect it to be cheap. The case alone costs approximately $350, while the whole thing could go up to $4,000 for the most high-end configuration. CyberPowerPC stated that they will be building some more easily accessible models – $1,000 for an entry-level configuration.
