CES 2023 marked the annual tech expo’s triumphant return after it went virtual in 2021 and faced lackluster attention in 2022. The general vibe? Well, you know that feeling you get when you had three months to write an essay but only got it done the week it was due? Las Vegas was certainly packed this year, but despite having two smaller shows before this year’s CES, the major keynote’s big announcements this year were either niche, expected, or didn’t give much info away.
That’s where we come in. Our journalists have spent the last week wandering the show floor and meeting with companies to track down the actually interesting stuff at this year’s CES. From an e-Ink Windows laptop to 3D monitors, there’s still plenty that we’re excited to share, and that you might not have seen until now.
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Withings is a brand well known for its health and fitness tracking tech, including smartwatches, smart bathroom scales, and even smart thermometers, but at CES 2023 it debuted one of the most peculiar health gadgets we’ve seen to date. The Withings U-Scan is the first gadget you actually need to drop in the toilet, as it’s designed to make health assessments by analyzing a user’s urine. It can even differentiate between different people based on their stream.
A heat-triggered pump automatically draws in a urine sample and sends it through a “microfluidic circuit” to a cartridge filled with three months worth of test pods, where chemical reactions are triggered when certain biomarkers are detected. An optical sensor analyzing color-changing test strips then allows a connected app to make assessments on everything from fertility cycles to a user’s daily intake of water and nutrients, without having to send anything off to a lab. -Andrew Liszewski
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It can be hard to find ways to stay active when working from home without a commute or having to run around an office all day. Acer thinks its eKinekt BD 3 is a clever solution to that problem with a compact desk perched atop a comfortable exercise bike allowing users to pedal and feel the burn throughout the work day.
The eKinekt BD 3 goes one step further with a built-in electric generator, so all those burned calories are turned into electricity that can be used to charge a laptop and smartphone connected through USB-A and USB-C ports built into the desk. Acer estimates that when plugged into the USB-C port, an iPhone 14 can be fully recharged in 1.5 to 2.5 hours, depending on a user’s pedaling speed. -Andrew Liszewski
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Arcade1Up has had more success than most when it comes to making the board game experience digital. Its Infinity Game Table paired a giant touchscreen on legs with popular titles like Monopoly, Scrabble, and Ticket to Ride. Now the new Infinity Game Board is an attempt to make the Infinity Game Table more portable by removing the legs and shrinking the screen, so it can be used on tables, on a sofa, or even in bed.
The Infinity Game Board’s 18-inch touchscreen is smaller than the Game Table’s 24 and 32-inch options, but includes access to the same library of around 100 board games, puzzles, and other action titles. Its smaller footprint also comes with a smaller price tag. Where as the Infinity Game Table ranged in price from $650 to $850, the new Infinity Game Board is expected to sell for $500. -Andrew Liszewski
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We’re usually 100% on board with concepts providing a tantalizing look at the future of consumer tech, though we’re not entirely sold on Roland’s ideas of how future electronic pianos will effectively fill a performance space with sound. The company’s 50th Anniversary Concept Model Piano is an absolute work of art, made from Japanese oak with a highly-contoured design that even features a large screen hidden in the lid for displaying sheet music and piano lessons.
Where it starts to lose us is the swarm of flying speaker drones that are supposed to complement the array of 14 speakers built into the piano itself that can be position to broadcast sound in any direction. We’ve yet to encounter a drone without that distinct and constant whine of electronic motors, which is the last thing we want to hear when trying to enjoy a pianist’s performance. -Andrew Liszewski
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We have yet to be convinced that using clever acoustical tricks from a single speaker is a genuine replacement for multiple speakers positioned around a room when trying to create a true surround sound effect. But we also haven’t had a chance to hear Razer’s new Leviathan V2 Pro desktop soundbar, which promises a 3D sound effect without a sweet spot.
How does the Razer Leviathan V2 Pro deliver on these promises? It uses a combination of clever beamforming tricks, manipulating the sounds coming from its multiple front-firing drivers so they instead seem to be coming from around the room, and an infrared camera that tracks the location of a user’s head in real-time and adjusts where the beamforming tricks are directed. So even if a user is moving around and fidgeting during an intense game, they’re always hearing the intended 3D effect. -Andrew Liszewski
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BMW stole the show at CES 2022 with its BMW iX Flow concept car that was wrapped in flexible black and white electronic ink panels allowing the vehicle to change color and even display ever-changing patterns and custom design elements on its exterior. For 2023, BMW has followed up with the i Vision Dee concept, with “Dee” being short for “Digital Emotional Experience.”
Wrapped in E Ink’s new full color Prism 3 electronic paper panels, the i Vision Dee’s exterior can be further customized with patterns and designs in vibrant colors that can be altered at the push of a button to suit the driver’s mood, or even match their outfit. Where the BMW i Vision Dee starts to lose our attention is a minimalist interior packed with invisible controls and hidden buttons that sound even worse than using a touchscreen when driving, along with displays on all the windows letting drivers see the real world outside, or escape to a virtual one. -Andrew Liszewski
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There’s usually a lot of thought that goes into the naming of a car in order to invoke a specific feeling with consumers. An Acura sounds like it was designed with extreme precision, a Challenger sounds like it can best any car in a drag race, and a Bronco sounds like you can drive it off into the unpaved wilds of America. As for Sony and Honda’s Afeela? Ironically, we’re not sure what to feel.
According to Sony Honda Mobility, the joint venture that hopes to deliver the new electric vehicle to North America sometime in 2026, Afeela “expresses an interactive relationship where people “FEEL” mobility as an intelligent entity, and mobility “FEELS” people and society using sensing and network IT technologies.” But all that marketing vomit, along with an uninspired logo that looks like the default font in every word processor, and a forgettable car design, has us wondering if the Afeela will be Sony’s next Minidisc instead of Sony’s next Walkman. -Andrew Liszewski
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A compact, countertop oven that can heat up in seconds and use less power to cook a meal than most ovens use just to preheat is a very tantalizing idea. The Brava smart oven is like an Easy-Bake Oven for adults, using both visible and non-visible light to cook an entire meal at the same time, including foods that need to cook at different temperatures. Unfortunately, we walked away a bit disappointed with the execution when we reviewed the original Brava back in 2018, and over four years later, we were hoping for more improvements with the new Brava Glass than just the addition of a see-through window on the front. -Andrew Liszewski
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Being a rideshare driver can be a scary experience, and not just because of the way companies like Uber treat its drivers. With nothing but a smartphone app as their dispatcher, rideshare drivers are more or less on their own to deal with a constant stream of strangers who climb aboard for a ride—some pleasant, some not.
Bosch’s RideCare looks like a standard windshield-mounted dashcam, and works like one too, capturing footage of the road ahead so a driver has video proof in the event of an accident they didn’t cause. But the RideCare includes a second camera capturing the interior of the vehicle too, along with a discreet, wireless panic button a driver can install anywhere and press to activate an emergency call to a Bosch-run call center staffed with operators who have access to a live feed from inside the vehicle so they can assess the situation and contact emergency services if the driver is unable to do so themselves. -Andrew Liszewski
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This announcement quickly got buried under the mountain of CES announcements, but it’s one that’s going to have Christmas fanatics already thinking about their 2023 holiday decor. Twinkly, the company that makes smart Christmas lights and other lighting products that can display animated designs and patterns through a clever mapping process facilitated by a smartphone camera, is releasing a new desktop app that allow the individual lights on a Christmas tree to play video content.
In other words, the twinkling lights on your Christmas tree will actually be able to display your favorite Christmas movies too like the individual glowing pixels on an LCD display. If you’ve been on the hunt for a way to finally outdo your neighbor’s holiday displays, this is it. -Andrew Liszewski
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Getting Robosen’s self-transforming Optimus Prime figure, which comes in a limited edition 19-inch size and a more attainable 16 inch size, is a bit like bringing a theme park attraction Source: Gizmodo