Parrot’s Jumping Sumo ‘bot gets some pretty impressive air (video)

Oh, and Parrot’s got one more thing up its sleeve at tonight’s CES Unveiled event, and while this one can’t actually fly, it’s still pretty damn neat. The company’s calling it the “Sumo,” for reasons that aren’t immediately clear — the “insectoid” label it’s also tossing around seems a bit more appropriate, all said. The device is a two-wheeled terrestrial ‘bot that’s controlled via tablet or smartphone, using streaming video from a built-in camera. It’s pretty zippy, and even more impressively, it can stop on a dime. CEO Henri Seydoux was piloting the ‘bot around, making sharp 90-degree turns moments before running into an obstacle. Neater still is the ‘bot’s ability to jump in the air up to 80 centimeters from a sitting position.

The Sumo uses 2.4 or 5GHz WiFi, giving it better range than many remote controlled toys. Like the MiniDrone, it’ll be available in 2014 for an as-of-yet undetermined price.

Filed under: Robots

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A closer look at Belkin’s Crock-Pot WeMo Slow Cooker (hands-on)

After light bulbs and smart outlets, Belkin is looking to tackle small appliances with its WeMo home automation line. The company just announced the Crock-Pot WeMo Slow Cooker and we’ve already stopped by to see what’s… cooking. Those familiar with the popular culinary tool can expect a similar form factor to the current non-connected wares. The silver-and-black color scheme does offer a bit of sophistication though, just in case you were worried. Simplified controls are situated on the front with a single button for toggling warm, low and high settings. With the WeMo app, users can adjust temperature and set timers to ensure proper doneness. Around back, there’s a slot for clipping on a lid holder to keep the mess to a minimum when that batch of meatballs needs a stirring. Belkin tells us that this is the first of many partner WeMo devices with items like space heaters and more on the way. If the idea of smart slow cooking already has you sold, this Crock-Pot will hit kitchen counters in the spring for $99.

Filed under: Household

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Wellograph is an activity tracker with good looks and fun graphs (hands-on)

One of the latest entrants to the crowded wearables market is an activity tracker that you might actually want to wear on a night out. The Wellograph, a device with a sapphire crystal display, features a heart rate monitor and an activity tracker, and — gasp — it’s a standalone device, with no smartphone integration to speak of beyond syncing with Bluetooth 4.0.

Sarasin Art Booppanon, CEO of Wellograph, told us his product stands out from other activity trackers by displaying information such as steps taken and heartbeats per minute in graph form (rather than simply displaying digits). Another distinguishing feature: the sapphire crystal display, allegedly the first to appear on a moderately priced consumer product. This type of screen is known for its scratch-resistance, and while that’s not something we could easily put to the test here at CES Unveiled, we can tell you it looked (and felt) pretty sturdy.

You’d expect a device focused on fitness to look rugged — even clunky — but the Wellograph is anything but. Its leather strap and stainless steel design scream “money,” and we’re pretty much thrilled that Wellograph took a sophisticated approach. It’s a nice change from the more utilitarian designs we’ve seen, but it’s definitely not unisex; the timepiece looked a tad ridiculous on this female editor’s small wrist.

The Wellograph features a 168 x 144 e-paper LCD display, and we found that visibility was limited with strong overhead light. To navigate the interface, you press one of two buttons on the device’s right side: the top one to toggle pages within a certain feature (i.e., clock or fitness stats) and the bottom to move between the different features. It’s simple, yet engaging, especially because the stats are more interactive than what we’ve seen on other activity trackers (numbers — so boring!). You can see your fitness level, and your fitness age, pinpointed on a bell curve, for example. The Wellograph slides into a magnetic charging dock thanks to a connector on the back — the rear side of the tracker, incidentally, is also where you’ll find the heart rate sensor.

Booppanon told us the Wellograph will go on sale in April for about $300. Lucky for you, though, we have some hands-on photos below.

Alexis Santos contributed to this report.

Filed under: Peripherals

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Sphero’s 2B smartphone-controlled toy is quick, easy to control and a lot of fun (hands-on)

We know, we know. Sometimes a poem just doesn’t do it when it comes to a product announcement. Thankfully, Sphero’s new budget 2B rolled into CES Unveiled just in time. The smartphone-controlled toy will retail for $100 when it drops in the fall — that’s $60 less than Sphero 2.0′s current asking price. The company had a handful of models on the floor, and while all of them are prototypes, they worked remarkably well. We got the hang of it from the first moment we picked up the iOS app. It’s responsive and handles a lot better than its predecessor right out of the box, no doubt owing to the slightly more traditional form factor — that is, if you can use a word like “traditional” to refer to a device like this.

Also, in spite of being a prototype, the 2B is pretty rugged, as we found ourselves playing Sphero bumper cars. The rep we spoke with told us that the final version will likely have IR built-in, so multiple 2Bs can interact — and with the lower price point, it’ll be that much easier for people to pick up a couple of devices for their home. The final version will also have more lighting effects built-in. Those nub tires you see are removable, by the way, so you can customize your device. The company was also showing off a 2B rocking smoother tires, which was even faster, with speeds of up to 14 feet a second, a fair bit zippier than the pricier Sphero 2.0.

Filed under: Robots

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Up to 150 Ultra HD TV announcements possible at CES

During a pre-CES briefing today, Shawn Dubravac, chief economist for the Consumer Electronics Association, said he “wouldn’t be surprised to see 75 UHD TV announcements” this week. That number could be as high as 150, including hardware rollouts, distribution deals, and more, as manufacturers and programmers begin “coming together to figure out what that’s about,” he said.

While Dubravac said it will be a while before most people upgrade to UHD, he pointed out that, according to CEA research, close to 500,000 UHD TVs will be sold this year, up from just 60,000 in 2013. By 2017, that number could leap to almost 3 million, as consumers upgrade HDTVs purchased in the last decade.

Dubravac is also bullish on 3D printers, and said that about 7,000 square feet of exhibit space will be devoted to the devices at CES this year, and that 99,000 units will be sold worldwide in 2014. Wearable technology is also expected to grow dramatically (as you may have heard), with worldwide smartwatch sales hitting about 1.5 million this year, and ratcheting up to about 4 million by 2017.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, growth in UHD TV is expected to follow a pattern similar to other new technologies, according to Dubravac, with slow early adoption followed by more rapid growth. He compared it to the 3D TV market, which he said experienced 100 percent growth last year. “3D TV has done really well,” he said. “We’ve just stopped talking about it.” He did point out, however, that most people aren’t necessarily buying 3D sets for their 3D functionality. As a feature on higher-end and midrange TVs, “consumers are adopting it by default.”

Filed under: Displays, Misc, Home Entertainment, Wearables, HD

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Source: 2014 International CES Trends to Watch

Cat’s super-rugged B100 is pretty cool for a feature phone

I know, I know, it’s a feature phone. But still, pretty cool as far as these things go. Granted, though, when we played around with the Cat B100, we had to get ourselves back into that pre-smartphone mindset (a phone without a touchscreen? Whaaa?). Like its older sibling, the B15, the B100 is as rugged as you’d expect of a device bearing the Caterpillar branding and a black and yellow color scheme. The B100 feels solid, owing much to its metal sides. The phone can take up to a 1.8-meter drop, and thanks to covered ports, can survive being submerged in one meter of water for half an hour.

In place of the 15′s touchscreen is a large-button keyboard, which you should theoretically be able to operate while wearing work gloves while on the job. On the rear is a three-megapixel camera and flash, along with a large speaker – or you can just open up the headphone jack located on top of the phone. As for availability, well, we know it’s coming to Germany and other parts of Europe this year. No word on if when it’ll be available here, though a rep assured us that more news would be forthcoming on that front later this year.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

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