Doppel Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Dan Graziano/CNET

Doppel, a London-based startup, is showing off a new kind of wristband at the CES trade show in Las Vegas. The band doesn’t track your steps and it can’t display notifications from your phone. What makes the Doppel wristband special is its vibrating motor.

The Doppel band sits on the inside of your wrist and emits a gentle vibration that resembles a heart beat. The band can sync with an app on your phone, which allows you to control the speed of the vibration.

Why does any of this matter? According to the company, your brain has the ability to respond to the rhythm of the vibration and alter your mood. It’s similar to when you are listening to upbeat music to pump you up at the gym, or downbeat music to calm you down at the end of the night.

Sound like a load of crap? Think again. Doppel has said the device has been independently tested and shown to double a user’s focus and alertness, as well as significantly reduce stress. These claims are the result of controlled studies run by the Royal Holloway, University of London.

The Doppel wristband will be available later this spring for $179 (this roughly converts to £145 or AU$245). It’s available for preorder now from the company’s website for $150 (£121 or AU$206).

Willow wearable breast pump Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Cordless, quiet and pretty darn liberating — the Willow wearable breast pump is hands-free mothering at its best.

Claire Reilly/CNET

As a new mother, nobody tells you that you’ll spend hours of your life sitting on the sofa with a noisy suction monster. No, not your baby — your breast pump.

The Willow wearable breast pump is bringing a much-needed technological twist to one of the last bugbears of parenting, making it easy to express breast milk while keeping your hands free.

A plastic teardrop-shaped device that looks more like a Bluetooth speaker, the Willow sits inside the mother’s nursing bra, detecting when she starts to express and adjusting the pump mode accordingly.

The milk is pumped into a nifty doughnut-shaped bag inside the unit, and a one-way valve keeps it in without leaking. According to Willow CEO Naomi Kellman, you can toss the bag around “and you won’t lose any of that liquid gold.”

At first glance, Willow has clear benefits over a conventional breast pump:

• Cordless design slips inside a nursing bra
• Simple buttons for suction level and operation
• Pumps milk into sealed single-use bags
• Senses when milk starts and when mother starts to express
• Pairs with app for details on pumping time and volumes

But undoubtedly the best part of the Willow is the noise, or, more accurately, the silence.

I’m used to friends and family sitting in the living room with a breast pump that sounds more like the tanks in an industrial water treatment plant. But I held the Willow to my ear like a gloriously empowering conch shell and I could barely hear a thing. Nothing but the distant sound of relieved mothers.

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That’s the key selling point here. According to Kellman, this wearable breast pump is about giving mothers a bit of freedom.

“We knew we could just reinvent the breast pump, we had to reimagine it,” Kellman told CNET. “Women want mobility and they want their hands back… The Willow cuts the cords and gets rid of dangling bottles for good.”

The Willow is due to launch in Spring, with the company set to sell a double pump set on its website for $429 (AU$590, or £350 converted) with milk bags going for 50 cents each.

Check out all CNET’s CES coverage here.

Pixie Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

These aren’t guitar picks, they’re smart thing trackers.

Scott Stein/CNET

Lost things are a huge pain. Luckily, some companies are trying to help.

This four-pack of little guitar pick-like items, called Pixie, are debuting late January. They’re location-tracking tags for your things: keys, phones, luggage or maybe your pet. Unlike other item-finding tags, Pixie’s tech uses a mesh network that acts like a local GPS. It works up to 150 feet outdoors, or 30-40 feet indoors, according to CEO Amir Bassan Eskenazi, who I met in a crowded CES showfloor in Las Vegas.

Pixie blends right in on a crowded keychain.

Scott Stein/CNET

One Pixie tracker attaches to your phone (iPhone for now, Android coming soon). The others, up to seven more, can go on anything. Adhesive stickers and keyring loops come included. All devices using Pixies communicate on the same mesh network, meaning the more you add, the easier it might be to find all of them.

Attach it on a bag, why don’t you?

Scott Stein/CNET

An app shows the location of lost items like a little augmented reality game. As you get closer, you can seek out your things and find out what direction they’re hiding. A two-pack costs $50 (converts to AU$70, ‎£40), a four-pack $100 (AU$140, ‎£80).

We couldn’t try out Pixie on the preshow floor, but we have an early review unit we’ll test out this week.

Holo Cube Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Behold, the Holo Cube.

Scott Stein/CNET

A weirdly-patterned cube that looks suspiciously like the Hellraiser puzzle box becomes a delightful little miniature city, once I put my headset on. Or, Pac-Man. Or a Super Mario coin block. Or a Minecraft-like cube of pixelated animals and fields.

Merge VR launched its affordable VR headset last year, which slips onto most iPhones and Android phones. Holo Cube is a novelty extra, a foam block. But, because Merge VR allows your phone’s camera to pass through the other side, the Holocube also becomes a little augmented toy.

It looks ominous, no?

Scott Stein/CNET

Holo Cube can be used with or without a VR headset, using Merge’s app. It’s coming out sometime around summer for $20. And it’s silly…but it’s also pretty cute. And it shows that AR games and toys can be achieved with your own phone in your pocket, too.

To be clear: Holo Cube isn’t doing anything that things like the Nintendo 3DS did years ago with specially marker-coded AR cards. But at least it looks cool on a desk.

Baidu Fishhome Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

We’re seeing quite a few Alexa copycats at CES this year. Each promises to be unique in one way or another, but all offer the same basic tricks that Amazon Echo has offered for years — control your smart home, play music and provide personal assistance. A product called Fishhome looks at first glance to be yet another knockoff, but given that it’s from the Chinese internet giant Baidu — known as “the Google of China” — Fishhome might just have the clout to keep up.

Unlike the Amazon Echo or the Google Home, Baidu Fishhome has a large screen to display additional information after you ask a question. It also has a camera, with which it can supposedly recognize your face and customize its answers accordingly. You’ll be able to hold video chats on Fishhome, and stream videos directly to the screen.

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Otherwise, expect the usual Echo functionality. Baidu will try to get a leg up on these fronts with advanced AI for a more conversational assistant. That’s how Google tried to beat the Echo, with the conversational Google Assistant, but Alexa keeps making strides on this front as well. We’re still waiting for a digital assistant to perfect natural give-and-take-in voice commands. Perhaps Baidu can be the one to pull this off.

The Baidu Fishhome is on display at CES this week in Las Vegas. No word yet on pricing, availability or even what smart home platforms it’ll work with. We’ll update this piece with more information and hands on impressions when we have them.

Habit Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Habit sends you a kit that includes a lancets and cards to collect blood samples. You send them to the company for analysis.

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

A diet might make the weight melt off one person, while someone else eating the same food could gain some pounds. A startup called Habit promises to find the right meal plan for you by analyzing your blood, DNA and Fitbit steps.

Habit showed off their $299 at-home kit (roughly converting to £241 or AU$408) for collecting your vitals at a CES preview event Wednesday (ironically, right next to a table full of hot dogs for the press). The kit includes everything you need to collect your biometrics for them to analyze: lancets for blood samples, mouth swabs for DNA samples and a tape measure for your body dimensions. You send everything back to Habit, and they’ll analyze your information to create a food profile that recommends food you should eat to lose weight.

You can order a Habit kit if you live in the San Francisco area. Founder and CEO Neil Grimmer said Tuesday the company will eventually expand nationwide.

Habit has also partnered with Fitbit, the fitness company responsible for those ubiquitous step trackers. Once you sync your Fitbit and Habit accounts, Habit can recommend how many calories you should eat daily based on the number of steps you take.

Habit also includes an optional personalized meal delivery service and health coaching in its offerings.

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i-Blades Elite Smartcase Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

This case has magnetic pins that connect to extra components.

Lynn La/CNET

Modular phones — phones that have swappable hardware components — are still a distant dream. Though the LG G5 and the Motorola Moto Z series attempt to approach this concept, they’re still far from perfect.

Phone cases also try to lend your phone a semblance of modularity, like the Elite Smartcase from i-Blades. Designed for the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S7 (and their Edge counterparts), the Smartcase attaches to your handset, which can then connect to another accessory that increases your phone’s power and memory.

The case attaches to the 1,800mAh battery pack, called the Smartblade, via magnets on the back similar to the Moto Z’s. The Smartblade also has 64GB of built-in storage and includes a microSD card slot that can hold an extra 128GB, both of which would come in handy if you ever run out of space in your own phone. When I briefly tried it out, the connection felt secure and snappy, and their rubber-coated finish help with durability.

i-Blades first announced the phone case last November, and units are just beginning to ship out. In addition to the Smartblade, the company has a VR case module and an optional Smartcase with an environmental sensor that can measure air quality. Together, the Smartcase and Smartblade retail for $130 (converts to roughly AU$180, £105), and i-Blades said that they were continuing to work on other accessories.

Click here more on CNET’s coverage of CES 2017.

YI 4K+ Action Camera Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The YI 4K can shoot 4K video at 60fps — a first for the category.

Josh Goldman/CNET

Just two cameras into its career as an action cam maker and YI Technology is a standout in the category.

The company first made waves with a full-HD camera under the Xiaomi brand. The YI 4K Action Camera followed in 2016 and delivered great features and image quality at a price the competition couldn’t match (it’s currently available for $200).

For CES 2017, YI has unveiled the 4K+ Action Camera, capable of capturing 4K video at 60 frames per second, which is double thatGoPro’s Hero5 Black. It’s not only a first for YI, it’s a first for the category. It’s also the also the first camera to use an Ambarella H2 SoC processor, offering a maximum bitrate of 120Mbps, which should make for some sharp, detailed video (and huge file sizes).

The 4K is the first to use Ambarella’s H2 system-on-a-chip.

Josh Goldman/CNET

YI said the camera will have electronic image stabilization (EIS), live streaming and better outdoor audio, as well as VR support.

Pricing and availability wasn’t announced, but my money’s on it being $350 — $50 less than the Hero5 Black (that converts to around AU$480, £280).

YI’s Erida drone will take flight for the first time publicly at CES 2017.

Josh Goldman/CNET

YI also brought its Erida drone to CES 2017, showing it in flight for the first time. The tricopter was developed with Atlas Dynamics, a team of developers and engineers that tried to get the Erida crowdfunded in 2015. Made of light-yet-strong carbon fiber, YI says the tricopter can reach speeds of up to 75 mph (120 kph) and stay in the air for up to 40 minutes. If this holds true, this is longer than any other ready-to-fly drone. Plus, two of its three prop arms rotate and fold back for travel.

The drone collaboration was announced last August, but with no pricing or availability. Pricing still isn’t available, but YI says expect to see the Erida in Q2 2017.

Nighthawk GS808E S8000 8-port Gaming and Media Switch Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The Nighthawk S8000 8-port Gaming and Media Switch at CES 2017.

Dong Ngo/CNET

When it comes to gaming, the best way to connect your rig is via a Gigabit connection, and today Netgear brought that to a next level with the Nighthawk S8000 8-port Gaming and Media Switch (model GS808E).

Netgear says this is a 8-port switch designed to connect Playstation, Xbox, Wii and other gaming consoles, as well as basically any device that needs a smooth, lag-free connection. Each of its Gigabit Ethernet ports can be configured differently, allowing for complete versatility to users. You can use a web interface to configure each port for a certain service, like media streaming, gaming or VoIP, and the switch will automatically prioritize the traffic for that particular service.

On top of that, the GS808E also supports link aggregation, meaning you can combine up to four ports into a single, super fast connection (up to 4Gbps) that works with supported NAS server or gaming rigs. This is great for those who want to host LAN parties where one server hosts multiple simultaneous gaming sections.

The Nighthawk S8000 8-port Gaming and Media Switch has 8 Gigabit network port, four of which can be combined into a single super-fast 4Gbps connection.

Dong Ngo/CNET

Netgear says the Nighthawk S8000 Gigabit Ethernet Switch seamlessly integrates with any Nighthawk router and includes the full set of NETGEAR Web Managed Switch software features. Its other attributes include:

• “Cool-touch” premium zinc alloy housing design, with soft-touch no-slip base 

• Easy, one-click optimized configuration presets for gaming, media streaming or standard 
networking, plus two user-defined configurations 

• Port-based and 802.1p/DSCP-based QoS (Quality of Service) for 4 levels of network traffic 
prioritization 

• Auto “denial-of-service” (DoS) prevention 

• IGMP snooping support for multicast optimization 

• Loop detection and broadcast storm controls 

• Rate limiting and priority queuing for better bandwidth allocation 

• Port trunking/link aggregation (LAG) enables increased throughput beyond 1Gbps [up to 4Gbps] 
or to provide redundancy across the link(s) 


The switch comes with a 3-year warranty and will be available in Match at the suggest retail price of $99, which converts to roughly AU$140 and £80.

Hubble Hugo Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Not only can the Hubble Hugo follow you as you move around the room, but it’ll watch your face and try to tell how you’re feeling. Complete with Alexa integration, the Hugo is a smart cam from tech startup Hubble that plays music, controls your smart home and keeps track of when you’re angry.

Now, I typically don’t need a camera to tell me when I’m excited, but this feature of Hugo isn’t just a novelty. In particular, it’s meant to help you monitor your baby. Hugo can both tell you when your baby starts crying and then automatically play music or turn on a fan. The Hubble cloud also has a few audio books for kids it can play.

Thanks to the Alexa integration, you’ll be able to command Hugo to set reminders or alarms, as well as any of the other tricks in the massive sleeves of Amazon’s digital assistant.

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Hugo has motion detection, an SD card and can spin 360 degrees, so it has the features to function well as a smart home security cam as well as a baby monitor. Since it reads faces so well, it makes sense that it also can tell people from animals, so you won’t get an alert if you’re away and your pet crosses into view.

You’ll be able to store 24 hours of footage on the cloud for free, or you can pay a monthly fee and store footage for longer.

Hugo will be available to help you sort your emotions this summer. The price hasn’t been finalized, but the company’s reps at CES expect it to fall between $250 and $300.

I got a chance to demo Hugo at CES.

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

During the demo at CES, I’ll say I was impressed by the novelty. I could see my face on a screen and Hugo would pick up my smiles and frowns and read my emotions accordingly, though I’m not sure of it’s ability to track subtlety. Then again, crying babies aren’t exactly subtle,. However, I’m worried Hugo would lose track if the baby rolls over — as Hugo seemed to struggle with faces at an angle.