Gourmia GCM4500 Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Six new small appliances from Gourmia will be Wi-Fi-enabled and work with the company’s new app. The coffeemaker, tea brewer and sous vide immersion circulator will work with Amazon’s Alexa.

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You can lounge in your bed and tell Amazon’s Alexa to start your coffee, tea or sous vide circulator thanks to a new Skill from small appliance manufacturer Gourmia.

Gourmia displayed a new line of six Wi-Fi-enabled appliances at CES 2017 in Las Vegas. The company hasn’t released prices for these countertop gadgets, and they anticipate a release in the second quarter of 2017. You’ll be able to control all the of appliances through Gourmia’s new app, but three of those appliances will work with Alexa, Amazon’s voice-activated digital assistant:

• A 10-cup automatic drip coffee maker with a built-in grinder
• A loose-leaf tea infuser
• A sous vide pod (it’s a device that will create a temperature-controlled water bath)

The controls will work thanks to a Skill (aka the capabilities that you enable Alexa to perform) called Mia. So if you want some tea in the morning, you’ll be able to say, “Alexa, tell Mia to start my tea.”

Integration with Alexa has been big at this year’s CES. And we’ve already seen small appliances like the Joule sous vide circulator work with Alexa.

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Griffin BreakSafe Hi-Power Magnetic USB-C Breakaway Cable Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The BreakSafe cable for USB-C, plugged into a Macbook.

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Tripping over cables, or dragging your device to the ground because you forgot a cable was connected, is one of the most irritating first-world problem that exists.

To prevent your life from turning into a bad infomercial, Griffin expanded its line of BreakSafe cables. These cables come in two parts: one part plugs into your device and stays put, while the other connects to the first part via magnets. The magnets allow the two sections to detach easily in the case of a forceful jerk, saving you (and your device) from a sudden fall to the ground.

The BreakSafe USB adapter (front) and the car charger (rear).

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At CES 2017, the company released a 100-watt version of its 60-watt BreakSafe USB-C Power Cable, which can easily charge the 85 watt, 15-inch MacBook Pro. (Though, when we tried using the 60-watt cable to charge the Pro, it worked.) It can also charge non-Apple products too, like the Google Chromebook Pixel.

Griffin also expanded its cable series for USB Type-A, another USB port that is still used by many devices. This includes the BreakSafe Car Charger and Wall Charger. Perhaps most interesting, however, is the Magnet USB Breakaway Adapter. The adapter essentially turns any USB Type-A cable into a BreakSafe cable — rendering your days of tripping over your phone charger or pulling down your portable hardware drives, over.

Griffin’s products sell globally and the USB adapter will be available in Q1 of this year for $20 (about £16 and AU$28 converted). While the car charger, wall charger and 100-watt version of the USB-C cable will cost $40 (£32, AU$55 converted) and will come out in Q2.

Braven Flye Sport Go Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The Flye Sport Glo ships in the second quarter of 2017 for $250.

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Incipio-owned Braven is getting into the totally wireless earphones game with a sports model that has a feature the company hopes will make the upcoming product stand out from the growing horde of cord-free earphones: an app-controlled hi-glow laser light integrated into the ear hook of each bud.

The Flye Sport Glo ($250) is due to ship in the second quarter of this year and includes a translucent charging case that delivers an additional 20 hours of play time, or five full charges, on top of the earphones’ rated battery life of 4 hours. Those numbers are in line with competing models.

I got a little hands-on time with Sport Glo here at CES 2017 and the red laser light is definitely an eye-catching feature. Using the Braven Sport Active app (for iOS and Android) you can set the light to be on all the time or flash intermittently. It’s a nifty safety feature for running, cycling or just walking at night.

You can also adjust the earphones’ sound via the app and activate its Audio Ambient Awareness feature to let sound in and hear the outside world better. You can make calls via the integrated microphone and there are physical controls on the earphones.

Braven is also releasing a less expensive Bluetooth in-ear sport headphone, the Flye Sport Power ($150) that has the sport earhooks with the app-controlled hi-glow laser lights, but it has a cord between its earbuds. Braven’s new Flye Sport line includes two other step-down models that are less interesting but cheaper. UK and Australian details weren’t available, but those prices convert to roughly £200 and £120 or AU$340 and AU$200.

Braven’s Flye Sport Power ($150) neckband-style Bluetooth sports headphone is also due out in Q2 2017.

Braven

Flye Sport Glo key features

• Totally wireless earphones
• IPX7 waterproof rated
• Hi-glow laser lights ear hooks to optimize external visibility
• 4 hours of playtime
• 1,400mAh charging case adds 20 more hours of playtime while doubling as a compact travel case
• Adjust EQ settings, bass boost and virtual listening environments via Braven Sport Active app
• Available in silver/electric and slate/crimson for $250 in Q2

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Bluemint Labs Bixi Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

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We’re enamored with the possibilities of the voice-controlled smart home. The first version of Bixi went a different direction. The Bluetooth-enabled, puck-shaped device sensed motion to allow you control over your home with gestures.

Cool new Alexa devices

• LG Smart Instaview Refrigerator
• Belkin WeMo Dimmer
• Ford Sync 3

The second-generation Bixi, due out by the end of the year, keeps the same idea intact. Lift your hand over it to raise the volume of your speakers, or wave your hand across it to flip the page on your iPad. Bixi 2 will also accommodate those of us that love to use our voice with an Alexa integration.

Both Bixis respond to seven different gestures. They talk to your phone or tablet via Bluetooth, and Bixi 2 will connect directly to Wi-Fi. You can program Bixi to control any Bluetooth device, and via Wi-Fi hopefully Bixi will be able to talk to a lot more smart home devices — though a Bixi rep wouldn’t offer specifics.

I saw both Bixis on display at CES 2017. The first was released in France last year and will be coming to the US in March. The motion-sensing tech looks cool, especially if you’re in the kitchen and handling food. The small, portable Bixi is easy to take with you and its rechargeable battery lasts a month.

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You’ll need to be within 6 to 8 inches to get a response from Bixi. That limitation was intentional to help prevent accidental usage from your ordinary gestures. Still, the short range makes me wonder how useful it would be rather than just pulling out your phone. Alexa will help, though Amazon’s assistant won’t be always listening via Bixi as she is in the Amazon Echo. You’ll have to wake Bixi up with a wave, then you’ll be able to command Alexa normally.

If you’d like options for controlling your smart home, the motion-sensing, Alexa-enabled Bixi 2 will be out by the end of the year. A Bixi rep wouldn’t confirm a price, though the first Bixi will cost $100 when it comes out in the US in March. If Bixi 2 is much more than that, I’ll have a tough time seeing its value over the original $180 Amazon Echo.

SolarGaps Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

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Opening the blinds has never been so helpful. On display here at CES in Las Vegas, SolarGaps turns the actual slats of your window coverings into solar panels. SolarGaps blinds will be smart enough to shift their angle slightly throughout the day in order to maximize their power intake. The company also plans to integrate with the Google Home.

Smart home scoreboard at CES

• The scoreboard
• Google Home’s progress
• Alexa’s progress
• Siri’s progress

I’d love to control solar-powered blinds with my voice using Google’s always-listening assistant, but note that Google’s smart home language — Weave — doesn’t actually work with blinds yet. SolarGaps could be extra exciting if it’s an indication of a whole new smart home product category for Google Home. Or SolarGaps could be a small tech startup trying to make noise at CES by name-dropping Google. I’m hoping for the former.

Google Home aside, SolarGaps will have iOS and Android apps. The company also wants to integrate with Nest and SmartThings. If your Nest senses it’s too cold, it could send a signal to your blinds to let in more light and heat your place naturally.

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SolarGaps has a control box that responds to gestures, and the app has the functionality you’d expect — basic controls and scheduling. SolarGaps blinds should cost between $480 to $890 per square meter of window, and they don’t look the part of high-priced designer blinds. They look like big, black solar panels.

Still, if you prioritize energy and convenience over style, SolarGaps blinds will be worth keeping an eye on, especially if the company can pull off that Google Home integration. SolarGaps will start a crowdfunding campaign in February for a planned release in the middle of the year. (UK and Australian details weren’t available, but those prices convert to roughly £390 and £725 or AU$660 and AU£1,220.)

Cerevo Taclim VR Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

One of the more interesting products I got to test at CES was a pair of VR sneakers from Japanese gadget-maker Cerevo. The Taclim VR system consists of a pair of sneakers and gloves that are designed to give you a more immersive virtual experience.

The sneakers use haptic feedback to simulate different surfaces that you’re walking over. The demo I tried attempted to simulate walking on sand, wood and through water. The device was just a prototype, but it gave a glimpse at the future of VR. Perhaps one day we will all be wearing entire VR suits. Maybe.

Taclim also allowed me to kick and punch my way through a horde of virtual monsters, but the experience isn’t perfect. I had to awkwardly walk in place to travel through the world and was told not to kick too hard to prevent the shoes from falling off.

Some of the simulated surfaces worked quite well and others didn’t. There was a poison puddle that zapped my feet and another that actually felt like I had just stepped in a real puddle, but some of the surfaces just didn’t resonate with me. The wood and sand surfaces, for example, just sent random vibrations to my feet that was more annoying than immersive.

The Taclim VR system is open source and runs on the Unity plug-in, which allows developers to integrate them into their games. The company said the system will arrive later this year for between $1,000 and $1,500.

Dok Talk CR25 5-Device Charger Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The Alexa-enabled Dok Talk CR25 5-Device Charger.

Ry Crist/CNET

“Alexa everywhere.” That’s been one of the top themes of CES 2017, with device makers large and small introducing new skills for Amazon’s smash-hit voice-activated assistant. And, with Amazon having made it relatively easy for device-makers to code the virtual helper directly into their products, we’re also seeing lots of new gadgets that come with Alexa built right in.

Enter Dok Talk, which makes a wide assortment of multi-device charging stations. Their newest, the Dok Talk CR25, features a little microphone button on top — give it a tap, and voila, there’s Alexa, ready to take your question or command.

The device itself has five USB inputs capable of charging both phones and tablets (complete with protection against over-charging), as well as a Bluetooth speaker in the base and a Qi wireless charging pad that’ll let you charge a sixth device. It looks capable enough as a basic bedside charging station (if not a bit generic), but the addition of Alexa makes it into something a lot more compelling, especially given Alexa’s ever-growing library of third-party skills.

You’ll need to press a button to wake Alexa up.

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It’s good evidence that Alexa is proving to be a rising tide for in-home tech. Even off-brand, otherwise unremarkable devices like this one can bring in Alexa where it makes sense; in doing so, they get to expand the functionality of what they’re selling to a near-exponential degree.

Of course, it also gives companies that make bargain-bin junk an excuse to jack up the price of what they’re hocking. I’m not saying that’s what Dok Talk’s up to here (and I can’t speak to the quality of the device until we test one out), but I’ll still be curious to see how the CR25’s yet-to-be-determined asking price compares to the company’s non-Alexa-enabled chargers when it arrives later this year.

For now, Dok Talk says the plan is to sell it for less than the Amazon Echo‘s current asking-price of $180 in the US and £149 in the UK (The Echo isn’t currently available in Australia, but its price converts roughly to AU$245). Hopefully, it’s a lot less given that those standard Dok Talk chargers run for about $80 in the US, and unlike the Echo the Dok Talk makes you press a button to wake Alexa up.

The CR25 is heading to market later this year, both on Dok Talk’s website and on Amazon. Dok Talk also plans to sell a less expensive version of the charger that keeps Alexa, but ditches the Qi charging pad. Both will ship worldwide.

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Inirv React Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The Inirv React includes four knobs that you retrofit to your cooktop and a sensor you mount on your ceiling.

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

The Inirv React knobs will change colors if it detects that something’s cooking, but the sensor doesn’t detect any motion from you.

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Admit it: You’ve put some ramen in a pot on the stove, stepped out of the kitchen and forgot all about your instant meal. Hopefully, you caught your mistake before a fire broke out. But a startup called Inirv Labs wants to make sure you avoid household disasters with knobs that will automatically shut off your burners if you forget you’re cooking.

This week at CES in Las Vegas, Inirv hooked up its system — called the Inirv React — to a cooktop and demonstrated how it will keep your kitchen (and ramen) safe. The company also launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for the product this week, and it surpassed its $40,000 goal within three days. The system will cost $299 when it’s released, and it will come with four knobs and a sensor. That price converts roughly to £245 in the UK and AU$410 in Australia.

Here’s how $299 Inirv React system works:

• You mount a sensor to your kitchen ceiling. The sensor is Wi-Fi- as well as Bluetooth-connected, and it can detect smoke, gas and motion.
• Pop off your old burner knobs and replace them with Inirv knobs, which are also Wi-Fi- and Bluetooth-enabled.
• The sensor will prompt the knobs to automatically shut off your burner if it detects a hazard like smoke or fire, and it doesn’t detect any motion from you.
• The Inirv’s iOS and Android app will also send you a notification to let you know that it’s about to shut your burner off.

You’ll be able to change the settings and disable the turn-off feature in the app in case you need your burner on for long periods of time, like if you’re making a stew over low heat for a couple of hours.

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Seven Dreamers Laundroid Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Nobody likes doing laundry. And even after you’ve washed and dried everything, you still have to fold it all and put it away. Bummer.

Fortunately, startup Seven Dreamers wants to help out with this everyday chore in the form of Laundroid, an imposing laundry-folding-robot that looks kind of like a bottom freezer fridge.

Laundroid is tall, dark and functional (pictures)
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Here’s how it works:

Toss up to 30-40 pieces of clothing into the drawer in the bottom. Laundroid is then supposed to be able sort through what’s inside and get to folding. Its built-in AI and image analysis distinguishes among t-shirts, pants and even underwear. It isn’t able to fold socks, though.

From there, the robotic arm inside the appliance will pick up a single item at a time and spend the next 5 minutes or so folding it. No, it isn’t very fast, but I suppose it’s better than doing it yourself. Seven Dreamers also has a related Android and iPhone app for remote access to the bot.

More from CES 2017

• Razer’s new gaming laptop has three (!) screens
• All the smart home products at CES 2017 (so far)

We saw Laundroid previously as a prototype (it’s been in development since 2005), but Seven Dreamers plans to open preorders worldwide in March. Pricing hasn’t yet been announced.

In addition to this Laundroid unit, the company also plans to introduce a custom version for hospitals and nursing homes in 2018, as well as an all-in-one washer, dryer and laundry folder in 2019. In the meantime, we hope to track down a review unit of Laundroid to try out for ourselves at the CNET Smart Home.

Click here to find out what else is happening at CES 2017.

Curb Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

We’ve seen plenty of systems capable of tracking your home’s energy usage, and even spent some time testing one of them out in the CNET Smart Home. It’s a patently good idea, but to date, we haven’t seen a product that really nails the execution yet.

That’s why I was so intrigued by what I heard from Curb, an Austin-based startup that’s working to bring whole-home energy tracking to the masses. Curb founder and CEO Erik Norwood walked me through the system’s ins and outs in a booth off the beaten path here at CES, and the more I listened, the more encouraged I became.

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The core device is a $400 gadget that sits inside of your breaker box, with special sensors that clamp onto each circuit to track how much power they’re putting out. Curb feeds that data to the cloud, letting you monitor everything in real time on your computer, or on your phone using Curb’s app.

Curb’s sensors clamp onto each circuit and track how much power is flowing through them.

Ry Crist/CNET

That’s not dramatically different than other players in the space, including Neurio, the system we reviewed back in 2015. And, like those competitors, you’ll need to hire an electrician to install everything. From hands-on accounts on the web, that could take as long as 3 hours, and if you figure roughly $100 per hour for a good electrician’s time, that adds up fast.

Curb’s creators recognize that those installation woes are a major friction point for adoption. To that end, they came to Vegas with a potentially significant new partner: Schneider Electric. You might never have heard of it (I hadn’t before this week), but it’s the name behind the largest manufacturer of residential breaker boxes. That could help Curb get its gadget installed in people’s homes before they even move in.

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Curb’s app has a radar-like display that tracks your energy usage on a second-by-second basis. Here, we turned a space heater on and saw consumption jump into the red.

Ry Crist/CNET

Another strong point: Curb’s software. Both the app and the web portal visualize your home’s energy usage especially well, with a spinning radar-like display that shows your power consumption on a second-by-second basis. You can also view your usage over time, with stacked graphs that offer a clean breakdown of your consumption.

That data also makes Curb something of a connected home-enabler. After all, once you can track everything’s power usage, you’ll have an extra incentive to smarten all of it up so that you can automate it, or turn it off remotely.

“We don’t want to make switches and thermostats to compete with Samsung and Nest,” Norwood said. “We’d rather be the conductor of the symphony.”

To that end, Curb boasts an integration with Samsung’s SmartThings connected home platform. Enable it, and you’ll be able to turn your SmartThings-enabled lights and appliances on and off directly from Curb’s web portal or app — an easy way to take action as you comb through Curb’s energy-tracking data.

I also like that, in addition to tracking energy consumption, Curb can track the energy production of any solar panels you might have installed. That’s a good, forward-thinking feature for energy-conscious consumers.

Curb is available now in the US, and I think it’s worth keeping on your radar. I’m itching to test it out in the CNET Smart Home — when that time comes, we’ll let you know all of the ins and outs.