Vital Moto Mod and Livermorium Keyboard Moto Mod hands-on review

A few modular smartphone projects may have come and gone, but Motorola is holding strong with the snappable Moto Mods on its Moto Z smartphone family. There’s a good collection of Motorola handsets that support these mods — from the midrange Moto Z2 Play to the flagship Moto Z2 Force smartphones — and two new Moto Mods announced at CES 2018 mean there are now more than 15 mods available.

The latest additions are Vital Inc.’s Vital Moto Mod, which measures five metrics including heart rate, blood pressure, and core body temperature; and Livermorium’s Keyboard Mod, which adds a physical keyboard to the attached Moto Z phone. In our Vital Moto Mod and Livermorium Keyboard Moto Mod hands-on review, we see if it’s worth swapping to the Moto Z family to try these mods out.

Vital Moto Mod

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

The Vital Moto Mod is a glimpse of a future that’s much closer than you may realize. It’s a health-focused device that doesn’t really need to be a Moto Mod, but it’s easier for Vital USA Inc. to bring the product to market with the help of Lenovo and Motorola. The Moto Mod tracks five vitals: heart rate; pulse oximetry (SpO2), or the amount of oxygen in the blood; respiratory rate, or the number of breaths you take per minute; core body temperature; and blood pressure.

The reason why it stands alone as its own product is because it connects to a Moto Z phone via Bluetooth — most mods usually secure a connection through pogo pins. You can still slap the Vital Moto Mod to the back of a Moto Z smartphone and it will connect magnetically, but it also works when it’s off the phone. Naturally, the Vital Moto Mod works exclusively with Moto Z phones, but you can imagine — and Vital Inc. confirmed this — that a product down the line would be available for just about any smartphone on the market.

Vital Inc. said the data is incredibly accurate, but the mod doesn’t replace your doctor.

The mod is ridiculously chunky, but it’s not a problem because it doesn’t need to be attached to your phone all the time. To track all your vitals, simply insert your left index finger through the blood pressure monitor on the back, and hold your hand and the mod up close to your chest. The hole your finger is in contracts just like a normal blood pressure monitor on your arm.

You have to keep still for about 110 seconds to let it track several things, and when you’re done, you can lift the mod up to your forehead and stay still for a few seconds just to get your core body temperature. The process is dead simple, and largely involves just a few minutes of your time — like a visit to the doctor. It worked without a hitch for me, and my vitals are surprisingly in a healthy range.

Vital Inc. said the data is incredibly accurate, but the mod doesn’t replace your doctor. It’s meant more to help keep track of your health, and see when your vitals change based on the level of your daily activity — you can even share this data with your physician. In the app, you can see the readings as well as graphs that show you if your health is above or below average. There’s room for improvement here, though, as we think the app could benefit from a coach or more tools to help you understand what some of these numbers mean.

The data stored by Vital is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which means you’re in charge of who has access to your medical information. The ability to track all these vitals within a matter of minutes, and store this data for historical record, is impressive. We can’t wait for this device to work with various smartphones, as it provides a real benefit.

The Vital Moto Mod is expected to launch early this year, and price hasn’t been confirmed, but it’s likely to cost somewhere in the $300 to $400 range.

Livermorium Moto Mod

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

The Livermorium Moto Mod spawned from Motorola’s “Transform the Smartphone” Indiegogo campaign that challenged people to come up with unique and useful Moto Mods. Livermorium raised the most funds for its Keyboard Moto Mod. It does exactly what the name suggests — add a keyboard to your Moto Z smartphone.

If you’re longing for phones like the T-Mobile Sidekick, then this is a mod for you. Magnetically attach the mod to the back of a compatible Moto Z phone, and simply slide out the back to reveal a full, backlit QWERTY keyboard. You can angle the keyboard toward you so it’s more comfortable to hold, and you can easily turn off the backlight.

It felt comfortable to use, with satisfying buttons and enough room between the keys — it didn’t feel cramped. You’ll find Android navigation keys on the keyboard itself, and while it could activate the native Android split-screen mode, it did not activate Google Assistant — you’ll have to use the touchscreen or your voice.

The Indiegogo campaign model featured a battery in the mod to add even more value, but it looks like the first batches the company is shipping do not have a battery. That’s a shame, because the mod is already incredibly thick. That’s the biggest downside of the Keyboard Moto Mod, because it feels like you’re holding a brick when it’s attached to a phone.

Die-hard physical keyboard fans will certainly be interested, but considering the mod costs $100 and the fact that Moto Z phones aren’t exactly cheap, we recommend finding a phone with an embedded physical keyboard. Did you hear? BlackBerry’s doing well — or opt for Samsung’s smart QWERTY keyboard cover.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Moto Mod with Amazon Alexa review
• Vital Inc.’s new Moto Mod measures five vital signs in a matter of two minutes
• Livermorium’s new Moto Mod will bring back BlackBerry-style physical keyboard
• Prints photos in seconds with the Polaroid Insta-Share Printer Moto Mod
• Motorola Moto Gamepad review

Tersa Steam can clean a shirt before you finish your morning coffee

The Tersa Steam began, as so many inventions do, with a problem. “The three founders, we lived in a fraternity house our first year on campus in undergrad, and we shared a room with five guys, a house with about 60 guys, and one washing machine,” Tersa CEO Charlie Warden told Digital Trends at CES 2018. A nightmare scenario, but it led to a clever idea. “…we wanted something cool to hang on the wall to clean our towels, underwear, shirts, shorts, anything we needed to stay fresh,” Warden continued.

That something ended up being the Tersa Steam, a wall-mounted steam cleaner that cleans clothes quickly, and leaves them smelling good. We wanted to keep it chemical-free,” Warden said, to avoid creating splotches on clothes. The Tersa uses a simple combination of water and hydrosols, which Warden describes as “runoff from the cologne and perfume manufacturing process.”

The hydrosols are contained in biodegradable pods. To clean a shirt, the user simply opens the Tersa and places it inside, inserts a pod, and then the steamer blasts the clothes with steam, killing bacteria, smoothing out wrinkles, and infusing the shirt with the smell of the pod. Finally, the Tersa dries things out. The cleaning cycle takes 10 minutes, perfect when you need a fresh shirt before work.

Tersa launched on Indiegogo, and is still available for pre-sale. The pre-sale price is $399. Once the product hits retail, the price will jump to $499.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Dirty display? Here’s how to clean a laptop screen without risk of damage
• This little machine can clean your clothes with 10 liters of water and no power
• Here’s how to clean a Keurig in just a few simple steps
• Here’s how to clean an oven without harsh chemicals
• Never clean a toilet again — SpinX robot does the dirty job

DJI didn’t unveil any new drones at CES, but it’s Osmo stabilizer is pretty cool

While most of us associate DJI more with their line of popular and best-selling drones, the company actually has other products, including first-person-view (FPV) goggles and a selfie-stick-like product called the Osmo.

The Osmo Mobile 2, a stabilizer intended for use with smartphones, and the Ronin S stabilizer are the two biggest announcements at CES 2018 for DJI. Michael Perry, the company’s managing director for the North American market, stopped by the Digital Trends booth at CES in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon to talk about these products.

With the Osmo Mobile 2, battery life is increased to 15 hours, a dramatic increase over the 4.5 hours of the first-generation stabilizer. With so many video creators turning to their smartphones to create content, the better battery power makes it possible to use the Osmo Mobile 2 for an entire day’s worth of filming without having to stop for a recharge.

Other notable features include the capability to use the stabilizer in portrait mode, and a dramatically lower price point of $129, $70 cheaper than the first-generation model. Perry told us that DJI expects the much cheaper price point to allow a broader range of consumers to take advantage of the cinematic-like qualities of stabilizers to make stunning videos.

While you may have come here hoping for a bit of drone news from DJI, you’ll be disappointed. The company instead seems to be focusing on more than just physical products. For example, since CES 2017, DJI has spent a considerable amount of time focusing on getting over what Perry calls the “intuitiveness barrier” when it comes to drones, as well as working on better camera technology.

Perry told us that DJI and the drone industry will likely make improving camera technology a priority over the next few years, versus producing drones to which you attach a GoPro or other camera.

Editors’ Recommendations

• 5 tech trends you’ll be talking about in 2018
• The all-screen Apple iPhone X is here, and it’s the new iPhone you’ll want
• Qualcomm’s LTE PCs could be the biggest revolution since laptops got Wi-Fi
• DJI Talks About Its Osmo Camera Stabilizer at CES
• ‘Gears of War 4’ review

Kickstarter’s lasting effect on consumer tech is on full display at CES 2018

Crowdfunding site Kickstarter has been around for the better part of a decade, but you could argue that CES 2018 is its breakout year when it comes to lasting effects on the industry. No less than 250 of the companies exhibiting on the show floor began as Kickstarter projects, and 2018 marks the first year Kickstarter has an actual booth.

Julip Terra, director of technology and design for Kickstarter, stopped by the Digital Trends booth at CES in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon to provide some details on what Kickstarter is up to, as well as to explain why after nine years the company finally decided to have a physical presence at the show.

forTerra says that having the booth helps illustrate how his company is moving beyond just funding, and toward a comprehensive solution g bringing products from concept to prototype and then mass market release. At any given time, Kickstarter hosts nearly 1,000 design and tech gadgets looking for funding, he said, and all Kickstarter projects must have working prototypes.

This in theory should prevent the biggest potential problem with any crowdfunding effort: a project that’s funded and never makes it to market, leaving supporters high and dry. It still happens — DigitalTrends has covered quite a few of these fails in the past — but this at least gives backers some comfort in knowing that Kickstarter itself is working to keep scams and dubious projects off the service.

For those that pass muster, Kickstarter doesn’t merely help them raise money. One effort called Hardware Studio helps startups get products to market through education on the manufacturing process and connections to hardware providers.

Another effort — currently in “private beta” — is called Drip. You can think of the service as kind of a Patreon for tech innovators. Instead of supporting a particular Kickstarter, backers here would be able to “subscribe” to creators, and support their efforts through a monthly contribution.

Terra admitted that even Kickstarter isn’t exactly sure yet how Drip will actually work, but did point to it as an exciting new way to spur innovation in the technology sector. We’ll have to wait and see on that one.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Crowdfunding conundrum: Why the magic device you backed may never show up
• Kickstarter lets you subscribe to creators with Drip
• Samsung Galaxy X: Rumors and news leaks
• Energous is finally bringing its awesome new wireless charging tech to market
• Watch LG’s 65-inch rollable OLED TV curl up like a poster, disappear from sight

Boeing’s beast of a drone can carry up to 500 pounds of cargo

Perhaps the only surprising thing about Boeing’s remotely controlled octocopter is that it’s taken it this long to make one.

The aerospace company unveiled this meaty flying machine on Wednesday and claims it has the potential to transform the way we carry heavy payloads over relatively short distances.

Described by Boeing as an “unmanned electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) cargo air vehicle (CAV) prototype,” the octocopter took just three months to build and measures 4.57 meters by 5.49 meters. It weighs more than 700 pounds and can carry payloads of up to 500 pounds. To give that a bit of context, the much, much smaller Phantom 4 consumer drone made by DJI can hardly manage 2 pounds. Yes, Boeing’s creation is a beast.

The company’s chief technology officer, Greg Hyslop, said the new air vehicle represents “another major step in our Boeing eVTOL strategy,” adding, “We have an opportunity to really change air travel and transport, and we’ll look back on this day as a major step in that journey.”

A short video (above) posted by Boeing this week shows the hefty machine lifted into the air by its eight counter-rotating sets of blades. But the enormous scale of the design is only apparent in the few brief shots in which you can see some of the team standing right by it.

“It’s fully electric on some Boeing custom-designed batteries,” says David Neely of Boeing Research and Technology. “The goal is to extend into a large-scale cargo platform; if you extend the range and extend the payload a little bit [we can] deliver 250 to 500 pounds over a 10 or 20 mile radius [and] change the way we deliver goods.”

The unveiling comes just months after Boeing acquired Aurora Flight Sciences, a world-class developer and manufacturer of advanced automated drones and aerospace platforms. Hyslop said at the time that the two companies would work together to “advance the development of autonomy for our commercial and military systems [and] open new markets with transformational technologies.”

One thing springs to mind with Boeing’s beast. If Amazon gets wind of the technology, it may be keen to incorporate it into its own Prime Air drone, paving the way for flying televisions and other heavy goods for delivery to customers.

But of course, with drone delivery platforms of all shapes and sizes, strict regulatory hurdles still need to be overcome before they can go into operation.

Editors’ Recommendations

• MIT’s new ultrafine, ultrastrong fibers could make future body armor tougher
• World’s largest amphibious plane takes maiden flight (but stays clear of water)
• Speed riding blends skiing with paragliding and is the next great extreme sport
• Researchers wreck hundreds of drones in the name of safety
• The SureFly two-person drone taxi will make its maiden flight at CES 2018

Indiegogo stops by DT’s booth at CES to show off some cool crowdfunding projects

Crowdfunding is hot right now, but what do creators do once they’ve got the money? That’s the question Indiegogo wants to answer, and its CEO David Mandlebrot stopped by the DT booth at CES 2018 in Las Vegas to discuss that question and show off some neat new Indiegogo projects.

The company’s current focus is on a concept-to-market approach, where the crowdfunding site provides assistance to creators before, during, and after the crowdfunding experience. One example is Travis the Translator, a successful crowdfunding campaign for a device that can translate from and to 80 languages.

Mandlebrot says that Indiegogo assisted the Travis team by connecting them with partner Arrow Electronics. Arrow, in turn, helped Travis source parts to make its innovative handheld translator a reality.

But it’s not always about tech: Mandlebrot says that there’s typically a 50/50 split between tech gadgets and other useful inventions when it comes to crowdfunding projects. He had one such invention to show off at the DT booth called the Mifold — think of it as a booster seat without the boost. Instead of the child sitting on a seat that allows the safety belt to safely restrain him or her, the Mifold instead brings the top part of the belt down to the child’s shoulder, where it can safely restrain them without causing discomfort.

Of course, we’re a tech site here at DigitalTrends, so Mandlebrot had plenty to show us, including a new type of VR system called the VR Free by SensoryX. These new type of gloves include built-in sensors to track finger movements without the need for any other tracking devices, which the company claims makes its offering more immersive, intuitive, convenient, and precise.

We were impressed with the demo they showed us at the booth, which really seemed to allow for fine movements — like playing a virtual piano — that might be more difficult to do with other platforms.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: Better gaming keyboards, wrist phones, and more
• Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: A clip for your dip and a toilet for your cat
• Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: Secret key vaults, ice ballers, yogurt makers
• Kickstarter’s lasting effect on consumer tech is on full display at CES 2018
• Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: Ultra-grippy socks and dirt-cheap 3D printers

Vuzix built the smartglasses Google wishes it did

Attention, crestfallen Google Glass enthusiasts: Your redemption has arrived.

While most of the tech world dismissed the “smartglasses” concept when Google put Glass to bed back in 2015, Vuzix continued toiling away on the form factor it has been working on since long before Google ever took an interest. The result, at long last: A pair of smartglasses you may actually want to wear.

No, we can’t guarantee your safety in a crowded San Francisco bar should you decide to wade into the ungentrified masses with the Vuzix Blade on a Saturday night. But we can say the sleek new shades are both eminently less punchable, and more functional than Glass ever was.

The Blade use Vuzix’s proprietary waveguide technology to superimpose bright, crystal-clear images directly in your line of sight. Unlike Glass, there’s no awkward arm jutting front of your eye. With the display turned off, the Blade glasses look like any other. Despite the tinted look you see in photos, you’ll have no issues wearing them indoors.

Nick Mokey/Digital Trends

Nick Mokey/Digital Trends

Nick Mokey/Digital Trends

We wouldn’t go so far as to call them “stylish,” but next to just about any other form of techified eyewear, the Blade are at least normalish. You might even mistake them for a pair of Oakleys, if it weren’t for the light glowing around the fat temples.

How do they work? In an insane way you would probably never believe if you didn’t see it with your own eyes. A tiny LED projector in the temple shoots an image sideways into the lens, which has been laser-etched with tiny dots at specific depths that catch the “sideways” image and light it up in your field of view. If that all sounds a little ridiculous, it is. But that’s why Vuzix has been working on it for years, and why the end product looks so damn good. The same tech appeared in last year’s AR3000 smartglasses, but Vuzix marketed those more toward businesses.

When the display flicks on, you’ll get the usual there-and-not “ghost” effect of something seen only in one eye, until you look squarely at the image and freeze it into focus. Vuzix wouldn’t cite an exact resolution for the display, but the images unquestionably look better than anything we’ve ever seen on Glass – comparable in resolution to the HoloLens, Vuzix says.

Nick Mokey/Digital Trends

You can use this little display to look at everything from photos to video, maps, and email. Pretty standard stuff, sure, but Vuzix already has an app store with third-party options for Spotify, Pandora, Netflix, and all the other staples you would expect, cooked up for previous Vuzix eyewear. You navigate through apps with an intuitive, touch-sensitive pad on the temple: swipe to navigate, tap to select.

Of course, the Blade still has some obvious shortcomings. Notably, battery life would still be as short as 90 minutes in extreme use-case scenarios, like watching movies. That’s not what they’re intended for, of course, but it illustrates one of the sacrifices made to keep them so sleek.

Will you start spotting Vuzix eyewear around town in 2018? At $1,000 a pop for the developer kit, probably not. But the Blade may make a compelling option for Glass devotees cast out by Google’s apparent indifference. And if the current design isn’t doing it for you, there’s hope: Vuzix owns the patents for the killer display that makes these glasses stand out, and wouldn’t rule out licensing it to other companies. All it would take is a deep-pocketed Apple, Samsung, or LG to snap it up to put this promising waveguide tech to work in something else entirely.

Editors’ Recommendations

• ‘Smart’ sunglasses from Vuzix work with Android and iOS, will debut at CES
• Engineered for fighter pilots, Everysight Raptor AR goggles are built for bikers
• Apple iPhone X review
• Felix Gray’s new anti-glare specs make you look good while protecting your eyes
• Snapchat Spectacles: Everything you need to know

TimeFlip Magnet hands-on review

Research Center:
TimeFlip Magnet

No-one wants to waste time. We lead busy lives and must get used to multi-tasking and managing varied tasks, sometimes setting strict time limits on how long we spend doing something. This is the case for entrepreneurs, anyone who works at home, parents observing how long their kids spend watching TV over doing homework, and even for bosses checking office productivity (boo).

The thing is, checking how long you work on something is often a hit-or-miss mix of checking the clock, setting an alarm, or some other convoluted way that often ends up being forgotten or ignored. That’s where the TimeFlip Magnet comes in. It’s a simple idea that could transform the way you track time. Our TimeFlip hands-on review appropriately took place at CES 2018, where it’s notoriously hard to manage time, and such a device would come in handy, if only to see how little sleep everyone gets.

TimeFlip Magnet looks like a large, multi-sided plastic dice. Each side is blank when it arrives, ready to attach one of the custom stickers that comes in the pack — each using icons to show common tasks, like email and social networking — but you can create your own that are specific for you too. The dice-like case contains the TimeFlip Magnet module, which has an accelerometer inside, and is powered by a coin-cell battery that should last for up to a year. It connects to the TimeFlip app using Bluetooth.

You’re just about to start work on an overflowing email inbox, and only want to dedicate a certain amount of time to it before having lunch for an hour. Place the TimeFlip magnet with the email icon facing up, and the app begins tracking your time. When you’re done, and are ready to have lunch, turn the TimeFlip Magnet round to the side marked break, or food, and the app automatically switches to the new task. A circular graph in the app shows a breakdown of how you spend your time, which is also viewable on a web interface. The app also integrates with a variety of different task management systems, including Trello, Todoist, and Zendesk.

It’s a simple idea that could transform the way you track time.

It’s incredibly simple, and because it’s automated, there’s a far lower chance of you ignoring it. It’s also easily customised with either your own stickers or using a non-permanent marker to write ever-changing tasks on each side. If you’re really keen, an entirely new case can be 3D printed, ready for the TimeFlip Magnet module clipped inside. The name references the magnets used to keep the whole dice structure together.

The TimeFlip Magnet appeals because it’s easy. In the same way that fitness trackers aren’t used when they’re too complicated or time-intensive, we don’t want to spend time measuring our time either. It’s good to see a device that doesn’t get too deeply involved in adding features, or complicating things in the name of, “adding value.” It does one thing, and appears to do it well. It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing device, and we’d like to have seen other colors or designs. It’s also fairly expensive at $50.

TimeFlip Magnet Compared To

Star Wars: Jedi Challenges

Ventev Wirelesspro

Insta360 One

Samsung DeX Station

Oaxis InkCase i7 Plus

Ampy Move

Neo Smartpen N2

Motrr Galileo

Typo keyboard case

Moga Mobile Gaming Controller

Hasbro My3D

Iomega SuperHero

BlackBerry Presenter

Callpod Chargepod

Griffin Elan Holster

You can buy the TimeFlip Magnet through the company’s website now, where it has a shipping time of around four weeks at the time of writing. If you struggle with managing time, or want to keep a check on someone else’s time without adding a cumbersome or annoying new task, then it’s worth investigating.

They’re smart AF, and Nvidia’s monstrous BFGD monitors are a BFD

What if the TV tuner was removed from your television? Technically, it would no longer be a TV. But would you notice? Even if you did notice, would you care?

Probably not. Millions of people have cut the cord from their cable service, instead relying on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video for entertainment. Game consoles have also stepped into the void left by old-fashioned, scheduled programming. There are more gamers than ever, playing longer than ever.

In short, the way people use televisions has changed. Maybe it’s time for the TV too change, too. Nvidia’s Big Format G-Sync Displays (BFGD), which debuted on the show floor at CES 2018, show one possible future for the TV, a future that focuses on gaming, streaming video, and smooth delivery of any content thrown at it.

Just don’t call it a monitor

It would be tempting to dismiss the BFGDs as 65-inch monitors. They’re designed to connect over DisplayPort 1.4, instead of HDMI (though HDMI is present for audio), and the early marketing positions them as the ultimate accessory for a PC-gaming den.

That sells the BFGDs short. Yeah, they’re targeting the PC, but they also have an Nvidia Shield built in. The Shield, if you’re not familiar, is a cross between a Roku and a bare-bones Android game console. It can handle all the online streaming apps you’d expect from an entertainment box, as well as play games – both Android titles, and games available through Nvidia’s GeForce Now subscription streaming service.

Think of it as a smart TV without a TV tuner. A very smart TV. It’s not embroiled in any stupid competition between streaming services’ corporate overlords. It can play popular games without any additional hardware. And it’ll receive all the same updates as the Shield console, which should mean a steady stream of new features over the years.

A different approach to image quality

The smart features that’ll come bundled in every BFGD are far more modern than the hodgepodge interfaces that ship with many televisions, but that’s less than half of what makes them great. The real secret sauce can be found in the BFGDs’ radically different approach to image quality.

Think of it as a smart TV without a TV tuner. A very smart TV.

A typical, top-tier television from LG, Samsung, or Vizio is built to deliver maximum visual punch. It seeks to maximize contrast, serve a wide color gamut, and minimize artifacts. The results are undeniably spectacular, but there’s a downside. Modern televisions have high latency and confusing image quality settings, and can suffer unusual frame pacing problems when they’re not fed ideal content.

BFGDs are different. They do have HDR, 4K resolution and, according to Nvidia, are built with a panel that uses a technique similar to Samsung’s Quantum Dots. Yet they’re also fast and fluid. Every BFGD will offer at least a 120Hz refresh rate. Latency numbers aren’t being quoted yet, but Nvidia told us that even 16 milliseconds would be considered “really quite high.” LG and Samsung’s best displays can’t dip below 20 milliseconds, even when turned to game mode.

Then there’s Nvidia’s not-so-secret weapon: G-Sync. It synchronizes the refresh rate of a BFGD with the input framerate of whatever G-Sync-capable device it’s connected to, including the built-in Shield. That synchronization can occur with any content, including video. It doesn’t matter if a video was shot at 24, 60, 120, or 29.997 frames per second – it will always display smoothly, without any added stutter or lag caused by the display.

BFGDs could be a BFD

Acer, Asus, and HP are lined up to build the first BFGDs, all of them 65-inchers using the same panel. I doubt they’ll sell anywhere near the volume of modern televisions. At least, not at first. But if Nvidia and its partners can deliver on the BFGD’s promise, it won’t just be PC gamers who take notice.

You can expect to see the first BFGDs in the second half of 2018. Pricing hasn’t been announced.

Editors’ Recommendations

• 65 inches. 4K. 120Hz. Nvidia’s BFGD is all the monitor you will ever need
• Razer Phone vs. iPhone X: Android newcomer takes on Apple’s finest
• Watch LG’s 65-inch rollable OLED TV curl up like a poster, disappear from sight
• LED vs. LCD TVs explained: What’s the difference?
• OLED is dead on the laptop at CES 2018, but there’s still hope

Google Assistant is coming to Dish Network this year

Launching on the Hopper, Joey, and Wally.

If it seems like the Google Assistant is everywhere, that’s kind of because it is. CES 2018 has been home to numerous product launches that features some sort of Assistant integration, and now Dish Network has announced that it’ll be joining the Google Assistant bandwagon.

Launching at some point during the first half of 2018, you’ll be able to control your Dish Network programming via Google Assistant through a Google Home speaker, Android device, and iPhone. Dish customers will need either a Hopper, Joey, or Wally box to use this feature, and supported languages currently include English and Spanish.

As you’d expect, Google Assistant integration with Dish Network lets you issue a variety of commands for controlling your media playback. After first saying “Hey, Google” or “Ok, Google”, you can say things such as “Change the channel to Food Network”, “Skip forward”, “Pause”, “Search for home improvement shows”, etc.

This announcement comes just a couple months after Dish launched its all-new voice remote, and while customers will still be able to use this if they wish, issuing commands at your phone or smart speaker is much more convenient than first having to figure out where in the couch your remote is hiding.

These are all the Google Assistant speakers with displays