Matrix shows off its battery-free smartwatch and IoT platform

Matrix is the company behind both the PowerWatch and the PowerWatch X, two timepieces that don’t require batteries to work. Both were announced at the same time, but it’s taken the X slightly longer to get here, but that’s okay, because there’s a reason worth being patient. That’s because the PowerWatch X, while still using the heat from your wrist to generate power, is also capable of offering up smartwatch notifications.

Battery-free watches aren’t some newfangled invention, but something that has been knocking around for several decades. They operate on the principle of a thermocouple, generating power from the difference in heat between your wrist and its case. The problem with thermocouples, however, is that they’re normally too weak to drive anything but the lightest and smallest of motor.

Matrix has, however, with some nifty tweaks, been able to build a digital watch and a digital watch that can accept basic Bluetooth notifications. The PowerWatch X can even generate enough power to drive a vibration motor, letting you know when you’re getting a call. Plus, it’ll even do basic fitness tracking, letting you know how many calories you’ve burned while you’re out and about

The company isn’t resting on its laurels, however, and is now working on its latest project, an Energy Harvesting Sensor Beacon. Imagine, if you will, an internet of things device that’ll never need to have its batteries replaced, and you’re pretty much there. Matrix has found a way of ensuring that, like its watches, its sensor platform can use thermocouple-based power to function.

For all of those internet-of-things devices that currently use coin cell batteries, or require recharging on a regular basis, it’s a big deal. Especially for companies that use a lot of sensors at once, like the sort to control the climate in large offices or in sensitive installations like a power station. While the company won’t be ready to begin manufacturing it until half-way into 2018, and there’s no word yet on how much it’ll cost. The PowerWatch X is now open to pre-orders for $249, and should be available very soon.

Nathan Ingraham contributed to this report.

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S-Ray neckband lets you blast out tunes guilt free

Directional speakers are nothing new, and the principles of using ultrasound to push audio waves to your head and nowhere else are fairly common. But now, a team here at CES is demonstrating a wraparound neckband that uses directional sound to avoid bothering others when out and about. The S-Ray Neckband is one of a trio of products that’s being shown off at the show, which includes a smartphone speaker case and a display speaker.

One of the biggest issues with taking your music out and about is that if you don’t want to wear headphones, then you’re going to be annoying everyone else. That’s one of the benefits of directional sound, which can free your ears up and prevent you getting thumped while on the subway. S-Ray is the brainchild of Sanghoon Choi and is a member of Samsung’s C-Lab startup accelerator project that nurtures new companies.

It’s hard to test devices like this on a show floor, but one of the downsides to the system is that it isn’t that loud. You’re certainly going to notice a dip in volume compared to a pair of real headphones, or even real speakers when in use at home. The issues are one of several that the team is looking to remedy before these products go on sale, which — it’s hoped — will be some point in the future.

Nicole Lee contributed to this report.

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French officials investigate Apple for iPhone slowdowns

Last month, French organization HOP (which stands for Stop Planned Obsolescence in French) filed legal complaints against Apple after the company admitted to slowing older models of iPhones. Now, Bloomberg reports that French authorities have begun a preliminary investigation into the company in regards to accusations of “programmed obsolescence” and “deceit.”

Apple is now facing a number of lawsuits over the slowdowns. As of a few days ago, 24 class-action complaints had been filed in the US with two more lawsuits pending in France and Israel, MacRumors reported. Since the reports of Apple’s practices surfaced, the company has apologized and begun selling discounted battery replacements to iPhone owners regardless of whether a diagnostic tests says it’s time for a new battery.

France’s probe will be led by consumer fraud watchdog the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control, according to a Reuters source, and could take months to complete. If found to be warranted, the case could then move to a judge for further investigation.

Via: Bloomberg

Huawei’s AT&T deal may have failed due to political pressure

Just yesterday, a deal between Huawei and AT&T to sell the Chinese company’s flagship phones through the carrier’s US stores was reported to have fallen through. According to The Information, the plan was scrapped over political pressure from US lawmakers who saw Huawei as a security threat.

The deal reportedly died after members of both the US Senate and House intelligence committees wrote to the FCC. The congress members were concerned that Huawei was closely tied to the Communist Party as well as to intelligence services in China. “Additional work by the Intelligence Committees on this topic only reinforces concerns regarding Huawei and Chinese espionage,” The Information reports the letter said.

The deal was supposed to help Huawei gain a foothold in the US, while the agreement’s death sets the company back a bit. “We were hoping that the AT&T partnership would pave the way for similar deals with other U.S. carriers,” a Huawei manager told The Information.

Source: The Information

Toyota is the latest automaker to add Alexa to its cars

Using Alexa in your car is getting more ubiquitous. Ford, Hyundai and Volkswagen all have plans for Amazon’s voice control tech, and third parties like Anker, Panasonic, Garmin and Logitech have their own strategy to help you use Alexa while you drive. Now, Toyota has plans to include Amazon’s intelligent assistant in select Toyota and Lexus vehicles starting this year. The company also announced at CES that more models will include Alexa via the Toyota Entune and Lexus Enform in-car app systems in 2019.

Once you’ve enabled Alexa in your Toyota or Lexus, you can ask it do to pretty much everything you might at home, including adjusting your smart thermostat, adding items to your shopping list and listening to music or audiobooks with a voice command. “Voice services are rapidly becoming more popular and through our integration with Amazon Alexa, Toyota and Lexus customers will soon be able to easily speak to Alexa in their cars while on-the-go,” said Toyota’s Zack Hicks in a statement.

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Source: Toyota

I learned how to drive in a VR traffic school

Autonomous cars are coming, but there’s still going to be folks who need to learn how to drive. That’s why VR Motion is building a VR driver’s ED system to better prepare newbies for the roads.

It’s a plug and play system, with a customizable seat and base, that can be tweaked to suit any model of car or truck. On top of that, a VR headset immerses you in this virtual world. The cockpit is designed on your average mid-range saloon, even down to the fully-rendered back seats. A comforting, authoritative voice then began taking me through my paces.

The test is pretty basic, just getting you through cones, lane changes and emergency stops. As much as it looks and feels like a video game, it isn’t, but it borrows plenty of visual elements from titles like Forza. The system, when used on a regular basis, will also begin to analyze your driving. After a while, you’ll be told about your issues, and be given tips on how to improve.

The company was co-founded by race car driver Dominic Dobson, who wanted to practice races like Pikes Peak. That particular hillclimb is not available the rest of the year, so he built a simulator to fill in the gap. Judging by his success — he won in his class that year — it’s clear that there’s some utility to the system. But it’s still never going to replace the real thing, especially since there’s no other virtual cars, with their terrible drivers, in the sim.

But there’s clearly going to be some demand for these $100,000 machines. Oregon’s police department is one such customer, which uses its simulator to train its elite drivers. And, who knows, give it a decade, and maybe we’ll see all of the traffic schools disappear in favor of these machines.

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Will.i.am’s tech company bought headphone maker Earin

Will.i.am’s tech company i.am+ revealed to TechCrunch at CES today that it had recently purchased headphone maker Earin. The company didn’t disclose how much it paid for Earin and Earin’s name might not make it through the acquisition, but Earin’s products fit with those of i.am+ for the most part and the purchase seems to be a more logical move than others recently made by the company.

So far, i.am+ has come out with Buttons, its wireless Bluetooth earphones, and a couple of smartwatches, one of which, the Puls, was dubbed “a wearable nightmare” by Mashable. The Black Eyed Pea also produced a wild, high-end iPhone case back in 2012. However, last year, i.am+ purchased Wink, a maker of smart home hubs, and is said to be working on a virtual assistant called Omega. It’s hard to see what the big picture is for the company in light of these seemingly disconnected business moves, but hey, how exciting is it really if it all makes sense from the get go?

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Via: TechCrunch

FITT360 is a 360-degree camcorder you wear around your neck

Imagine if you could snap 360 degree photos and videos without holding a camera. That’s the promise of the FITT360, a 360-degree camcorder that you can wear around your neck. It’s one of the first products from a Samsung spin-off called LinkFlow, and was made as part of Samsung’s C-Labs, the company’s creative labs program.

The idea behind a wearable camcorder is to capture the world around you in an unobtrusive way. There are three cameras located on the wearable neckband — one near the front, one on the side and another near the rear. Each camera is capable of capturing the world in 180-degrees. All you have to do is press a button and it’ll start recording, allowing for a hands-free capture experience as well. And since it has WiFi, you can even use it to livestream on something like Periscope if you fancy.

As for getting content off your headset, you can either export them as a large 360-degree image or just a single image in full HD. Video is captured in 4K. The FITT360 is also IPX rated to be water-resistant, so no worries about bringing this out in the rain. It also comes in small, medium and large.

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Also, the FITT360 is not just a camcorder. There’s an embedded GPS so you can figure out what route you’ve hiked, and it has Bluetooth and a microphone so you can use it as a headset.

The downside? It only lasts about 90 minutes — you can’t record much more than that before the battery starts to give out. So if you’re going to use this on the road, we recommend not using it on a long trip.

The FITT360 launched on Kickstarter today and it already blew past its $50,000 goal. It’s unclear what the final retail price will be, but if you fancy getting one for yourself, the prices on Kickstarter range from $370 all the way to $600.

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Samsung is teaching Bixby to count the calories in your food

Samsung has made it clear that it wants to get its Bixby virtual assistant on nearly every product it makes, but it hasn’t forgotten about the AI’s smartphone roots. To that end, the company dedicated a corner of its cavernous CES booth to a surprising new Bixby feature: the ability to identify your food and spit out a calorie count.

The feature definitely isn’t ready for public consumption yet, but it did a surprisingly good job telling a margherita pizza from a plate of salmon sushi from a juicy (if fake) steak. That said, you shouldn’t expect Bixby to look at a dinner plate and correctly identify everything on it — at least in its current form, you’ll have to point the phone’s camera at each individual food item to get the corresponding calorie counts.

Of course, the way you whip up a risotto may differ from ours, and Bixby can’t tell the difference just by looking. (We do love extra butter here at Engadget.) Samsung representatives says Bixby will use the “generic data” for food items so the calorie counts won’t be absolutely spot-on, but if nothing else, it’s faster and easier than firing up MyFitnessPal and inputting each ingredient separately. Representatives also said that food data will be folded into a profile within the Samsung Health app to better help people understand the calories they’re taking in addition to how many they’re burning. There’s no word on when — or even if — the feature will wind up on Galaxy smartphones, but it’s still nice to see Samsung’s virtual assistant getting capable over time. Here’s hoping this feature is more polished than Bixby itself was when it first launched earlier this year.

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Mercedes goes all in with in-car natural language control

Infotainment systems are a mixed bag. There are very few truly good ones, but even if an automaker can pull off a solid interface, it’s mired by latency thanks to a slow processor. Typically these in-car systems usually aren’t up to par with the offerings from Apple and Google. Mercedes is trying to change that with a new UX that’s quick, voice controlled and may keep you defaulting to Android Auto of CarPlay when you get in the car.

In a yet-to-be-announced Mercedes-Benz A Class, the automaker took me on a drive around Las Vegas not to see the casinos, but to look at its upcoming infotainment system (MBUX) and during the drive, I have to say, it was impressive.

The automaker has worked with natural-language powerhouse Nuance to make talking to your car easier and how humans actually say things in 23 languages. There’s no longer the need to press a button to enable voice controls. A simple “Mercedes” will get the car to listen to you and launch a wide range of features including, navigation, adjusting the climate controls, heating and adjusting your seat, media selection and more. The list goes on and on.

With its work with Nuance, Mercedes has been able to do away with the “scripts” needed to find a location. You just say something the way you would tell a friend. That also includes the ability to interrupt the infotainment system while it’s asking follow up questions.

The most impressive part of the demo was when the car was asked: “can I wear flip flops” in a city as a weather query. It answered. When the driver said, “it’s too hot” the car also reduced the temperature.

Voice controls are awesome, but latency issues are one of the biggest complaints with infotainment systems. Mercedes took care of that by using the NVIDIA Parker 128 chip which is powerful enough to render 3D buildings (along with art to resemble the buildings in real life) and a revolving real-time rendering of whatever car it resides in on the 10-inch touchscreen.

Getting around in the system was straightforward and has replaced the deep folders with horizontal and vertical swipes. There are various themes including a silent mode that reduces all the clutter to the bare minimum.

Finally, the MBUX is connected to the cloud, but keeps most of the voice-control information stored in the car. So if you lose connectivity, you can still control the climate and other in-car systems and even navigate. Mercedes will update the system regularly including adding new slang words in case the word flip flops goes out of style.

The end result is an impressive evolution of the luxury brand’s in-car system that might have you plugging in your phone just to charge it. It will premiere in the new A Class that will be shown next month in Amersterdam.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.