Everything NVIDIA unveiled in under 10 minutes

NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang is very excited about autonomous cars, video games, and really everything that uses a GPU. His enthusiasm was so high that he spent two hours on stage last night waxing poetic about everything NVIDIA has accomplished in the past few years and introduced it’s super-quick Xavier SOC for self-driving AI and a partnership with Volkswagen. That’s great if you have a few hours to spare, but if you’re in a hurry, check out our supercut of the event.

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

Hisense shows a 150-inch 4K ‘Laser TV’ projector

One last surprise at the Hisense CES 2018 press conference was this short-throw projector, a 150-inch version of the 4K Laser TV projector it launched last year. The company didn’t mention a release date or price tag, but president Liu Hong Xin opened this event by stating the company plans to press forward with the technology. Besides the $10,000 100-inch model on the market, it will also demonstrate 80- and 88-inch versions in its booth on the show floor.

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

Live from the HTC Vive press event at CES 2018!

HTC Vive is one of the most promising virtual reality platforms at the moment, and today at CES 2018 we’ll get to see what the company has planned for the future. It’s not clear if there will be any new hardware unveiled, but we’ll definitely learn more details about HTC Vive’s latest headset, the Focus. Of course, that means there will be a bunch of never-before-seen VR experiences, so let’s hope there are some good, mind-blowing ones. We’ll be liveblogging the event at 1PM PT/4PM ET — bookmark this page to keep up with the action as it happens.

TCL taps Roku’s wireless speaker tech for its Alto soundbar

After Roku announced its wireless speaker platform last week, it’s no surprise we’re seeing new devices at CES with the tech built in. TCL already bakes Roku into some of its televisions, and now it’s using Roku Connect for a new soundbar. The audio device will be part of TCL’s Alto line, a collection of gear that company will offer that includes both “standard and smart solutions.”

In terms of the Alto soundbar, the audio device will use Roku Connect to link up with other AV gear and offer Roku’s Entertainment Assistant to lend a hand. While the soundbar will work with any TV, TCL (unsurprisingly) says it pairs best with the company’s own Roku TVs to make the most of voice control. Should you splurge for an all-TCL setup, you can expect things like being able to control all of the things without having to reach for the physical remote. And as you might expect, voice search will be available as well, so you can flip through those Roku options by getting chatty.

From the looks of the images, it appears TCL will offer a subwoofer bundled with the Alto soundbar. However, the company’s announcement doesn’t mention that piece or audio equipment. Ditto for a launch date or pricing info — two things we’ll be sure to ask about when we (hopefully) take a closer look later this week.

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

TCL’s 6-Series Roku TVs sport a metal design, 4K and Dolby Vision HDR

Building off of the success of its budget-friendly P-Series TVs, TCL is teaming up with Roku again on new 4K HDR sets for 2018. First up, the company has introduced its 6-Series premium line, which feature a slim, metal design, Dolby Vision and will be available in 55- and 65-inch models. The 6-Series also come with a new Roku TV voice remote, 802.11ac WiFI, Ethernet and three HDMI 2.0a ports. TCL says that its latest TVs are designed to be a powerhouse in image quality, with things like a Contrast Control Zone Technology and an HDR Pro Gamma that’s meant to reproduce the smallest of details in the darkest and brightest scenes.

TCL’s 5-Series, meanwhile, doesn’t sport the metal design but you’ll still find Dolby Vision support, the same HDR Pro Gamma, 240Hz Natural Motion and the same networking features and ports as the 6-Series. In addition to that, the 5-Series, which will come in 45- to 65-inch models, are powered by a wide-color imaging tech that TCL says is intended to display true, vivid colors, brighter highlights and increased contrast.

5-Series

Lastly, as part of its ongoing relationship with Roku, TCL also announced the Roku Smart Soundbar, which can be paired to a TV or simply be used as a standalone speaker.

Unfortunately, there are no pricing details for any of these devices at the moment, but we do know the 5-Series and 6-Series are set to hit stores this coming spring. As for the TCL Roku Smart Soundbar (pictured below), that won’t be available until the fall.

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

Watch Samsung’s CES 2018 event right here at 5PM ET

Ready to see what Samsung will be announcing this year at CES? The company’s big event is happening today at 5PM ET / 2PM PT. We’ve got the YouTube livestream embedded below, and we’ll be live blogging the event as well if you want more detail or commentary. Keep this post open for a peek at TVs, laptops, smart appliances and more.

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

AT&T reportedly won’t sell Huawei phones after all

Huawei’s flagship phone, the Mate 10, was rumored to be coming to the US this February. The Chinese smartphone maker was reportedly in talks with AT&T to sell its phones, but it looks as if the deal has stalled. According to The Wall Street Journal, AT&T has walked away from the deal.

Huawei was expected to announce its agreement with AT&T this Tuesday at CES in Las Vegas, which would have been its first partnership with a major US mobile provider, according to The Wall Street Journal. The deal would have helped the number three phone maker compete even more with Samsung and Apple.

While AT&T declined to comment on the matter to WSJ, Huawei told Engadget that “Over the past five years Huawei has proven itself by delivering premium devices with integrity globally and in the U.S. market. On Tuesday Huawei will introduce new products to the U.S. market, including availability. We look forward to sharing more information with you then.”

Via: CNBC, The Wall Street Journal

HTC has a new high-res Vive Pro VR headset

HTC has a few upgrades in store for its Vive virtual reality headset, the Vive. First up, the Vive Pro, which features a pair of higher resolution OLED screens (2880 x 1600 versus the original’s 1080 x 1200) and built-in headphones. The Oculus Rift headset had attached headphones when it was released to retail in early 2016.

The Vive Pro will work with the original headset’s base stations for room-scale motion tracking. You can just buy a standalone headset and your wand controller and everything else will remain compatible with the upgraded display hardware. The Pro’s headphones also feature integrated 3D audio.

The electronics company has also announced a wireless adapter for the Vive, creatively dubbed the Vive Wireless Adapter. It taps Intel’s WiGig tech to cut the umbilical. And if you want a standalone VR headset from the company, check out the Vive Focus.

When we spoke with Vive co-creator Chet Faliszek in 2016 he admitted that increased resolution was one of the things the company was working toward. But that it wouldn’t make much sense to release a full-on second-gen model until graphics cards could hit 90 frames per-second in VR. There’s no word on when the Vive Pro will be available just yet.

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

Ex-Google employee behind anti-diversity memo sues for discrimination

James Damore, the Google employee who was fired after circulating an anti-diversity memo last August, isn’t over his dismissal apparently as he has now filed a lawsuit against his former employer. Damore filed a class-action complaint today in a California court alongside another former Google employee, David Gudeman. Both men say they were “ostracized, belittled and punished for their heterodox political views, and for the added sin of their birth circumstances of being Caucasians and/or males.”

The suit also goes on to say, “Google’s management goes to extreme — and illegal — lengths to encourage hiring managers to take protected categories such as race and/or gender into consideration as determinative hiring factors, to the detriment of Caucasian and male employees and potential employees at Google.” While these comments may sound like the most absurd caricature of a men’s rights activist one could muster, they appear to have been made in all seriousness. The long section titled “Anti-Caucasian postings,” which lists memes and comments from internal communications, also, somehow, doesn’t appear to be a joke.

Many companies in the tech world including Facebook, Tesla, Uber and Google have come under fire for discrimination and sexual harassment. Between wide pay gaps, disproportionately low hiring rates and sexual harassment, the often closed and unwelcoming culture of the tech world has been well-documented. But Damore’s complaint appears to focus on how hard it is to be a white man in a primarily white and largely male-dominated field and goes after Google for discrimination against being male or Caucasian and its “open hostility for conservative thought.” If Damore thinks it’s so difficult to advance in a tech firm as a white male, he should try being literally anybody else.

The complaint seeks monetary damages as well as an injunction against conservative discrimination on the part of Google. We’ve reached out to Google for comment and we’ll update this post if we hear more.

Via: Bloomberg

Source: Scribd

HTC unveils a wireless adapter for Vive VR headsets

The dream of a wire-free HTC Vive is close to becoming a practical reality. HTC has unveiled a Vive Wireless Adapter that uses Intel’s WiGig to eliminate the corded connection for both the original Vive and the Vive Pro while keeping lag and interference to a minimum. There’s no word on price, but you will have to wait — the compact add-on won’t ship until sometime in the summer.

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

Source: Vive