Intel promises its new CPUs will match Nvidia’s potent GTX 1060, thanks to AMD

AMD and Intel surprised us all in November 2017, announcing an unprecedented partnership that would bring AMD’s Radeon RX Vega M graphics to a new lineup of Intel’s 8th-gen Core processors. Details were limited at the time, but Intel has now removed the veil, spilling all the juicy details. Here’s everything we know.

AMD and Intel, sitting in a tree…

The Radeon RX Vega M graphics chip AMD is providing to Intel is “semi-custom” hardware, which means it’s tailoring Vega hardware specifically for Intel’s requirements.

The first shipments will come in two flavors. Intel’s Core-i7 8809G and i7-8709G is the first, which will have GH Graphics with 24 Compute Units. Meanwhile, Intel’s Core i5-8305G and i7-8705G will have the less-powerful GL Graphics, which includes 20 Compute Units. The GL Graphics version also has a slightly lower clock speed and GPU clock.

Compute Units and clock speeds are the only major areas of difference, however. The GH and GL models otherwise share many details, including four gigabytes of HBM2 memory. This memory connects to the Vega GPU using a new “embedded multi-die interconnect bridge,” which drastically reduces the amount of physical space required for video memory.

The result is space savings of up to 1,900 square millimeters compared to previous set-ups. Intel says this will help these new chips fit into much slimmer, smaller laptops. Several design wins are promised at CES 2018, though they are currently under embargo by their respective designers.

Processor
i7-8809G, i7-8709G
i7 8705G, i5-8305G
Graphics Version
Radeon RX Vega M GH
Radeon RX Vega M GL
Compute Units
24
20
Stream Processsors
1,536
1,280
Base GPU Clock
1,063MHz
931MHz
Boost GPU Clock
1,190MHz
1,011MHz
Memory Bandwidth
Up to 3.7 TFLOPs
Up to 2.6 TFLOPs
ROPs
64 pix/clk
32 pix/clk
High Bandwidth Cache
4GB HBM2
4GB HBM2

Watch out, Nvidia

What does that mean for performance? Intel says the Radeon RX Vega M GL’s performance is slightly better (between 10 and 40 percent improved) than a Core i7-8550U with GTX 1050 graphics. The games used for this example, as you can see below, include Hitman, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and Vermintide 2.  It’s also worth note that this comparison involves GL Graphics, the least powerful of the two options.

The more-powerful Radeon RX Vega M GH is even more impressive. Intel says it can go toe-to-toe with the Nvidia GTX 1060 Max-Q in Hitman, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and Total War: Warhammer. That’s performance even serious gamers can appreciate. It’s also, of course, a staggering leap above Intel’s UHD graphics, which often struggled to play these titles at an acceptable framerate — even with settings at their lowest presets.

These results, if delivered, are impressive. It suggests that a notebook powered by one of Intel’s new Radeon-powered chips could go toe-to-toe with an entry-level gaming laptop and win. That likely doesn’t mean we’ll see the Intel hardware power a surge of new budget gaming laptops, but it might mean a better baseline of graphics performance from many laptops.

Intel says virtual reality is a target, too, and promises that Intel 8th-gen Core with Radeon RX Vega M will bring VR capability to thinner devices than ever before. Technically, that’s not a claim Intel can back up yet because Oculus and HTC haven’t certified it (with this being brand-new). If performance does stack up to what’s promised, however, VR should be at least possible — if not necessarily ideal.

Would you like all the drivers?

While the hardware inside Intel’s 8th-gen Core with Radeon RX Vega M is intriguing, it’s just half the story. Equally interesting, and important, is the software used. What drivers will be available, and how will you use them?

As it turns out, Intel won’t be putting up arbitrary barriers. PCs built on the new hardware can use features from the AMD chip, Intel’s chip, or both. The chip’s feature list is impressive as a result. It can handle up to nine displays, along with the newest connection standards: Thunderbolt 3, DisplayPort 1.4 w/HDR, and HDMI 2.0b with HDR10 — at up to 4K resolution.

HEVC and H264 HDR encode/decode support is included, and Radeon ReLive can be used to encode/decode multimedia at up to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. DirectX 12 is supported, of course, but so is the less common Vulkan API. We can’t think of any obvious feature the chip won’t handle, and it’s a huge step forward from Intel’s UHD graphics.

Another feature, referred to as “dynamic power sharing,” will manage the power draw of the CPU and GPU. Intel says the thermal design power target is 65 watts for mobile, and 100 watts for desktop, but that number is not based on full use of both the CPU and GPU portions. Instead, Intel says its software will shift load between, depending on the task at hand.

That will not doubt raise eyebrows among enthusiasts, who generally prefer to see their hardware capable of going all-out instead of relying on opaque software to decide how the hardware is used for them. Yet dynamic power management is hardly new – almost all modern processors do it to some degree. Intel says dynamic power sharing improves power efficiency by up to 18 percent, improving performance in thin-and-light form factors.

You’ll manage all these features through a software interface that’s virtually identical to AMD’s Radeon Adrenalin Edition, which ships with AMD’s Radeon RX Vega video cards. The driver replaces AMD’s logos with Intel’s, however, and the color scheme is shifted from red to blue. Intel itself will distribute driver updates, though those updates will be sourced from AMD. One concern is the possibility of delayed driver releases that put the Intel hardware a few driver versions behind AMD hardware, despite both using the same GPU architecture. Intel hasn’t said how long updates will take to release or how it plans to manage the driver release schedule.

Intel’s own driver software will be present too, which means features like Intel Quick Sync video and Intel XTU will also be available.

You’ll have to settle for a last-gen CPU

The new Vega-based GPU is obviously the star of this show, but what about the processors themselves? Intel says they’ll be based on the Kaby Lake architecture, which is a generation behind the Coffee Lake architecture used in the 8th-gen Intel Core mobile chips that debuted in late 2017.

One feature, however, does standout: Overclocking. The Core i7-8809G will be unlocked, for both the CPU and GPU. That means enthusiasts will have a lot of freedom in tuning its performance. And remember, as mentioned, the chip will run AMD driver software for the Vega GPU, which means you can use AMD’s Wattman utility to fine-tune the chip with ease.

Here’s all the specifications.

Processor
Core i7-8809G
Core i7-8790G
Core i7-8705G
Core i5-8305G
Maximum Clock Speed
4.2GHz
4.1GHz
4.1GHz
3.8GHz
Base Clock Speed
3.1GHz
3.1GHz
3.1GHz
2.8GHz
Cores/Threads
4/8
4/8
4/8
4/8
Cache Size (MB)
8
8
8
6
Memory Channels
2
2
2
2
Memory Type
DDR4-2400
DDR4-2400
DDR4-2400
DDR4-2400
Overclockable?
Yes
No
No
No
Discrete Graphics
Radeon RX Vega M GH
Radeon RX Vega M GH
Radeon RX Vega M GL
Radeon RX Vega M GL
Intel HD Graphics
UHD 630
 UHD 630
 UHD 630
 UHD 630

The chips all have four cores, with eight threads and a maximum clock speed ranging from 3.8GHz to 4.2GHz. It does appear that Intel has managed a small bump to clock speed when compared to similar, older chips. The new Core i7-8705G has a maximum clock of 4.1GHz and base clock of 3.1GHz, while the old Core i7-7700HQ has a maximum clock of 3.8GHz and minimum clock of 2.8GHz.

Intel hasn’t released pricing for these chips, and it wouldn’t be of much use, anyway. These are all BGA packaged, which means they’re soldered onto the motherboard. No plans have been announced for socketed versions of the hardware. That doesn’t mean it’ll never happen, but Intel clearly wants to see these chips show up in laptops and desktops from major manufacturers, not scooped up by enthusiasts building rigs at home.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Intel’s chip-packing Radeon graphics slips a brief tease just before CES 2018
• Intel’s ‘Hades Canyon’ NUC packs gaming hardware into just 1.2 liters
• After teaming with AMD, Intel poaches its graphics guru to build its own GPUs
• Intel is cramming custom AMD Radeon graphics into an eighth-generation chip
• Intel and AMD’s love/hate relationship spilled in benchmarks detailing two chips

The inventor of the ‘hoverboard’ just unveiled a killer new rideable gizmo at CES

You know those self-balancing “hoverboards” that were all the rage a couple years ago, before they started spontaneously combusting and burning people’s houses down? What about those motorized electric unicycles that you’ll occasionally see people riding on? Ring a bell?

Well as it turns out, both of these innovative devices were originally created by the same guy — before they were copied like crazy and mass produced in Shenzhen, China. His name is Shane Chen, and this week he’s at CES showing off his third invention: an ultra-compact, self-balancing rideable gizmo called IotaTrax.

The IotaTrax is far more compact and portable than any hoverboard you’ll find.

In terms of both form and function, IotaTrax is a happy medium between Chen’s previous two inventions, the Hovertrax (the original “hoverboard”) and the Solowheel (the original self-balancing unicycle). Just like a hoverboard, it’s equipped with two wheels — but those wheels sit between the rider’s feet rather than outside of them. Chen calls this configuration a “compromise,” but he’s just being modest. After taking it for a ride, we can confirm that it’s more like the best of both worlds.

Due to its unique design, the IotaTrax is far more compact and portable than any hoverboard you’ll find. When you fold up the foot platforms (or “wings” as Chen calls them) for transport, the device is no bigger than a six-pack of beer — and not much heavier, either. There’s even a handle on the top for you to carry it around with.

And because it’s equipped with two wheels instead of just one, the IotaTrax is inherently more stable than any electric unicycle you’ll ever ride. It’s also easier to balance on. After a top secret demo and a quick tutorial, we were doing figure-eights around the parking lot like we had been born with wheels for feet.

Drew Prindle/Digital Trends

Drew Prindle/Digital Trends

Drew Prindle/Digital Trends

The Iota boasts an extremely free and intuitive riding experience — but of course, making it so simple to control was no easy task. The big challenge, Chen tells us, was figuring out how to make the device –which features two linked wheels– turn properly. In order for the rider to successfully execute a turn, one of the IotaTrax’s wheels (the outside wheel) needs to spin slightly faster than the other (the inside wheel). To make this possible, Chen actually designed and patented a completely gearless differential system — one that he hopes will make his latest creation more difficult for copycats to reverse engineer.

All things considered, the IotaTrax is definitely one of the most exciting additions to the “rideables” category in recent memory. With its mild learning curve, ultra-portable design, and the ability to travel more than eight miles on a single charge, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be a hit with city dwellers looking to hack their morning commute. And the best part? When it goes on sale in late February (the 28th, to be exact), it’ll retail for just $599. If you pre-order one before then, you can snag it for $499 — which means it’s actually cheaper than most electric longboards currently on the market.

Head over to Inventist’s website to get the scoop.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Sick of walking everywhere? Here are the best electric skateboards money can buy
• Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: Better gaming keyboards, wrist phones, and more
• Boosted 2 Dual+ electric longboard review
• Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: Heated coats, folding ebikes, and more
• Hoverboard problem smolders on as more recall notices are issued

How to watch Nvidia’s CES 2018 press conference

CES 2018 kicks off on Sunday night with Nvidia’s press conference. Nvidia is obviously known for its impact on the graphics card world, but these days, the company is involved in all sorts of different industries, ranging from autonomous cars to set top boxes. Last year at CES, they company talked about its crazy-powerful chip called Xavier, made specifically for self-driving cars — as well as its Nvidia Drive platform. Don’t be surprised if we see something announced in that space again.

With that being said, we really don’t know all what Nvidia and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has planned to announce. But thing’s for sure: With everything it has going, it’s hard not to be excited for it.

The event starts at 8pm PST on Sunday, January 7 and can be watched in the embedded video above once it begins.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Roborace self-driving race car gets an upgrade, but when will it actually race?
• The Nvidia Pegasus system may turn robotaxis into a reality
• Watch Nvidia’s powerful A.I. change day into night, and winter into summer
• Nvidia Shield supports Wii games like ‘New Super Mario Bros.’ — in China
• Nvidia will no longer publish new drivers for 32-bit systems

Samsung Notebook 9 Pen hands-on review

Research Center:
Samsung Notebook 9 Pen

Samsung is much better known in North America for its smartphones than its computers and, at CES 2018, the company is trying to take advantage of that fact. Its new Notebook 9 Pen 13 brings the familiar S Pen, well-known to Samsung Note owners, to the laptop for the first time.

There are other nods to mobility, as well. The silver magnesium-aluminum chassis is extremely light, shaving weight down to just 2.19 pounds. It’s a thin laptop, too, at .64 inches. All that sounds great for anyone who needs a laptop for travel, but can it possibly stack up against the Microsoft Surface Book 2 or HP Spectre x360 13-inch?

It’s all about the S Pen

Samsung’s S Pen, unsurprisingly, is the standout feature of Samsung’s Notebook 9 Pen. It looks and feels like the smartphone model – perhaps even identical, though we didn’t have one available to compare. In any case, its smartphone heritage is evident. It’s slim, delicate, and quick, traits that lead to precision, but make us wonder how it would feel to use for more than a few minutes. The S Pen can handle 4,096 levels of pressure and has a thin .7 millimeter tip, so it’s on par with the latest Microsoft Surface Pen.

The S Pen is easy to put away, because there’s a built-in holster.

The S Pen’s size does lead to one major boon – it’s easy to put away, because there’s a holder built into the 2-in-1 itself. That’s rare, but appreciated, because losing a stylus is a costly annoyance. This is a feature we’d like to see in every 2-in-1 that ships with a stylus.

Samsung says the S Pen will work with bundled software, like Samsung Notes and Autodesk Sketchbook, in addition to the usual array of Windows 10 support. A menu of these features can be summoned with the press of a button on the S Pen itself. You can then select a portion of the screen to take a screencap, or make an animated GIF, all with the pen. There’s also support for other Samsung apps that have less to do with pen support, like Samsung Message, which can shoot an instant message to others who use the app on a smartphone, tablet, or PC.

It’s clear that Samsung is using the software strategy that has worked so well for it on mobile, and it does tack on features not available on other 2-in-1s. PCs aren’t phones, however – users tend to be hostile to anything that might look like bloatware. We’re also not sure the software features are all that necessary. Microsoft already includes sticky notes, OneNote, and a digital ink space for sketches or quick notes.

Matt Smith/Digital Trends

Matt Smith/Digital Trends

Matt Smith/Digital Trends

Matt Smith/Digital Trends

Otherwise, the Samsung Notebook 9 Pen 13 is a conventional 2-in-1 with a 360-degree hinge. It works much like a Lenovo Yoga or HP Spectre x360, though it’s lighter than most its competitors — a lot lighter. It weighs over a pound less than a Microsoft Surface Book 2, HP Spectre x360, or Lenovo Yoga 920. In fact, the entire 2-in-1 weighs about six-tenths of a pound more than the Surface Book 2 13-inch’s screen when detached. That’s nuts! The Notebook 9 Pen 13 is so light that, at first touch, it almost feels like a prank. Surely, there can’t be entire PC in there, right? And yet there is.

The 13.3-inch display offers plenty of screen space, with thin bezels surrounding it, keeping the overall footprint down. A 1080p touchscreen is all that’s available, so the screen can’t compete with the sharpness of most its peers. Still, it looks good enough to satisfy in day-to-day use. Brightness is a perk – Samsung says it can hit 450 nits — and the display looks incredibly vibrant when we handled it.

Samsung Notebook 9 Pen Compared To

Dell Inspiron 13 5000 2-in-1

Asus NovaGo

Acer Switch 3

Lenovo Yoga 720 13-inch

Samsung Galaxy Book

Samsung Chromebook Pro

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1

Lenovo Yoga Book

Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro

Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro

Dell XPS 12 (2013)

Lenovo ThinkPad Helix

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13

Acer Aspire S5

Lots of performance, but not so much battery

The hardware in the Notebook 9 Pen 13 is what you’d expect to see from any high-end 2-in-1. There’s an 8th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, up to 16GB of DDR4 memory, and up to 512GB of NVMe PCIe solid-state storage. These specifications, while impressive, are not unusual – and as usual, they lead to a system that feels snappy. Even demanding users should be happy with this 2-in-1’s performance. Well, if you don’t play games, because Intel UHD 620 graphics is all that’s available.

Battery life might prove a weak spot. We can’t test it during a hands-on, obviously, but we do know the battery is a 39 watt-hour unit. That’s toward the small side. While it contributes to the system’s light weight, it may also result in less exciting endurance. Samsung says it’s good for nine hours of 1080p video. That’s not bad, but many competitors promise more than 10 hours. Microsoft’s Surface Book 2 claims 17 hours – which held up in our tests – and the Lenovo Yoga 920 claims 15 hours.

A notebook that’s all about the pen

Endurance aside, the Samsung Notebook 9 Pen seems built entirely around on-the-go use of a stylus. Its light enough to lift and maneuver with one hand, includes an extremely precise pen with a holster to help you keep it secure, has unique software, and includes excellent hardware in all areas. It wouldn’t be my pick if laptop use was my main worry, but if I wanted a great 2-in-1 – in a 360-degree format, instead of detachable – the Notebook 9 Pen would be on my list.

Or, at least, I think it would be. One piece of the puzzle is missing – price. Given its hardware, we doubt the Notebook 9 Pen will be affordable, and that may put it toe-to-toe with the Microsoft Surface Book 2.  That’d be a tough match for Samsung to win.

Honor View 10 goes international Jan. 8, brings the Honor 7X in limited-edition red

The first AI-centric smartphone from Huawei’s more affordable brand will cost about $460 U.S.

Honor — the affordable offshoot of Chinese manufacturer Huawei — tonight at CES announced that the new Honor View 10 will see international release starting January 8.

The View 10, as you’ll recall, is the non-U.S. version of the Honor V10. It’s Honor’s first phone to launch with Android 8.0 Oreo and is powered by Huawei’s Kirin 970 processor — the first with built-in AI via a Neural Processing Unit. On top of that, it’s got 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, all pushing a 5.99-inch display at 2160×1080 resolution.

Read our full Honor View 10 preview

Honor also announced that the venerable Honor 7X will get a limited edition launch in red. Only 20,000 units will be available, and you’ll have to snag them in either United States, Russia, India, or Western Europe (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain). Honor also says the first 100 people to purchase the red model in each of those countries will get red co-branded Honor-Monster AM15 headphones as a special gift.

HONOR DELIVERS THE FUTURE OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGY WITH THE AI-POWERED HONOR VIEW10

Las Vegas, United States, January 7th, 2018 – Honor, a leading smartphone e-brand, today announced, on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), that the AI-powered Honor View10 will go on sale in overseas markets from January 8th, 2018 and released a limited edition Honor 7X Red. This follows the successful launch of the Honor 7X and Honor View10 in London last month.

In 2017, Honor was the number one smartphone e-brand in China by sales, and its sales grew significantly on Black Friday in the United States and Europe.

“As a leading e-brand, Honor aims to become the most loved smartphone brand for people young and the young at heart,” said Mr. George Zhao, President of Honor. “With a unique Internet-powered business model, unrivaled product and unbeatable value, we are taking our successful business model from China to the global market. Our aim is to become a top-five smartphone brand by 2020.”

As part of the strategy to bring a better experience to users, Honor works with partners such as Microsoft, Monster and Snapchat to optimize applications and services for its smartphones.

Honor View10: Revolutionary AI and ultimate performance appeal to consumers worldwide

As part of a drive to make AI technology accessible to consumers worldwide, Honor is among the first to power a smartphone with a Neural-Network Processing Unit (NPU) to deliver AI features and performance that far surpasses any CPU/GPU powered architecture. Integrating with the dedicated NPU, Kirin 970 chipset enables Honor View10 to deliver up to 25 times better performance and 50 times greater efficiency.

For the Honor View10, Honor worked closely with Microsoft to optimize Microsoft Translator. The AI Accelerated Translator software in Honor View10 delivers instantaneous translation without the need for an internet connection. The new Kirin 970’s powerful NPU makes the translation 500 percent faster than other smartphones running the same app.
Mr. Xuedong Huang, Microsoft Technical Fellow in AI and Research said, “Microsoft is thrilled to be collaborating with Honor to bring the benefits of AI, through Microsoft Translator, to more users through the Honor View10. Together, we will continue to work towards building a more integrated and connected world.”

During China’s “Double 12” Shopping Festival after its launch in China for a week, the Honor View10 became the top selling smartphone product priced over RMB 3,000 (US$ 460). Consumers in India and Western Europe (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain) can purchase Honor View10 starting from January 8th online at: http://www.hihonor.com/global/products/mobile-phones/honorview10/index.html. The new smartphone will also be available in Malaysia and Russia later this month.

Honor 7X: Unmatched price-performance makes it the ideal gift for the loved one

As the first smartphone to feature the Honor FullView Display, the Honor 7X 18:9 screen delivers an impressive visual experience, especially to the gamers in the midst of the action. The smartphone also doubles the efficiency and fun with its Screen Split function. The dual-lens 16MP + 2MP rear camera with large aperture (F/0.95 – F/16) and Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF) ensures professional photo quality and a professional shooting experience. Users in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and India have given the Honor 7X a 4.2+ star review on Amazon.com since its global launch in London on December 5th, 2017.
In addition to black, blue and gold phones, a new limited edition Honor 7X Red of 20,000 units will be available for Valentine’s Day in the United States, Russia, India and Western Europe (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain). Honor 7X Red can be ordered soon at the Honor online store: http://www.hihonor.com/global/products/mobile-phones/honor7x/index.html.

Honor 7X Red with Honor-Monster AM15

Honor is partnering with Monster, one of the world’s largest headphone manufacturers, to give the first 100 purchasers of Honor 7X Red in each country/region the red co-branded Honor-Monster AM15 headphones as a special gift. In addition, from this year, Honor is bringing the partnership with Monster to a new strategic level. More details will be announced later.

Sniffy Market will let you smell products as you shop

If you’ve ever wanted your retail shopping experience to include more smells, well… get excited about Sniffy. It’s a prototype product meant for stores that want to let their customers smell their products as well as see or touch them — the obvious examples are food and drink retailers, good for smelling products like spices or coffee. Perfume is another obvious example, but I’m struggling to come up with other situations in which this makes sense.

Regardless, here’s how it works. The Sniffy Market has a touchscreen display and camera as well as a carousel that retailers will load various scents into. Once that’s set, curious passers-by can use the touchscreen to pick a product and then get blasted with the scent in question. Another bizarre but intriguing thing about Sniffy is what the camera is for: it captures people’s reactions to the scent and analyzes it to see if that reaction is positive or negative. It’s not meant for the consumer to see, but it’s data that can help inform how desirable the product up for sale is.

Given that the demo device we saw here at CES was just a 3D-printed prototype, there’s no telling when this might be an actual device you see in stores. It’s a bizarre idea, but it might just be weird enough to work for a certain set of retailers. Sniffy’s creators said they’ll build the hardware, software and even help create scents for the company; it sounds like they want to have a piece of the whole pie. But as far as seeing Sniffy in a store any time soon, well, I’m not holding my breath.

Cosmo’s bike helmet light will alert others when you fall

Cycling can be dangerous, especially if you ride at night or in busy metropolitan areas. To help, a startup called Cosmo Connected is working on a smart light that clips onto the back of your helmet. Eight LEDs — four red, four yellow — are positioned in an oval shape. By default, they’re set to an “always-on” position so that you’re clearly visible in the dark. An accelerometer inside will know when you’re braking, however, and warn fellow cyclists, drivers and pedestrians with a more intense light.

Cosmo’s bike light works with a companion app on your phone. Here, you can trigger a flashing “emergency alert” or make left and right signals by mashing the screen or pressing the company’s optional, handlebar-mounted remote control. It will also be possible to enter your journey beforehand and trigger turn signals automatically via GPS tracking. Finally, Cosmo Connected says the accelerometer will double as a fall detector, notifying friends and family in the event of an accident. All of these features are free, though an optional service (it’s not clear if you’ll have to pay for this, however) can be set up to notify emergency responders too.

The Cosmo Bike light will launch in September for $60. It follows the Cosmo Moto, a connected brake light for motorcyclists that was funded on Kickstarter last November. The helmet accessory has a similar feature set and is available in glossy black, glossy white and matte black for $119.

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

Lussya is a $300 baby lotion dispenser disguised as modern art

Massage is good for adults and great for babies, who use the stimulation to bond with their parents, calm down and work out their gas. It’s why French startup Caressa is building My Lussya One, a massage oil heater and automatic dispenser that’s designed to ensure that rubbing sessions are always a pleasure.

The device has been created by Frenchman Sébastien Fauconnier, who was inspired to build it with his wife, a pediatric nurse. He wanted to craft a gadget that not only made massage time easier, but encouraged it simply because of all the positive benefits baby massage offers.

Looking like a Henry Moore sculpture, users begin by placing their hands on the head-esque top dome, which is warm. Lifting up the head exposes two slots for massage lotion and aromatherapy oil capsules that look like slightly cuter Keurig pods.

Once your hands are warm, you place them beneath the head, where up to three squirts of massage lotion are fired out, much like an automatic soap dispenser. All the while, the aromatherapy oil is warmed and diffused to give the local air a pleasingly calm scent.

Connect the device to your phone, and it’ll show you video tutorials on the best way to massage your kid, depending on their age. While you conduct the massage, the device can play soothing music through its built-in speaker, and offer up a pleasing gentle light show through its belly.

Finally, Lussya can pull duty as a nightlight, and you can even record yourself (or a relative) reading a story to be played through the speaker. That’s assuming you don’t run down the battery, which can let it operate for a short amount of time when it’s not plugged in to a wall outlet.

The startup is accepting pre-orders right now, and the first production run of the units are expected to arrive for French customers between April and May. Should you be located in the republic, you can put your name down for one if you have €250 ($300) on hand, with US pricing and availability still in the works. In addition, there’s no word on how much the capsules are likely to cost you, but it’s likely to be a couple of bucks per go.

Assuming, of course, that you need your very own automatic lotion warmer and dispenser.

Nicole Lee contributed to this report.

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

The Sgnl wristband is almost ready to turn your hand into a phone

We’ve seen Innomdle Lab’s Sgnl wearable at CES a few times before, but it’s worth revisiting because a) it’s an absolutely crazy idea that works and b) it’s very nearly ready for the masses. In case you missed it the first time around, the Sgnl is a sleek, understated wearable that lets you have full-blown private phone conversations by simply touching your finger to your ear.

The wearable — which was originally developed as a concept for Samsung’s delightfully nutty C-Lab — transmits sound through your handmeat as vibrations that eventually come out of your finger as sound. In theory, this sounds absurd. In practice, though, it actually seems to work as advertised. Even though Innomdle Lab’s body conduction technology isn’t specifically meant for music playback, a demo track streamed from a tablet via Bluetooth was piped into my wrist, up through my hand and came out surprisingly audible on through my finger.

There’s no way you’d want to listen to an album this way even if it were possible, but the system is theoretically clear enough to keep conversations intelligible. We’re told the Sgnl can store up to five contacts, which you can sift through using a set of slightly-too-gummy navigation buttons.

The Sgnl also doubles as a fitness tracker because, well, why not? Good thing it’s relatively comfortable to wear. The prototype units I’ve tried in the past were considerably more bulbous and hack-y, but the final product is actually remarkable restrained in its design. The actual body conduction bits are housed in a a soft-touch plastic body, while a dark stainless steel strap runs around the rest of the wrist. My biggest concern so far, though, is how clumsy the clasp seems — you have to stick the tiny metal tab on one end into the slot on the other, and it can be very, very difficult to do with just one hand.

Even now, with Sgnl production in full swing, the wearable leave us with questions. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait too long for answers: the first units will be delivered to Kickstarter backers in March, and general sales should follow soon after.

Coravin’s smart wine opener doesn’t remove the cork

If you’re not familiar with Coravin, the company makes wine openers that allow you to pour a glass without removing the cork. The devices pierce the cork with a thin needle that doesn’t remove any material, so you can have some and then continue to cellar the bottle. So-called Coravin Capsules (similar to CO2 cartridges) filled with Argon gas push the wine out of the bottle and into your glass. At CES 2018 though, the company took its wares to a whole other level with the Model 11.

Coravin calls it “the world’s first fully connected and fully automated wine preservation opener.” In addition to pouring wine like its other models, this unit syncs with the Coravin Moments app. With the added bit of software, you can keep tabs on how much gas is left and other valuable info. It also offers suggestions for a specific event or food pairing based on what you have in your cellar. As you might expect, it can also suggests wines that you make not already own, but that might go well with eating Mexican food and watching Stranger Things, for example. Wines are pulled in from database that powers Delectable’s wine app.

The Model 11 also has an aerator attachment that Coravin says creates the same effect as the wine sitting in a glass for an hour. It also produces a quite fancy-looking shower stream when you use it. Of course, if you don’t want to aerate a bottle, you certainly don’t have to. That all sounds pretty sweet, right? Well, the only downside is the smart gadget costs $999, so this definitely isn’t for casual wine drinkers. If that’s much too extravagant for you, the already available Model One and Model Two retail for $200 and $300, respectively. If you really want to splurge for the Model 11 though, you can do so in September when the device goes on sale.

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