The Best and Worst From CES 2013 152
CowboyRobot writes "InformationWeek has collected what it considers to be the five dumbest ideas presented at this year's CES. The list includes: 'The HapiFork is an electronic fork that tracks how many mouthfuls of food you consume during a given meal, how many seconds pass between bites, and how long the meal took to complete.' Also on the list is the iPotty, which is about what you would guess from the name. And for balance, the list of the seven standout technologies includes 3M's 84-inch touchscreen display and Parrot's $300 'AR Drone 2.0, a gravity-defying spectacle that puts yesteryear's remote-control helicopters to shame with its ability to dive, spin and whirl through the air.'"
Silly names... (Score:2)
Re:Silly names... (Score:5, Funny)
The 4K tablet. (Score:2, Informative)
That 20 inch tablet is NOT one of the worst, its presence on that list really reduces the credibility of the list.
It's not one of the best either, but it being mentioned alongside the 'HapiFork' is disgraceful.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
I just want to know when they will invent pockets on a normal pair of blue jeans large enough to comfortably hold these giant phones.
Re: (Score:2)
I just want to know when they will invent pockets on a normal pair of blue jeans large enough to comfortably hold these giant phones.
You sound like one of those repulsive luddite enemies of progress who don't have their phone(or, 'phablet', to us cool kids) out and in use 100% of the time...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Or someone who doesn't carry a backpack/purse/briefcase. If it doesn't fit in my pocket, it may as well be a desktop- I'm not taking it anywhere.
Re: (Score:2)
No kidding. I started off with the "standout items" list.
Number 1 - gigantic tablet. Nothing standout or breakthrough, just quite large version of existing stuff, vague assertions that "it might be sort of useful in the enterprise?". They couldn't even think why it might be useful.
Number 2 - LG has lots of cool television enhancements on the way such as improved interfaces and voice command response. But they didn't show that. Just a rather big screen that's too expensive for anyone to buy.
Number 3 - a litt
Re: (Score:3)
The "worst" part is you make a giant glass cockpit device and FAA/DOT/USCG/Area51 won't approve it for vehicular use, so you stick a battery in it and call it a tablet.
The first thing I thought of was Steve Jobs yacht or whomever it was, where the whole boat was run by computers. A waterproofed marine version would of course quintuple the price but would make a pretty awesome UI if you installed 3 or more in a boat (3 or more identical ones, so when you crack screen #2 you can bring the weather radar up on
Re: (Score:3)
Agreed. It's obviously not meant to be used in the same way as an iPad or Nexus 7, as the author's comments seem to imply that he thinks (" it's way too big to easily handle" - duh), it's more a portable 20" all-in-one PC. I can think of uses for a 20" 4k tablet, whereas beyond "does it blend?" I'm coming up blank with the HapiFork.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm coming up blank with the HapiFork.
Perhaps you are not in the target market. I was a skinny kid in a large family, and learned early to wolf my food down quickly before someone else grabbed it. When I hit age forty, I started to put on a few pounds. One of the things I did to lose those pounds was slow down and pace my eating, so that the hunger would fade before I was already stuffed. But it was difficult to break a lifetime habit of eating quickly, and something like HapiFork may have helped.
We have a major obesity problem in this coun
Re: (Score:3)
I'm coming up blank with the HapiFork.
Perhaps you are not in the target market. I was a skinny kid in a large family, and learned early to wolf my food down quickly before someone else grabbed it. When I hit age forty, I started to put on a few pounds. One of the things I did to lose those pounds was slow down and pace my eating, so that the hunger would fade before I was already stuffed. But it was difficult to break a lifetime habit of eating quickly, and something like HapiFork may have helped.
We have a major obesity problem in this country, and it is spreading worldwide. If HapiFork can help a few people, and be a small part of the solution, then we should not be so quick to ridicule it.
I ate fast as a kid too. Not because we were competing for food, but because there was always something more interesting that I wanted to do. I still do. I never went back for seconds, though, just ate the relatively normal portions on my plate. Today, I could stand to lose some weight as well. However, that has little to do with eating fast. It's due more to sitting behind a keyboard all day instead of running out to play baseball with my friends... Anyone want to throw a baseball around? (grin)
Re:The 4K tablet. (Score:5, Funny)
But that's bigger than the iPad! Nothing can be different than what Apple does, that is the surest sign of failure. I mean, look what happend to 7" tablets. They did not succeed until Apple made one.
Re: (Score:2)
"But that's bigger than the iPad! Nothing can be different than what Apple does, that is the surest sign of failure. I mean, look what happend to 7" tablets. They did not succeed until Apple made one."
Apple made an 8" tablet, not 7". We've got a Nexus 7 in the office and it has a substantially smaller screen because it has a 16:9 aspect 7" screen whereas the iPad mini is a 4:3 aspect 8" screen.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, but Apple's 7" tablet is an 8" tablet, so, it's... better. And Tim Cook made sure to point this out at the introduction of the iPad Mini. I shit you not.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I just heard about this 4K tablet, and it is the one technology on either the 'good' or 'bad' list that has me excited. I haven't found an estimated price, but if they can make a 20" tablet with 4K resolution for around $2k then there may be hope for a 30"+ monitor with 4K resolution someday. I would buy a monitor like that for $1999 immediately.
According to whom? (Score:4, Insightful)
Some things, like the 20" tablet are ideal for some situations. Just about anywhere a wacom monitor is used on the road, for example.
Back in the days i have seen artists lug around with bulky CRT's because they where the only thing that had both high resolution and proper pen support.
I just hope the MS Surface Pro has touch sensitive pen, and it'll be done. If only it where 18" and had a resolution of 2560x1400! All todays modern devices are made for mice and Chinese fingers.. I'm 2 meters tall for crying out loud i don't mind carrying anything not wider than me. With a fullsize keyboard if possible.
Its all relative. What sucks for the author, may be the ideal product for others.
Re: (Score:2)
High resolution computer screens back? Please? (Score:3)
I realize that a lot of tech writers have forgotten what it is like to use computers, but I really miss the high-resolution monitors that we USED to have.
I'm glad that one of the big things that the companies are pushing now are going to be 4K displays for TVs because that means that (due to the shared manufacturing lines), the screens for computer monitors are going to get 4K screens eventually as well. I hate that you have to go out of your way to find a monitor that exceeds the 'television' format of 1
Re: (Score:2)
Except that a 52" 4K TV is less pixel-dense than a 1080p 17" laptop screen - or even less. It's just that the panels that the 17" laptop screens are cut out of are finally of a manufacturing quality that they can cut out a 52" screen with no major flaws. This is why bigger screens are so much more expensive.
This is the trickle-down of the last generation of computer monitors.
Entirely missed the market - Architects (Score:3)
Anyone who doesn't "get" the appeal of the 5lb, 20" tablet is clearly not an architect (or a related engineering discipline, like structural engineer...me). A 10" screen is too small to do almost anything on that really matters, and if you have a capacitive-only input it's doubly useless. I've tried 3-4 different styli on my iPad, only to usually give up after writing whiteboard-sized letters to accommodate the 1/4" tip diameter of the finest point reliable stylus. You can't even write a full line of text.
A
Re:Entirely missed the market - Architects (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, a market of 80,000 in the US is a great market.
http://www.aia.org/press/AIAS077761 [aia.org]
At that that run rate, I'm sure the tablets won't cost more than about $50k a piece.
At which point, the market goes down to 8,000 and the price goes up to $100k.
See how this works? Or doesn't?
Re: (Score:3)
You missed the entire engineering market that goes with them, which is several times bigger - and that's if you exclude the entire civil engineering field. It also excludes every architect who decides not to pay the AIA to be a "member." Don't forget all of the large general contractors out there doing hundreds of billions of dollars of construction projects every year who are utilizing building information modeling. Which, funny enough, is EXACTLY the market these have been made for - to the extent that o
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Fine, add an extra zero to the volumes. Or even two.
Won't make a damn bit of difference if that's your entire market.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Depends on what you/i call large.
My current laptop is a 15" Acer TravelMate 6003LMi from 2004. It has an 1400x1050 resolution. (yes its 9 years old)
My desktop workspace always consists of two 17" monitors. Thats ~30" with 2560x1024 pixel resolution.
Anything below 14" i consider small. 14 upto 16" i consider normal. 17" and up, thats what i call large.
I have seen and used plenty of 17" laptops, which i find decent sized but the problem always is these come with ultra low resolutions (mostly 1280x720).
Re: (Score:2)
oh good... (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
but in the end, it'll be useful
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
no shit
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, man, this deserves so much better than it's scored.
The Worst? (Score:4, Insightful)
Clearly it was the Keynote [theverge.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Why can't it be both?
84-inch touchscreen - the end to Gorilla Arm! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
20" 4K display is dumb now? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
For the 84" 4K TV, there's no content optimized for it yet, but some how it made the good list. The distinction seems to be one is a TV so higher rez is awesome, even with out the content, the other is a tablet so higher rez is dumb, because there's no content.
I pretty much agreed with them up to that point.
Re: (Score:3)
Isn't it normal that displays become available before content is widely available?
We are just getting to the point were HD is the dominant format. HDTVs have been affordable to pretty much everyone for years now. The same will happen with 4K. Once a 55"-60" unit is under $5000 then content will be more available.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
/. Story Winner; this thread may now be closed (Score:2)
Yeah, that just about sums it up. If had mod points, you would get them. All.
Standout vs Dumb (Score:2)
What is the difference?
I don't see myself any more likely to buy the standout products than the dumb products.
84" touch screens and $20,000 4K LCDs aren't any more likely to make it into my living room than the iPotty. In fact the iPotty is more likely.
Re: (Score:2)
Next year it will be $10k. Year after $2k. Then $1k and $500.
Year after that you will need a new TV and it will be in the living room.
Sure very few people get what is at CES this. 5 years out it will be generally available and used.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Standout vs Dumb (Score:5, Funny)
Capacitive nerf gun bullets for those who won't (or can't) be bothered to get up.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Capacitive nerf gun bullets for those who won't (or can't) be bothered to get up.
Couple that with a fancy bullet hole app and watching daytime television suddenly got interesting again.
Re: (Score:2)
It would be neat for parties. Let people control the music and such for the whole house.
Right now my solution involves someone asking me, which takes away from party time.
Re: (Score:2)
It's an 84" touchscreen. Hard to see why you'd want the touchscreen in a device you typically control from several arm lengths away.
I guess you could tie one of those capacitive styli to the end of a broom pole and use that as a remote...
Good news everyone!
Re: (Score:2)
It's an 84" touchscreen. Hard to see why you'd want the touchscreen in a device you typically control from several arm lengths away.
I guess you could tie one of those capacitive styli to the end of a broom pole and use that as a remote...
If it didn't cost a fucking fortune(har, har, right..) and it had software and sensors to back it; a touchscreen that big would make a cool replacement for the 'tabletop coated with maps that the brass are standing around and being dramatic' from every sci-fi and/or war movie ever....
That's the thing: if 'touch' were free, there are probably all sorts of neat applications that you could come up with for it. As it is, though, we still don't have anything resembling a cheap, competent, and standardized "Smart
Re: (Score:2)
In the case of the 85" 4K LCD screen I doubt it will be in my living room in 5 years.
LG said that they will be selling this as 55 and 65 inch models. So the 85" isn't going to be a commercial product at all.
Not only that, but I don't see the point of 4K at all. The human eye just can't see the difference at reasonable viewing distances.
And then there is the question of when in OLED coming to market? Hopefully in 5 years for real.
Re: (Score:2)
Not only that, but I don't see the point of 4K at all. The human eye just can't see the difference at reasonable viewing distances.
Maybe at a 55" screen size. As it is now, with my living room set up to allow 4-6 people to watch a TV at the same time, a 42" TV almost 8 feet away is taking up a very narrow portion of my field of view. I want an 84" TV. Or for my whole wall to be a 4K screen.
At a movie theater, I can certainly tell the difference between 2K and 4K. The screen is huge.
Re: (Score:2)
I was thinking the same thing.
iPhone case that had been 3D printed? Ok, the software may be good for allowing the average consumer to create a 3D model, but to create iPhone cases. That's a ridiculous product. Let's see I get to put my face on my phone and my phone won't lay flat anymore and now it's 3 times as thick and when I talk on the phone it looks like I have a parasitic twin head on the side of my face. These are all great features sign me up.
Re: (Score:2)
Right. Just like at my local mall. They have all these video ad signage displays. What do they use for the screen? "Movie" screen shaped TV's with an aspect ratio of around 2.4:1 instead of the taller 16:9 turned on their side. I don't know any consumer that's buying them. Completely unintended consequences, I'm sure. Instead of using them to watch movies filmed in a "Cinemascope" ratio, they are being used to sell designer shoes.
Why didn't the second list make it onto the first? (Score:5, Insightful)
So, a 20" tablet is one of the five dumbest ideas at CES, but a tablet measuring seven feet is one of the standouts? Hmmm.
Another "standout" technology is MyLink, which... well, its a wireless hands-free kit for your phone. You know, like Bluetooth, only, um, well, about the same, actually... No wait! With a button on the steering wheel! That's right! A button to activate the voice-activated features on your phone!
Stuff all that free-culture-open-hardware-3d-printing-for-the-masses crap, you can print YOUR OWN FACE ON YOUR iPHONE CASE! And DRONES! Alright, the same drones as last year, but WITH A BIGGER BATTERY!
That's not all, there are VPNs! VPNs for smartphones! Yes! The innovation - can you feel it yet? And did we mention bigger batteries? Bloody expensive ones, too.
If this is the best innovation in electronics has to offer, I think I'll go find a cave and some rocks to bang together.
Re:Why didn't the second list make it onto the fir (Score:5, Funny)
Be careful with that rock banging thing. If anyone hears your rocks, there's a good chance that you'll be infringing on a mobile communications patent.
Re: (Score:2)
Nice. I'd better start looking for prior art.
Re: (Score:2)
Be careful with that rock banging thing. If anyone hears your rocks, there's a good chance that you'll be infringing on a mobile communications patent.
Apple might have a patent on just that. Sadly, I am not even sure if I'm only joking.
Re: (Score:2)
And did we mention bigger batteries? Bloody expensive ones, too.
Yeah, I can't figure out why there aren't more "USB battery boosters" that take AA batteries and put out 5V USB. Phone dying? Get AA batteries from anywhere, and get another 24 hours of power. Cheap and light (especially since you can carry it empty, and buy the batteries only when you need them).
Re: (Score:2)
Just like OpenVPN on my N900 about three years ago, and probably on Android and iPhone ten minutes later.
Re: (Score:2)
The only reason that's not called a tablet is you'd need concrete knees to hold the damn thing up.
80" touch screen? (Score:2)
But I have a 100" touch display in my office. I built it almost 3 years ago.
They had pinball there as well nice to see USA (Score:2)
They had pinball there as well nice to see made in the USA stuff getting press like that.
What I don't understand... (Score:5, Interesting)
Why are all these '4k' displays being introduced as TVs, rather than marketed as monitors(possibly in slightly smaller sizes, ~36 inches, say) that just happen to have a bunch of types of video input?
On the TV side there is zip, zero, zilch, nada, fuck-all available at that resolution. An entire ecosystem of foot-dragging broadcasters, STBs, impractically high demands for streaming, no disk format, etc. stands in the way. As a monitor? Even relatively proasic PCs should be able to drive the thing(and a video card that costs more than a couple hundred bucks can probably even keep the frame rates up) and 'retina' is all the rage these days.
Obviously, unless they specifically break the connectors in some way contrary to spec, these "TVs" will work as monitors; but why aren't they being sold as such?
People want more TVs than monitors in their house (Score:2)
Didn't you get the memo? Computers are dead - it's going to be all tablets and ultralight laptops from now on. ;-)
Seriously, though - the market for personal PCs is dropping, being replaced by small form factor devices. The market for "monitors" is on its way to niche status, rather than the mandatory with-every-computer-sold status it enjoyed. But everybody seems to need a TV is every room of their house, and with the super-thin models it's practical to just hang it on any empty wall. Instead of two compu
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Refresh rates? A TV shows 24/25/29 fps, while most gamers want to have 60fps. Doubling the frame rate for a display device isn't exactly trivial.
Note this is just a guess. I don't have a TV so I don't bother checking specs of any new ones, but this seems to be the most immediate difference.
Re: (Score:2)
The one upside of the (otherwise largely bullshit) '3D headachevision shutterglasses' nonsense is that it has substantially increased the number of TVs in the wild that can handle refresh rates twice as high as the various ATSC/NTSC oddities in order to allow a traditional framerate for each eye even when the shutter glasses are only giving each eye every-other frame.
This doesn't necessarily apply in the cheap seats; but the '3D' fad means that you can purchase hardware in the 60-120hz range, some of which
Re: (Score:3)
Most TVs show 60fps quite well. Some of them pretend to go way higher, but the afterglow from LCD typically limits effective frame rate to something in the 60fps range.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Most 1080p+ (higher refreshes...) HDTVs I've seen have VGA and/or DVI input in addition to the HDMI. That doesn't mean they'll let you max out the connector's capabilities, though. Indeed, even if the TV has the hardware to do it, the feature is often turned off as a price differentiator. My SHARP LCD TV is 52" and yet they still turned off HDMI CEC. If only I knew how to enable it. The firmware self-test system has a test for the hardware and it seems to pass, but I don't have the feature.
iPotty is a revolution in potty training! (Score:2)
Only a person without a child would think iPotty is a stupid idea.
While I don't have a child, my best buddy has a 3 year old that has been very difficult to get potty trained. They finally did so by using the iPad as a way to entice her to stay on the potty long enough to do her business. Within two weeks she is fully potty trained.
There are two guarantees for every infant, they love iPad, and hate getting potty trained.
How is this any dumber then the geek that hangs a TV in their bathroom?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
My daughter is about 3 1/2 now and still refuses to finish potty training. She has been using the potty on and off for around 1 1/2 years now. She just doesn't give a crap about it. It's more convienent in her opinion to use her diaper. She's pretty decent about using the toilet for crapping, I can't remember when I changed a number 2 diaper last, but she rarely cares to piss in a toilet, she's got more interesting things to do than stop and go potty.
I've known neices and nephews who refused to do it also u
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, that's how I litter-box trained my cat, too, but cleaning up the iPad afterwords sure is a mess. But you have to love technology. Before the iPad, only the editorial section could convince a cat to use the litter-box.
Re: (Score:2)
Aggressive potty training is a parental problem,
Behind the hobbyists a bit then (Score:2)
Expensive drone considering £32 will buy you a Hubsan x4 then £4 from Hong Kong for a keychain spycamera stripped and stuck to the underneath = spy drone for £36. And you end up with a stable, smaller quad that is better built (no nasty polystyrene body).
Some of the RC guys are experimenting with FPV for the Hubsan x4, there's a few vids on the forums of people flying it around their houses, first person style using lightweight video cams and TX modules.
Quadrotors can be a world of fun wi
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, but $300 doesn't seem too shabby for a turnkey system, with a full support infrastructure.
That director mode looks cool - have it do pre-programmed camera moves like pans and crane shots. If I was an amateur film-maker I'd be getting one in a flash.
Eh? (Score:2)
I don't know about those two lists - is the fork thing stupid? I think what is stupid is the assumption that it is intended to somehow stop people from overeating; it isn't, it is only a device that may perhaps help the user keep track of the eating of a meal. This could be valuable information, just like keeping a food diary can.
On the other hand, what is the sense of have a gigantic television screen with absurdly high resolution, when all you can watch is crappy programs or crappy computer games? It's a
Re: (Score:2)
You know, I actually like the idea of the fork. I have lost 30 lbs so far by doing 2 things. Decreasing portion sizes and concentrating on not eating fast. Simply decreasing portion sizes is good, but if I ate too fast I would still feel hungry and want more. Slowing down the speed of my eating seems to have given my body more time to signal the brain that I am slow, and having the fork would have been cool because during a good meal with friends, the last thing I wanted to pay attention to what the spe
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Of course that doesn't do anything for your arms.
Re: (Score:2)
Walking is a terrible form of exercise, because it's too easy.
Exercise doesn't have to be perfect - it just has to be. Being physically active gives so many benefits that burning calories is only a minor point, really. Also, to somebody without any physical activity, walking is probably the best place to start.
You are obviously a quite competitive person, who likes to challenge yourself; but a lot of us are not there yet. Any exercise is worth doing, from a health point of view, especially if you enjoy it.
Where are zee googles!!!??? (Score:2)
Oculus Rift is going to bring us the VR many have dreamt for years, sure this year they will only produce the developer version. But soon we will get the commercial version, higher resolution, lighter, even better tracking, ... and all that for 300$.
Bring me the future NOW!
Don't laugh at the iPotty (Score:3)
Some days down the line, there will be photographs of Angelina Jolie, Madonna and Beckham's kids using an iPotty. And then all the hipsters will make sure they buy one and will also post photos of it on twitter and facebook.
The sad thing... (Score:3)
best quote ever (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Why come up with fancy marketing when you can just quote to the media: "Unlike traditional VPN solutions that don't work on mobile phones, this one does." That's some graceful stuff right there.
It must really make you reconsider your worthless existence when your 'breakthrough' is a VPN that works on mobile phones after essentially all the mobile phones that matter to VPN users have switched to near-full desktop/OS networking stacks...
20 tablet? How about a 8.5x11" one? (Score:3)
Peferably with E-Ink, that I can write on, in similar DPI to a fine engineering pencil?
I want one for specification sheets and notes. That's it. Doesn't really even need much of a OS. I have a desk full of paper. I will gladly pay $$$$$ for this device.. and I am sure that others will too.
The retina ipad is good, but it's not paper.
Re:CES is to Electronics Pros as (Score:5, Funny)
Christmas is to Christians and Earth Day is to Environmentalists.
Over-commercialised, bereft of its original meaning, and just a big pain in the arse for the rest of us?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Bereft of it's original meaning?
Christmas derives from yuletide (the puritans wanted to disband Christmas), and such celebrations are common in civilisations from high latitude. It's basically a "long winters are miserable let's have some fun" celebration in essence. Generally such a celebration had the religiosity du jour wrapped around it.
I think Christmas is pretty much spot on to its original meaning.