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ScienceHealthEverything You Need To Recover From a Trade Show In the Desert
While we look back fondly at our adventures, we still get home feeling the effects of madly trying to cover every square inch of the technological Shangri-La known as CES. The walking, the running, the talking, the food, and the dry air can really take their toll after a week spent in Las Vegas. And … Continued
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Tech News
Is a Crappy Wi-Fi Signal Ruining Your Netflix Streams? Hy-Fi Routers Promise to Fix That
The nerdiest thing our Matt Buchanan ever wanted was an awesome powerline router. I’ll see your nerdiness, Matt, and raise you one. Hy-Fi Routers crossbreed Wi-Fi, ethernet, powerline, and MoCA to give you a mutant baby of ultimate internet reliability. The dream of consistently fast 100Mbps internet all over my apartment is so close I … Continued
By Brent Rose -
Tech News
The Best Everything at CES
Well that about does it for CES. We managed to escape Las Vegas with our lives, most of our belongings, and almost none of our dignity intact. But for all our bellyaching, CES is fun. We saw some amazing things out in the desert this year. Here’s a quick rundown of the best: The Best … Continued
By Kyle Wagner -
Tech News
Finally, Thunderbolt Stuff You Can Actually Buy Is on the Way
Thunderbolt is fast. Acutally, that’s a simplistic view. It’s incredibly fast (10Gbps bi-directional speeds!) and can handle multiple protocols. You can use Thunderbolt to attach a monitor, external drives, video capture devices, and hubs that support USB and Firewire. Real products are finally arriving, so we thought we’d make a list of the best ones. … Continued
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Tech News
Gibson Firebird X Hands-On: The First Digital Guitar You Won’t Hate
The Gibson Firebird X is the first digital guitar that even the most fervent analog luddite won’t write off as a gadgetar. Lots of guitar technology claims to offer you infinite sounds and disappoints. This is what infinity feels like. Like most guitar players, I’m not so much afraid of technology as suspicious of it. … Continued
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Tech News
The Best New Vaporware
It’s the product that will never be. Like that sixth season of The Wire, we hope that it happens, but we know deep in our hearts that it won’t. Intel’s Nikiski ultrabookand its see-through-trackpad-display falls into that category. The beautifully odd Nikiski touts a keyboard-wide see-through glass trackpad. The trackpad recognizes your palm to keep … Continued
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Tech News
Nikon D4 Hands-On: The Photographer’s Newest Deadly Weapon
If you’re used to shooting with an everyday DSLR, the Nikon D4 is like holding fully-automatic machine gun for the first time. Pulling the trigger on the D4 is wonderfully satisfying. When you’re shooting in continuous mode, frames peel off super-fast thanks to Nikon’s new EXPEED 3 processor, which gets you up to 11 fps … Continued
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Tech News
Okay, Nope: This Is the Best Booth at CES
I’m sure whatever booth Robbie checked out at CES is great, but the best booth at CES didn’t come from an ultrabook or smart TV manufactuer. Nope, it came from Audi. I am steadfast in my belief that it is BETTER. Like OMGDONTEVENTRYTOARGUEWITHME better. What makes it so great, exactly? Um, have you looked at … Continued
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Tech News
Panasonic’s Third Eye Camera Concept: Terrible Haircut Required!
Panasonic’s designers cooked up this concept camera that users wear like a set of behind-the-head earbuds. I like the fact that it packs wi-fi, letting your smartphone record or stream everything your third eye is seeing. But apparently it only works with terrible, terrible haircuts. Hopefully they’ll work this kink out if it ever comes … Continued
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Tech NewsEricsson Just Zapped a Rockabilly Song Through My Body
I think I can still feel my fingers tingling after I played with a stereo hooked up to Ericsson’s new capacitive coupling technology, which uses the water in the human body to transmit data instead of cables or radio waves. In Ericsson’s booth demo, you’re presented with two transmitter boxes with flat metal connections in … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
Sharkfin Promises Custom-Fitted Earbuds For Just $5
Having customers build their own cheap furniture helped IKEA build an empire. So a Canadian company hopes the same approach will work when it comes to custom-fitted earbuds. When using earbud style headphones you typically want to block any other sounds from coming in, and the most effective way to do that is with a … Continued
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Tech News
How to Cover a Ginormous Trade Show With a Million Gadgets in the Middle of the Desert and Not Die
Covering something as massive and amazing and crushing and utterly divorced from reality as CES is half art, half science, and if you want to do it well, all heart. That’s the real secret, if you want to know. But I suppose some of you might also want to know how we covered it, the … Continued
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Tech News
CaseMate’s Phallic Snap Case Harnesses the Awesome Power Of Slap Wrap
There are literally more iPhone cases on the show floor than CES attendees, but only one that uses the same bracelet technology that made the 90’s easy to forget. Case-Mate’s new Snap case for the iPhone 4 and 4S features a rubberized kick stand on the back that pops out when the metal strip inside … Continued
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Tech News
The Best Looking 3D Glasses Are From a Company You’ve Never Heard Of
If you’re lucky enough to get a pair of 3D glasses with your fancy new 3D TV, chances are good that they’re hideous. So this year, I decided to scour CES for 3D specs that weren’t embarrassingly awful. And I found them, in a place I never would have expected. I had one question for … Continued
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Tech NewsThe Greatest Toilet Seat I’ve Ever Seen
Hidden away in a remote CES corridor, amidst a sea of gaudy phone cases and chargers, something catches my eye. What’s a toilet doing here? Oh, you know, just revolutionizing how you use the bathroom. No biggie. Behold the Swash 1000, the latest and greatest evolution of Brondell’s line of high-tech toiletry. The Mark Cuban-backed … Continued
By Brent Rose -
Tech News
The Biggest Surprise of CES
Wait, is this right? RIM’s update to its PlayBook OS is actually good? High fives are currently flying in meetings across North America. And it’s not just that PlayBook’s finally going to have native email and calendar support. That’s a great first step, but it’s also just smooth and attractive and usable. There’s a better … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
The Best Booth at CES
Samsung doesn’t build a booth at CES. They build a small town. A small town with knowledgeable citizens and a beautiful Main Street. Really, the kind of place you want to take your family to for the summer. And they do it Every. Single. Year. Samsung might have had the biggest booth. I’m not really … Continued
