Tag Archives: CES 2022

Panasonic’s latest 7-in-1 oven comes with a steam functionality to help you eat healthy at home

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Eating healthy is more than half the battle, and this multi-functional oven will try to lower the barrier to entry for those who want to go down this path.

There has been a great deal of focus on personal health in the past two years, but most of it has revolved around being active and getting some exercise even when stuck at home. Many fitness and health experts, however, will explain that the real and biggest factor in living a healthy lifestyle is in what you eat. Eating healthy dishes can be a bit difficult if you don’t get to decide what gets put inside those meals. Cooking, however, isn’t as easy as it sounds for many people, so Panasonic is trying to take a load off people’s shoulders with its latest Compact Oven.

Designer: Panasonic

Calling the HomeCHEF 7-in-1 “compact” might be a bit of a stretch, at least when compared to its siblings. This newest addition to the lineup is larger to accommodate the more spacious 20L capacity and bigger 800ml water tank. That may mean you’ll have to shove some things out of the way to make room for this oven in the kitchen, but Panasonic says it’s all worth it.

Those bigger capacities aren’t just for show, of course, and the Panasonic HomeCHEF 7-in-1 comes with new features as well. For one, 2-level Convection Cooking lets you bake more things at the same time. The oven’s fans and temperature range have also been upgraded to ensure that both levels cook uniformly.

The Compact Oven also gets more functions, primarily Steam and Steam Convection. These two promise healthier dishes since they’re able to preserve more nutrients compared to other cooking methods. That brings the number of functions to seven (hence the name), including Air Fry, Convection Bake, Slow Cook, Sanitize, and Ferment. That last bit will be useful for croissants and pizza dough.

The Panasonic HomeCHEF 7-in-1 Compact Oven is expanding its size and its features in order to also expand the number of healthy dishes one can prepare at home. Although it doesn’t completely remove the work that needs to be done to prepare these meals (not to mention the cleanup afterward), it tries to reduce the number of cooking appliances you have to juggle. It’s easy enough to downplay these conveniences, but ease-of-use and reducing the friction to get started go a long way in setting people on the right track to healthier living.

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BMW iX Flow Concept is a chameleon of the automotive world destined for a sci-fi movie debut

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In 2021 BMW announced that they’d been working on a color-changing car, and now at CES 2022 the crazy idea is finally a reality, in the form of a chameleon-like electric vehicle. This is one of the most eye-catchy things seen at the Omicron inflicted show in Las Vegas this year. BMW calls it the iX Flow Concept and although it seems like any other iX crossover prototype, what it has got is something straight out of a Transformers movie plot. A futuristic car that can blend right into its surroundings to go invisible magically!

Well, that is a far-fetched dream for now, as the EV for now uses E Ink technology (much like the Amazon Kindle series’ display) to put forth a hypnotic show of color-changing skin. The implementation is in its infancy stage right now, as the iX Flow Concept can switch between the hues of white, dark gray and black only. According to BMW the E Ink is sandwiched in a wrap that conforms to the “contours of the all-electric Sports Activity Vehicle.” Millions of microcapsules (the diameter of a human hair) are etched in this wrap containing the negatively charged white pigment and positively charged black pigment. Based on the amount of pigment needed to collect on the surface, the electric field is applied to do the trick – something known as electrophoresis technology.

Designer: BMW Group

The color-changing pallet is draped all over the body, as one can customize the look of the car depending on the needs and of course moods on a particular day. This is useful in maintaining the cabin temperature too as, on hot days, the color of the vehicle could be lighter to reflect more light and darker on colder days to absorb more heat. This will also result in lesser energy requirements to maintain the optimum inside temperature Munich-based premium car manufacturer says, the future versions of the car could follow the color-changing aesthetics to the grille and wheels too. Thereby, resulting in complete customization of the ride with the touch of a button on a compatible app.




The production version of the iX Flow Concept is far from meeting fruition as the color-changing skin is temperature sensitive and works only in certain conditions. Once that bit is sorted, we are staring at limitless options when it comes to displaying custom graphics, messages, or even color flow actuated by the music being played inside. Of course, we expect BMW to evolve this color-changing EV into one that can display millions of colors like current-gen OLEDs. For now, this concept could very well make it through to sci-fi or in fact Bond movie plot!




 

 

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Razer’s all-in-one modular gaming desk design is a sci-fi dream come to life

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If you find yourself having trouble juggling different desks for your different roles, then Razer’s latest dream might be yours as well.

All of us have different roles to play in life. Some of those are easily compartmentalized, thanks to being confined to a specific location. With new arrangements that have left many people stuck at home, however, the boundaries between work, study, and play have started to get muddled. While there are those that advocate keeping different spaces and even desks for different tasks, most people probably have to live with just one at home. If Razer’s Project Sophia concept ever becomes a reality, however, that will be a problem of the very distant past.

Designer: Razer

Whether you have one desk or three, you most likely have different setups for the different roles you play. Work might require you to be professional and productive, but video or audio streaming requires specialized tools to keep quality up and noise down. Switching between setups and desks will always be a chore, and it would be nice if a single desk could reconfigure itself depending on the task at hand. While an autonomous workspace is probably still a fantasy, Razer is envisioning the next best thing.

Project Sophia is an all-in-one modular desk concept that employs strong magnets and crafty electronics to reconfigure its functionality, depending on the task at hand. The desk itself is actually a computer in disguise, powered by an Intel processor and NVIDIA graphics to drive the modular system. There’s even a huge OLED screen, either 66 or 77 inches, so you really have a complete computer setup even without the modules.

Those modules, however, are the magic sauce to Project Sophia. These snap beneath the desk’s glass surface and offer a wide variety of functionality for different use cases. The idea is that you can quickly swap out modules when you switch from work to play to your other work as a streamer, no need to leave your desk. Except perhaps to get the modules you need and reconfigure the desk.

Razer said that there are 13 separate modules, including a programmable hotkey, media controls, system monitors, and a wireless charger. The company even says there’s even a cup warmer module available for avid coffee fans. And, in typical Razer fashion, there is an RGB LED strip lining the desk that people can customize to fit the mood.

If these images make you fantasize about futuristic dashboards and cockpits, you wouldn’t really be far from the truth. Just like how most of those are fantasy, Razer’s Project Sophia is sadly still just a concept at this point, but it’s an exciting concept nonetheless, especially for those who find themselves with different shoes to fill in a single day.

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Samsung’s future vision is filled with screens that fold and bend

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We’ll be seeing displays everywhere in the future, but some of them might be more than meets the eye.

We are already living in a screen-centric world. We do our work on computers, get our entertainment from TVs, and connect with other people through our smartphones. Even activities like reading books, listening to music, and staying healthy have become connected with devices like eBook readers, portable media players, and smartwatches. It probably won’t be a surprise if we one day wake up to a world filled with screens left and right, but Samsung is working to make those displays more interesting and, more importantly, more eco-friendly.

Designer: Samsung Display

Samsung is perhaps best known around the world for its smartphones and its TVs, and the company has been pushing the boundaries of its display technology for those consumer tech products over the past years. The most famous and most recent examples are perhaps the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, currently considered the standard for foldable phones. Unsurprisingly, the company won’t be stopping there and will be bending and folding every display it can for almost any device.

On the mobile device side, Samsung showed off what it calls “Flex G” and “Flex S” displays that would allow an even bigger, tablet-sized screen to fold down to the size of a smartphone. Samsung will also be targeting laptops with its “Flex Note” screen, where a 17.3-inch display can fold in the middle to form a laptop with two 13-inch screens. The goal of these foldable displays, aside from boasting of the company’s prowess, is to increase people’s mobility without hampering their productivity, letting them bring along their work and entertainment anywhere.

You might have actually seen these before if you’ve been keeping tabs on unique and interesting display devices in the past years, but Samsung also brought something completely new to CES 2022. It showed off a smart speaker that seemed to have a cylindrical screen wrapped around it. But at the tap of a button on a paired smartphone, that screen unfurls and turns into a regular flat-screen panel, turning the smart speaker into a smart TV.

With LG’s vision of transparent screens and Samsung’s future shape-changing displays, we can probably expect our world to soon be littered with these bright surfaces in whatever form they may come in. That, however, might also mean an overall increase in power usage and carbon footprint, something that Samsung is thankfully aware of. Part of the company’s big spiel this year is on sustainability through its entire pipeline, from production to packaging.

For example, it is pushing its Eco2 OLED technology that reduces power consumption by removing unnecessary components. It recently also revealed a remote control that charges via Wi-Fi waves instead of electricity. With these, Samsung is trying to promise a future that is not only all about displays but, hopefully, also green.

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Panasonic’s VR Headset looks like something a Metaverse Mad-hatter would wear

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Building on the VR glasses Panasonic debuted in 2020, the MeganeX was announced at CES 2022 and follows its predecessor’s steampunk spectacle aesthetic. Betting big on the metaverse, Panasonic is positioning these glasses as smaller, lighter, and more comfortable alternatives to the clunky VR headsets you see today. Despite its small size, the MeganeX has the ability to project 5.2K 10-bit HDR images at a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. It also supports 6DoF head tracking and is compatible with almost all SteamVR applications… all while weighing a mere 0.5 lbs (250 grams), half of what the Oculus Quest 2 weighs.

Designer: Panasonic

It seems like Panasonic has used the past two years to seriously refine its design. The MeganeX look quirky no less, but if I had to choose between a toaster-shaped VR headset and these steampunk bad-boys, you best bet I’d pick the latter. They look impressively futuristic, although I can’t help but chuckle at the two antennas that dangle from the side of each eyepiece! Maybe Panasonic should also provide a set of straps that hook to the antennas and loop around the back of your neck like old-timey spectacles. Now THAT would look funky.

Jokes aside, it seems like Panasonic is more serious about positioning the MeganeX as a pair of consumer-ready VR glasses. They’re designed to fit directly over your face, and although you can’t wear them with spectacles on, they come with built-in diopter adjustment that lets you change the focus based on your prescription eye-power. The gap between the eyepieces can be adjusted too since people have different eye-widths. Notably, the MeganeX doesn’t sport earphones like its 2020 predecessor (maybe they’ve got bone-conducting earpieces instead).

Panasonic’s yet to reveal a release date (or tentative price) for the MeganeX, along with whether they work as standalone glasses or need to be tethered to a computer.

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Hyundai envisions Boston Dynamic’s Spot as your ambassador to Mars in the metaverse

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The metaverse will supposedly let us be anywhere we want, and all we need is a robot proxy to explore other planets.

The term “metaverse” has been around long before Facebook’s dramatic rebranding, but its popularity definitely spiked in the past few months thanks to that. The idea of moving around in virtual space and interacting with other people half a world away is as old as the Internet and science fiction, but the possibility of seamlessly blending the real and the digital has only been possible these past years. Now companies are scrambling to get on the metaverse bandwagon, and Hyundai’s ideas include using Spot to be your stand-in for places you wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach.

Designer: Hyundai

Spot is one of the most popular robots in mainstream news and possibly also one of the most infamous. Built to be less horrifying than BigDog, the quadruped robot became Hyundai’s property when the carmaker bought Boston Dynamics. Spot proved to be a hit in the past two years, allowing doctors to safely check up on patients remotely or letting security personnel remind people to practice physical distancing from the safety of a control room.

Hyundai, however, also has another use for Spot, at least in the distant future. In its vision of the metaverse, the robot will act as people’s bodies, eyes, and even hands while exploring places they couldn’t reach. That includes visiting Mars with family and meeting other people who are presumably totally human.

This metaverse version of Spot, however, won’t be like the telepresence robots that are already available today. Spot will be equipped with various sensors that can gather environmental data, like the temperature of a certain object or the strength of a Martian sandstorm. That data can, in turn, be used to let their human controllers feel those exact same events safely on Earth, presuming they’re inside some vehicle or room that can recreate that environment.




Spot is actually just one part of Hyundai’s “metamobility” concept, a concept that includes the things that the company is best known for. Those include self-driving vehicles and other robots that will help humans either go the distance or stay at home while still reaching places. And, of course, Spot will be with humans every step of the way, just like a good robot dog.

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This robotic cat will nibble on your finger in a quirky attempt to reduce your stress

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More than just looking cute and heartwarming, these animal plushies will try to calm you down in the oddest way they can.

Given the many sources of stress and worry these days, some people might be dreaming of the simpler days of their childhood. In addition to having very few concerns, infants and toddlers also have behaviors and coping mechanisms that they outgrow in a few years. Some of those gestures, however, work both ways and give comfort even to the adults that experience them. That’s what a Japanese robotics company is trying to offer, thankfully without involving any children or anything resembling them.

Designer: Yuki Engineering

“Play-biting,” as it is called, is a gesture that’s almost universal not just among human babies but also some animals. It has the psychological effect of providing comfort, not just for the one nibbling but also the owner of the finger. Of course, that behavior is unacceptable for adults and is dangerous for grown pets, so Yukai Engineering is using robots to act as proxies for babies.

Called “Amagami Ham Ham,” Japanese words that refer to “soft biting,” the robots are dressed up as cute cats and dogs and almost look like regular stuffed toys. The difference, however, is that the toys activate the moment you put your finger inside their mouth. They suddenly spring to life, or at least their mouths, and start nibbling on your finger to help you release some stress.

It isn’t just a simple, mechanical kind of biting either. Amagami Ham randomly picks one of two dozen variations of “ham” or “biting,” making it almost like an adventure each time you put your finger inside. Those might be too subtle to differentiate one from the other, but the company says they’re meant to replicate the different ways babies and pets nibble fingers or other objects.

There is no word yet on when Amagami Ham Ham will land in the market, but you can almost bet that it will happen eventually. After all, Yukai Engineering did launch the Qoobo robotic pillow with a tail a few years ago, and that was no joke, no matter how ridiculous or eerie it initially looked. Now the company is aiming to use cuddly robots to free humanity from the dilemma of whether they want their finger nibbled or not in order to relax.

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Chipolo’s latest tracker is as slim as a credit card, and works seamlessly with Apple’s Find My network

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It seems like the Apple AirTag has some catching up. At CES 2022, Chipolo unveiled its latest tracker, the CARD Spot – a ridiculously slim tracker that can slip right into your wallet, and works in tandem with Apple’s Find My network to let you track your belongings on your Apple devices. Measuring a staggering 2.4mm in thickness (0.09 inches for the metric naysayers), the tracker comes with a 2-year battery, IPx5 water resistance, and a loud 105dB alarm that’s enough to alert you of its presence or scare a potential pickpocket away.

In 2021, Chipolo announced the ONE Spot, its first item tracker to be compatible with Apple’s Find My network. The ONE Spot was a circular gadget, roughly the same size as Apple’s own AirTag, with perhaps the only material benefit being its slimness over the slightly chunky AirTag (although that meant not having a replaceable battery). With the CARD Spot, Chipolo is doubling down on this slimness advantage, giving it a significant edge over Apple’s tracking device. The CARD Spot is ridiculously sleek and fits comfortably into your wallet, money clip, or cardholder.

The CARD Spot is currently the sleekest device to boast compatibility with Apple’s Find My feature. It’s small and handy enough to be placed anywhere, and can be located from your Apple device as well as ‘pinged’, allowing the CARD Spot to ring loudly to let you know where it is. At 105 decibels, it’s nearly twice as loud as the AirTag, and even comes with the ‘Left Behind’ feature that instantly notifies you if you accidentally leave behind your wallet, or if it goes out of your phone’s range, as well as an ‘Anti Stalking’ feature that prevents anyone from planting a tracking device on you or your belongings.

Its slim design presents one caveat. Unlike the AirTag that has a replaceable battery, the CARD Spot’s battery is sealed right into the device and can’t be periodically swapped out. However, Chipolo mentions that its tracking device will work comfortably for two full years out of the box, and is even committed to accepting your old discharged CARD Spot in exchange for a 50% discount on a new one. Meanwhile, Chipolo will ensure that the old tracker is recycled to the best of its ability. (It’s comforting to see the company being this conscious about its e-waste. Chipolo even announced a series of trackers made from recycled ocean plastic in 2020)

The CARD Spot is available for pre-order on Chipolo’s website. It comes in just black for now, and costs $35 for a single tracker or $60 for a set of two.

Designer: Chipolo

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ROG Strix Flare II Animate brings a customizable tiny dot-matrix display to add some fun to your old keyboard!

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This is the ROG Strix Flare II Animate, a mechanical keyboard with a built-in LED screen that plays animations, displays logos, show battery life, react to gaming sounds, audio visualizations, display date & time and more.

What do hardcore gamers and keyboard enthusiasts have in common? Well, both have an unrelenting lust for the most eye-popping and advanced tech that’s on offer when it comes to the most valued PC accessory. Asus has surprised us in the past with their gaming-centric accessories under the brand ROG (Republic of Gamers) for demanding users, and keyboards along with mouse and headsets have been their forte. Now at CES 2022, Asus has just dropped a drop-dead gorgeous keyboard that’s hard to resist.

If your memory aids you, this is something similar to what we’ve seen inbuilt into the lids of some laptops. Asus likes to call it the AniMe Matrix LED display made up of 312 mini-LEDs, and the user can program the visual elements via the accompanying software. I surely find it intriguing and more bragging-worthy than the illuminated logo that’s so mainstream now!

Turning our attention to the other bits of the keyboard, the programmable RGB LEDs under the keys let you create the preferred working environment for a productive regime in these uncertain times. The detachable foam wrist rest with light diffuser hooks onto the keyboard via magnets adds yet another array of diffused light (for the cool underglow effect) on the bottom to complete the ambient light setup. This RGB light strip is detachable and can be attached to the front bottom of the keyboard when the wrist rest is not attached.

Since we are talking about a keyboard, the Strix Flare II Animate boasts Cherry MX Blue, Brown, or Red switches. The option of the hot-swappable switches is another good addition that most will prefer. So, you could make the backspace a bit harder to press while the WASD keys a touch soft. Asus also gives the option to get the ROG NX switches for the keyboard in three different options. The media buttons on the top left-hand corner come in the shape of a knob, scroll wheel and button. Other than that, the 8,000 Hz polling rate resulting in an input delay of just 0.125 ms has certainly got me excited.

Sound dampening foam on this keyboard means a quieter and refined typing experience. Keycaps on the keyboard are crafted from premium PBT plastic and double-shot legends, so fading with time is out of question. The inclusion of passthrough port is another feature I rejoice in the Animate. All this for a steep price tag of $220 is justified when the ROG Strix Flare II Animate launches later in the month.

Designer: Asus

Click Here to Buy Now

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Samsung’s entry into smart projectors is here to replace your TV, speaker, as well as your lamp!

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Say goodbye to those hulking boxes in your living room with a single projector that might actually be doing too much.

Along with the rise of cord-cutters, there has been an increase in the number of people eschewing traditional TV sets. Some have become accustomed to watching everything from their smartphones or tablets, while others have opted to use less permanent fixtures to replace those large slabs of plastic and glass. Home projectors, both the short and long throw kind, have become more en vogue these days, and Samsung is jumping on the scene with a surprisingly fresh take on the product.

Designer: Samsung

Projectors come in different sizes and designs, but almost all of them have one thing in common. Those come in a box shape and are often quite bulky, mostly to accommodate the equally bulky hardware inside. That’s what makes the new Samsung Freestyle a bit of a pleasant surprise because it throws all conventions out the window.

In stark contrast to most projectors, the Freestyle comes in a sleek cylindrical form that looks like a mix of a spotlight and a smart speaker. In reality, that is almost exactly what it is, though it substitutes the spotlight for an LED projector. The Freestyle’s body can swing 180 degrees, making it trivial to place the projector anywhere and still get a good view. The projected image can go from 30 to up to 100 inches with a Full HD resolution.

Despite the more compact size, the Samsung Freestyle is actually packed with features you’d see in bigger projectors. Those include autofocus and automatic keystone correction, both of which give the projector its advertised freedom. It even runs Samsung’s Smart TV software, so you’re getting the same apps and features you would see on the brand’s latest Internet-connected TVs. But wait, there’s more! The Freestyle also functions as a smart speaker and an ambient lighting device when not in use for watching videos.

There are, of course, some drawbacks to a projector this small, like the 500 nits of brightness that sounds too low for use in bright rooms. Its micro HDMI slot will also have some scampering for adapters, and there’s no built-in battery for wireless use. Then again, you can easily use a power bank when you carry it around, which could be music to the ears of Gen Z and millennials that this product was made for.

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