VR puncher
Welcome to Thursday!
Another busy day at Engadget as CES hits its stride. If you're interested in the future of TV, there's a whole lot to take in from LG, Samsung and Sony. We saw ASUS smartphones aimed at photographers and early adopters. Plus, we took a nap in the bed of the future. Our CES live stage broadcasts start today, so expect plenty of interviews as well as a little bit of frivolity along the way.
True wireless charging is almost ready
Energous' ambitious wireless charging system is coming closer to reality. The startup, which uses RF to charge gadgets from a distance, is finally showing off actual products instead of just talking about some vague future. While the dream of wireless charging at 15 feet is still a while away, its Chipolo Sticker is the start of it all, offering contactless charging... albeit from just a few inches away. At least it's something.
BMW looks to the future of sitting in cars
Most automotive startups want to be exactly where BMW currently sits. "Act like a startup, deliver like a grown-up," said Klaus Frolich, a member of BMW's board of management, at an event at CES in Las Vegas today. It helps explain its "i Inside Future sculpture" we saw here at CES.
Sony and Panasonic have OLEDs too, but LG is still showing the way
4K OLEDs were everywhere yesterday at CES. Panasonic brought a version with deeper calibration settings than ever, while Sony took advantage of new tech that uses an OLED screen as a speaker. Meanwhile, LG is not only building the super sharp panels for everyone, but it also showed off its slimmest version yet, with a "wallpaper thin" W edition that mounts flush to the wall.
TCL "Mercury" prototype features a classic BlackBerry keyboard
Now that TCL owns the BlackBerry brand, what's next? Judging by the prototype Cherlynn Low tried out, it plans to build some of the Android-powered phones we wanted to see from RIM. This prototype model features a familiar-looking physical keyboard that doubles as a touchpad and comes pre-loaded with BlackBerry apps.
Samsung's Chromebook Pro and Plus are beautiful laptops built with Android in mind
So what does it look like when someone takes Chromebooks seriously? Probably a lot like the new Chromebook Pro and Plus, two new 12-inch convertible laptops from Samsung featuring an Intel Core M3 and ARM processor, respectively. Otherwise, they have matching high-res touchscreen displays, 32GB of storage and 4GB of RAM, plus access to Google's Play Store full of Android apps right out of the box. Pricing on the Plus starts at $449; there's no word yet on the Pro.
GeForce Now offloads PC gaming to the cloud
NVIDIA Shield owners could already stream PC games for $8 a month, and now gamers on PC and Mac have a similar option. Their version of GeForce Now doesn't rent games. Instead, users buy the games, then rent access to the server that handles the heavy load of rendering them. At least in the demos, it felt a lot like playing a game locally, except this time it costs the price of the game, plus $25 for 20 hours of playtime. How many hours make up the difference to your next GPU upgrade?
But wait, there's more...
- "Mass Effect: Andromeda" has a new trailer and a release date: March 21st
- Nikon's D5600 DSLR hits the US this month for $800
- HDMI 2.1 spec should improve 8K, HDR and gaming
- The next stop for Google's Assistant AI: Android TV
- Samsung will explain the cause of those Galaxy Note 7 fires "soon"
- Toyota's Concept-i vehicle is for people who still love driving
- ASUS' ZenFone AR handles both virtual and augmented reality
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