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The Best of CES 2018

April Carvelli9 mins

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is this week in Las Vegas and, like the last few years, no one really cares. There hasn’t been an earth-shattering, exciting technological reveal in a long time. There are upgrades to existing tech, a lot of long speeches, and lofty promises of what is to come.

We’ve been going through what was revealed this week and have come up with what we think are the best, and possibly most interesting for you.

#5 – Power Outage

We personally think this is the best, and most ironic part of the whole event. For two hours on Wednesday, the Consumer Electronics Show, a show that is based on power and technology, was without power. You have to give them credit though, even though the crowds were low and lighting was lower, many of the presenters still carried through.

The presenters with battery-operated equipment were doing great, the one’s relying on outlet power…not so much.

#4 – Planet Computers Gemini

 

The Gemini is an Android-based phone with a 5.99″ FHD screen, 10-core MediaTek System-on-Chip paired with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. It has a built-in micro SD slot allowing you to increase the memory to 256GB. What makes this stand out is that it can dual-boot Linux and has a built-in physical keyboard.

The phone has two USB-C ports allowing you to use it like a desktop, you can connect it to a keyboard, mouse and external display. This is a niche phone, but one I think might gain popularity. There are two models – a WiFi-only version is $499, and a WiFi and 4G model will cost $599

#3 – Flying Cell Phone Case

AEE SELFLY is a smartphone case with an embedded drone. It’s your own personal transformer. It can’t fly with your phone, but once you remove your phone it will let you capture photos (and selfies) from a whole new height.

When dormant, the Selfly can hold a variety of phones with four to six inch screens. It’s program is compatible with both Android and iOS systems.  The Selfly has a 1080p camera and a battery life of only 4 minutes. It is not yet released, but we have been told it will be available by the end of the first quarter. Suggested retail price is $130 and will come with two batteries, allowing for about eight minutes of flighttime.

#2- #CESBlackout

Thanks to the blackout, a new hashtag was born and the jokes were flying.

#1 – Huawei

Many of you probably aren’t familiar with this name, but the Chinese tech company Huawei (pronounced “wah-way”) is the world’s third-largest phone vendor. I have one and I love it. It’s easy to use, has all the features I want, and doesn’t have a lot of bloatware.

During Huawei’s keynote speech, they were supposed to announced a partnership with AT&T to sell Huawei’s phones in the U.S. Instead, AT&T pulled out at the last minute which left CEO Richard Yu stumbling through a speech about the Mate 10 Pro designed for the U.S. market. AT&T cited security as the reason for the last minute pull out. The interesting part was at the end of his speech where the CEO went off script.

“Everybody knows that in the US market, over 90 percent of smartphones are sold by carrier channels,” said Yu. “You know, at Huawei, we have the best technology and the best innovation. Last year on the Mate 9, we received very good consumer feedback…. Consumers really loved these products. The Mate 10 Pro is an, even, much better product.”

“A lot of people don’t know Huawei, at this time we can’t get selected by these carriers,” said Yu. “It’s a big loss for us, and also for carriers, but the more big loss is for consumers, because consumers don’t have the best choice.”

Yu went on to speak about the nature of the situation as he and Huawei saw it, mentioning the trust they had from Chinese carriers, emerging markets, global carriers, European carriers and Japanese carriers. “We are serving over 70 million people worldwide,” said Yu. “We’ve proven our quality, we’ve proven our privacy and security protection.”

 

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