Trauben’s Overall

The Consumer Electronics Show is one of the largest and most daunting conferences to cover, and the menagerie of high-tech gadgets and gizmos is staggering. After a day at CES the scope and scale of the electronics industry is unmistakable.

The variety, however, is sometimes a little more in question.

The electronics industry is a pack of hungry companies and developers fighting over finite market share. Much of the time a company presenting a product has their competitors right next door presenting a similar-but-not-quite-the-same product, and the two rivals each assure the consumer or reporter that theirs is the Unique Solution with Innovative Design and High-Quality Material and any number of other perks rating capitalized titles which the discerning customer will surely appreciate. The alternative is monopoly, of course, but I’d rarely realized, for example, just how many companies boast about their mobile device cases or headphones or television designs.

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Audio and mobile device accessory manufacturer iFrogz has freed users from the need for large external speakers or headsets to augment their devices’ output with its new Boost amplifying speaker.

Compatible with most mobile devices featuring an external speaker, the Boost uses Near Field technology (the first device to do so for audio) to transmit sound from the device to its own speakers, one mounted on each side. The device requires no installation or wires for play, but includes a 3.5mm Audio port. It is supported by most iOS devices and Android phones.

The Boost is powered by three AA Alkaline batteries or a Micro USB DC in line, and has a battery life of 15 hours of play time on average volume. It automatically shuts off after ten minutes when not in use, and can remain in sleep mode for up to six months.

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SteelSeries invited us up to their suite at the Aria during CES to show off a few new products that will be coming on the market this year.

The Flux demonstrates SteelSeries’ desires to get into more mobile technology. While not as large and bold as their other audio offerings, the Flux does have portability and potential for customization on its side. The headset folds down to a compact form-factor so you can drop it in a bag or pocket. The Flux has an audio jack on each ear, so that you can plug in on whichever side you prefer. In addition, the other jack can be daisy-chained to another headset to share your tunes.

Currently there are two base models planned, in black/grey and black/purple, with ear cups and outer plats being able to be swapped out for other colors. Coming ion Q2 of 2012, a customization tool currently dubbed the “Flux Capacitor” will be released to allow you to customize a Flux to your liking before purchase. No pricing information was available for the Flux.

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The year’s convention circuit always starts off with a bang here at PixelatedGeek.   The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which ran January 10th-13th this year, brings all of the world’s top electronics manufacturers together in Las Vegas to attempt to divine the future of technology.

Here’s a breakdown of the meetings we attended and other interesting companies we found along the way:

• Razer Going Portable
• iLuv Showcases New Array of WorkStation Products
• TYLT Offers New Line of Smartphone Accessories
• AirStash Offers Wireless Storage
• Steelseries Perfected the Mouse, Now Expanding Its Lines in 2012
• Nyko Gets First Licensed Product Line
• iFrogz Showcases Boost Near-Field Audio Amplifying Speaker
• Mass Effect 3 Kinect Support, Interview with Aaryn Flynn
• Our Wrap Up on Everything Else

Razer took some time during CES 2012 to show off the latest prototype of their Project Fiona tablet.

This tablet runs on an Intel Core i7, and is essentially a higher end laptop. Combine the underlying Windows 7 OS and add accelerometers and a touch screen to the already obvious controller rig around the main screen and you have a system with more potential inputs than a comparable tablet or laptop. Razer boasts that Project Fiona offers “the most immersive gaming experience on a tablet.”

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Award-winning peripheral manufacturer iLuv displayed a wide selection of tablet and smartphone accessories at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show.

Newest on iLuv’s list is its WorkStation Series, a lineup of combined docking stations seeking to fill the niche normally occupied by stationary desktop or netbook PCs. The iMM517 WorkStation Pro includes speakers and a mounting stand and is compatible with a Bluetooth keyboard, while the WorkStation iMM737 incorporates a built-in laptop-style keyboard. The Professional WorkStation Portfolio iCK826 combines a tablet case for the iPad and iPad 2 with an incorporated kickstand and a detachable Bluetooth keyboard. These models are compatible with a range of Apple products (including the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Nano), while the similar iSK912 and iSK914 are equivalents of the iCK826 for the Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 and 8.9 respectively. The iSM527 WorkStation Pro is compatible with both Samsung products as a parallel for the iMM517.

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TYLT has introduced a new line of smartphone accessories at the 2012 Consume Electronics Show, including battery packs, car charger cables, and modular designer smartphone cases.

TYLT’s products all share a distinctive angular design. Its new Band car charger cable is flat silicon with a unique flat, coiled style. Its line of smartphone cases feature a boxy motif, a built-in lens cover for the camera, and often incorporate kickstands to make multimedia viewing easier.

Also notable are its line of new smartphone battery chargers (the Energi, Energi 2, Zumo and PowerPack respectively), all compact and rugged rectangular devices with rubberized cases and integrated cords. The Energy can provide nearly a full charge to smartphones and rapidly charge most tablets, while the Zumo provides up to four hours’ talk time via a 30-pin Apple connector or Micro USB cord to most smartphones and the PowerPack can provide nearly two full charges to most smartphones and charge two mobile devices simultaneously. All the battery chargers turn on and off automatically when plugged in.

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“For RTSes, other than mouse and keyboard, the only way to play is with this,” said Sixense CEO Amir Rubin about his organization’s ambitious new motion controller.

Razer’s Hydra is a motion control device developed in concert with Sixense Entertainment, Intel, and Valve Corporation currently aimed at the PC market. The magnetic sensing technology, known as Sixense MotionTouch, has been in development for several years and tracks relative position along a three-dimensional X-Y-Z axis. The Hydra is capable of such sophisticated positional tracking that a user can literally stack boxes or other objects with intuitive ease and precision.

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Back at CES 2010, we had a sit-down chat with the Sixense team in the Razer booth about the upcoming Razer Hydra motion controller.

Check out these videos to see why the Hydra could be a must-have tool in your PC gaming arsenal.

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Razer made big news at CES with their upcoming Switchblade.

Check out these videos for a demonstration of why this little package is going to make a very big splash in the gaming industry.  We expect to see more of the Switchblade on the E3 floor this year.

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