The CES news explosion has begun. Here are a few of the early things I’ve found interesting.
OtterBox Announces Slew of Gaming Accessories
OtterBox, a company known for its rugged phone cases, is getting into the mobile gaming… err.. game. The company has announced several new products geared towards Microsoft’s Xbox platform. From clips to attach your phone to an Xbox controller, a shell and case for said controller, as well as more cases for phones. This is an interesting expansion for the company.
https://www.engadget.com/otterbox-gaming-controller-phone-case-privacy-guard-180052078.html
TCL Announces New Products
TCL no longer wants to be a white label parther. Long known for making hardware for other brands, TCL has gone all in in creating its own branded devices. It began with a few TV’s, and a couple smartphones last year. Now, the company has rolled out several new products. First up are two new affordable 5G phones, out of five phones the company says are coming this year.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/11/22219101/tcl-20-5g-20-se-android-phone-price-specs
Next up for TCL is what the company calls a “wearable display” which is a set of glasses with displays for each eye. These are not VR glasses, nor do they operate independently. They require a wired connection to a device with USB-C video out. I’m… not sure what these are for.
The company also announced a pair of TCL branded wireless earbuds, and a pet tracker, for some reason.
Lastly on the TCL front, new TV’s. The new TV’s are better than last year’s TV’s, as every update should be. The high end TV’s will be 8k TV’s, even though there’s no reason to have 8k and we haven’t finished the transition to 4k yet.
LG Updates TV Lineup, Including Smart TV Interface Overhaul
CES is always about TV, and LG has new TV’s coming. I wont’ go through every model and change, but a couple notable updates include an overhaul to LG’s WebOS TV interface. Gone are the card overlays and replaced with a new homsescreen that looks more like its competitors. (A downgrade, in my opinion). The company also announced that its 2021 TV lineup will come with built in support for Google Stadia.These are the first announced TV’s with support built in.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/11/22223767/lg-webos-6-tv-software-oled-qned-lcd-redesign
https://www.engadget.com/lg-c1-oled-tv-game-optimizer-google-stadia-135907267.html
HP’s Early 2021 PC Lineup
We have new HP laptops, the business focused Dragonfly and Folio lineups. These are notable because some of their tech ends up in consumer focused laptops later in the year. The Dragonfly laptops all come with 11th gen Intel processors, and promise up to 16 hours of battery life. These are expensive laptops, but are thin and light, and meant for portability. The dragonfly is popular among those who travel, or go from location to location, should we ever get to do that again
.The other announced laptop is an upate to 2018’s Elite Folio laptop, a laptop which actually has a leather shell instead of the usual plastic or alumimum. 2021’s model now features vegan leather, and ditches an intel processor for the Snapdragon 8Cx and Windows on ARM. This laptop will be very, very expensive, and very, very slow. No one should buy it. But its so pretty.
Wifi 6E Routers Are Here
With the ratification of WiFi 6E last year, we are now seeing products based on the spec. WiFi 6E brings support for 6GHz for ultra fast communication, along with all of the goodness that WiFi 6 brought, including much higher device capacity. I’m excited for these updates, and will be looking forward to the coming mesh router setups. They are much more appealing than the giant routers with 8 large antennas that look like upside down spiders.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/11/22213115/tp-link-wifi-6e-first-routers-mesh-smart-speaker
That’s it for now. More later.