CES 2019 is kicking off in Las Vegas, Nevada today, January 8, Monday for 3 days. The conference unofficially kicked off on Sunday, January 6 and you may have a look at the announcements made on that day. Yesterday was the main press day when the majority of the announcements were made with a lot of companies showcasing their latest projects and announcing new products, software, and services.
HTC
HTC announced their partnership with Mozilla, bringing Firefox’s virtual reality web browser to the Vive headset. Mozilla first announced Firefox Reality as a dedicated VR web browser in April. In September, they announced that the browser is now available on Viveport, Oculus, and Daydream. Now, it is available for the HTC Vive headset. As part of the deal, HTC is also teaming up with Amazon to make use of Amazon Sumerian.
HTC also announced the Vive Pro Eye virtual reality headset with native, built-in eye tracking. It uses “foveated rendering” to render sharp images for wherever the human eye is looking in a virtual scene and reduces the image quality of objects on the periphery.
Intel
Intel made a number of announcements at CES 2019. They showcased new processors and also released a press release with updates on Project Athena. With this project, they are getting PC makers ready for “a new class of advanced laptops.” These laptops will be Ultrabooks part two with 5G and artificial intelligence support.
New Intel processors:
- New 9th Gen Core processors for a limited number of desktops and laptops.
- A 10nm Ice Lake processor for thin laptops.
- A 10nm Lakefield processor using 3D stacking technology for very small computers and tablets.
- A 10nm Cascade Lake Xeon processor for data processing.
- 3D Athlete Tracking tech which runs on the Cascade Lake chip and shows data about how fast and far athletes are traveling.
- Intel’s 10nm Snow Ridge SOC for 5G base stations.
Lenovo
Lenovo has made minor updates to their ThinkPad X1 Carbon and X1 Yoga laptops with new designs for 2019. They are mostly going to have a material change, and are also going to be thinner and lighter this year.
Lenovo has also released two Lenovo is two large display monitor. The first is Lenovo’s ThinkVision P44W, which is aimed at business users, and the second is the Legion Y44w Gaming Monitor. They both have a 43.4-inch panel.
Uber
One of Uber’s partners in the air taxi domain, Bell, has revealed the design of its vertical takeoff and landing air taxi at CES 2019. Their flying taxi, dubbed the Bell Nexus, can accommodate up to 5 people and is a hybrid-electric powered vehicle.
CES 2019 also saw the release of the game Marvel’s Avengers: Rocket’s Rescue Run. This is the first demo product from startup Holoride, which has Audi as one of its stakeholders. It’s the result of Audi and Disney’s new media format, which aims to bring virtual reality to passengers in cars, specifically to Uber.
More announcements:
- Harley-Davidson gave a preview of their first all-electric motorcycle. It will launch in August 2019 and will cost $29,799
- TCL announced its first soundbars and a 75-inch version of the excellent 6-Series 4K Roku TV
- Elgato announced a professional $199 light rig for Twitch streamers and YouTube creators
- Hisense announces its new 2019 4K TV lineup and the Sonic One TV
- Griffin introduces new wireless chargers for the iPhone and Apple Watch
- Amazon is planning to let people deliver packages inside your garage
- Kodak’s release a new instant camera and printer line
- GE announced a 27-inch smart display for the kitchen that streams Netflix.
- Google Assistant will soon be on a billion devices. Their next stop – feature phones
- Vizio announces the most advanced 4K TV ever and support for Apple’s AirPlay 2
- Toyota shared details of it’s Guardian Driver-Assist System which will mimic a technique used in fighter jets to serve as a smart intermediary between driver and car.
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