Week in Review: Invisible headphones, color-changing cars… it can only be CES
The weird, the wonderful and the downright wacky from the big Vegas tech expo | Headphones should be heard and not seen | What happens if you cross James Bond with a Kindle?
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Happy new year, and welcome to 2022! I'll get this out of the way now: this week's newsletter is all about CES 2022, the massive tech expo that's been happening in Las Vegas this week, as it's given us so much delightful tech news and oddities that I could feasibly fill two newsletters with it.
We started the week wondering whether the Omicron outbreak was going to see the event closed down and moved online, as happened last year; but it went ahead, and a massively-reduced attendance didn't disrupt the CES rhythm. We saw the usual big launches from the likes of Samsung, Sony and LG, and while they weren't unveiling groundbreaking technologies like the DVD or HD TV (both of which were shown off first at CES), there was still plenty to chew over.
If you're looking for all the info on the Big Stuff – like Samsung's massive QLED TV, LG's foray into smaller OLED TVs, or OnePlus teasing a new phone – head on over to our CES 2022 hub, where we've rounded up all the news, keynote highlights and insights.
Below, I'm going to focus on the curious and funky from the show – there's loads of cool new tech to talk about, and I'd love to see some of it going mainstream this year.
Seeing the Noveto N1 'headphones' immediately made me wish I'd gone to CES to hear them for myself. Headphones is in square quotes because this device is actually a soundbar that converts sound into ultrasonic waves, and then uses head-tracking tech to deliver the audio to 'pockets' outside your ears, creating the sensation of wearing headphones.
Of course, they're not really invisible headphones… I prefer to think of them as ghost headphones, hanging around you and whispering sweet music into your head-holes.
According to Noveto, anyone else who's in the room in which you're listening will only be able to hear "a whisper of sound", while the user is immersed in three-dimensional spatial audio. Noveto recorded up to 90% (20dB) audio reduction at one meter away from the listener, meaning that you'd struggle to hear the noise even if you were sitting close to someone in the office.
You can have any color you like, as long as it's black… or white (BMW)
This was one of the biggest stories to come out of CES this year: the fully electric BMW iX has body panels made from E Ink displays – the same technology you find in the screen of a Kindle ereader – in a system the company is calling 'iX Flow'.
What does that allow you to do? Change the color of the car when it's in motion! Yes, really.
At this stage in development, you can only change the car from white to black and then back again, but in the future it's feasible that BMW could make vehicles that can change between multiple colors and patterns.
The shorter-term opportunities are around components like the front grille, which could be customized to show different images, or perhaps show information on charge levels on the door handle.
Whatever happens, this is still very much a concept, and we're unlikely to see it in anything but the most high-end cars in the next few years… but it's so cool that it's surely worth waiting for.
Lots of companies made a big deal about being sustainable in their keynote speeches at CES, whether they were talking about reducing emissions from the manufacturing process or making packaging more eco-friendly.
However, there were also some gadgets on show that could up the environmental stakes, by doing away with the need for batteries altogether.
One of these was the Mayht Bluetooth speaker. This uses Exeger's patented Powerfoyle material, which can convert any light source into energy (as seen on the headband of the Urbanista Los Angeles headphones), to keep the speaker topped up when it's in bright light.
However, it's more of a proof-of-concept at this point, and we'll need to see whether it can truly offer unlimited music playback before getting too excited.
Samsung made the biggest waves in the 'no battery' space, however, unveiling its SolarCell remote for top-end TVs. While last year the company showed off a remote that could be charged by sunlight, this year it's gone one better and created a remote that can be juiced up over Wi-Fi.
Using Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting, the remote can be charged, albeit slowly (which is fine for a unit that needs very little power in order to function), from over 40 meters away.
"Whether it's a bright and sunny day or the middle of the night, the battery stays fully charged by collecting routers' radio waves and converting them to energy," Samsung representatives told TechRadar.
While this is a niche application, it's cool to see it entering the mainstream consumer electronics space. Could we one day see this tech come to larger electronics? It would probably require some serious scaling-up, but this could be the year we make serious progress towards needing fewer plugs and batteries.
POLL QUESTION:
What would you like to see work without batteries?
Asus is the latest in a growing line of laptop manufacturers to make a folding computer, and the new Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED looks like it could be the real deal.
It's basically a 17-inch screen, like an oversized tablet that can function as a laptop when folded in half, with the lower portion of the screen seamlessly turning into a keyboard.
For me, it's the idea of having a screen that I can fold, place in a bag, and pair with a Bluetooth keyboard when needed that appeals – it sounds like heaven.
However, while there is an optional ErgoSense Bluetooth physical keyboard that will fold up nicely with the 17 Fold OLED, it does add a fair amount of heft, which kind of defeats the purpose.
The bigger issue will be the price, which we don't yet know. This isn't a concept – it's a working device and it'll be going on sale – but the fact that Asus is keeping the price hush-hush for now tells me that it could be very expensive, and the company likely doesn't want to spoil a splashy launch with such gauche talk.
You remember Sony, the brand that used to make the telly your grandparents would hanker after (in the UK at least), as well as the creator of the Walkman. Wait… forget all that. I've just realized how much it dates me.
At CES this year the Japanese brand launched one of the most advanced TVs out there, the A95K QD-OLED, which uses quantum dot tech to improve on the already-impressive OLED panel.
But that was only in a press release – when we got to its press conference there was nary a mention of it. And that's because the big reveal at the end of the session was far more interesting: Sony creating a new company called Sony Mobility, through which it will explore jumping into the electric vehicle market with its Vision-S SUV.
This electric vehicle will pack over 40 sensors, be 5G enabled for constant updates on traffic conditions and real-time collision warnings, and will even have the facility for passengers to play PS5 games in the rear.
Honestly, if Sony sells a car with a PlayStation 5 inside it I suspect that it'll sell out in minutes, so desperate are people to grab that console.
This was one of the biggest-trafficking stories on TechRadar this week: Invoxia's Smart Dog Collar can track your dog's heart and respiratory rate, in addition to serving as a general GPS and activity tracker.
In short, it sounds like the ultimate way to learn more about your canine companion's health – it even uses radio waves to see through your pooch's hairy neck and take readings from the skin to gather the aforementioned heart rate and breathing data, which could prove invaluable to vets.
This isn't vaporware either: the Smart Dog Collar will be available to purchase in mid-2022, initially in the US for $99 (around £75), and likely later in the UK and Europe (you'll need to pay an additional $12.99 per month to access the collar's GPS features).
Our US Editor-in-Chief Lance Ulanoff spent some time with Boston Dynamics to find out what life was like now that they're owned by Hyundai, and he slipped in some cheeky questions about robot dogs.
One of the best-known devices to come out of Boston Dynamics is Spot, a robot dog… but one that costs $75,000 and requires huge expertise to program.
Lance writes: "I asked Boston Dynamics Founder and Chairman Marc Raibert if Hyundai could push Boston Dynamics to develop more consumer-friendly versions of their robots and suggested a 'Spot Lite'."
"We would all love to have a consumer robot, something like Spot or Spot Lite that are low-cost," Raibert replied. "But it's not easy to get there."
Raibert also revealed that his company had worked with Sony in the past on the much-loved Aibo robot dogs, so there's certainly a chance that more sophisticated robots could become part of the family in the future.
As someone who tried for a week to get a hotel for my rabbit when I was going on vacation, the ability to just 'turn off' a pet when you need to go away is a pretty appealing one.
This is from the editor
Whew… it's been a bit of a bumper newsletter this week, and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of what's gone on at CES this year. There's so much to pick over, and while there weren't any huge reveals that might change the face of consumer electronics, there were so many fascinating lower-key announcements.
Let me know what you thought was the most exciting thing from the show by dropping me an email with the subject line NEWSLETTER, and I'll round up all the best replies here next week.
And make sure you get that missive in your inbox by subscribing – it's the perfect New Year's resolution.
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