Live from CES -- Day 1

I spent yesterday making my way through the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, and found it wildly uninteresting, which seems to be the perspective of the show so far.  To be clear, there has been some very good technology, but it's harder to find amid the good, but same-old improvements from last year.  I'll get into this when I write my wrap-up overview.

Last night was the second of the two similar events that I quite like at CES -- Showstoppers, which rents out a huge ballroom and fills it with companies and press (and food, very good, though not as extensive as the past -- I've loved their pastas, which alas were missing this year.  Hey, I have my priorities, but then as always, it's the technology that's the whole point...), for a congenial evening of wandering around finding out about a range of new products.

Again, in no particular order other than when I wrote them down, here is a reasonably-quick overview of a few of the products that stood out to me, for a range of reasons --

Playbrush is another of those devices I've written about the past few years that combine tech with the lowly toothbrush in an effort to get kids to brush.  And theirs has some nice things about it -- the toothbrush connects to five video games on a tablet, and a child gets points depending on how well they brush.  One game, for instance, is a battle, and you control the hero's laser with your toothbrush -- brush properly on the right side of your mouth, and your laser will zap the demons.  There's a dance video, one where you're a pilot, and another with the tooth fairy.

mCharge has an advanced version to one of their portable chargers that I reviewed last year that included, among other things, an AC outlet which allows you to run appliances.  This new version, the "All Powerful" (yes, that's its name) has a larger capacity, 50% more wattage for running more powerful appliances, and a Qi-wireless charging capability.  It retails for $199.

Years ago, I ran across an interesting company called Doorbot and wrote about them -- and then a few years later they changed their name to Ring, and have become very successful.  They have a new product upcoming, the Stick Up Elite -- which is poorly named, but very interesting.  They are sort of "portable" devices" that let you put them up around your house (inside and out) for wider coverage.  And they run on battery or (especially if outdoors) solar power.  Despite the name, no, you don't stick them up with adhesive, but screw-in bolts.

Rocketbook is another attempt to transfer handwritten notes to digital.  They have an interesting twist -- they offer  a reusable notebook (which overcomes the problem of these kinds of devices of requiring proprietary paper, which can get expensive) which you write on with a proprietary pen.  With some clicks, you can scan this handwritten  text which will get sent to any sites or email addresses you've set up.  They have two different notebooks -- one allows you to wipe the text clean and then re-use the the pages as often as you like.  Very clever.  For the other -- and I'm serious about this -- you put the notebook in a microwave and can use the book five times.  This, on other hand, is stupid.  I'm going to guess that most of their sales are with the former.

​And we head back into the halls...