2012

OnStar, Verizon preview the Volt's 4G LTE future at CES 2012

LAS VEGAS--Now that OnStar is courting app developers, it's going to be needing a bigger data pipe to feed the new mobile apps it's expecting for the next generation of OnStar-equipped vehicles.

This is where Verizon comes in with its broadband wireless network. OnStar and Big Red have jointly unveiled what they call a "second-generation connected research vehicle" at CES 2012. Based on a Chevrolet Volt, the research vehicle is connected to the cloud via Verizon's 4G LTE network and will be used to help test and develop new capabilities for OnStar's Advanced Telematics … Read more

OnStar opening API to mobile app developers

LAS VEGAS--Ford, BMW, and Toyota have them. Now, OnStar is the next in line to take a stab at the development of in-car apps.

At the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, the General Motors-owned telematics provider announced that it is selecting developers to be given access to an OnStar API for the creation of vehicle-specific and vehicle-safe apps for future OnStar-equipped vehicles.

"We want to give people 1,001 reasons to keep their OnStar subscription active," said Eric Litt, chief information officer at OnStar. "We feel that opening up our proprietary API to developers will ensure that OnStar … Read more

From Kickstarter to CES: Video lens does 360s on the iPhone

LAS VEGAS--Some iPhone improvements require more than an app.

One is the GoPano, an all-in-one lens and case that lets you easily take impressive 360-degree videos on an iPhone 4 or 4S. It was on display at CES Unveiled in Las Vegas.

CNET wrote about the company behind the product, EyeSee360, in April when it was raising money on Kickstarter.com, a crowdsourced funding site. Well, the startup, a team of 14 people based in Pittsburgh, picked up $140,000 and then went on to raise an undisclosed amount of funding from angel investors.

Michael Rondinelli, the CTO, said the … Read more

Forget touch. Forget gestures. Control your laptop with your eyes.

LAS VEGAS--At CES this year, Tobii, which has been making technology that watches what you're looking at on a screen, is showing off its gaze-controlled demo laptop and introducing its eye control interface for Windows 8.

I first met Barbara Barclay, general manager of Tobii North America, at the D9 conference last June, and we had a talk about my reservations over eye control. On paper, this technology is incredibly cool and sci-fi-ish, but my issue is this: We use our eyes to see, not to control. There's a big cognitive difference between looking at something on a screen and touching it (or mousing to it). Eyes are input devices, not output. That's why gaze tracking for analytics makes sense. But for controlling a computer interface? … Read more

CES Moment of Zen: The calm before the storm

LAS VEGAS--In case you didn't know, the Consumer Electronics Show is crazy. Like you-want-to-move-to-a-cave-in-Montana-and-become-a-hermit-when-it's-all-over crazy.

Since our entire staff is going to be running around like headless chickens nonstop for the next five days, I thought I'd take at least one brief moment each day to pause and feature something beautiful or interesting or just completely bizarre.

On this, the eve of Press Day (or what we've taken to calling Day Zero), the sun is down. We have one live blog behind us (only 21 more to go!). Most of our writers are either at the … Read more

Toshiba's new tablet is thinnest yet, but does its price kill it?

LAS VEGAS--Touting a thin product draws lots of attention and not to be outdone by the Transformer Prime in the svelteness department, on Sunday, Toshiba introduced the thinnest tablet yet, its Excite X10.

Compared with the now previous skinny champion, the Transformer Prime, the Excite X10 is a full 0.6mm thinner, measuring 7.7mm, compared with the Prime's 8.3mm profile. At 1.2 pounds, it's also the lightest tablet to date, coming in at 0.4 pound lighter than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

The X10 will come in both 16GB and 32GB varieties, at $… Read more

Toshiba teases a 14-inch ultrabook prototype, we go hands-on

LAS VEGAS--While Toshiba usually has a flood of new laptops every year, the company surprised us this CES by highlighting a single model.

Even more unusual, instead of a ready-to-ship product, it is a still-unnamed 14-inch ultrabook prototype. The unit we saw had a Satellite logo on it, rather than the Portege branding we saw in last year's Z835 (a 13-inch ultrabook currently available for a rock-bottom $799).

Otherwise, it looked very similar, with Toshiba's standard business/consumer crossover look of a gray brushed-metal lid, rounded corners, and an inset screen with a too-thick black plastic bezel.

The keyboard was a standard island-style design, with Toshiba's custom row of page navigation keys along the far right side. We haven't had a chance to use it more than briefly, but the large clickpad looked interesting, with small left and right clickzone indicators etched into it. … Read more

Sony puts screen resolution in the CES spotlight

Sony kicked off its CES press conference this evening by unveiling a prototype "Crystal LED display" that uses miniature light-emitting diodes in place of pixels. The technology, which uses 6 million LEDs mounted on the front of the display, is superior to LCD and plasma and promises "super contrast and superwide color gamut," Sony CEO Howard Stringer told those assembled.

While Sony has this 55-inch prototype on display at the conference, it is no where near production or consumers' hands. (CNET staffers at the show are going to give it a look and report back on … Read more

Acer's cloud strategy too late, too copycat

Acer kicked off the International Consumer Electronics Show with an ultrabook heavy lineup--no surprise--and a proprietary cloud service, which is a bit of a head-scratcher.

CNET's Roger Cheng was on scene for that Acer press conference and reported the following on the cloud strategy (Techmeme).

Acer hopes to set its products apart through its proprietary AcerCloud service, which is designed to let customers sync files across multiple Acer products. In doing so, Acer is trying to emulate other major technology players such as Google, Apple, and Amazon, which rely heavily on cloud services themselves.

Acer demonstrated the three services … Read more