CES 2015 Day 1: The highlights (pictures)

LAS VEGAS -- Opening day means taking a deep breath and plunging into the moving mass of people.

If you're not at the show, you can still follow our wall-to-wall coverage each day. Or you can wait until it's over and watch the edited-down highlights.

Get the recap on Day 1

One thing you can always count on at CES: big companies want their booths to be seen and heard from outer space. Turn on four completely different audio streams and a couple different videos while you flip through these to get the full effect of being on the show floor.

See all the big booths of CES 2015

For the press, the day here at CES 2015 started with a Ford-centric keynote presentation. In addition to talking about Microsoft Sync 3, CEO Mike Fields talked about Ford's myriad experiments and Smart Mobility -- a huge data gathering and mining effort to uncover usage patterns that will make driving easier and more efficient. But as Tim Stevens said in our Ford CES live blog, "It's a little difficult to keep up with all these apps and demos and 'solutions.'  The future of transportation is looking like an even more fragmented place than it is today."

Ford's 2015 CES keynote

At its press conference, Audi showed off the concept cockpit of the Q7 SUV. The rear-seat navigation display shown here brings new meaning to "backseat driver."

Audi Q7 Virtual Cockpit pictures

Late Monday night, Mercedes exhibited one of the more futuristic-looking car concepts I've seen, the the F 015 Luxury in Motion. It's the company's vision of the car beyond 2013 -- a self-driving mobile lounge.

Mercedes-Benz Luxury in Motion concept pictures

Mercedes unveils its car of the future (video)

Donald Bell hosted a panel, "New directions in 3D printing," which discussed resin- and paper-based 3D printing, as well as desktop milling with manufacturers implementing the technologies.

New directions in 3D printing (video)

Scott Stein got to face-test the next generation of Oculus VR's technology. Watch him wander.

Walking around in VR with Oculus Rift Crescent Bay (video)

We're covering the show live from our stage in the South Hall. If you missed our Tomorrow Daily Day 1 coverage, here's the video. And watch out for that smart Spider dress.

Razer takes virtual reality open-source with a developer's kit for its headgear.

Read the Razer OSVR Hacker Dev Kit First Take

Lenovo's push to make lighter-than-Yoga devices results in the new LaVie Z series, which promises a 13-inch clamshell laptop at 1.72 pounds (0.7kg) and a Yoga-style 13-inch hybrid at 2.04 pounds (0.9kg).

Lenovo LaVie Z first take

A 13-inch notebook with a Quad HD display and an Intel Broadwell chip inside, the XPS 13 weighs only 2.6 pounds (1.2 kg) yet feels pretty sturdy. The best part: the prices start at $800 (about £530, AU$990).

Dell XPS 13 first take

More of Tuesday's must-see picks

This year's Next Big Thing panel tackled the current state and future of virtual reality. CNET's Brian Cooley and Tim Stevens spoke with some people doing the innovating, while Brian Tong demonstrated the gear.

Read more about CNET's Next Big Thing 2015.

RealSense everywhere: Intel closed out the day with a showcase of all the applications and prototypes for its RealSense technology, which range from gesture control to obstacle detection for drones, robotics and smart everything. Wearables, the Internet of Things, health sensing...Intel's found a RealSense application for everything. For example, here's Nixie's selfie drone, which you wear on your wrist and fling out when you want to snap a shot, and it returns when it's done. It's the winner of Intel's Make It Wearable contest.

Read CNET's live blog of the Intel keynote