LG's rollable TV wows and a car walks as CES 2019 prepares to open
CES doesn't officially open until Tuesday, but the show's official Press Day brought a lot of action, announcements and new products under a cold Las Vegas sky.
At a show like CES, much of the important news happens even before the Las Vegas Convention center opens its doors. With exhibitors putting finishing touches on their booths and CNET editors racing across town to press conferences, here's everything that caught our eye.
Roll up that LG TV.
TVs
No one can say LG didn't come to Las Vegas to impress. Just consider its flexible OLED screen that rolls into a compact tube. The company showed a design that disappears into a low-slung stand supporting a sleek silver box and a Dolby Atmos sound system. Very cool.
New TVs also spilled from TCL and Sony, the latter having upgraded its 8K Z9G Master Series LCD series to 85-inch and 98-inch sizes.
LG Display had a very cool OLED "sculpture" LGD calls "The Rose."
No, it's not a grill, it's Sony's new GTK-PG10 outdoor party speaker.
Home audio
Sony has a range of new new speakers including the GTK-PG10 outdoor party speaker with a table and cup holders over a water-resistant top.
Because it's not in enough places, Amazon Alexa will arrive in Sony's WH-1000XM3 , WH-1000XM2 and WI-1000X headphones, as well.
Replace that peephole with a doorbell and a video camera.
Smart home
Samsung updated its Family Hub smart refrigerator with interface tweaks and more emphasis on its virtual assistant, Bixby. The voice assistant also will be making its way into cars and apps like Gmail and Google Maps.
Apartment dwellers, rejoice. The $199 Ring Door View Cam replaces your front door peephole with a doorbell and a tiny camera.
It's car... that walks!
Cars
Toyota said it will bring AT&T-powered 4G Wi-Fi to its cars this autumn. Drivers will get unlimited data plans and the ability to remotely start their vehicles.
Hyundai showed a concept for a walking car called Elevate that can drive at highway speeds and allegedly climb a 5-foot wall and step over a 5-foot gap.
That's a big monitor, Lenovo.
PCs and monitors
If you think bezels are so 2014, Asus says its ZenBook S13 has the slimmest bezels of any laptop on Earth.
Lenovo came to town with a lot to share. It showed a curved 49-inch gaming monitor, it added a round of updates to its ThinkPad business laptops and accessories and it said its Legion Y740 and Y540 will get new Nvidia graphics cards.
Other stuff that was cool
The R-Puno cycling mask not only blocks air pollution, but it also lights up to let you know when air is bad.
Samsung announced four new robotics initiatives. Bot Air will use sensors to monitor air quality and detect pollution sources, Bot Retail will let robotic assistants field customer questions and requests and the GEMS platform promises to help athletes train and give support to people with mobility issues. Bot Care is an actual robot that can check your blood pressure and heart rate.
HTC teased the Vive Cosmos, a new consumer-friendly VR, and the Vive Pro Eye headset, which incorporates eye-tracking capability. If you need content for those headsets, HTC's new VivePort Infinity is an upgraded subscription service with more than 500 titles.
A veggie burger that bleeds? Not impossible!
Impossible Foods, that maker of a plant-based burger that tastes like the real thing and actually bleeds, launched a new gluten-free 2.0 burger with lowered cholesterol, fat and calories.
Harley-Davidson announced that the Livewire, its $30,000 all-electric motorcycle, is now available for preorder with plans to go into production this fall.
CES 2019: See all of CNET's coverage of the year's biggest tech show.
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