This is the first CES that I (or anyone from Reckoner) has ever attended. The show, as I’m sure you know, is ridiculously large and instead of even beginning to remotely try and cover it all I’ve decided to write a series of shorter pieces based around what it’s like attending the show for the first time. I’m calling the series ”Stories from a CES Virgin” and you can find all of them here.
Falling victim to the same conference stretching that I’ve seen at E3 over the past few years we now head into the second day of events that take place before the official start of the show on Thursday.
Intel, Samsung, Nvidia, LG, Sony, Faraday Future and others all held keynotes today. It’s crazy and there’s no way one person, or even a small team of people can attend and cover them all extensively. This is why, on the advice of someone fare more smarter and experienced with CES keynotes, I chose to go to none of them.
In addition to spending hours in queues that you may not ever reach the end of the line of keynotes are loooooooong! You can get more in five minutes reading headlines from your favourite tech blogs that cover them than you can attending them yourself. I pass this onto you and instead of writing up each of them offer you this instead, a list of the keynotes, my one sentence summary and a link to far better, more in-depth coverage should you be interested.
You may also be interested in checking out the day’s episode of Tom Merrit’s Daily Tech News Show of which I was one of four guests on the show talking through some of the keynotes and their announcements.
Sony:
Finally someone else joined the OLED TV group with an amazing splash. The new A1E is stunning and doesn’t have a gross speaker/hub beneath it like LG’s new models.
Intel:
Some special VIPs got to experience Intel’s powered VR systems via an Oculus Rift whilst the rest of the audience slummed it in meat space. “Merged Reality” was their catch phrase but otherwise it was bland in my opinion.
LG:
A great update to their already industry leading OLED TVs but with the downside of having to have a soundbar (whether you use it or not) connected via a proprietary ribbon cable to the display. Also they did an Alexa enabled robot that may never see the light of day.
BGR – 5 biggest announcements from LG’s CES 2017 press conference
Nvidia:
The Nvidia Spot was the most interesting thing for me. It’s one of the first non-Google made devices to use their Google Assitant backend that is designed specifically for multi-room use. Like an Amazon Echo Dot in every room of your house but with the better conversational responses you get from Google Home. Also they showed off some new Mass Effect: Andromeda footage.
Forbes – Nvidia CES 2017 Keynote: Google Home AI, Cloud Gaming Service, AI Co-Pilot For Your Car
Samsung:
Because Samsung announced everything early there really wasn’t anything particularly exciting to say today. Instead they re-iterated everything about their new QLED TVs that are taking on LG (and now Sony’s) OLED models. Instead we have an hour plus of them focusing on washing machines and a Chromebook, which in its own right is great but mostly a yawn fest.
The Australian – Samsung unveils hi-tech laundry system, fridges that play Spotify