If you own an iPhone 4S already, then you already know how 'smart' Siri really is. Actually, voice recognition on the 4S is all these ads promote. But for those of you still skeptical towards the whole 'Virtual Assistant' bit, these two commercials are for you.
'Super Wi-Fi' has been in the works for years now, and the first in the nation has finally deployed in Wilmington, North Carolina. This new network is running on the currently bare "white space". In 2010, the FCC had reported their approval for devices to run over this spectrum. At this same time, the FCC had required manufacturers to install special equipment into devices that would benefit from Super Wi-Fi.
Emergency alerts have now been subtly added to Google Maps, and are now live across the United States. Never again will you have to navigate from page to page looking for specific information on flood warnings, earthquakes, or even snowstorms. Maps will now show all the specifics: from the warning duration, to even how severe it may be.
Something makes you feel justified of a Porsche's hefty pricetag when window shopping at your local dealership. But does this same mentality persist when viewing their new Porsche Design P'9981 BlackBerry smartphone? The device is set at $2,350, just enough to make a few jaws drop. We had recently seen it clear the FCC earlier with an estimated amount of $2,000, but it has clearly broken that barrier. It's hard to believe the P'9981 doesn't have decent hardware specifications.
On your mark, get set, go! A jailbreak for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 has just been released by the "Dev Dream Team" just moments ago. Apparently, cracking the A5 was "Not exactly a walk in the park" according to the entire team. The jailbreak is termed GreenPois0n Absinthe and is now available for download on Mac OS X alone. And forget the tethered jailbreak - untethered is where it's at!
Altec Lansing has delivered finely tuned speakers for years, and they continue to improve at this year's CES with their 5000 series. They have two noticeably new all-in-one speaker systems available, and with identical form factors. However, they differ primarily in functionality rather than hardware. The first demonstrated was the InAir 5000 Wireless AirPlay speaker.
The Garmin nuvi 3590LMT has essentially everything available on their previous models, but adds a few much welcomed features and the thinnest 5" screen to date. The first of which is voice-activated navigation. It works as it should, and unlike Google services, voice control doesn't require internet access. This makes it much more responsive, an almost essential quality while on the road.
The InSound noise-cancellation headphones were on display at CES: ShowStoppers 2012, and we took them home with us to put them to the test. After opening the protective case, it contained the headset, two audio cables (one red, one black), and an in flight adapter. Unlike conventional headphones, they require two AAA batteries to operate - noise-cancellation engaged or not. After installing the batteries, I tested to see how effective the noise-cancellation setting actually were.
Today we saw some amazing advancements in temperature sensor technology by Texas Instruments. The TMP006 is the first single-chip passive infrared temperature sensor to date, and is extremely smaller than any currently available. It can easily be incorporated into smartphones, tablets, notebooks, and countless other mobile devices. More accurate temperature readings through using the TMP006 will allow manufacturers to optimize system performance.
See that little square dot? That's TI's next generation temperature sensor, sitting next to the old model and the CES award it won the company.
Synology has added many new features and refreshed the user interface in their DiskStation Manager 4.0. When loaded up, there is a new pane that shows the health of your system, a resource monitor, recent logs, and cloud storage available. The health of your system is maintained by their new integrated virus protection. The service is updated by Clam AntiVirus but maintained by Synology.
There's Google TV, Apple TV, and now Canonical is working to bring us Ubuntu TV. Throughout the past couple months they've built a limited, skinned version of Ubuntu to the television. Like Google TV, it's built into the hardware. Updates can still be integrated over WiFi, and the TV connection will eventually offer a 'shared-screen' experience to iOS, Android, and Ubuntu devices.
Cygnett is known for constructing well built, quality cases for phones and tablets. Tonight, Creative Director Sophie Swann gave us an excellent description for some of their most popular models. Near the end, she also introduced us to their Icon Art series by artist Nathan Jurevicius.