CES 2016 Day 2: All the news from Samsung, Sony, and more – The Verge

Vergecast 185: CES 2016 Day 2

2016-01-07T08:00:03-05:00

Today on The Vergecast, Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn are joined by some familiar faces as Joanna Stern and Sam Sheffer return to talk about CES.

We have a whole network of podcasts now! You can find them all in iTunes. They include the all new Ctrl Walt Delete podcast with Walt Mossberg and Nilay Patel, which dives deep into tech; Verge ESP with Emily Yoshida and Liz Lopatto, which blurs the lines between science and entertainment, and What's Tech? with Christopher Thomas Plante, which explains technology in layman's terms. You might also want to check out Re/code Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher.

And hey! Did you know that The Vergecast has i …

Read the full story at The Verge.

I bought two tickets to the gun show at CES 2016

2016-01-06T01:09:25-05:00

When you're attending a giant electronics extravaganza like CES, it's hard to find time to get a good workout in. (Why lift weights when you could be gadget blogging or sleeping?) Bowflex's ST560 adjustable smart dumbbells gave a chance to kill two birds with one stone; I was checking out something on the show floor, sure, but I was also catching up on my bicep curls and tricep extensions.

The ST560s aren't Bowflex's first set of adjustable dumbbells - those are the 552s - but they contain a few notable improvements over the company's old line. The dumbbells have a single point of adjustment in their grips instead of two on either end; they …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Black and Decker made a smart power tool battery that charges your phone too

2016-01-06T00:30:23-05:00

After enough time at CES, you end up with a knee-jerk hostility towards anything that includes the word "smart." It signifies overcomplicated versions of ordinary tools and appliances - a fridge that runs Twitter, a baby bottle with an inclinometer. But we're willing to give Black and Decker's Smartech power tools a pass for now, because they're actually a decent idea.

Instead of creating smart tools per se, Black and Decker made what is essentially a smart battery, set for release this summer. At $69, it's about $20 more than a standard 20V lithium-ion battery, and it's compatible with any existing tool that runs off one, allowing users to …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Razer’s first ultrabook wants to be your only gaming PC

2016-01-06T00:27:48-05:00

Razer's range of Blade laptops have always been designed as portable gaming machines that were thick and heavy. Razer is changing things in a big way this year, and it wants to disrupt the PC industry with its first ultrabook. The Razer Blade Stealth looks just as good as the Blade laptops we've seen over the years, but it's no longer a 4-pound beast. It's designed to be a regular ultrabook, so it's just 0.52 inches thin and weighs 2.75 pounds. That's a dramatic departure from the gaming laptops we're used to seeing from Razer.

Razer hasn't really held back on the specs for the Blade Stealth. Every model is powered by Intel's latest Core i7 …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Intel invented rock ‘n’ roll’s terrible opposite tonight at CES

2016-01-06T00:06:29-05:00

The following is a collection of words penned by Casey Newton during the final moments of Intel's CES keynote, which you can experience for yourself in the video above. They will be preserved here in perpetuity.

Workers are rolling some platforms back onto the stage as [Intel CEO Brian] Krzanich appears to be winding up to his conclusion. Krzanich brings back A.R. Rahman for more of gesture music.

Rahman has changed into a kickass Nehru jacket. He is accompanied by a drummer and three other bandmates who have nothing but their Intel Curie bands and a dream of making gesture music.

The Intel chime hits as Rahman throws a keytar over his sh …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Stepping on Polar’s new smart scale

2016-01-05T23:56:48-05:00

Performance device maker Polar is the latest company to join the party of connected scales with the new, $99 Polar Balance. At first look the Polar Balance seems to be just like the connected scales from Fitbit, Withings, and Under Armour: you weigh in and it wirelessly sends the data to a mobile app or its own trove of wearable devices. As I wrote yesterday, this basically means you can never escape your weight again, ever.

But after quickly demoing the Polar scale today at CES, there are some differentiators. For one, at $99 it's less expensive than some of its competitors. The Withings Smart Body Analyzer costs $150, and the Under Armour …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Behold the gold: this is Google’s latest Nexus 6P

2016-01-05T23:52:07-05:00

The Nexus 6P is a phenomenal smartphone and perhaps the best one running Android today. (I've been switching back and forth between it and a Galaxy Note 5 for over a month now and can't choose a real favorite.) Today at CES, Google and Huawei unveiled a new gold color option. It's only available in the 32GB and 64GB storage configurations right now; there's no 128GB option, which you can get in silver, white, or graphite black. The gold color avoids being gaudy - much like Apple's hue on the iPhone line. And I'm also a fan that the chamfered edges retain the same color; on the white / frost Nexus 6P, those edges are silver and create a weird …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Keurig’s Kold drink dispenser makes a mean soda, but it’ll cost you

2016-01-05T23:50:49-05:00

This hasn't been the best year for Keurig, arguably the world's leading purveyor of pod-based hot beverages. An attempt at coffee cup DRM enraged the company's customers, forcing them to walk back the change as a consequence of cratering sales; the company's big leap into cold beverages, the Kold drink dispenser, was ridiculed for its bulk and high cost upon its release at the end of September.

I had the chance to try the Kold for myself tonight at CES, and while I was pleasantly surprised by the taste of the machine's Coke-aping products, there's still a huge elephant in the room: this thing is expensive, and it stays expensive.

Using the …

Read the full story at The Verge.

TP-Link’s multi-band Talon router lets you download a 4K movie in four minutes

2016-01-05T23:47:27-05:00

There are routers, and then there's the TP-Link Talon AD7200. The device, shown off here at the Consumer Electronics Show today, is the world's first router to ship with Qualcomm's new 802.11ad technology, which taps into the unused 60GHz frequency to reach blazing speeds. The router utilizes both 802.11ad and 802.11ac technology, effectively combining the 60GHz, 2.4GHz, and 5GHz bands for a total throughput speed of 7 gigabits per second. Those speeds are outrageous, completely unnecessary, and undeniably impressive. The blending of the bands is practical, however, because the 60GHz frequency can't penetrate walls easily, so the Talon is ab …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Taking temperature with Withings’ futuristic forehead thermometer

2016-01-05T23:43:33-05:00

The activity tracker that Withings showed off at CES this week may have been a super basic tracker, but Withings also unveiled something that's not quite as recognizable: an infrared thermometer. Infrared thermometers tend to look either like ultrasound wands or some sort of staple gun, and in typical Withings fashion, the France-based company set out to make a thermometer that was sleek, white, and made people at CES ask, "What the hell is that thing?"

I had the chance to try out the new Withings thermometer, called the Thermo, at a CES preview event. I've never used an infrared thermometer before, and I was admittedly intrigued by it. Aft …

Read the full story at The Verge.