CES 2020: more show than substance at this year’s concept-heavy event – The Verge

Ring adds privacy dashboard to app in response to security concerns

2020-01-30T13:45:30-05:00

Ring Video Doorbell 2 | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Ring has announced that it is adding a new privacy dashboard to its mobile apps that will let Ring owners manage their connected devices, third-party services, and whether local police partnered with Ring can make requests to access video from the Ring cameras on the account. The company says that other privacy and security settings will be added to the dashboard in the future. This new Control Center is available now in both the iOS and Android versions of the Ring app.

Ring has faced considerable criticism in recent weeks over its security and privacy practices. There have been reports of Ring cameras being "hacked" because owners reused …

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This startup wants to put a tiny display on a contact lens

2020-01-16T08:00:00-05:00

A new Silicon Valley startup is trying to build the "world's first true smart contact lens," putting a screen right against your eye that can enhance your vision of the world. The startup, Mojo Vision, showed off a very early prototype in meetings at CES last week and is now ready to start talking about the product's development.

Mojo Vision hopes to first create a smart contact lens that can assist people with low vision by displaying enhanced overlays of the world, sharpening details or zooming in to help them see. But that reality seems to be a ways away. The prototype shown at CES included a green, monochromatic display that was wired t …

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OnePlus confirms its next phone will jump to a 120Hz screen

2020-01-13T05:00:00-05:00

Speaking to us last week at CES, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau confirmed that the company's next major phones - presumably the OnePlus 8 - will feature screens with a refresh rate of 120Hz. Lau is not one for subtlety, and claimed in a note to us sent later that it would be "the best smartphone display in 2020." Having not seen it, we obviously can't say if that claim is more than just bombast.

OnePlus says that it worked with Samsung to develop the OLED screen, and that in addition it has done work on top of Android to improve animations (especially the core OS gestures) so they'll look smoother at 120Hz.

OnePlus also intends to use a custom MEMC …

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Asus’ ROG Chakram mouse has an analog stick and wireless charging

2020-01-13T03:00:00-05:00

The last gadget I checked out at CES 2020 was Asus' latest Republic of Gamers-branded mouse, which was announced last year and offers a pretty long, potentially compelling list of features. The ROG Chakram is designed for customizability and flexibility, and my overall impression was that most people could probably find a way to make it work for them.

The most prominent addition, literally, is a little analog stick that protrudes from next to the thumb buttons. This is a full-on analog controller if you want it to be, similar in concept to the "hat" switches that used to be popular on joysticks; one common use case for those was looking aro …

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How gaming PCs are competing with the PS5 and Xbox Series X

2020-01-10T17:25:11-05:00

Alienware’s Concept UFO marries the Nintendo Switch’s portability and modular controller design with more powerful internal components. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Every January, PC gaming companies get a full week during CES to show us the latest and greatest in new processors, graphics cards, monitors, and everything else that's been cooking for the last year or longer. Normally, the PC industry gets to do this without its console counterpart encroaching on its turf. It's a place for discussions about totally unfettered gaming performance and the kinds of ludicrous hardware you could buy if money was no concern. But this year is a bit different.

A new console generation from Microsoft and Sony is arriving later this year, and that shift is poised to change everything about the gaming landscape whet …

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This year’s monitors will be faster, brighter, and curvier than ever

2020-01-10T16:49:02-05:00

If there's one product category that still often sees genuine technological advancements at CES, it's screens - and these days, PC monitors in particular. As someone who enjoys looking at nice displays, I'm always down to check out some even nicer ones, and CES 2020 brought us some of the fastest, brightest, largest, and curviest monitors ever.

The question, though, is when I'll actually be moved to buy one. A couple years ago I wrote about how monitor shopping sucked through the lens of my quest to find one that checked off all my boxes. It's harder than you might think! And I'm still pretty much happy with what I have.

That's why I spent …

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Laptops were boring at CES, but there’s hope for the future

2020-01-10T12:00:00-05:00

CES 2020 was a boring year for laptops - at least, it was a boring year for laptops that will be real products that you can actually buy in 2020. The upgrades were incremental at best, and even the more interesting changes are reliant on unproven technology, like AMD's new processors and 5G internet.

But despite the fact that the upcoming wave of 2020 laptops so far looks like it's been upgraded even more incrementally than ever before, all is not lost. Among the minor spec boosts, CES 2020 also offered the first glimmers of what might come next for portable computers, with new screen technologies, wild new designs, and 5G modems. Those tr …

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The most important TVs of CES 2020 were finally for the masses

2020-01-10T10:32:39-05:00

Each year's CES is overrun by concept TVs that are destined to either remain prototypes for years to come or be released with such high price tags that they might as well not have come out at all. And look, I'm not going to try to claim that CES 2020 was much different. Samsung had a weird rotating 4K TV meant to show off vertical videos, 8K TVs were still just as pointless as ever, and LG Display showed up with another rollable TV that descends downward rather than rising upward.

But if you look a little closer, you'll see some real progress among the TVs people might actually buy. The more important story from each year's show is in the o …

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The Verge Awards at CES 2020: welcome to the land of the concept

2020-01-10T10:00:00-05:00

Oh, what a difference 12 months makes. At last year's CES, we found fewer concepts and more tangible products than ever before. Apparently this year, the exhibitors saw our reaction and felt they had to work overtime to correct it because if there was a theme to 2020's CES, it was that CES is the land of the concept.

This year, the things that stole attention at the show were not early looks at products that you and I will be able to actually use and buy over the next 12 months. Sure, there's the occasional laptop and meat substitute that will be available for purchase in 2020. But for every one of those, there's a rolling ball robot, virtu …

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The rules only sex tech companies have to follow at CES

2020-01-10T09:00:00-05:00

Sex tech is formally allowed on the CES show floor this year after years of banishment. While that finally puts sex tech companies on the same playing field as the tech giants, it doesn't mean they're treated identically: companies that show off sexual wellness products not only have to agree to follow CES's standard contract and rules but also a separate sex toy addendum.

The Verge obtained a copy of these rules, which haven't been previously published in full. The rules restrict how products can be promoted, the language that can be used, and the imagery that can be shown.

At the top of the addendum, the Consumer Technology Association, …

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