The best of CES 2014 – The Verge

Goodbye Twitter fridges, hello 3D-printed food

2014-01-13T12:05:43-05:00

Goodbye Twitter fridges, hello 3D-printed food: the appliances of CES 2014

CES has long been the best place in the world to find a bunch of insane and impractical home appliances. Last year saw the category reach its drunk-on-tech nadir, best exemplified by Samsung's incongruous efforts to push Evernote onto fridge doors. But what we found in 2014 may surprise you - some are taking a step back from the bizarre feature creep of 2013, and one new device is a genuine breakthrough that could foreshadow a potential revolution in the kitchen.

That's not to say that all the appliances at this year's show had a firm grip on reality. LG is still pushing its dubious connected equipment hard; its big announcement this year i …

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CES at night: alone inside a massive trade show

2014-01-13T11:00:02-05:00

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It's hard to describe what it feels like walking around the massive Las Vegas Convention Center. Imagine something between being lost in IKEA and a college football stadium, but packed even tighter and completely lacking in any sort of logical floor plan. As you enter from the relative calm of the parking lot, the LVCC assaults your every sense. Each booth screams out with the newest high-definition displays and thundering bass, as gaudy lights and blaring ads distract you from the bizarrely patterned carpet meant to lure you through the labyrinthine hall.

But the spectacle pauses every evening, after the executives, buyers, booth babes, re …

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The Verge Awards: the best of CES 2014

2014-01-10T16:17:48-05:00

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Another year. Another CES. Another chance to find out what it feels like to truly be alive. Alive and in Las Vegas. In Las Vegas and at the Consumer Electronics Show â€" a phantasmagoria of light, sound, and electricity. Actual electricity, and the kind of spiritual, psychic kind that only happens but once a year.

Another thing that only happens once a year? The Verge Awards at CES â€" when the editorial team of The Verge picks the best things that hit the show floor, the biggest stories, and yes, the biggest disappointments.

This CES wasnâ€™t the craziest, most surprising, or even most interesting weâ€™ve ever seenâ€¦ but it wasnâ€™t a to …

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Future steps: exoskeleton lets paralyzed snowmobiler walk again

2014-01-10T12:29:25-05:00

Ekso Bionics CES 2014, Paul Thacker (STOCK)

Robotic exoskeletons are a staple of sci-fi, pointing to a future where technology can overcome serious injury and bestow superhuman powers on people. But that future is here today for Paul Thacker, who uses an exoskeleton about once a month to stand up and walk around - no small feat, considering he's paralyzed from the chest down.

The 39-year-old Alaska native and snowmobile enthusiast lost the use of his lower body in a training accident in 2010 and was told he'd be confined to a wheelchair, potentially for the rest of his life. But while in physical therapy at a Colorado hospital in 2011, he stumbled across the Esko, a full-body, powere …

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How Netflix won CES

2014-01-10T09:00:03-05:00

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Additional reporting by Nathan Ingraham

The television industry has been holding its breath. Just a few years after TV manufacturers banked on 3D to drive another round of TV purchases, they've found themselves having to change direction, using 4K as the latest carrot to entice consumers. But there hasn't been anything to watch, and on the content side, viewing habits are in a state of wild flux as television viewers detach themselves from decades of convention thanks to DVRs, time shifting, and subscription service binge-watching.

Riding like a white knight into CES this year was Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. Having proved itself as a truste …

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Sony returns to the swagger of its glory days

2014-01-10T08:01:00-05:00

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During the 1990s, Sony was the world's preeminent tech brand, dominating the field with its innovative designs and consistently superior products, but the past decade hasn't been so great.

The Japanese company lost its crown to Apple through a series of calamitous decisions and strategies that were more outlandish than forward thinking. So when Kazuo Hirai took over the mantle of CEO in 2012, his first task was merely to steady the ship. Two years on, however, Kaz is done patching up holes and making apologies, and Sony appears ready to lead from the front once more.

The aspirational Sony is back

Under Hirai's leadership, the trajectory of …

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Finding Oz in the heart of Las Vegas

2014-01-09T19:00:01-05:00

pepcom oz assets

Dorothy is standing in the middle of a crowded hotel ballroom in Las Vegas. Toto is in her basket and her lipstick matches her red shoes. A group of middle-aged men come over, suits wrinkled and Coronas in hand. They sheepishly ask for a photo and she obliges with a smile.

There are actually three Dorothies in the room, but only Tala Marie can lay legitimate claim to the throne. The other two, she says with a laugh, are "business-corporate-slutty Dorothies, if that makes any sense." I nod because it does.

Tala and her Dorothy doppelgangers are here because they've been hired for the Pepcom Digital Experience, an annual event held in a mass …

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This is the real CES

2014-01-09T15:31:35-05:00

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"If you want to make something happen, it's gotta happen off the floor," the product rep tells me.

We're off the floor when he says it, on our way up two dozen stories to a private suite where his company has built a full booth - complete with floor-to-ceiling product racks - to entertain buyers and hopefully make a few sales. They'll spend the week here, wining and dining, trying to make deals, often late into the night. "I was with buyers until 5AM this morning," the rep says. He doesn't seem tired, or not in the usual way.

As the elevator goes up, more of the story comes out. He was at the tables, lending $100 chips to a heavyweight ret …

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Make it beautiful: how the fashion industry is giving tech a hand

2014-01-09T10:00:03-05:00

pebble fossil watch wearable fashion

For the fashion-conscious, wearable gadgets are currently not wearable. But at CES 2014, fashion moguls and global tech authorities are finally chatting about how to fix that problem. Design as a function isn't a new idea, but the fashion industry thinks about it differently - and the tech industry is starting to listen.

On Monday, Intel shared the stage with Barneys New York, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and Opening Ceremony as they announced a collaboration between the fashion industry and the tech industry to make wearables more beautiful as they become more ubiquitous. That, Barneys New York COO Daniella Vitale says, is …

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Gigabyte fits a gaming powerhouse inside an inch-thick laptop

2014-01-09T07:01:00-05:00

Gallery Photo: Aorus X7 gaming laptop hands-on

For most people, gaming laptops are the modern equivalent of the old beige box. You might have or want one, but it's not something you'd bring up in polite conversation. Portability has always played a secondary role to fitting the most power inside that laptop's dimensions, which together with some garish design choices has made the entire category unpalatable for the mainstream consumer. Gigabyte, purveyor of desktop motherboards, graphics cards, and other gaming gear, is challenging that preconception with its new sister brand, Aorus, which is launching a flagship machine dubbed the X7.

An enormous 17.3-inch matte display is driven by no …

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