The first big technology show of the New Year CES in Las Vegas is also the biggest global platform for consumer electronics and gadgetry. On this page we don't waste your time dwelling on the weird and the whacky from cuddly 'breathing' robots that soothe you to sleep, to scent pods that dish out smells to match your mood, to a smart toilet where you can speak a command to. But we share technology that will actually touch you in 2018. And this year, it's all about smartening the devices we already use with a large dollop of Artificial Intelligence, turning a plain vanilla tool into rich casata experience. Here's what's in store for us this year:
Your PC is watching you!
HP has reinvented the desk PC giving it a radical new shape a cloth-covered cylinder with built-in speaker and mike, turning it into an audio entertainment system. It comes with Amazon's Alexa smart assistant, so you can speak your instructions to the desktop and also control other home devices. A winking LED reminds you that Alexa is listening always. Some might find that creepy. The HP Pavilion Wave Desktop is a full-fledged Windows 10 machine with 8GB RAM, 1TB of hard disk space and will be available soon at a global price of around $550 (Rs 35,000 without display unit)
Smart display is a home hub:
Lenovo has harnessed that other smart alec Google Voice Assistant in its Smart Display. This looks like a photo frame in two sizes, 8-inch or 10-inch, and lets you video-call friends, watch YouTube and manage your connected home appliances. The Voice Assistant can be taught to read out your schedule for the day, provide traffic updates or help Amma with a recipe. It uses Qualcomm's Home Hub and will be available later this year at prices starting at $200 (Rs 13,000)
AI in your phone:
Huawei, makers of the Honor range of smart phones, have unveiled the first AI-powered handsets with a neural chip in addition to the main processor under the hood. It uses face recognition to identify the owner and open the phone, trains itself to anticipate your usage and translates text using Microsoft Translator. The first AI-driven phone is the Honor View 10 to be followed by Honor 7x.
1TB between fingers!
Solid state storage continues to shrink in size and at CES 2018 Western Digital showed the world's smallest 1-terabyte USB Type C Flash storage on a stick. This is not yet ready to roll out but the company also unveiled a 256GB USB 3.0 stick the smallest so far. If you can afford the asking price of $149 (just under Rs 10,000), you can carry 14,000 photos, 10 hours of HD video and 16,000 songs between your fingers.
Multiple cards in one:
Tired of carrying multiple credit and debit cards? Perhaps the most exciting personal tech at CES this year was an all-in-one Wallet Card from a company called Dynamics. Working with Visa, MasterCard and various banks, the card substitutes for all your bank and credit cards on one piece of plastics. What's more, it has an on-card display, so that the notification after every transaction that you now get as an SMS will be instantly displayed. You can toggle between cards, check your balance on the display at any time ... and most usefully, you can recharge the card, and even block the card and request a replacement instantaneously. The Dynamics Wallet card will be offered by various banks in the coming months.
IndiaTechOnline
