Creating a new standard for anything is hard. For a market as diverse as home audio, I can only imagine how difficult it is to get OEMs to collaborate, let alone agree on a wireless standard that lets end users build best-of-breed systems according to their needs – instead of playing to the vendor’s desire to lock them into their […]
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My first introduction to Piper was at last year’s CES, this year they were back again with an updated night vision version of their innovative Z-Wave home automation controller/camera. The Piper NV (for night vision) also upgrades the ARM processor (allowing for more imaging processing options), sensor (to 3.4MP), and ups the field of view to 180 degrees. Naturally the […]
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SiliconDust didn’t have any new products to show in their suite this year, but we did get a chance to look at the new packaging which is important as they make a bigger push into retail, especially in Europe. We did get a chance to discuss some of the products that should have launched, but unfortunately were delayed due to […]
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NETGEAR had a lot to show at CES this year besides routers, and we ended up skipping those because with the rapid release schedule (AC3200 & AC2400 launched earlier) there wasn’t anything new. That’s not to say that they’ve been standing still in the networking space with several new product to enable more bandwidth around the house. […]
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The biggest news from Vera Control is that we finally have a controller with the new Series 500 Z-Wave+ SoC. In fact, there will eventually be three different models; VeraEdge, VeraPlus, and VeraSecure, with VeraEdge available now and the other two expected to ship early summer. The $149/£149(doh) VeraEdge is essentially an upgraded VeraLite, but the really interesting model is […]
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Intel is moving hard into small, low power devices and that was evident in what they were showing at CES this year. We started out with tablets, but the really interesting stuff started when the new Broadwell NUC came out. First we saw a demo of it running an incredibly slick picture/video manager that used to require a quad-SLI system […]
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CableCARD is the technology that enables HTPC users to build the ultimate DVR. The kind of multi-tuner DVR backed by insane amounts of storage that makes it easy to “meh” when a company proudly proclaims the capabilities of their – not quite as spec’ful – aspirational kit. It has drawback though, especially if you prefer not to use Microsoft Windows […]
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Finding the perfect universal remote is something of a personal quest for me. I’ve seen, and used, a lot of them and unfortunately I’m still on the hunt. With that in mind I will check out pretty much anything in the space where the vendor is trying something new or interesting, and even then I set the bar low in […]
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I’ve never been a big fan of D-Link’s cylinder router device because it makes it hard to wall mount and external antennas perform better, so it has been good to see them shift away from that recently. I was surprised to see their stylish new line up of high-end 802.11AC routers including a three radio AC3200 available now, and two […]
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Dish Networks always puts on a good show at CES, and this year was no exception. There were dancing kangaroos, the CEO came in playing a drum, and there was plenty of loud music in the intro. Of course none of that would matter if it was all fluff, and Dish didn’t disappoint here either announcing the 4K Joey, a […]
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