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CES 2012 Wrap Up: Everything You Need to Know

Kenneth Butler, LAPTOP Web Producer/Writer — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:26:32 +0000

The 2012 Consumer Electronics Show is over, but so many tech news stories, product showcases and software announcements came from the convention that you’re almost guaranteed to have missed something. If you take a look at our wrap up guides, you just might catch up on something you overlooked. Here’s everything we saw — and loved — at CES 2012.

CES 2012: Best in Show

The Annual Best of CES Awards
Here are the show’s standout products in 13 categories including the best smartphone, laptop, tablet, auto technology and accessory to surface in an unending swell of new gadgets.

Reader’s Choice Award
The Best of CES Awards spotlights our editors’ top picks from the annual convention, but this year our readers had a decidedly different take on the single hottest piece of new tech.

CES 2012: The Hottest Products

Best Laptops of CES 2012
Seven of these 8 clamshells fell short of a Best of CES Award, but they certainly garnered their fair share of time in the spotlight. Check out the laptops we eagerly look forward to reviewing this year.

Best Smart Phones of CES 2012
The show’s smartphone announcements include a big step forward for Windows Phone, larger-than-ever screen sizes and phone cameras with the best specs we’ve encountered.

Best Tablets of CES 2012
This year’s tablets will offer longer battery life, lower prices and clearer screen resolutions.

CES 2012: The Biggest News Stories, Our Commentary and Live Video Coverage

Top 10 Videos of CES 2012
Some tech you have to see for yourself, like the Tobii Gaze Interface which, someday, will take hands-free to a whole new level by allowing you to navigate a computer screen just by looking at it.

CES 2012: Biggest News Stories
CES doubles as a town hall for the world’s most successful tech companies to make huge announcements. This year, Microsoft embarked on its last CES keynote address and Intel announced partnerships to build smart phones with Lenova and Motorola.

SpoonFed: Top 5 Things I Learned at CES 2012
CES is too big to leave without thoughts on the long-view of tech. LAPTOP Editor-in-Chief Mark Spoonauer learned that despite Ultrabooks’ lionshare of limelight at the show, hybrid Android tablets that connect to keyboard docks could be a bigger trend.

CES 2012: How Our Staff’s Mobile Gear Performed
We armed ourselves with some of the best gadgets of 2011 and tested them in the fast-paced halls of North American’s largest tech show. Check above to see how the MacBook Air 13, ASUS Zenbook UX31 Ultrabook, Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone and other favorite gadgets performed in action.

Week in Review: Big Stories from CES 2012

David Eitelbach — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:00:25 +0000

LAS VEGAS — 2012 was an exciting year for news and trends at the Consumer Electronics Show. Among other things, the show kicked off with Microsoft’s final keynote address, Intel gave us a glimpse of the future of DLNA, Texas Instruments demonstrated that tablets using its processors can wirelessly stream a movie to a TV and play a game at the same time, Nvidia touted the power of its Tegra 3 mobile processor and OnStar announced its plan to provide car passengers access to streaming content through Verizon’s 4G LTE network. Check out our slideshow to see some of the other major announcements from CES 2012.

Metro, Metro, Metro! Microsoft’s Final Keynote Kicks Off CES 2012

CES 2012 formally kicked off with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s keynote address, which was the company’s last at the trade show. The keynote detailed Microsoft technologies such as Windows Phone and Windows 8, as well as notable product announcements (such as ultrabooks; Nokia’s Lumia 900; and the HTC Titan). In the end, Ballmer underscored that Windows is the linchpin of the company. “There’s nothing more important to Microsoft than Windows," Balmer said at the address. "Metro will drive the new magic across all of our user experience. What’s next at Microsoft in 2012? Metro, METRO, METRO! Windows, WINDOWS, WINDOWS!”

Read the Full Story Here

WarpiaTV Lets You Stream HD Content from PC to TV via Wireless Controller

Sarah Silbert, LAPTOP Staff Writer — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:26:40 +0000

LAS VEGAS — Warpia’s got a new solution this CES for those looking to sync up their PC and TV. The WarpiaTV lets you stream HD content from your hard drive and the Internet to your big screen using a Wireless Motion Controller (complete with seven controls for volume, mute and more).

WarpiaTV sports a grid-style interface that users can customize with their favorite applications, sites and media sources. The Wireless Motion Controller acts just like a standard TV remote, so you can point directly at your TV instead of your PC. Warpia says you’ll get a range of up to 30 feet.

A wired version of the WarpiaTV (including the Wireless Motion Controller, WarpiaTV Browser, and a 6-foot HDMI cable) goes for $79.99, while the wireless version goes for $199.

2TB Netgear Media Storage Router Lets You Stream Content, Remotely Access Files

Sarah Silbert, LAPTOP Staff Writer — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:28:14 +0000

LAS VEGAS — When it comes to networking and wireless home solutions, blazing-fast download and upload speeds are about as exciting as it gets. But Netgear announced at CES that it’s adding another element to its new WNDR4700 Media Storage Router: It’s a media-storage and streaming device in addition to a Wi-Fi connection. Running on both the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz bands at up to 450 Mbps, the dual-band WNDR4700 has the sleekest profile in home networking history, to boot.

The Media Storage Router features a whopping 2TB of storage space, which is user-upgradable, should your media collection outgrow that capacity. It also includes two USB 3.0 ports for connecting peripherals with transfer speeds 10x that of USB 2.0. The router supports both Macs and PCs and supports Apple’s Time Machine for backing up data.

Other than that, you get remote access to the WNDR4700 via ReadyShare Cloud for viewing and editing files from afar. And of course, the router stands out for its functionality as a media server, letting users stream content from the WNDR4700 to any other DLNA-compatible or USB-connected device. And don’t forget those last two necessities: There’s a built-in broadband usage meter for keeping track of your bandwidth usage, and parental controls for monitoring and limiting Internet usage across all devices on the network.

Pricing has yet to be announced, but the Media Storage Router is set to drop this summer. We’re looking forward to giving it a whirl.

D-Link Introduces New Routers: Amplifi HD for Media, Cloud Router for Security

Sarah Silbert, LAPTOP Staff Writer — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:00:43 +0000

LAS VEGAS — One router does not fit all, at least according to D-Link. It has two new networking options to unveil at CES 2012: the Amplifi HD Media Router 3000 and the Cloud Router.

The HD Media Router is meant for media junkies, promising transfer speeds of up to 900 Mbps to ensure smooth 1080p HD video playback. An SD card slot gives you the option to share media across networks, and D-Link also integrates SharePort Cloud technology, which lets users access and share content remotely.

An app for Android and iOS devices lets users access media stored on the router. The HD Media Router 3000 is priced at $169 and goes on sale at the end of January.

As for the Cloud Router, D-Link is touting it as the first router for less than $50 that lets users see what sites are being visited on their network.

Like the Cloud Camera, the router connects to the cloud via the mydlink portal for monitoring web access, and there’s also an app for iPhone, iPad and Android users. D-Link says you can expect speeds of up to 300 Mbps. The router’s going for $39.99 and is available immediately.

D-Link to Unveil Cloud Camera 5000 and All-in-One Mobile Companion

Sarah Silbert, LAPTOP Staff Writer — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:00:30 +0000

LAS VEGAS — D-Link’s Cloud Camera 5000, just announced at CES 2012, shoots video in a mere 720p, but its standout features are hardly related to image quality. As its name suggests, the Cloud Camera lets users view a live stream of the cam’s footage online—via the mydlink portal. Users can also adjust the camera’s angle remotely to see up to 340 degrees of the area under video surveillance. There’s a microSD slot on board, and automatic day/night recording will capture potential intruders (or maybe just your beloved pet, lonely at home) 24/7.

Further bolstering its spycam pedigree, the Cloud Camera 5000 features email alerts when it senses “intrusions or disturbances” and it can pair with your doorbell, alarm system and motion sensors to start recording when something fishy is up. (We like the Dalek-esque design, to boot.) The Cloud Camera 500 will launch in April. No word on pricing yet.

And there’s another gadget up D-Link’s sleeve. The All-in-One Mobile Companion offers instant Wi-Fi and includes a USB port for sharing content and charging devices. There’s also an Ethernet port for connecting via cable.

Users can remotely access their media files with the Mobile Companion thanks to Android and iOS apps. The device will launch in April—prices have yet to be revealed.

Broadcom Announces 5G Wi-Fi Chips Capable of up to 1.3 Gbps

Sarah Silbert, LAPTOP Staff Writer — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:57:42 +0000

4G speeds still often fall short of the official standard, but that isn’t stopping Broadcom from pushing forward to the next level of Wi-Fi speeds. In a press release issued this morning, the company announced several new wireless Broadcom 802.11ac chips that deliver “5G Wi-Fi.”

The new 5G chipsets—the BCM4360, BCM4352, BCM43526, BCM43516—all operate on the 80-MHz channel and deliver up to three times the speed and six times the power-efficiency of current Wi-Fi 802.11n radios. Broadcom says its 5G Wi-Fi “dramatically improves the wireless range in the home,” which will allow users to stream media from more devices and from larger distances from their mobile devices.

When it comes to transfer speeds, Broadcom’s new chips vary slightly, with the BCM4360 capable of 1.3 Gbps, the BCM4352 and BCM43526 hitting 867 Mbps, and the BCM43516 topping out at 433 Mbps. The fastest chips are intended for routers, PC products, and the like, while the two other chips use USB and are more ideal for TVs and other home-theater devices.

The 5G chips will be at CES, where Broadcom plans to prove that it can deliver the blazing speeds it’s promising. Stay tuned.

Warpia ConnectHD Offers HD Wireless Streaming and Video Calls on the Big Screen

Sarah Silbert, LAPTOP Staff Writer — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:57:59 +0000

You know CES is just around the corner when the product announcements start rolling in. Today Warpia is unveiling its new ConnectHD wireless video-conferencing solution, which it will be on hand next month in Vegas.

The ConnectHD has a wireless 720p webcam and a multi-directional mic for making video calls, and it also supports wireless streaming from your laptop (Windows only) to an HDTV at up to 1920 x 1080p.

Warpia is already selling the ConnectHD for $199 on its site. The full package includes a wireless USB PC adapter, a wireless USB TV adapter with HDMI, camera, external microphone, a HDMI cable, and a CD with the required software.

DLNA Reality Check: From Phone to TV, How Well Does It Work?

Kenneth Butler, LAPTOP Web Producer/Writer — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 17:00:08 +0000

Imagine that you walk into your living room, connect your smartphone to your home Wi-Fi network, and—before you can say “stream wirelessly!”—snapshots and music tracks from your handset’s library appear on your TV. This is not a dream. You can do this right now using gadgets that support DLNA, or Digital Living Network Alliance.

Through the DLNA initiative, product manufacturers and software companies allow Wi-Fi-capable devices to share music, photo, and video files across a wireless connection. Apple’s AirPlay technology is similar, but DLNA is found in many more gadgets—from Android phones and laptops to TVs and game consoles such as the PlayStation 3. So how well does DLNA work in the real world?

The Gear

To test the DLNA promise, we used two smartphones to stream music, photos, and video files to a 50-inch Samsung 50C7000 TV. The Samsung Epic 4G includes Samsung’s DLNA-enabled AllShare app for moving files over Wi-Fi. The Sprint HTC EVO 4G, our other test phone, has no native DLNA support, so we used a third-party app called Twonky Media Server to share files.

Update: DLNA recently added Wi-Fi Direct to its interoperability guidelines, giving enabled devices the ability to connect directly without a wireless router. Our tests were conducted using DLNA connections only.

Setup

Any DLNA device you would like to use—televisions included—must be connected to your home network. Since our TV didn’t have a wireless radio, we needed to connect the TV to our router via an Ethernet cable. We connected the Samsung 50C7000 to our router with ease, but others who keep their TVs and routers in separate rooms will need to explore alternative options to connect their sets (such as Powerline adapters).

AllShare is Samsung’s proprietary DLNA-based service, and it comes pre-installed on many Samsung products. Using this service, we connected the TV and the Samsung Epic 4G smartphone in seconds. The same went for the HTC EVO 4G using the Twonky Media Server app.

First, the smartphone applications prompted us to select one of three options for streaming media:

Streaming files from the smartphone to the another device.
Streaming media from a Wi-Fi-attached storage drive to the smartphone.
Streaming files from another device to the smartphone.

Once we selected the first option—to send music, photo, and video files from our smartphone to the television set—the app prompted us to select a receiving device: the Samsung TV. After that, getting MP3 files from our favorite Weezer album, captured video from a concert, and photos from a summer vacation to display on the set was a matter of navigating AllShare or Twonky’s file management system.

Performance

Sounds like smooth sailing, right? Not entirely. First, DLNA only works with single media files, such as video clips captured using your phone’s camera or downloaded media files. Though DLNA can stream protected and commercial content, many service providers don’t yet support the technology (it’s likely that support will first roll out for set-top boxes and Blu-ray disc players connected to television sets or notebooks). So you can’t display video streamed through other applications, such as YouTube, on your television set. For now, users can’t stream protected content—such as Netflix—either.

Also, the one-file-at-a-time limitation means MP3 playlists must be queued up manually, and the DLNA connection takes a few seconds to access and stream each file. That brings us to another point: Streaming files with DLNA is slow. The 10- to 15-second delays we experienced between launching video files or new music playlists were a bit too long. Our music and video files never paused mid-stream, but we had some difficulty streaming certain audio and video files. For example, some DLNA software does not support GIF, PNG, or TIFF image files. We had trouble with the audio codec in a 3GP video file saved on the Epic 4G.

Another peeve? The interfaces in both the AllShare and Twonky services need work. The Twonky app at least groups music into artist and album subfolders, but AllShare displays audio files in one endless cascade, making it difficult to sift through our more than 1,200 music tracks to create playlists.

Verdict

Does DLNA work? Yes. Does it work perfectly? No. Sure, the technology allows you to stream photos and home videos captured on your smartphone and music files to your home theater. But that’s not the same as streaming premium movies and television episodes, which you can do with Apple’s AirPlay. Inconsistent interface design from device to device and performance lag also make DLNA less appealing than it should be.

Showdown: What’s the Best 4G Hotspot?

Meghan J. McDonough, LAPTOP Web Producer/Writer — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:06:47 +0000

Do you feel the need for speed? Then you’ll want to take a good look at the latest 4G hotspots, compact devices that let you share a high-speed Internet connection on the go with multiple gadgets at once. We tested 4G mobile hotspots from the four major carriers to see which one offered the best performance for your money.

How We Tested

Website load times were measured by averaging the time it took for CNN.com, ESPN.com, Laptopmag.com, and NYTimes.com took to load in Chrome browser on the Dell Inspiron 15 (M5030).

We used Speedtest.net for our synthetic upload and download tests. We averaged 10 test results for each hotspot in our three testing locations around Chicago. To get real-world benchmarks, we downloaded a 151MB file (OpenOffice.org) from our FTP server. We also uploaded a 6.5MB Handbrake file to the same FTP.

AT&T Elevate 4G Mobile Hotspot

The AT&T Elevate delivers solid 4G LTE performance (where it's available) and includes a handy usage meter on the display.

Read our review of the AT&T Elevate 4G Mobile Hotspot