CES starts tomorrow

A big week this week in the world of tech as the Consumer Electronics Show or CES 2015 (technically starting tomorrow) is in full swing. BMW caught the attention of those at the show with their i3 electric concept car. The car switches between a regular driver interface where a human makes decisions on the what and where in the car’s life or BMW’s Active Assist technology where the car observes the world around it with the help of four lasers and can do things like park itself using a smart watch app.

In the demonstration the i3 was able to use the “automated valet system” and park the car without the driver present. Then, using the same watch app a user says “pick me up” into the watch and using GPS the car returns and fetches the driver when the dinner, coffee, or errand is over at what is called the designated valet spot (like your own personal bus stop for your car.)

This technology and the idea of the completely autonomous car is still a couple years off as we all wait for the price of the lasers currently needed or a replacement technology comes down enough to make the Active Assist or other software ubiquitous in cars and trucks.

If you are into TVs at all you have undoubtedly heard of, or if you were really good, Santa scored you a 4K TV – which means you are a bit ahead of the curve. So far at CES we have seen our share of killer 4K TVs but it isn’t the televisions I am interested in as much as the content to put on the TVs and before the show official starts both Netflix and Sony have gone all in.

Netflix has promised to deliver 4K HDR (high dynamic range) content to LG + Sony televisions this year, Netflix has yet to deliver their presentation so as more info becomes available we will dig into all of it.

Sony gave everyone a lot to digest this evening during their press conference and before I touch on the return of the Walkman, lets stay with 4K. Sony dropped a bomb that they will offer a 4K Handicam for $1k that shoots in 20.6 megapixels and holds a shot steady without a tripod, which is amazing. They also launched, with the help of Tony Hawk (who looked rough), a splash proof 4K camera that is a bit bigger than a GoPro to much excitement in the crowd.

In the audio department Sony brings back the Walkman, or more accurately launches the Walkman NW-ZX2 – a terrible name but incredible sound quality using a technology called LDAC that transmits more than 3 times the data of Bluetooth thus increasing the sound quality. Not many more details on what the Walkman actually is but if are the type of person who puts a Wi-Fi transmitter in your 1976 Corvette, this is very exciting news for you.

More tomorrow as the CES 2015 data dump continues. Have a great night!