Because we're so upset with modern, extremely functional smartphones, Swissvoice has come to the rescue with the L7, which "brings the best of the seventies to home phones in 2015." Exactly what that means we couldn't tell you—VCRs? pocket calculators? Star Wars?—but this phone is Charlie's Angels-ready. Courtesy Swissvoice
The International Consumer Electronics Show is an incredible event, showcasing some astoundingly innovative technologies each year. It’s also a place where a lot of weird stuff happens. While scouring the showroom floors at this year’s conference, we encountered various products and technologies that were variously bizarre, outrageous, and a little creepy. Here are the ones that left us scratching our heads the hardest.
Popular Science is covering the coolest, most futuristic, and strangest gadgets and technologies at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Catch our complete CES 2015 coverage all week long.
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Because we’re so upset with modern, extremely functional smartphones, Swissvoice has come to the rescue with the L7, which “brings the best of the seventies to home phones in 2015.” Exactly what that means we couldn’t tell you—VCRs? pocket calculators? Star Wars?—but this phone is Charlie’s Angels-ready.
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Robots nearly outnumbered people at CES. Most were adorable and a joy to interact with, but some were incredibly creepy. This female humanoid, for example, was eager to tell you why you should let her into your home—but her pitch (on a loop) always ended with an icy stare forged in the darkest depths of the uncanny valley.
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The Internet of Pets means plenty of new animal wearable electronics. And who better to model them all than stuffed dogs? While there were a few of the flesh-and-blood variety sashaying around the show floor, the noisy, crowded atmosphere was more suited to plushies. So. Many. Plushies.
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Your bluetooth speakers might sound great, but can they levitate? The Air2 comes in two pieces—a speaker and a base—with repelling magnets on each end of the circular components. The speaker floats above the base while it plays, and it can also be stuck to metal surface. Although the Air2’s levitation feature might not help it sound any better, it certainly looks much cooler than your average portable speaker.
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You might remember when the iconic Sony Walkman cassette player hit the U.S. market. This device, however clunky, paved the way for gadgets like the Apple iPod and more. So you may wonder why on Earth someone would buy a Sony Walkman today. The answer is that they’re looking for a portable high-fidelity audio player, and they’re willing to spend at least $1,200. The new Walkman certainly isn’t for everyone, but when they cost this much—it doesn’t have to be.
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Not even 20,000 steps per day at CES can burn through the greasy convention food we scarfed all week long. Helping us feel worse: the seemingly infinite supply of immaculate people working out on treadmills, bikes, ellipticals, and other torture devices to show off wearable tech. All day long. While smiling for your photographs. At first we felt like Tralfamadorians gawking at some indefatigable alien race. Then we felt fat.
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Have you ever wanted your head and eyes to be smooshed by a robot? Repeatedly? For 15 minutes? In the name of science, we tried a device out that does exactly that. The Breo Dream3 Eye and Head Massager uses compressed air, vibration, and head to massage a user’s head, neck, and eyes. Unfortunately, the action was a rougher than our skulls could handle, so we turned it off after just a few minutes.
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This machine mesmerized, almost enough to make us want to shell out… until we realized it was $15,000. Brother’s Dream Machine is a smart sewing machine with a 10.1-inch high definition display, where you can plan out your next embroidery project, or get a live stream of what’s going on under the needle. Take that, grandma.
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We turned a corner to see these women high-kicking on devices that are supposed to jiggle away your fat. The 1930s/40s/50s/last year called: They want their bogus workout machinery back. Another, somewhat indefinable era demands the safe return of its sparkly, hot-pink workout clothing.
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Popular Science is no stranger to telepresence robots. Few things can prepare you, however, to encounter an 18-foot-tall monster with a mustache that is about to run you over.
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What’s better than a Skechers sneaker that doubles as the game Simon? A Skechers sneaker that’s larger than a small child and doubles as the game Simon.
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The HBO series Game of Thrones has inspired plenty of memes (if anyone else tells us “winter is coming”…). One of the most visually striking memes is the Iron Throne, which was supposedly forged from 1,000 enemy swords. The CES version of this throne is a little more, well, nerdy.
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Scoping out thousands of booths is enough to wipe out your average tech enthusiast at CES. Fortunately, we found plenty of places to get a little rest and relaxation. Inada, Panasonic, and Luraco all showcased high-tech massage chairs, providing mini therapeutic oases amidst the hustle and bustle of the conference. The lines for the chairs were long and slow moving. One representative for Inada told us a lot of people took naps in them during lunch.
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On Tuesday at CES, Marshall Amps hosted an open bar with a special guest of honor: Slash! The former Guns N’ Roses guitarist briefly appeared at the Marshall booth, gave a super short interview about his love for the company’s amps, and then promptly vanished behind a trap door. Where Slash goes, nobody knows.
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Meet the Grush: a gaming toothbrush for kids. Equipped with various sensors, the brush knows its position in your child’s mouth and relays this information to a smartphone app, which mimics his or her brushing technique in an interactive game. Children can then have some fun while brushing their teeth, by propping their iPhone up on their mirror and playing through their morning routine. The only problem? The name Grush is taken, by Popular Science editor Loren Grush. So we should definitely be getting royalties off of this venture, right?
