Ok so we're not at CES 2015, but neither are you and that's why you're reading this. Fortunately, while we may not be wandering the journalist infested halls, we are expert Googlers, which is why we've been able to comb the internet to find some of the stuff that we think is the coolest new technological developments being shown off at this year's monstrous Las Vegas show.
Oculus Rift Crescent Bay is still wowing everyone
While it's no surprise to anyone that's tried an Oculus Rift headset in the past, the latest prototype, the Crescent Bay, has been wowing show attendees left right and centre. Featuring a higher than DK2 resolution screen (not confirmed, but speculated as being 2560 x 1440 pixels), 360 degree positional tracking and new positional audio thanks to the built in headset, it's delivering hitherto unprecedented levels of immersion and a nausea free experience according to Oculus VR CEO Brendan Irvine, which is a heck of an achievement.
Intel makes a big play for wearable computing
Intel dropped the ball with smartphones pretty badly, underestimating their potential impact and failing to miniaturise its traditional powerhouse CPUs to capitalise on the burgeoning industry. In the wake of its failings, the likes or ARM and Qualcomm are now chip giants that can compete on the world stage. Intel doesn't want that to happen again with wearables,.
While smartwatches and fitness bands are still a relatively niche tech (which no one seems to use for more than a couple of months after buying) there's a lot of potential there, so several big chip makers are rushing to make their systems as small, as efficient and as powerful as possible. While Intel already has its Edison platform, it's gone even smaller with the Curie module that combines a Quark SoC, with flash memory and its on integrated sensors.
As well as being about the size of your finger nail squared, it can also link up with external sensors and comes with built in bluetooth connectivity, so could work as a wearable device on its own, right out of the box.
It's going to be interesting to see whether companies will be willing to work with Intel over the
more established miniature computing firms.
Reversible USB connectors are finally here
One of the most persistent irritating aspects of using computers is the fact that every time you
attempt to plug a USB device in, you're going to have to reverse it and try again several times
before it will actually go in. Of course this shouldn't be the case since a USB A type cable can only be plugged in one way out of two possible options, but for some reason it can seem to take an age.
Not so with Type C. Type C is a USB header that was announced midway through 2014 and is only now seeing use in product design. It's a reversible USB header, that can be plugged into your phone or computer, in any orientation, meaning no more of the endless cable twisting and frustration building that can accompany plugging in traditional USB devices.
Unfortunately the header type is independent of USB speed, so it looks like USB Type C headers are first coming as part of USB 2.0 phone connections. However expect them on laptops before long, as Type C also allows for the transfer of up to 100 watts of power, so will make it possible to charge a number of highpowered devices over USB, including notebooks, tablets and similar.
We're finally moving towards having entirely universal connectors to charge our electronics. Just
as we're moving away from cable charging altogether.
Typical.
Sling wants to bundle your TV together
One of the biggest problems with the current climate of streaming services, is that they're all
independent of one another. Hulu content is rarely on Netflix, and HBO content is anywhere but on its own service and torrent sites, but technically TV is even worse as you need to sign up for multichannel cable packages for obscene fees and most of it comes with commercials and isn't on demand either.
Not with Sling. Sling is a subscription service that works on your Roku, Amazon Fire, Xbox,
Android player or any other number of different set top boxes that you already own and for $20 a month lets you watch ESPN, ESPN2, CNN, TNT, TBS, Travel Channel, the Food Network and a few others and view content for up to three days after it aired.
You can then pay more for specific channels or other content, letting you customise your package without adding tonnes of channels you don't want. Theoretically.
While this still isn't the holy grail of streaming options, the bundling of separate channels together gives us confidence that we may soon see a unified streaming package for all of our content.
The only question at this point, is how well the streaming works. It it's good, Dish Network is on to a winner.
XYZprinting shows us the future of food preparation
Back to the Future might have predicted that by 2015 we'd be rehydrating miniature pizzas and turning them into family size pies, but in reality, the future of food production at CES this year wasn't that, but 3D printing.
While consumer grade 3D printing is only really at the stage of letting us make somewhat detailed miniatures and replacement parts for whatever plastic thing we've broken recently, the future is looking rosy. There's talk of 3D printing organs, so why not 3D print food too? That's what XYZprinting has done, by creating a 3D printer that's capable of outputting cookie dough, ready for baking.
It can also make cake decorations and anything else that you can think of that's relatively flat and made of sugar or chocolate, but it's a start right?
It's not ideal of course and it can't do much else right now, but pizza is the next step and once it can make cookies AND pizza, we're sold.
Conclusion
This article is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cool stuff at CES, but it highlights some of our favourites from the past few days. Let us know what you've liked most from the show below and we'll give you the rest of our top picks soon.