Gadget of the Month

BILL & PHIL’S GADGET OF THE MONTH Observations from CES 2020 | Bill Ramsey & Phillip Hampton

We recently returned from the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Every year this tech pageant parades a cavalcade of cutting-edge technology that we will likely be using in our everyday lives in the near future. While we were mesmerized by this year’s latest innovations, we also paused to reflect on the past decade of advancements and marveled at how yesterday’s “cutting-edge” tech is now mainstream. We are only 10 years removed from the debut of Steve Jobs’s iPad tablet computer. We remember Jobs predicting that someday soon instead of picking up a newspaper or a book to read, we would just consume this content from this odd, touch-screen device that was neither a laptop nor a smart phone. At the time, Jobs’s vision seemed like science fiction; we now know he was eerily prescient.

Walking over the vast exhibition halls at the show, we saw how far the consumer tech industry has advanced in the past decade. Incredibly thin and vivid TVs, wireless speakers and earphones, voice-activated AI assistants, touchscreens on everything, drones for every task imaginable, augmented and virtual reality experiences, and smart home products from the kitchen to the bathroom—what used to wow us is re

ally just ho-hum (especially for younger consumers). Our yawning indicates that the industry has been successful over the past decade in quickly bringing big tech advancements to the masses.

But even after all the innovations of the past that have become commonplace, there are still new products that capture our imagination. CES 2020 provided plenty of stimulation for that forward-thinking imagination. After passing by several thousand exhibits, we were impressed with the following trends:

• A PC/laptop revival with some new and exciting form factors • An explosion of wireless earphones and ear buds • Artificial Intelligence (AI) playing much larger role in everyday tasks and work • Big growth in health and wellness technology • Tech to help overcome human physical limitations The rumors of the death of the PC (and laptop) have been widely exaggerated. But these tried and true computing platforms just won’t go away, as we saw more innovation than usual. Dual screen laptops were the biggest hit and largest innovation category. Microsoft had already announced a new dual-screen device called Surface Neo before the show, while others are following suit. Dell has the Dell Duet, and Lenovo introduced the ThinkPad X1 Fold (technically just one screen that folds in half). 5G—the new ultra-fast digital cellular network currently being rolled out nationwide—was an undercurrent for just about everything this year. We are now seeing 5G-compliant laptops coming to market, including Dell’s impressive Latitude 9510, which is a great business-level laptop that is both 5G and WiFi 6 compliant and boasts an incredible 30-hour battery life. HP and Lenovo also had new 5G capable models, the HP Elite Dragonfly and Lenovo Yoga 5G, respectively.

As we walked the exhibit floor, we’re not sure if we saw more wireless ear buds protruding out of the ears of the 175,000 attendees or more booths hawking the “best sounding” wireless ear buds on the market. Like a swarm of locusts, wireless ear buds were everywhere. Apple surely started this trend with its impressive AirPods. We saw everything from AirPod knockoffs from various little-known foreign companies to really top-of-the-line competitors like Samsung’s Galaxy Buds and Jaybird’s Elite Active 75t.

AI has been around for a long time and has meant different things to different sectors of the economy. Many think of technology like Amazon’s ever-popular Alexa assistant as AI, but we are beginning to see real AI applications at work and play that go well beyond a virtual assistant giving the weather and traffic conditions. For example, we spoke with a representative from John Deere at the company’s massive farm equipment exhibit and he talked about how AI integrates with the state-of-theart farming equipment to assist in preparing the soil, planting, fertilizing, and harvesting crops to maximize efficiency. Bill noted that the farming principles that the rep talked about were the same principles that Bill’s father applied decades ago as a farmer—but today they are being implemented on a massive scale by machine and artificial intelligence.

Continuing a trend from the past couple of years, we saw a huge growth in health and wellness technology. The (continued on page 16)

baby boomers are retiring at a rate of 10,000 per day, and many of them are looking to technology to make their golden years more healthy and enjoyable. The Withings ScanWatch has a built-in electrocardiogram for detecting arrhythmia. MedWand is a gadget that allows doctors to examine patients remotely. Mateo is a weight tracking smart bath mat that also measures body composition and posture. Neo HiFi was just one of many advancements in hearing aid technology. We may be getting old, but we’re fighting father time with all the tech we can get our hands on.

We were also reminded that there are much more formidable physical challenges that people face, and technology is making great strides. For people who suffer from dyslexia, Abeye introduced

Lexilens, smart eyewear that filters out the symptoms of this disorder. OrCam showcased MyEye 2.0, an advanced artificial vision device for people who are visually impaired.

Of course, CES would not be CES without a healthy dose of the bizarre. Samsung introduced its Star Wars-like personal robot ball called “Ballie.” We saw a toilet tissue robot that will retrieve a new roll for you if you are caught without a square to spare. There was the Manta5 water bike that lets you pedal a bike across a body of water (for real). You really have to go to CES to fully appreciate the breadth and diversity of today’s consumer technology. There is nothing like it in the entire world. We hope to still be going in 2030 when we will be laughing at all the tech we once thought

was only possible in science fiction. n

See you next month,

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