Overheard at CES: mumblings of the tired and extremely nerdy
"'Tired but vaguely aroused' pretty much describes my CES experience."
Bitcoin punks go corporate at CES
The controversial digital currency Bitcoin has a display at CES. It's a good-sized booth, featuring a giant picture of a smiling woman holding an iPhone running a Bitcoin app. Crystal Campbell, a waitress who works at an Orlando restaurant that...
Bitcoin cleans up nice
Night into daytime: behind the scenes of CES 2013
Friends, acquaintances, co-conspirators, everyone in between: thank you. It was a crazy week of newsgathering, photographing, video producing, showrunning, podcasting, binge eating, power-napping, and above all, storytelling.
What did we do? We lost ourselves in the Oculus Rift. We experienced a new form of existentialism with Qualcomm. We went behind-the-scenes at casinos to talk about the...
The Biggest Stories of CES
- January 7, 2013 Oculus Rift: deep inside the immersive, disorienting virtual reality gaming experience
- January 8, 2013 Exclusive interview: Valve's Gabe Newell on Steam Box, biometrics, and the future of gaming
- January 10, 2013 How Kickstarter stole CES: the rise of the indie hardware developer
- January 10, 2013 The weird and wild interfaces of CES 2013
- January 10, 2013 Will 4K TV drive a content and broadband revolution?
I rode the ZBoard in Las Vegas and it changed my life
I'm something of an electric skateboard veteran. Last year at CES I rode the Board of Awesomeness, an electric skateboard that uses a Kinect and a Windows 8 tablet to function. This year at CES I had the opportunity to ride the ZBoard; an electric skateboard that works like a Segway — leaning...
Samsung flexible OLED phone prototype (hands-on)
Samsung gave us a brief glimpse during it keynote today of its first phone using a flexible display, and now we've just had the opportunity to handle the device for ourselves. The phone, which is a nameless prototype, has a screen that falls off towards the rear edge of the device on the right...
CBS says it won't interfere in CNET's 'actual news,' just reviews
Are news and reviews subject to different ethical standards? That appears to be the message from CBS in response to Dish's controversial Hopper DVR. Official CBS policy now bans CNET from reviewing products implicated in lawsuits, but claims CNET still has complete editorial independence over "actual news."
On Monday, CBS issued a statement to the New York Times calling the ban on the Hopper "an isolated and unique incident in which a product that has been challenged as illegal." A spokesperson noted that not only CBS but other media companies had brought suit against Dish. "CBS has nothing but the highest regard for the editors and...
"Today this is about Dish. Where will it be tomorrow?" Bob Toevs, Dish
Microsoft just teased the next Xbox at CES
Microsoft didn't have a booth or even an official press event at the Consumer Electronics Show this year, but that didn't stop the company from jumping on stage twice. CEO Steve Ballmer joined Qualcomm for its bizarre opening keynote, and more importantly Microsoft’s Chief Technology Strategy Officer, Eric Rudder, joined the Samsung keynote to showcase the IllumiRoom technology. Based on a combination of a Kinect for Windows camera and a projector, IllumiRoom combines the virtual and physical worlds of a TV and living room for true augmented reality.
Redmond's fascination with augmented reality continues
CNET confirms that Dish Hopper was chosen as 'Best of CES' before CBS vetoed the decision
CNET has confirmed what we reported this morning: the commercial-skipping Dish Hopper had been chosen for its "Best of CES" award before being overruled by parent company CBS. In a post, Editor-in-Chief of Reviews Lindsey Turrentine describes the...
"The circumstances demanded more transparency and not hurried policy." Lindsey Turrentine, Reviews Editor-in-Chief
Not in my house: how Vegas casinos wage a war on cheating
“I think most people feel that if you can find a way to beat the casino, more power to you,” says Arnold Synder, his eyes, those telltale features, hidden behind a pair of black sunglasses. “This place set up the rules, they provide the...
The only way to win is to fight fire with fire
Qualcomm's insane CES 2013 keynote in pictures and tweets
2013 was the first time in many years that Microsoft didn't host the opening keynote for the Consumer Electronics Show here in Las Vegas. Instead, the show went to Qualcomm and its CEO, Dr. Paul Jacobs. We weren't quite sure what to expect beyond...
Oculus Rift: deep inside the immersive, disorienting virtual reality gaming experience
We just met with the team behind the Oculus Rift, which started out as a DIY project that quickly morphed into into a Kickstarter success story. Oculus is here at CES showing off the dev kit it plans to ship out to backers in March, and got a chance to play with near-final hardware and software...
The Chinese Electronics Show: can China's biggest brands buy their way into America?
Huawei, Hisense, Changhong. These names are unfamiliar to Americans for now, but in a few years they will be as synonymous with consumer electronics as Sony and Samsung.
That’s the party line out of China, at least, where major electronics makers seem to have simultaneously decided that this...
Microsoft's partners fly the Windows 8 flag, but the future is Surface
Microsoft might not have been at CES this year, but its partners and OEMs were out in full force. A quiet showing from Redmond at a time when the company is trying to push Windows 8 to the world could be seen as an unusual move, but looking around...
The best phones of CES 2013
With Sony, Samsung, LG, and others all present at CES, smartphone announcements are in full swing. Newcomers to the smartphone game like Vizio are making their grand entrance in Las Vegas as well, while established companies like Huawei are doing...
Release your inner cross dresser with the future of advertising
Remember how ads in Minority Report were interactive? We've just played with a demo unit of such a system here at CES 2013; it's called Swivel digital signage, and it uses a Kinect sensor to place clothes and accessories onto passersby. The idea...
The Verge Playlist: CES 2013
Well, another CES is over and done with. The trailer is being dismantled and most of our team is in flight from Las Vegas or will be soon.
For us, CES isn't just about covering news, and writing features and reports, and doing liveblogs. Well, it...
3D printing: Precision arrives with Formlabs and the Form 1
We first heard about Formlabs’s high-resolution Form 1 3D printer back in September. Where most mainstream printers use the equivalent of a hot glue gun to lay plastic down layer-upon-layer in order to build up a part, the Formlabs’s approach...
Clamcase Pro offers a much-improved take on the iPad as a laptop (hands-on)
The original Clamcase was one of the most flawed iPad keyboards we tried in our roundup — since then, the company has gone back to the drawing board and is now debuting a much-improved new model called the Clamcase Pro. Aside from being iPad...
The Pebble smartwatch keeps it simple (hands-on)
Now that Pebble has announced it's shipping to Kickstarter backers on January 23rd, the company is finally ready to show off the final hardware and software on its smartwatch. We spent some time putting the watch through its paces and talking with...
90 Seconds on The Verge: the best of CES, Samsung's RT choice, and skyfall
We're a roving video team without a studio to call home. Nomads with a monopod and dream, our determination to bring you news knows no bounds or need for a lease / rental agreement / mortgage. Collectively, we know no bounds, and even in our more...
Heading home: here's what it takes to leave CES
First, the bad news: CES is ending. All the cool stuff on the show floor is being packed into crates, loaded into tractor trailers and shipped home. The television walls are coming down and the demos are being dismantled. By Tuesday, all this...
What it's like to drive a 1600-pound mechanical spider
Today I was lucky enough to experience driving the Mondo Spider, a 1600 lb, five foot-tall and eight foot-long mechanical spider powered by hydraulics. The spider was built in 2006 by eatART, a non-profit in Vancouver, B.C, and can move at up to...
Invasion of the body trackers: take me to your leader
There's no doubt about it — CES 2013 marked the point where fitness- and health-tracking devices became a legitimate affair. The category until now has been dominated by a few success stories — Fitbit, FuelBand, and so on — and true to CES...
- Follow the Big Stories
We Found Fur In an iPhone Case: How a little bunny brightened a dark day at CES
Trent Wolbe will be publishing daily photo essays from CES. This is the next in the series.
As LL Cool J took the stage at Sony’s massive exhibition space I was ready to pronounce this year’s CES dead on arrival. He was there to hype his regrettably-named music collaboration software...
Reader poll: you pick the best of CES 2013
CES is winding down, and while we're furiously applying ChapStick and eyedrops to keep ourselves from drying up and disintegrating, we've taken some time to pick the best of the best from this year's show for the inaugural Verge Awards. From the Oculus Rift to the Samsung easel TV to the Qualcomm...
Health and fitness of CES 2013
There were plenty of trends here at CES 2013, and we'd be remiss to overlook all of the activity trackers and other health-related tech devices that were shown off at the show. If you're looking to catch up, you're in the right place.
QNX's Car platform 2.0 puts a 1080p display, LTE, and video calling in your car
QNX may be best known for providing the underpinning for RIM's BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook operating systems, but it also has been building embedded systems for years, including those that run many car manufacturers' navigation systems. At CES 2013, the company was demoing its new Car platform 2.0...
Samsung won't launch Windows RT tablets in the US, blames confusion and weak demand
Samsung's line of Windows Ativ tablets was announced just this past fall, but it doesn't look like the company will be bringing the RT version to the US any time soon. Speaking to CNET, Samsung executive Mike Abary said that the Qualcomm-powered RT tablet will not be sold in the US, citing the high cost of educating the consumer on Windows RT and studies from retail partners that said demand for Windows RT tablets was not enough to warrant the heavy investment in consumer education.
"...there was a lot of heavy lifting we still needed to do to educate the customer on what Windows RT was."
"When we did some tests and studies on how we...
The final (NSFW) Vergecast After Hours of CES 2013
It's hard to believe all this is about to come to a close. Really feels like CES has only been going on for just a day — one very long day, in fact, if passage of time is measured in moments of actually falling asleep. This weekend will be...
Will.i.am is the most CES celebrity ever
CES introduced an entrepreneur-focused keynote this year called "Next Generation of Innovators," part of a larger strategy to pull in smaller startups to the trade show. Black Eyed Peas member-turned-techie will.i.am stole the show with his J...
So 3013
Mio Alpha is a less cumbersome heart rate watch for athletes
It's not hard to find fitness trackers here at CES (just take a look around the South Hall), but one that has caught our eye outside of the usual suspects is the Mio Alpha. The company is here with its heart rate watch after a successful Kickstarter campaign this summer, and we've just had the...
PowerA's Moga Pro controller brings a console-style feel to Android gaming
There are plenty of Android gaming controllers here at this year's CES, but one of the better options we've seen comes from PowerA. To lend an even stronger console feel to Android games, the company has announced its new Moga Pro controller here at the show. The peripheral improves on the...
