Makerbot unveiled its Replicator Mini and Z18, its respectively smallest and largest 3D printers to date. Both are consumer-facing and ready for market. Having firmly established itself as a the brand-to-know in the rapidly expanding 3D printing arena, it has sold over 44,000 universe, and over 48 million digital designs have been downloaded on its Thingiverse. The new devices aim to expand both of those figures. The Replicator Mini is a small, cheap device that Makerbot CEO Bre Pettis calls the “point-and-shoot” model for the Makerbot family, designed for one-touch, plug-and-play functionality with an app store – in other words, an easy to use, cheap, consumer facing baseline at $1,375. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Z18, the biggest unit to date that’s capable of producing 12″ x 12″ x 18″ printouts (Makerbot showcased a full-sized stormtrooper helmet at CES). It will be available in the spring of 2014, for $6,499. Both devices are a sure sign that 3D printing is here at least for the forseeable future, and that Makerbot is pushing as hard as it can to make 3D printing a conventional consumer product.
Category: Percolate
CES 2014: Google’s Open Automotive Alliance Takes Shape With Audi Tablet
Yesterday, Google announced the Open Automotive Alliance, which promised partnerships with the likes of Audi, GM, and Honda, and lent credence to the theories that automotive dashboards are a new major target area for technological development. Google is trying to meet that gap with Android: there will be Android-powered dashboards in cars as well as improvements to Android smartphones geared toward making them more car-friendly. At press time yesterday, it was unclear what those developments would look like, but today we have a very concrete example: Audi’s Smart Display. Clocking in at 10.2 inches, it’s an Android tablet that lives in your car and is designed with passengers in mind. At this point, the tablet appears to act as an Android-based command center for everything in the car, from Wi-Fi connection to media, navigation, and even temperature settings. It’s designed to sustain crashes, and can withstand the high temperatures of being left in a boiling car all afternoon on a summer’s day. This is but one manifestation of the Alliance, and expect more deep Android integration into these vehicles in the coming days, months, and years. The era of the connected car may very well be a physical reality, finally.
CES 2014: Sony’s Kaz Hirai Keynote Brings New Sony Streaming & Cloud Services
When Sony CEO Kaz Hirai took the stage at CES, most people were expecting something like the Playstation Now, one of many major product announcements he made. In essence, PSNow is a cloud gaming service for TVs, consoles, and phones; the service debuted at CES where test participants were able to play The Last Of Us streamed over Wi-Fi. The service is coming to a closed Beta at the end of the month, and is expected to roll out at the end of the summer, at which point it could become a very serious competitor to Steam.
What most people weren’t expecting, however, was for Hirai to announce other cloud-based services for live TV, DVR, and Video On Demand, which is precisely what he did. It’s more ambitious than the streaming PSNow, and it looks to build out the Sony Entertainment Network in a big way, drawing consumers into a network by bolstering content and storage options, much like 4K and Streaming TV providers have done thus far at CES this year. If Sony can pull it off as well, it will certainly be a big step towards the unified Only-Sony device network that Hirai has wanted for a while now.
CES 2014: TiVo’s Cloud-Based Video Recorder Emphasizes Social Sharing
Not to be outdone by Dish’s Hopper and SuperJoey, TiVo announced a new, cloud-based network digital video recorder at CES. The company is known for their range of DVRs, and the new Network DVR Cloud prototype aims to bring the efficiency of the original DVR to the cloud-based content that consumers are becoming accustomed to. Whereas with a traditional DVR Media content is typically stored in a subscriber’s set-top box hard drive, the NDVR stores media content in the service provider’s servers – the cloud. It also means that viewers can share content in the cloud to other authorized users, set up co-viewing experiences through social networks, as well as recommendations via cloud-based libraries. In short, keeping the content in the cloud, rather than on a hard drive, allows the data to be much more social and flexible.
At the same time, TiVo plans to let operators and programmers manage content rights, create multiscreen policies and various tiers of network personal video recording features, so it seems like the move will seek to benefit both producers and consumers alike.
CES 2014: New Pebble Steel Reaches For High End
Amongst the announcements by the goliath tech companies came the release of the Pebble Steel. Arguably the pioneer of the second generation of smartwatches, Pebble was preordered over 275,000 times ahead of its Best Buy debut this summer. The one facet of smartwatches that has failed to translate, however, is the higher end; it has been difficult to convince those who are used to higher end wristwear to purchase a smartwatch (which, debatably, is one of the main markets holding the technology back). The Pebble Steel, however, aims to change all that. With a matte stainless steel construction, a sleeker profile, and a smoother operating system with more processor power, the Steel has the look and feel of a high end product. It’s also at the price point to match: $249 per watch puts it firmly out of reach of the average consumer.
What’s more, there’s a brand-new app store arriving at the end of January, when the watch hits stores. At $100 more than the present offering, the Steel definitely brings wearable tech to the higher end price point, while, at least on first impression, bringing the looks to match.
CES 2014: Roku Partners With Hisense & TCL To Introduce Roku TVs
Set-top box company Roku took a big step forward at CES: they’ll start to manufacture TVs themselves with Hisence and TCL. The TVs themselves will range in size from 32 inches to 55 inches, and will all be wi-fi compatible. The typical TV will be simple: just a 20 button remote, with mobile device access thanks to the wi-fi and bluetooth. It’s also good news for partners Time Warner and Sky, who can push the Roku in place of their proprietary boxes and encourage viewers to stream their channels through the Roku TV.
The move is an acknowledgement that in the very near future, consumers won’t want to put boxes on top of their TVs, and would rather access internet and app-based content through the first screen itself. While gaming consoles certainly justify additional hardware, entertainment enthusiasts may be moving towards embedded technology within TVs.
CES 2014: Innovid & Cisco Debut New Targeted Second Screen Ads
Innovid and Cisco are showing their new advertising technology at CES this week. The idea is to target second screen apps based on what the user is watching, and to do it, Innovid and Cisco are working with cable providers to analyze content in real time and identify key-words from shows on-air to serve relevant advertising content onto second screens in users’ hands. For instance, if you’re watching a talk show and the host is talking about tablets, they can serve a tablet-related ad; if you’re watching a commercial about a tablet on TV, the tablet might bring you to the product page to learn more about the device. Even if someone doesn’t have a Comcast or Time Warner app open, they can still send push notifications. And with the partners’ approach of working with cable operators, it’s possible to integrate this type of second-screen targeting into larger campaigns. This will be a very interesting technique to keep a close eye on for advertisers and developers of campaigns going forward.
CES 2014: Clear Channel Brings iHeartRadio To Land Rover, Volvo, Kia
In a new announcement from CES, Clear Channel said that it’s going to be bringing its iHeartRadio digital radio service to new, diversified vehicles. Jaguar Land Rovers, Volvo, and Kia vehicles will now have iHeartRadio integrated into their connected dashboards. What’s more, BOSCH SoftTec, a car platform solution provider, will bring the radio service to OEMs that use its software. The service, which has over 20 million registered users, is now available in more than 15 OEMs and providers.
Shazam Automatically Adds Tagged Tracks To Rdio Playlists
In a new step in the partnership between Rdio and Shazam, users will now see their tagged Shazam songs in an Rdio playlist, on both Android and iOS. The playlist, called “My Shazam Tracks,” takes a lot of the pain out of having to do things manually. Naturally, the feature requires an Rdio subscription, which is $9.99/month. It’s doubtful that users will sign up exclusively for the feature, but this kind of cross-pollination is only natural between music-based products of this type.
Kindle & Surface Gain Tablet Share Over Holidays
Early holiday shopping data is trickling in, and we now know that Amazon and Microsoft both gained significant tablet market share over the 2013 holiday season. According to Chitika, Amazon is now at 9.4% market share, a 0.6% increase, and Microsoft is at 2.3%, which represents a 0.5% increase. Apple’s tablets are very clearly out in front, with a 76.1% market share, but there were clear chunks taken out of that lead over the past two months. The holidays didn’t spell entirely bad news for Apple; they were the only company to see good holiday news in the smartphone market, as usage numbers increased again last month.
