CES 2019: Philips Hue launches new motion sensor, adds more outdoor lighting options

Philips Hue adds more outdoor lighting options, in case you need them. One of them is a new Hue Outdoor sensor that’s going on sale next month in the US for US$50. It’s capable of detecting motion up to 39 feet away. You can stick it anywhere you want, and it’s just powered by a battery. You can pair that with the new outdoor lights that range from US$110 to $140. The cheapest one is a white floodlight, while the most expensive option is a colour-changing floodlight. There is also a series of colour-changing lanterns, if you’re interested in those.

On top of introducing new outdoor lights, Philips Hue lights are getting new Google Assistant features. You can set Hue lights to sync with your morning alarm, so these slowly brighten before the alarm goes off. Conversely, you can set these to fade out at night after a specific time. Expect to get these functions in March.

Source: The Verge

CES 2019: VLC plans to add AirPlay support

Janko Roettgers/Variety

We concentrate a lot on hardware with our CES coverage but there’s been a lot of movement in the software space. And Apple has a way of being at the show without actually being there. This time we get an update from open-source video player VLC. Jean-Baptiste Kempf, one of the app’s lead developers, told Variety that it plans to bring AirPlay support from Android or iPhone to the Apple TV. It should be coming to the main VLC app in “about a month” for free. The video app closes in out its three billion download mark and has been celebrating the news at its booth in CES.

The other feature VLC was demoing at CES included better support for virtual reality, making it possible to watch 2D movies in a virtual theater environment within VR headsets. The developers managed to reverse-engineer most VR headsets to natively support VR video through the main VLC app without needing to add “hundreds of megabytes” of code to VLC. The demo was just based on around 1MB of additional code.

CES 2019: ASUS ROG Mothership reimagines the desktop replacement laptop

If we bulked up and branded the Microsoft Surface Pro as a gaming device, the ASUS Republic of Gamers Mothership is what it’s going to look like. There’s no denying the visual impact of this desktop replacement laptop. The screen and keyboard can come apart and make it seem like some sort of really bulky laptop but smaller all-in-one PC. The 17.3-inch 144Hz G-Sync screen stands on its own in a similar way as the Nintendo Switch does and it’s important because ASUS says this helps facilitate the flow of “more air into its advanced cooling system.” ASUS pairs this with powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 and an Intel Core i9-8950HK processor.

ASUS opted to try out this design because based on its observation and research gamers liked to connect external keyboards to existing laptops and play games. According to their study, “gamers prefer their keyboards off to the side and at an angle.” Cooling is the other important consideration. ASUS wanted this beast of a laptop to be somewhat portable and to do that, the company opted out of liquid-cooling. Having an upright design increases the effectiveness of its air-cooling system. There’s no word on price and availability just yet but don’t expect this to be a cheap device.

Source: IGN

CES 2019: Hyundai’s concept car is made for walking

And that’s just what it will do, if Hyundai does make this concept into a reality (at the moment it’s just been done at 1/8^th of its scale), that is. Hyundai’s Elevate concept fits right into our image of living on Mars, a Boston Dynamics-like robot that can drive and walk you with its bendable legs. What a strange concept. But Hyundai’s idea is that it can be used to navigate difficult terrain, which could help everyone out from first responders to the military. Space exploration is something the automaker is also considering. The Hyundai Elvate is called an “Ultimate Mobility Vehicle.” Hyundai plans for it to be electric-powered and modular so vehicle bodies can be swapped depending on user’s requirements. As you see in the video above, it has for “legs” with each of these having a series of joints, allowing the vehicle to mimic both reptilian and mammalian walking gaits. It’s a strange, slightly creepy concept we’re still dying to see actually happen.

Source: The Verge