The coolest technology and moments from CES 2012 (slideshow)

January 15, 2012 9:15 PM Heather Kelly
Heather Kelly

Last week, four VentureBeat reporters and our videographer braved the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. They covered 1.861 million square feet of show floor, visited many of the 3,100 exhibitors, and sorted through the 20,000 new products that …

Wireless controlled cameras let you broadcast your ski run live to Ustream

January 15, 2012 12:42 PM Dean Takahashi
Dean Takahashi

Contour is a fast-growing video camera company that lets you capture your favorite outdoor activities — like skiing down a momentum — at the moment of maximum fun.

The company announced a partnership with Cerevo that allows you to stream …

More than just hype, Ultrabooks are the future of laptop computing

January 14, 2012 8:15 AM Devindra Hardawar
Devindra Hardawar

Editor's Pick

There’s a good chance that your next laptop will be thinner and lighter than you can possibly imagine.

This week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Intel unveiled its grand plan to make Ultrabooks — its snazzy name …

PixelOptics shows off electronic-focusing eyeglasses (video)

January 13, 2012 7:00 AM Dean Takahashi
Dean Takahashi

PixelOptics makes what it calls the world’s first and only electronic-focusing eyeware, dubbed emPower. It essentially creates the effect of bifocals without forcing you to look through two different lenses.

The Roanoke, Va.-based company showed off the technology at the …

Lytro’s “revolutionary” light-field camera wins Last Gadget Standing at CES

January 12, 2012 2:09 PM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Camera startup Lytro has won the Last Gadget Standing competition at the Consumer Electronics Show for its “revolutionary” light-field camera.

Lytro debuted its camera in mid-October to considerable buzz, thanks to its engaging technology that changes how you can take …

Virtual shopping with Bodymetrics will show how outfits fit on your body

January 12, 2012 12:59 PM Dean Takahashi
Dean Takahashi

Bodymetrics used the technology in Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing system for the Xbox 360 for a virtual shopping application.

If it works, it could enhance the experience of shopping for clothing online, which has become at $30 billion market. At the …

Philips debuts headphones line for the Android fanboy in all of us

January 12, 2012 12:05 PM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Major electronics manufacturer Philips debuted a new line of headphones and earbuds targeted at Android phone owners at the Consumer Electronics Show this week.

The company makes some of the best-sounding, affordable earbuds on the market, and now it is …

ARM CEO: Intel’s Medfield mobile chips are “good enough”

January 12, 2012 11:41 AM Devindra Hardawar
Devindra Hardawar

The head of ARM Holdings isn’t sweating Intel’s foray into the mobile chip market, where ARM’s chip designs have dominated over the past few years.

“It’s inevitable Intel will get a few smartphone design wins — we regard Intel as …

Justin Bieber makes a dancing robot even cooler at CES

January 11, 2012 6:25 PM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Canadian pop superstar Justin Bieber made an appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday to help promote a dancing robot from TOSY Robotics. No, he did not dance “the robot” with the robot, but hey, at least he signed …

Striiv tells me I walked 8,686 steps at CES today (video)

January 11, 2012 5:41 PM Dean Takahashi
Dean Takahashi

Striiv is a little keychain gadget with a display that counts how many steps you take in a day. I used it at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today and it told me I walked 8,686 steps, or …

Hands-on with the unique Sony Xperia Ion and Xperia S smartphones (video, pics)

January 11, 2012 2:53 PM Devindra Hardawar
Devindra Hardawar

Sony has yet to have a major success with its Xperia line of Android smartphones, but it may have a shot with its two new models, the Xperia Ion and Xperia S, which were announced at the Consumer Electronics Show …

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski warns of looming wireless spectrum crunch

January 11, 2012 2:01 PM Dean Takahashi
Dean Takahashi

The U.S. needs to address the looming wireless spectrum crunch to allow for continued innovation in broadband wireless, Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski said Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show.

One of the ways to do that is to …

Hands-on with Nokia’s best phone in years (pics, video)

January 11, 2012 1:37 PM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Nokia announced the anticipated Lumia 900 smartphone earlier this week at the Consumer Electronics Show, and we decided to spend some well-needed hands-on time with the device.

Simply put, the Nokia Lumia 900 may be the single best phone Nokia …

Sony is bringing its Music Unlimited streaming service to iOS soon

January 11, 2012 12:23 PM Devindra Hardawar
Devindra Hardawar

Sony’s Music Unlimited streaming music service has been available on Android devices and PCs for some time now, but iOS users have been left out — until now.

The electronics company will offer a free iPhone and iPad app for …

Game streaming service OnLive to be preloaded on all Google TVs

January 11, 2012 9:52 AM Dean Takahashi
Dean Takahashi

It’s going to get a lot easier to play cloud-based games on your television soon. Game streaming service OnLive announced today that its viewing service will be preloaded on the Google TV service.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las …

Grover & Jabbawockeez dancers invade Qualcomm’s CES keynote (video)

January 11, 2012 8:55 AM Devindra Hardawar
Devindra Hardawar

Monday CES attendees saw a choir singing tweets for Microsoft, and Tuesday they got Sesame Street’s Grover and the world-renowned dance group Jabbawockeez at Qualcomm’s CES keynote.

Grover joined a Qualcomm representative to show off the company’s Vuforia augmented reality …

Hands on with Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga, a Windows 8 laptop/tablet hybrid (video)

January 11, 2012 7:15 AM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Lenovo has been busy at CES 2012 with debuts for smart TVs and laptops, but its coolest device may be the upcoming IdeaPad Yoga, a laptop that can bend over backwards and turn into a Windows 8 tablet.

With laptops …

Gear4′s Sleep Clock uses iPhone, radar to help you sleep better (video)

January 11, 2012 6:00 AM Dean Takahashi
Dean Takahashi

Sometimes you wake up and you feel drained. It’s like you never slept at all. Right now, in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show, I know the feeling.

Gear4 might have a solution with its Sleep Clock, which uses …