Head Of Samsung Research. Not Clear If This Will Be On Sale, Or What It Actually Does Other Than Hand You Stuff.
Samsung has showed off a robotic waiter and butler that can pour you wine and do the washing up. Bot Handy was briefly on display as part of Samsung’s presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The event is being held virtually this year, with lots of gadgets on show but none of the usual crowds. Among the other bizarre gadgets so far are a $3,000 (£2,220) pet flap that connects to your smartphone and a luxurious bathtub that connects to Amazon Alexa. Normally, CES attracts tens of thousands of technology fans and executives to the strip and hotels such as Caesars Palace and the Venetian. This time around, nearly all the developments and launches at the show are being done online.
TCL unveils smart glasses
Another pair of smart glasses comes from TCL, the Chinese state-owned electronics company, which is trying to give users the feeling of watching a giant screen in front of them. Two 1080p screens are mounted inside the lenses, with video via a USB-C cable connection. It’s not clear how widely available these glasses will be, though the company says it wants to bring them to the US as part of a smartphone deal.
CES: Meet Reah, the virtual influencer and DJ
Reah Keem is a hip influencer, DJ and she’s also virtual. On show from LG, Reah has her own Instagram page and SoundCloud, where the virtual character produces music – well one song so far to be exact.
Moderation or censorship: Who should be calling the shots
There is plenty of debate in the tech world today over the rights and wrongs of Twitter and Facebook choosing to suspend US president Donald Trump from their services. Harry De Quetteville asks whether the right solution is giving Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey to make calls on freedom of speech, or breaking up their huge power This is not a freedom of speech issue. It is a concentration of power issue. Zuckerberg and Dorsey have been more or less making it up as they go along, creating rules for user behaviour, then bending them depending on how important (“newsworthy” in their lingo, those users are).
CES: Here we go
Right, Samsung as usual has not disappointed with its bizarre consumer electronics technology. Don’t expect any of this to be appearing in your local Currys any time soon, but here are some of the more whacky future gazing gadgets being showcased by the South Korean tech firm. First, Samsung shows off Bot Care. Bot Care has actually been around since 2019, but this latest model appears to be more tuned towards self-care and general nannying. In the demonstration video, the new Bot Care tells a user she has been at her computer for too long and should take a stretch. We’ve also had another look at Bot Handy. According to Samsung’s head of research Seung: “Bot Handy uses Ai to understand objects, such as a ceramic plate… it can understand gestures, set the table or put away groceries. It flips the script on what a robot in your home could look like.”
Samsung: Meet Handy
More as I get it, as this just got a very passing mention in Samsung’s presentation, but Samsung showed off a new friendly robot – Handy – in its presentation with Sebastian Seung, head of Samsung Research. Not clear if this will be on sale, or what it actually does other than hand you stuff. There are several other robots that Samsung says will help around the house, including a pet cleaner and an artificially intelligent hoover.
CES: Samsung is up
Fridges! The CES classic strikes again. Samsung is using the prime time of its press conference to promote its “Bespoke” fridge line up – which as far as I can tell means lots of different colours and sizes. Samsung is also showing off its Sero and Serif TVs. One can be flipped from vertical to horizontal, to show off your Instagram, I suppose, and the other is designed like an art installation or frame. It has also launched a Terrace television, an outdoor TV for your garden. Samsung has also launched a 110-inch television with a new micro-LED screen. We don’t have a final price for this year, but in South Korea, it has been priced at around £114,000.
CES: Cleaner robots and waiters
LG have also been showing off a new tranche of robots that it says is part of a new “robot human co-existence”. Among these are a LG Cloi server waiter, and an LG robotic food robot. We’ve seen some of these bots before, the latest that LG has launched, however, is its LG room disinfecting robot. The autonomous robot can be sent into hotel rooms, where it trundles around disinfecting surfaces with ultra violet light. However, LG’s Cloi line is perhaps best remembered for its on-stage robotic fail, where its robot disconnected from the Wi-Fi and failed, repeatedly, to respond to commands from its CES presenter.
CES: LG keynote shows off anti-Covid innovations
LG is kicking off the early keynotes at this year’s CES. In what is likely to become a theme this year, anti-Covid and air purification gadgets and gizmos have taken centre stage at the South Korean TV maker. Among the gadgets in LG’s keynote were its PuriCare Mini Air purifier. This portable air purifier claims to remove 99pc of harmful air particles and allergens. It is also selling a wearable air purifier, a mask that includes a motorised air purifier built in. Of course, it would not be an LG presentation without a promotion for a smart fridge. LG shows off its new fridge “instaview” technology. A user simply has to double tap the fridge door on its latest models, and the door will offer a transparent view of what is inside the fridge – saving you, er, opening the fridge to find out.
CES 2021: Smart glasses that can be ‘tuned’
Swapping between glasses could soon become a thing of the past. Now, a company is planning to offer a pair of “smart glasses” that can be tuned for what the wearer needs them for. Voy’s glasses are adjustable and feature a small wheel in the frame that lets a wearer tweak the strength of the lens focus. The Voy glasses will start at $59 for US customers. The glasses rely on two polycarbonate plates that slide across each other, adjusting the focal strength of the glasses.
‘Be prepared to lose all your money’
The Financial Conduct Authority has re-iterated its warnings that digital coin investors should be prepared to lose all their money, after Bitcoin hit new highs of more than $40,000 over the weekend. The FCA warned cryptocurrency speculators they “should be prepared to lose all their money”, Sam Benstead reports. It comes as the FCA extends a deadline for UK cryptocurrency firms to abide by money-laundering and anti-terror financing rules. The new rules had been due to come in from Sunday, with firms signing up to a new register. But the FCA has yet to process dozens of applications, leading to a six-month reprieve.
‘I’ve made £100k’
Of course, while the coins may be risky, some people have managed to cash in and make a quick buck from Bitcoin’s 50pc jump in December alone. You can read Telegraph’s Money’s interviews with some of Bitcoin’s winners here.
$3,000 pet flap connects to your smartphone
Pet tech often grabs the headlines at CES, and this year the standout product looks to be a pet flap that connects to your smartphone – and will set you back a princely $3,000. The myQ Pet Portal launched at this year’s CES. The digitised pet flap turns your boring analogue hole-in-the-door into a fully automated and responsive pet entry system. You replace your door with a specially designed pet door that slides open and shut. Cameras and a smart collar for your pet let you check when it wants to go in or out, and you can unlock and lock the door after it.
Payments firms cut off Trump campaign
Stripe, the US payments processing company, has also moved to cut ties with US President Donald Trump and his campaign. The Wall Street Journal reports Stripe has cut off Trump’s campaign website, adding it to the list of tech companies blocking the US President that includes Facebook and Twitter.
Amazon warned Parler over violent posts
Over the weekend, Amazon warned Parler its moderation plans to prevent calls for further violence in the wake of the riot at Capitol Hill last Wednesday fell far short of its requirements. It came as some Parler users, amid calls for Amazon to cut the site loose, suggested Amazon should also be targeted. “Recently, we’ve seen a steady increase in this violent content on your website, all of which violates our terms,” Amazon told Parler, according to BuzzFeed News. “It’s clear that Parler does not have an effective process to comply with the AWS terms of service. “[W]e cannot provide services to a customer that is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others.” Parler was paying Amazon as much as $300,000 per month for online hosting, BuzzFeed reported.
Bitcoin price drops 12pc from record high
Away from CES: The price of digital coin has dipped after a record-breaking run to more than $40,000 (£29,600), falling around 12pc from its peak in Asian trading on Monday. Bitcoin fell as low as $33,500, while digital coin Ethereum also dropped as much as 20pc.
Sweet bliss
Here’s something from CES that would make a welcome distraction from this year’s constant fear and doom. CES is always full of no shortage of weird technology, and this year will be no exception. So meet, the Kohler Stillness voice activated bath. This tub uses Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa to respond to your commands, adjusting the lighting or even adding a smooth fog across the bath for ultimate zen. In order to take this bath, you will need to part with at least $8,698 (£6,444) according to the Verge. Kohler has previously wowed CES attendees with its trademark, er, smart toilets, giving Amazon connectivity to bodily functions with added mood lighting and music.
What to expect from CES today
The first round of press events and showcases will get started, virtually that is, in Las Vegas. This year, there will be less of the glitz (and garishness) of the strip and hotels, but still plenty of tech companies vying for attention. Today, the main events are reveals from LG, Bosch, Samsung, Intel and lastly Sony. But this is what has been on show already:
LG’s bendable screens
Can’t decide between a regular gaming screen and an immersive curved one? LG has video game players in mind with its 48-inch gaming TV that can swap from flat to curved at the push of a button.
Transparent TV screens
The South Korean company has also given a sneak peak at transparent TV displays, such as this one attached to a smart bed. The 55-inch TV screen emerges from the foot of the bed to provide a display for entertainment or morning updates.
Five things to start your day
- The roadblocks in the way of Apple’s driverless ambitions. The iPhone-maker has long maintained an interest in autonomous vehicles, butexperts doubt we will see an ’iCar‘ soon.
- Apple and Amazon dump Parler. The two tech giants cut off the “free speech” social media network from their services, after Parler was among those sites used to organise last week’s riot in Washington D.C.
- The consequences of Trump’s Twitter ban go beyond the President. Some 74m people voted for a man who no longer has a place on Facebook and Twitter – and a sizeable proportion of them will now look elsewhere.
- Algorithm that calculated vaccine priority order missed key groups of people. A member of the committee advising Government vaccine strategy said the data used by the algorithm had limits.
- Losses spiral at Travis Kalanick’s British takeaway kitchen start-up. FoodStars is operating ‘dark kitchens’ across London, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham.
This news was originally published at Telegraph