Does CES 2024 seem to be a real snoozefest? I know CES is really not a computer geeks paradise, but “transparent screens” really a thing?
Anybody even following this?
At least Intel filled out their 14th gen processor list - but as ArsTechnica reported:
yeah the CPU rebranding I think will just confuse/annoy the market.
But since Microsoft, Intel, and everyone else is gambling so heavily on Ai/NPUs/Copilot…I guess keeping those cores with NPU as a separate branding would make it easier to gauge the success/failure of them.
And should the industry be shocked and this overinflated rush to AI everything doesn’t yield the profits they want, Intel can just cut their loses and continue on with 15th gen.
On the other hand, CES has yeilded some awesome products thus far.
The ROG NUC, Asus 's latest Zenbook Duo, and the ThinkBook Plus Gen 5 Hybrid all look pretty interesting.
Nvidia’s showcase announcement on the 8th delivered no surprises, just a bunch of AI proselytizing and some lackluster updates to their consumer GPU line.
Some of the pre-show items on display included Samsung’s huge transparent screen, (not a beta, actually soon to be available for purchase), a face recognition door lock, a kitchen top barbeque smoker which won’t fill your house with fumes, and the next generation of little vacuum robots and other knickknacks, including a water bottle which doubles as a phone charger.
Of course, there are the meat and potatoes advancements in hard drives and wireless routers and such. Not necessarily exciting, but certainly not unnecessary. Just not the real reason people go to these events.
There’s also a slew of laptops and convertibles from all the regular vendors, some sporting MS’s new “NPU” (Neural Processor Unit) chip designed to offload specific math processes from the CPU in order to accelerate diffusion and other AI stuff. That could be good, though current benchmarks are lukewarm. Time will tell if developers figure out how to leverage it. AI won’t really be hitting consumer laptops until manufacturers radically alter how memory structures work, to allow for massive parallel processing within all those gigabytes of chip RAM. Until then, AI remains the domain of cloud services and Nvidia.
To be fair, the CES floor doesn’t open for real until today.
Oh…
And Apple wants to turn you into a freaking pod person with their new head-mounted augmented reality weirdo-goggles. But that’s not really news.
Why? - I just don’t get this one at all…
So you can (sort of) simulate a fish tank! -And only for around the same price as a real fish tank of that size. But without the algae.
…or the filter changes, or the antibiotics, or the scooping of the dead fish. Did I tell you my aquarium attempts were a failure? 
I see alot of potential utility in that. With many homes and apartments…depending on the size of the main TV, people always tend to decorate around the TV.
If the TV is itself transparent untill you use it…it can change all that. Like you can now decorate and visually use space that up to this point was obsureced by the TV.
Tech companies keep wanting to put us in sightless goggles so they can sell us their virtual reality. As far as I can see from the Meta failure, nobody wants to wear them. Apple’s decision to go down this rabbit hole while avoiding touchscreens or foldables is truly puzzling.
They did show of another Pen enabled 2in1 where docked it’s running Windows with an Intel Core Ultra 7 cpu & in tablet mode it’s running the older Android on a SD 8 Plus gen 1 cpu. Different storage for the tablet & dock portion, which is certainly a choice. Lenovo’s latest 2-in-1 crams Windows and Android into one device - The Verge
I think you told us the answer. “Sell us their virtual reality”. Munny, Munny, Munny!
Touchscreens on their laptops would significantly downgrade their ‘app’ store revenue stream if people could instead get touch-enabled software from third party vendors. Apple doesn’t take 30% of Adobe subscriptions. Why buy some loser software version for the iPad if your real computer can do the same thing better? In fact…, with an Apple foldable with a touch screen…, why bother having an iPad at all?
Those kinds of fears are likely what keep Apple execs awake at night. They might not be entirely well-founded fears, but there’s a definite lack of spines (and personality and vision) over in Apple’s ivory towers…
With Apple basically printing money with whatever it sells, why trade two sales for one?
This one is really cool, in case anyone does not yet know about it Dave2D has a good video on it. Asus learned a lot from the Lenovo Yoga 9i and added much better keyboard (with touchpad) and a very solid kickstand for both orientations. The price is somewhat reasonable (1500 dollar iirc).
The “new” Zenbook Duo is an interesting improvement over the 9i, BUT it is still too big. Bring me a Surface Neo clone.
Also, it is a strange design decision to use a 3k and FHD pairing (why not 2-3k on both):
The hinges on that Zenbook are such an odd choice - it doesn’t lay flat.
Only three items interested my soul:
-Sennheiser Momentum True wireless 4 (or whatever they’re called). I own the 3rd version.
-MSI Claw (No 32Gb ram version. Bah)
-Asus Nuc 14 (We use a few NUCs in work)
The way how Dave2D described it is that you can buy the more expensive model with 2 3k screens or the cheaper version with 2 fullhd screens (both at 120 hz and same contrast, color ratings etc.).
A smaller option would be interesting as well. Maybe unpopular opinion around here but I think 9" screens for Windows might be too small. But say around 11" or 12" should just be large enough to use enough programs conformably. Though I understand their choice for 14" because most laptops are in that range and they can tout with large screen area that way.
Like the way the keyboard fits inside between the screens like a real laptop (explains the strange hinge arrangement to accommodate that). Still seems a bit bulky and large, but maybe of interest to @Bishop - they nailed it with the keyboard compared to the 9i.
But I STILL want to see a Surface Neo with Snapdragon X…