Wireless Wednesday for 1/6/16 - Rick at CES

Rick is in Las Vegas this week for the massive CES show, otherwise known as the Consumer Electronics Show.

Rick arrived on Sunday. Monday started with the Storage Visions Conference, a 2-day conference on digital and data storage. Monday night was the CES Unveiled Show, a press only event where some of the new gadgets debut. Tuesday is "Press Day" and it's wall-to-wall press conferences with all the big tech companies. Tuesday night is the Pepcom media event and the actual show begins Wednesday.

Here are some of Rick's finds and observations so far:

1.    This Show is Big

CES takes up most of the Las Vegas Strip.  Last year there  were 176,000 people. This year they say around 160,000.  This is one of the largest trade shows in the world and many of the new products shown here won't debut until later in 2016.
 

2.  Press Events are Important

The show is so large, it would be impossible to see everything. Therefore the press (1000s of them) come in days before for press events and briefings.

Rick attended the Fitbit press conference at 7:30 am on Tues to hear about Fitbits new products which were shown off my former Falcon great, Tony Gonzalez.

 

3.  A "Smart Everything"

Smart watches, smart cars, smart beds, a smart refrigerator an even the debut of a smart spoon this week in Vegas.
New for 2016, Slow Control has a "smart spoon." Of course they do, but the thought here is noble in that a toy makes kids want to try and eat vegetables. It's said this spoon will come out in the first quarter of 2016. Who would've thought that a spoon could be smart?
 

4.  Older Brands Trying to Become New Again

Remember RCA, Panasonic, Pioneer, Casio and more...'
These iconic brands all have a big presence at CES and are reinventing themselves in different ways.
***RCA is introducing some new TVs and accessories, working on info for the others...

5. Andre Agassi partners with Square Panda for a line of educational apps and devices for kids up to the age of 8

Who would've thought tennis great, Andre Agassi would be so involved with learning and educational opportunities for kids. The Andre Agassi foundation has workd for 20 years with Agassi's charter sachool in Las Vegas and now he has a line of apps and learning tools for kids.

This is the first in Square Panda’s line of educational products aimed at promoting literacy among preschool children. Along with its debut, Square Panda is proud to announce the appointment of Andre Agassi as a board member. He is also a founder of the Turner-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund which was established to provide investors seeking both financial and societal returns access to the growth of
America’s most innovative educational organizations.

Designed to teach, engage, and entertain early learners (ages three and up), the phonics play-set uses connected letter toys and multi-sensory apps to explore early reading skills.
Drawing from the latest research on phonics and multi-sensory instruction, Square Panda’s adaptive technology combines multi-sensory learning, humor, and exploratory play. Built upon proprietary hardware and software technology, its connected play-set adapts to recognize what a child is ready to learn and presents challenges to stretch growth and language skills.

See more at www.squarepanda.com

 


App of the Week:

Speedify

This is an app that debuted at CES...  Speedify Mobile
With Speedify Mobile, Android and iOS users can seamlessly combine Wi-Fi, mobile data and Bluetooth connections for faster and more reliable mobile Internet connectivity.

Speedify Mobile is solving the frustration that most smartphone users encounter daily, weak mobile or Wi-Fi signals that impede streaming media and make web pages fail to load. Speedify promises seamless mobile connectivity by intelligently switching between available Wi-Fi, mobile and Bluetooth networks or bonding them to create the best possible mobile experiences.

Speedify Mobile is also cost aware. It uses free Wi-Fi as long as it is available and will seamlessly move Internet traffic to mobile data only when necessary in order to conserve mobile data usage.

"We are thrilled to begin offering Speedify Mobile at CES 2016," said Chief Executive Officer, Alex Gizis. "We want to empower users all over the world with fast and reliable connectivity while ensuring they are getting the most out of their mobile plan."

The Speedify Mobile app establishes a connection to the company's Speed Servers in the cloud.  The technology works similar to a VPN by acting like a middleman between mobile devices and the rest of the Internet. The app works in tandem with their Speed Servers to intelligently divide Internet traffic at the packet-level taking best possible advantage of Wi-Fi and mobile data to deliver the combined availability and speeds of both connections. In this way, even single applications like streaming video, VPNs, and file transfers are given a speed boost on mobile devices.

To get started, simply download the app from the App Store for iOS devices or Google Play for Android devices. Speedify Mobile is being offered for free with 1 GB of speed-up data at launch with subscriptions for higher data use.