Today (January 7th, 2016) is the second official day of CES 2016 and there were still a few announcements that were made but not as many as the past few days.
Motorola
The Motorola brand for smartphones will soon be a thing of the past.
Motorola’s Chief Operation Officer Rick Osterloh has confirmed in an interview with CNET that the Motorola brand will be phased out this year. Lenovo (Motorola’s parent company since their acquisition from Google in 2014) will use the Moto name for their high-end smartphones and the Vibe brand for their low-cost devices.
CNET reports:
Osterloh and his business, which will keep the Motorola name from an organizational standpoint, will soon take over all of the mobile operations at Lenovo. This means bringing Vibe phones into markets where Moto exists, and vice versa.
In markets where the Lenovo name is strong, the company intends to introduce the Moto line as an upscale product. Motorola will use the relationships and sales channels in its territories to push Vibe phones that cost less than $100. Osterloh said he expects to bring the Vibe line to the US, although it’s unlikely it would occur this year.
The phones will simply branded now as Moto by Lenovo. However, future Moto phones will still have the Motorola “M” logo (which sort-of looks like a set of bat wings).
Dell
Dell has announced a new 30-inch 4K UltraSharp monitor. It is also one of their first monitors to use OLED technology. The monitor will also have a narrow body as well as thinner bezels. It will also have USB-C port.
OLED is great for displaying intense colours and deep black levels. The refresh rate on this new monitor is 0.1ms. It will retail for $5,000 USD and be available on March 31st 2016.
That wasn’t the only monitor that Dell announced. They also revealed the Dell 23 Wireless Monitor & Dell 24 Wireless Monitor.
The two Dell Wireless Monitors have the ability to stream content from a Windows laptop and Android phone with no wires. This is using the Miracast technology. They also have a wireless charging pad built-in to the stand and supports the Qi and PMA wireless charging standards.
They both have a resolution of 1080p as well as built-in speakers, standard HDMI and USB 2.0 ports.
Both the Dell 23 Wireless Monitor & Dell 24 Wireless Monitor will be available on March 31st 2016. The 23-inch model will cost $429 USD and the 24-inch will cost $469 USD.
Pioneer
Besides become a new hardware partner for Google’s Cast technology, Pioneer still had some announcements of their own.
They announced a few new in-car aftermarket dashboard units that have support for both Android Auto as well as Apple CarPlay.
The AVH-4200NEX, AVIC-7200NEX and the AVIC-8200NEX, all have a 7-inch touch screen and support both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. The first two models listed have resistive touchscreen displays (think of like the one on the Wii U gamepad controller) while the last model, the 8200NEX has a capacitive touchscreen (which is what you would find on a smartphone or tablet these days).
Here is the pricing for each model:
- AVH-4200NEX – $700 USD
- AVIC-7200NEX – $1,200 USD
- AVIC-8200NEX – $1,400 USD
These units will be available later this year.
Casio
Casio, the infamous watch maker, is now getting into the smartwatch game with a new Android Wear watch.
It’s called the Casio WSD-F10, it was designed with the outdoors in mind. It can last up to 50 meters underwater and has been tested for shock, humidity and can withstand most temperatures.
The screen is 1.32-inches and you’ll also find preloaded apps for hiking, cycling, fishing and other outdoor activities.
The battery life is a different story, if you use it in regular mode with all the apps and etc, you get get about one day of use out of it. If you use the watch as just a watch (you know, those things that tell time), you can expect about a month or so. The battery also takes two hours to charge completely.
The Casio WSD-F10 will be available in April for $500 USD and come in four colours, green, orange, black and red.
Stay tuned to TheCanadianTechie this week for more awesome stuff from CES 2016.
TheCanadianTechie 