So the Consumer Electronics Show is over for another year, and for those who’ve been in Las Vegas covering it for us, it’s back to normality. While we allow the Cult of Mac team to sober up, it’s time to look back at the best gizmos CES had to offer. There were thousands of products on show — far too many to cover in one week — but there were a handful that really stood out.
We’ve put together a list of awesome things that we were blown away by, including smartphones, accessories, gadgets, and more. Check it out and tell us what you’re most looking forward to getting your hands on in 2013.
Lego Mindstorms has just evolved. The latest announcement from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas from the Denmarased toy company is that their popular robotics hardware and software, Mindstorms, is getting a new command module, the EV3. It will be iOS and Android compatible from the start, letting even more kids and the young at heart program and control their robots from mobile devices.
Samsung has announced this evening that they’ve shipped a surprising five million Galaxy Notes in only five month’s time. The 5.3-inch phablet has received a lot of attention from Samsung, ever since it was launched overseas in October. Samsung touted the larger screen and stylus, and even showed it off during the Super Bowl.
If you’re jealous of ASUS getting Android 4.0 and happen to own an Archos G9 tablet, you’re about to get some good news. According to sources over at Android Police, Archos will be updating all their G9 tablets to Ice Cream Sandwich within the first week of February. In addition, all G9 tablets sold in February should come pre-loaded with Android’s latest operating system.
Philips unveiled its GoGear Connect 3.5’ media player along with a slew of Android headsets at CES. While there wasn’t much information about the GoGear Connect 3, we do know it will feature Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), 720p HD video, Skype communication, and more than 300,000 apps and games from the Android Market. This Wi-Fi enabled touch screen MP4 player is also said to bring a superior sound experience through Philips’ FullSound and Surround for Movies technologies. No word was given on price, but it is supposed to be available in April 2012.
Google TV will be getting OnLive gaming support very soon, and in preparation of this monumental event, users can now start spectating these live games via the OnLive Viewer app. OnLive is a popular cloud gaming service that streams high-end console video games straight to your screen without the need for high-end hardware. Cloud based gaming is considered by many to be the future of gaming and will free gamers from hardware restraints and allow for a truly unified mobile gaming experience across various platforms. It’s only fitting that the OnLive service be coming to Google TV, as GTV has been working hard on bringing on-demand multimedia to your TV, and what better addition than on-demand gaming.
There have been various ways to access live TV on your mobile device, my personal choice being Slingplayer, but up until now, you were forced to watch whatever was being played through your main cable feed (or visa versa). Motorola hopes to change all that with their Televation product. With Televation, users will have an independent, dedicated content feed from their cable provider that can be streamed to any connected IP device for viewing across a user’s wireless network. The product was actually announced back in June but they had some demos here at CES to show off just how well it works.
Coming off the announcement of “World’s thinnest smartphone,” Huawie has introduced a new series of MediaPad tablets. The first announcement was for Huawei’s new MediaPad, which appears to be the same as the original MediaPad released in June, but will come pre-installed with Android 4.0. This would make the MediaPad one of the world’s first tablets to come pre-loaded with the new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. I guess Huawei is really going for those “world’s first” titles. Besides the new MediaPad with Ice Cream Sandwich, Huawei has announced a new MediaPad color series.
While many companies are touting their newest Android devices, Sony has not only released new devices, but has some pretty cool accessories to go along with them. These aren’t your average run of the mill Android accessories either, they’re “Smart Extras” for Android. Sony announced three new “Smart Extras” and one in particular has me dreaming up endless possibilities. Let’s take a look at what Sony has presented us with and see just how “Smart” they are.
T-Mobile seems to be the last to make any sort of announcement regarding future plans and devices. After looking at the press release, I can see why. Not much going on over at T-Mo other than an expanded 4G network, an enhanced Bobsled messaging service, and another Samsung Galaxy variant. But hey, let’s not hang them out to dry, stay tuned for a few of the specifics after the break.
![Philips Unveils Its GoGear Connect 3 Media Player Along With A Variety Of Android Headsets [CES 2012]](http://cdn.cultofandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/gogearconnect-640x476.jpg "gogearconnect")
![Motorola’s Televation To Provide An Independent TV Feed To Your Mobile Device [CES 2012]](http://cdn.cultofandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/mototelevation.jpg "mototelevation")
![Huawei Announces New MediaPad Series [CES 2012]](http://cdn.cultofandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/mediapad.jpg "mediapad")
![Sony Introduces Its Smart Extras For Android [CES 2012]](http://cdn.cultofandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/SmartTags_Group-640x448.jpg "SmartTags_Group")
![T-Mobile Waves From The Back, Announces Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G, Enhanced Bobsled Messaging Service, And More [CES 2012]](http://cdn.cultofandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/galaxysblaze.jpg "galaxysblaze")
