tech

LAS VEGAS--Long nails and touch screens don't get along very well. It can take some nimble finger acrobatics to get in touch with the display. Sri Vellanki of Tech Tips had already created an over-the-fingertip stylus. It was a natural step to then figure out how to integrate it into wearable fashion nails.

Nano Nails takes pretty much the same tip design as the Tech Tips and places it under the index fingernail. They will be available in either a full press-on nail or a nail tip. Vellanki expects them to sell for in packages of four or six for around $10. They could be put on by the wearer or applied at a salon.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--When you think of CES, chances are it's images of massive HDTVs that first come to mind. This year, however, technology on a tiny scale made a big impact. This new product category we call wearable tech consists of gadgets small enough to be clipped, pinned, or looped around your body and worn constantly.

The smartwatch If you thought that the smartwatch died with the demise of Microsoft's SPOT devices over a decade ago, you're in for a rude awakening. With the recent rise of the smartphone, the need for the wealth of information these devices … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Samsung. Panasonic. Sony. Intel. Qualcomm. All have big booths pitching smartphones, smart TVs, smart tablets, smart cameras -- you name it.

But my first day at CES 2013 was spent wandering around exploring things from companies you've likely never heard of. And there's some interesting stuff out there!

Most of my time yesterday at CES was spent wandering the South Hall. What I'll cover below are things that caught my eye. Not all of these are necessarily new products, and this will be far from a comprehensive roundup within product categories. But I hope you'll find it interesting. … Read more

I'm often asked if there's a particular time of year that's best to buy certain tech items, like tablets or TVs, or laptops.

My typical response is that it rarely makes sense to delay your purchase in hopes of scoring a better deal, because you can end up waiting forever. The TV you buy today will almost certainly cost less six months down the road -- but that's true of just about everything.

What's more, there are great bargains to be found pretty much every day of the year (as proven by my Cheapskate blog), … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Call it a minor upgrade, but that's what G-Technology has to offer this year at CES.

The storage vendor, which is now part of Western Digital, announced at CES 2013 that it now ships all of its popular G-Technology G-Drive Mini and G-RAID Mini external storage products with high-speed 1TB, 2.5-inch 7,200rpm hard drives.

Thanks to this, the G-Drive Mini, a compact single-volume external drive, now offers up to 136MBps performance speed. The drive offers both USB 3.0 and FireWire 8000 connection types and is bus-powered. It's preformatted for Mac and is now available … Read more

LAS VEGAS--I used to try cleaning my godmother's pool with long, unwieldy nets and hoses, and always gave up in frustration.

iRobot's Mirra 530 would have been a huge help. Now being shown off at CES 2013, it improves upon the company's Verro pool bots.

With its rotating brushes, Mirra is designed to scrub any type of in-ground pool without using the pool's filtration system, a concept aimed at saving energy.

Unlike the $1,099.99 Verro 500 PowerScrub, the $1,299.99 Mirra has wheels instead of treads and a more powerful suction and filtration system. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Cobra showed off an improved version of its iRadar detection system ahead of CES 2013 with the debut of the new iRadar Atom hardware and a version 3.1 update to the corresponding iRadar app for smartphones.

The new hardware sticks with the sleek aesthetic established with the previous-generation iRadar 200 detector. The glossy black box still lacks a display of its own outside of a few LED indicator lights and still can be used both with and without the aid of the iRadar smartphone app on a paired Android or iPhone device. However, the new iRadar Atom is … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Cyborgs, meet your gear. The Vuzix M100 Smart Glasses, a wearable Bluetooth/Wi-Fi headpiece with a built-in HD camera and WQVGA floating eyepiece display, are on hand to try out at CES 2013. Previously seen in nonworking prototype form at the end of last year, the M100 Smart Glasses will run on Android and eventually iOS and be available by summer 2013 (fall for iOS, pending app approval).

"It would feel like you're looking at a screen the size of your phone, but the image floats out in space," Vuzix President and Chief Executive Paul Travers … Read more