2013

When I first saw a photo of Hitcase's new chest mount for its ruggedized iPhone case system, I thought to myself, "Hmm, I wonder how that fits on a woman." I had to go find out for myself.

Let's backtrack before we get to the try-on stage. Hitcase has splashed down into the category of tough cases for the iPhone. It's a bit chunky and a bit heavy, but it does the job. Unlike the water-resistant and waterproof-for-a-few-inches cases, it can go for a serious dive of up to 33 feet under the blue.

Hitcase is trying hard to replace the need for a GoPro for action sports nuts who love to film mountain biking, downhill skiing, and other outdoor activities with a high probability of wiping out. Instead of treating your iPhone like a delicate flower, you can take it along to record the fun. The case opens up like a book, so it's easy in and easy out. The idea is you don't leave this on your phone all the time, just when you need it. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--TP-Link today showed off its first 802.11ac router at CES 2013, the AC1750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router (model TL-WDR7500).

The router supports a combined wireless speed of 1,750Mbps -- 1,300Mbps on the 5GHz band and 450Mbps on the 2.4GHz band. On top of that it also offers Gigabit Ethernet and two USB ports for storage and printer-sharing features.

Like other 802.11ac routers, the TL-WDR7500 supports all existing Wi-Fi clients on the market, but you'll need to use 802.11ac clients with it to achieve the higher speeds.

The new router comes in … Read more

LAS VEGAS--If you can't decide whether to buy a portable or desktop speaker for your smartphone, here's a solution that may give you the best of both worlds.

The Zagg Origin, spotted at the Digital Experience event here at CES, is a 2-in-1 speaker system. It consists of a portable Bluetooth speaker that can be used on the go for more than 10 hours with its onboard rechargeable battery.

When this portable unit is docked into the desktop component, sound output is seamlessly transferred to the larger speaker, enabling it to fill a bigger room. Meanwhile, the portable … Read more

While most rush in to view gadgets at CES, I saunter in to see people.

Being at one with the workers, I want to see their faces, their shoes. I want to share their travails.

Last year, the outright winner of Saddest Man at CES was a hardy gentleman presenting on behalf of Sharp. He talked -- they wouldn't listen. He tried harder -- they walked by quicker.

No sooner had I pierced the doors of the South Hall today than I witnessed a candidate for this year's saddest man -- but it was woman.

This lady was … Read more

Panasonic is more than a TV company. Or so said the company's president, Kazuhiro Tsuga, during an opening keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Indeed, Tsuga and TV journalist Lisa Ling, who joined him on stage, spent the good part of an hour highlighting the many facets of Panasonics varied business. From green technology and battery technology that helps power smart grids and electric cars to cutting edge avionics technology to creating new cutting edge business-class tablets. And of course, there was talk of the successful TV business.

At the heart of the … Read more

The era of exclusive smartphone deals may soon be over.

That's according to Sprint product chief Fared Adib and device executive Ryan Sullivan, who believe the industry is slowly getting away from the practice of locking up smartphones for a single carrier.

Ideally, this means consumers will eventually be able to pick any phone they want on any carrier.

"We in the industry have focused too much on this concept," Adib said.

"It makes less sense for exclusive deals," Sullivan said.

That goes against the longtime tradition of a handset manufacturer striking a deal to … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Huawei's CES roll continues with the announcement of the Huawei MediaQ, a physical cube that shares content among multiple screens.

Huawei isn't divulging many details at the moment, except to say that the MediaQ -- a companion device for smartphones and tablets -- has voice search functionality and can facilitate HD video calls.

So far it doesn't sound like a complete imitation of Google's circular Nexus Q. I'll know more once I track the MediaQ down here at CES. Stay tuned for more details!

LAS VEGAS--Your laptop might already have dual-band Wi-Fi, but how about Tri-band for a change?

Qualcomm and Wilocity today announced at CES 2013 the first Tri-band reference design that combines Wireless-N (802.11n), 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and 802.11ad (also known as WiGig) in one single networking product.

The new chip is based on the Qualcomm VIVE 802.11ac Wi-Fi chip, which was launched just a few days ago, and Wilocity 802.11ad WiGig wireless technologies. It's the first chip with tri-band Wi-Fi, meaning it offers wireless networking signals in all three existing bands of the Wi-Fi standard -- … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Buffalo upgraded its cloud-based service for NAS servers today, introducing the new LinkStation 400 Series. This is the first NAS server to come equipped with the company's updated BuffaloLink cloud storage system.

In a nutshell, the cloud-based service is intended to offer users an easy and secure way to access their digital content remotely via the Internet. Prior to this Buffalo has been offering Pogoplug-style cloud-based features via its CloudStor line of NAS servers, but that hasn't been much of a success.

The company says BuffaloLink was redesigned from the ground up and is hosted on … Read more