Tag Archives: CES

I am Oculus Rift ready

For the first time in I don’t know how long, I am not attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as I am busy with classes at UC Irvine. I must admit, I’m envious of those who are there, getting to see things like the LG curved, two-sided display panels and the Farady Future 1,000 hp electric car.

As was the case with several recent CESs, a big draw is virtual reality. That is the technology I’ve gone the most berserk over as my previous post indicated, and the new advancements – including redesigned controllers and a front facing camera – in my VR platform of choice, the HTC Vive, are giving me very high hopes. If I could go into hibernation until it arrived, I would.

That being said, industry leader Oculus has made their VR headset, the Rift, available for pre-order at $599. This led to some negative reaction, as there was a belief the consumer-grade version of the Rift would be around the $350 – $400 price point, based on comments made by CEO Palmer Lucky.

I didn’t order one as I’m holding out for the Vive, but we all know early tech is expensive. Plus, the Rift comes with some peripherals including an Xbox One controller and remote, and is packed in a nifty carrying case.

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Image Credit: Ars Technica

In addition to the headset, you’ll need a pretty decent PC in order to power the dual displays and motion tracking required. Palmer Luckily, Oculus provides a tool you can download (be sure to click the blue ‘download’ button, not the black ‘checkout’ button! Unless you want to order a Rift. In that case, click anything you want) that will test your machine and see if it passes muster for providing a VR experience. It checks memory, GPU, processor, etc. and provides details about each.

And I’m ready! Thank you Oculus for letting me know the Vive will work perfectly!

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You can get additional details about each component tested

A recap of the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show

So another CES has come and gone, and it was surprisingly similar to last year’s CES. It has also resulted in what is easily the longest post I’ve ever written for this blog by far. The most important thing I learned from my adventure this year had nothing to do with CES, but rather that my beloved Canon Digital Rebel DSLR camera has finally given up the ghost. It behaved normally, but the pictures were terrible and now I think it is time to put it out to pasture. I’ve had it since 2001, which in technology time is, what, 1300 years? It even uses the obsolete compact flash storage, so it had a very good run.

My poor Canon

My poor Canon

With that said, there was a ton of stuff to see, as usual. More than you could hope to see in one day, I was there for two and wasn’t able to see all I had planned, and there is far more stuff than you’ll ever see actually out in the consumer market in the future. There was the personal fitness section, the smartwatch section, the pure electronics section where I spent a lot of time and companies were showcasing their circuits, transistors, memory tech, etc., the audio dealers, the automotive section, the gaming section, countless others, and of course the main show floor. There were also lines everywhere. Lines to try the Oculus Rift. Lines to try the Sennheiser headphones (which are the best headphones on earth). Lines to try the various home theater setups, lines to try drones, lines everywhere. I don’t wait in lines at CES, so I had to observe from afar. In this post I’ll try to cover some of what you’d expect, as well as some of the more unusual things I saw while I wandered for hours around the various expos.