It's uncertain where personal technology is heading, but judging from CES, it smells Every January in Las Vegas a few hundred thousand folks gather to learn about the latest innovations from an ever-broadening range of gadget makers, appliance manufacturers, automobile companies – and, these days, an ever-growing number of "wellness" purveyors. Forty years ago, the Consumer Electronics Show launched as a …
So, new battery technology, a long range drone solution, smell sensors and, no doubt, a raft of other useful and novel products beyond the main hall, instead writing a snarky gripe piece about <enter name of big corp here> and all things I'd rather be reading about but won't get to do so here. Nice job!
1. As someone who has been working on tech products since the late 1980s, Mark is a columnist for us, not a news reporter. We wanted his thoughts on CES, and he shared them. CES is so huge that it's impossible to report it all - instead, I appreciate his highlights.
2. Personal tech (as opposed to enterprise tech and software dev) isn't a core subject for us, though we cover it as much as we can because our readers use the stuff. So we're not going to have extensive CES coverage - mainly what caught our eye, and why, and those stories are on the site this week.
C.
"Behind the scenes, Microsoft and Walmart are using AI and deep analytics to manage the entire Walmart supply chain - from each of their vendors all the way to a customer's home. Walmart reckons they can know exactly when you're going to need your next carton of milk, and will be able to make sure it's delivered (even placed into your refrigerator) so you never run out. It's a breathtaking vision of supply chain integration and management, enabled by artificial intelligence."
Wahahaha!!!! Wal-hell is constantly out of stock on items when you actually visit one of the stores, and you're telling me those clueless b-stards are claiming to use AI to help?!
They need a LOT more than AI to get their brick-and-mortar stores operating efficiently. It is a constantly-frustrating experience going to one, hell they didn't have a major brand of frozen pizza in stock for 3 times I visited. They have what they want, not necessarily what *you* want.
It's a plan to force the US to become vegan:
"We're sorry your local Walmart didn't have any of what you ordered, but based on Walli the Walmart AI's nutritional analysis of your purchase history, we've sent you your regular calories and nutrient as 12 pints of soya milk, 140 fresh avocados, 12 lbs of tofu, 4 sacks of quinoa, 4 lbs of egg replacement, three packs of polystyrene you can pretend are cheese, 14 trees of brussels sprouts, 8 crates of kale, and 20 lbs of mushrooms, and 150 pints of organic virgin coconut oil."
I wish! My Wal-hell doesn't even sell tofu o_O And their milk alternative choice? A joke: outside of Silk's soymilk products, all the rest are sugar-water with pretty much no nutritional value (<1 gram protein). Note that there are several brands and choices of highly nutritious milk alternatives out there (Silk, for example, makes a fantastic almond/cashew hybrid with 10g protein per serving, plus their latest NextMilk brand; Califia Farms High Protein Oat; etc.) but they never bother to carry them. Protein bars? Most often the ones you really want (read: aren't nauseating) are never constantly in stock.
I really hate the place, a trip there is a 50% chance you've wasted your time if you walked in with a shopping list you actually expected to fill.
There are some items not available in other stores (like my preferred protein bar, when they actually have the damn thing, plus things like Amy's chili, etc.). So many other brick & mortars have shut down (like BB&B) that there's not much choice if you want general housewares whilst you shop. I did go to Target this week for the first time in a very long time, sadly their selection wasn't that great, either.
If I go full-on shopping, getting everything on my list, I end up going to 2 or 3 different supermarkets because no single one has everything on my list. It is very frustrating for sure!
Around here, Walmart is unfortunately the only place for most appliances, so if, say, the WiFi router dies, then unless I want to take half a day to drive to the nearest Target or other big-box store, Walmart it is. Or for cheap clothing — if a visitor neglected to pack appropriate outerwear, or if I'm out with the granddaughters and they decide they want to go to the skate park but it turns out they're not wearing socks, again it's probably going to be Walmart. We have a number of grocery stores and lots of specialty shops, and hardware stores and lumber yards; but for a lot of ordinary home goods there isn't much other choice unless you can spare a couple of hours for driving.
I avoid Walmart as much as I can, but occasionally there isn't a better option.
"They have what they want, not necessarily what *you* want."
We live in a small rural town where Walmart is pretty much the only option for groceries. I've noticed the same thing. They mostly stock items that have the most margin, not the items you are looking for. Most of the time this means one of their poor quality brands. Some of their own-branded items are okay, but most are just dreadful.
About once a month, I drive to a city about an hour away to shop at better stores. We also buy a lot of groceries online now.
Walmart has been going downhill for a while now. I'm sure partnering with Microsoft will really "improve" things!!
And you want to know why? I found this out just last week when I confronted a manager at a (different) supermarket as to why a certain product was never available.
She told me that the shelves are restocked by representatives of the company itself, and that most shelf space is paid for by the company to be allowed to present their products for sale. So the food manufacturers decide what they are going to sell, where, how much, and how it is displayed. We don't get a choice - it's what the food companies want to push for that market demographic at that point in time. If they have a production cycle that makes a lot of product to stock up, that's what you get on the shelves.
Welcome to America. Where even your supermarket sales shelf went to the highest bidder >:-(
Perhaps needs to be integrated to the TV with a big fan, infra-red heater, water spray, and something akin to but harder than a Nerf gun, for proper special effects.
Of course, scat fans probably just want the picture and the scent, so perhaps there's an early adopter market while the makers work on the other elements.
In addition to "bloodhound Sharp" (cited in the piece), I'd like to mention the slighlty older (2021) French Hi-tech (CEA-LETI) Aryballe’s NeOse Advance digital olfaction technology, based on silicon photonics, to capture consistent odor data. Quite why the company name rhymes with "hairy balls" remains to be determined ... maybe ... (French humour?).
"I am having an anniversary party next month, how should I prepare?"
"I am an idiot. Please take my money and give me a lot of pointless crap."
So nice to see Microsoft and Walmart coming together to monetize learned helplessness.
("Killer app for search" indeed. The audience for this sort of thing will probably starve to death if it stops working.)
Presentations from Hyundai and Kia illustrated the nature of the confusion confronting these huge firms; Korea's biggest car maker revealed grand plans for a "hydrogen economy," while somehow neglecting to mention its electric vehicles are among the most-highly-praised on the market.
Maybe because they communicated a lot on their EV offering during CES 2017?
2024? I thought we gave up on Hydrogen fueling a long time ago because the infrastructure is essentially impossible to roll out.
Electric cars can park overnight with an ordinary 240V garage outlet in the absence of new charging infrastructure. Even a 120V wall plug outlet can help.
>>> 2024? I thought we gave up on Hydrogen fueling a long time ago because the infrastructure is essentially impossible to roll out.
Let's go back 140 years ago:
Karl Benz: I'm going to launch automobile cycles that don't need horses.
Mercedes Benz: Huh? And how will they move, Dad?
Karl B: They'll use a new combustion engine using the same combustible as the petrol lamp in your bedroom.
Mercedes B: That's never going to work, Dad. It's too expensive, there will never be enough of this petrol and who will want to store huge tanks of them?
Karl B: Really Mercedes?
> If you look at a US map of hydrogen fueling stations, it's three metropolitan areas in California. That's it.
I did take a look at the California official map. Did you actually mean 66 light duty and a few others more specialised?
It's also more efficient to put electricity in a battery and then use it to power an electric motor than to split water into hydrogen and oxygen and then re-combine it either in a fuel cell or burn it in an internal combustion engine.
Ignoring the efficiency difference, the main disadvantage of hydrogen is that you either have to store it at very high pressure or keep it very cold to keep the energy per unit volume high. The main advantage of a hydrogen powered vehicle is that you don't have to use up resources and pollute to make batteries, although you do have to build a lot of infrastructure to create the hydrogen in a clean/green way.
>>> "It's also more efficient to put electricity in a battery and then use it to power an electric motor than to split water into hydrogen and oxygen and then re-combine it either in a fuel cell or burn it in an internal combustion engine."
This is grade 9 thinking. PUT THIS IN YOUR BRAIN: THE PRICE OF ELECTRICITY IS NOT CONSTANT but you MUST consume it WHEN IT IS PRODUCED.
That does NOT APPLY TO H2.
In other words you can produce H2 with electricity price is shit and then use that H2 when the price of electricity is HIGH. So, your argument is VOID. If the difference of price of electricity compensates the conversion yield, there's no reason to avoid H2. Yes Economy 101 is good for you.
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