Las Vegas, Nevada – 1,000 of the world’s biggest and most exciting consumer electronics companies present their new releases for 2012 to 2,500 members of the press and over 150,000 attendees.
The doors open today, but we got an advance look at some of the freshest iOS-related tech coming this year…
Mobile is where it’s at this year..! We thought that giving the press preview a quick run for iOS-related products would be easy, but it involved 70%+ of the boothes! Everybody is making accessories or products targetted to iOS users and this is really exciting for us; the users! Here’s a run-down of some of the cool stuff:
Utility
The iPhone plays a massive role in the lives of most people who own one but it looks set to get bigger! Integrations in to day-to-day products and concepts are hot this year; unlock your garage remotely? Lost your keys? Or your child? These are things that we’ll all be addressing on our iPhones soon enough.
LiftMaster showed a rather swanky remote garage control system for letting your car, children or friends in to your casa from anywhere in the world. She also dropped a hint that webcam support would be coming soon!
Gaming
The iPhone is pretty mature now, and each ‘vertical’ of users is sufficiently large to cater to with tailor-made products. One of the main groups that will benefit from this is the iPhone gamer community; we saw a few devices aimed at gamers at CES this year.
Photography
With iPhone 4S, iOS devices claim the title for arguably the best smart-phone camera and it really does take an impressive picture. Some photo outfits are keen to take advantage of this with photography-related accessories for the iPhone
– 3D Cameras
Longevity
Another year, another set of battery-life extending products at CES. However, there was one which really stuck out. A two-piece stylish case which doubles the battery life of an iPhone 4(S) while only adding < 1/4 inch to the depth of the device. We couldn’t get our hands on it for long enough to get a grasp on the reality of the power claim, but it looks great and comes in several bright colour options or your standard white/gray/black. We’ll definitely be asking for a review unit of this ASAP.
Business Users
A number of companies are showing off offerings designed to integrate the iPhone in to the small business in a number of ways…
Home Media Stations
Almost every manufacturer that makes iPhone products had an all singing-and-dancing media station sporting great audio quality, AirPlay (or at least an AirPlay model), wireless control and HDMI output. With iCloud meaning that the iPhone no longer needs to live by a computer & services like Spotify & Netflix providing the iPhone with all the content you need; could 2012 be the year that the iPhone media dock moves from the bedroom to the living room?
– Marley iPod Docks
– Belkin
– iHome
– Oregon Scientific (must they hang on to everything have an atmospheric pressure monitor!?)
Fitness
Your Health and Fitness goes where you go. Guess what else goes wherever you go… your iPhone. It’s a match made in heaven and there are plenty of people here looking to take advantage of that; whether it’s monitoring remotely with advanced versions of stand-alone Health & Fitness staples ( Startup’s baby weight and blood pressure monitor) or creating new ways to exercise involving the iPhone (health and fitness guide / driver apps).
Toys
AR Parrot announced their new Parrot Drone 2 at CES today and it looks amazing. Full control of a self-balancing quad-bladed copter complete with video camera and the ability to fly at almost any angle (yes – it can flip!).
