The start of September noticed the Android Authority group head to Germany for this yr’s IFA present in Berlin and straight after that, I took to the skies to fly out to Las Vegas for CTIA 2015. Together with a number of conferences to take a look at some actually cool merchandise, the journey was my first expertise of Las Vegas, so what have been my highlights of CTIA? Let’s have a look.
CTIA as a present has been decreasing in measurement over the previous few occasions however with an attendance of 35,000-45,000 folks, it’s nonetheless fairly a big present. Over the previous few editions, it’s seen a shift in the direction of a extra business- and distributor-focused present which means the occasion holds comparatively little in the best way of client merchandise.
That being stated, there have been fairly a number of merchandise we received our arms on, and one in all these was the Nextbit. We’ve already coated the cloud-first Nextbit in our full hands-on however to shortly recap, this can be a cellphone that’s generated over $1 million in backing on Kickstarter.
Led by a group that features Tom Moss – one of many former heads of the unique Android group at Google – and Scott Croyle – the previous design chief behind the long-lasting HTC One M7 – the Nextbit Robin has the pedigree to make a distinction out there. The Robin is the corporate’s first smartphone and positively has a moderately distinctive cloud-focused proposition that’s totally different to the rest in the marketplace. For a full look, head over to our Nextbit Robin arms on.
From one cellphone to a different and the BLU Pure XL is unquestionably a tool that stands out from the group. I’ve already printed my first ideas on the machine however to shortly recap, it’s BLU’s finest smartphone-to-date and the American producer has actually packed plenty of punch inside a smartphone that prices simply $350 unlocked.
The specs record is huge and features a 6.0-inch Quad HD Tremendous AMOLED show (which is unbelievable), a MediaTek Helio X10 processor, 64GB inner storage, a fingerprint sensor, 3GB RAM and a 24MP rear digital camera. It presents distinctive worth for cash and whereas it’s going up towards some unbelievable competitors within the $350 bracket, we wouldn’t write this smartphone off. Head over to our first impressions posts for a more in-depth take a look at BLU’s new machine.
Whereas at BLU’s sales space, we additionally received to take a look at one other actually fascinating BLU smartphone: the vivo Air LTE, which is the world’s thinnest smartphone. At a value of $199, it has a good specs record and it’s extra sturdy than it appears to be like. For more information, head over to our impressions put up. We’ve received critiques of each of BLU’s units coming within the subsequent few weeks so keep tuned!
From telephones to drones, and a key focus at CTIA was the longer term bots of the sky. Though there was a whole satellite tv for pc occasion devoted to those winged bots, there have been a number of on show on the primary present ground and the DJI Phantom undoubtedly caught my eye.
It was introduced earlier this yr and has a variety of options, together with straightforward to make use of controls and a companion app for iOS and Android. The companion app itself is nice because it provides additional controls to the drone and when you’ve docked your smartphone into the controller, the app additionally shows a primary particular person POV feed direct from the 12MP digital camera, which presents 4K video recording.
At a value of $700 to $1200, the Phantom is actually not the most cost effective drone in the marketplace however it actually appears to be like the half, has nice dealing with and appears effectively constructed. If I used to be going to purchase a drone, the DJI Phantom would in all probability get my cash (though I’ve not hung out with any of its opponents).
Now to one of many coolest merchandise I got here throughout at CTIA: the linked wheelchair. Developed by the AT&T Foundry in partnership with Permobil (the world’s main wheelchair maker), the linked wheelchair has a variety of sensors that measure every little thing from seat place and padding to motion and mobility.
The wheelchair comes geared up with a SIM card and makes use of AT&T Foundry’s IoT expertise to show data in an easy-to-use dashboard. The community says that the dashboard can show data for a single wheelchair or all of the wheelchairs in a fleet and may segregate information on a need-to-know foundation.
For example, sellers and upkeep corporations can entry data like wheelchair battery and restore standing (however not affected person information), whereas physicians can entry affected person information comparable to quantity of motion, seat place (nice for diagnosing again pains or ulcers) and padding quantity. For physicians, the wheelchair may ship notifications when the person stops transferring (e.g. when the wheelchair has run out of battery) and if it topples over, which makes offering care loads simpler.
[related_videos title=”Live at IFA 2015:” align=”left” type=”custom” videos=”641939,640044,639843,639842″]AT&T are additionally planning to develop a collection of wheelchair-focused maps, which – utilizing crowd-sourced information and the corporate’s personal information assortment efforts – will imply that customers can plot a wheelchair-safe route each time they wish to go someplace. The long run aim is that almost all of wheelchair customers will probably be utilizing one in all these and having seen this in motion, I can say that, if I wanted a wheelchair, that is undoubtedly one I’d prefer to have.
So there you have got it, a brief recap of some cool merchandise we got here throughout at CTIA 2015 in Las Vegas. The occasion was actually fascinating however not like different exhibits we usually cowl, it was much less consumer-focused and extra designed for companies and distributors. What did you consider CTIA and the few merchandise we discovered?
