Zek and I had planned on being in Las Vegas to cover CES while Dan held down the fort from home until the coronavirus yet again derailed our best-laid plans. Long story short, Zek and I didn’t travel to Las Vegas. Even so, we wanted to work together, so we traveled, just to the opposite coast. Here is the CES 2022 gear that Zek, Dan, and I used.
Dan reviewed the QuietOn 3 Sleep Earbuds with active noise cancelation a few months ago; he’s happy to report that he still uses them every night. With CES 2022 on the way, I got the opportunity to check out a different use for the QuietOn 3; I wanted to see how well this latest generation worked while on a plane or in other situations where I might find myself needing peace and quiet.
After spending countless hours scouring the latest press releases, sitting through virtual embargoed showcases on new products, planning to be in Vegas, and once again having to attend virtually, we’ve found that the best-laid plans don’t always work out. Even so, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most innovative and exciting tech that came out of CES while trying to stay away from products that won’t ship or become available in 2022. So, without further ado, we present Gear Diary’s Best of CES 2022 Awards!
Last year at CES, John Deere showcased how technology and sustainability drive modern farming, but this year they took things to a whole new level. Building upon 20 years of self-driving technology that still required a farmer to supervise what was happening from the tractor, the John Deere Autonomous Tractor is now a reality. This futuristic tractor will not require human supervision in the cab, freeing up time and helping farmers work more efficiently.
Do you often bring your lunch to work or school? It’s so much better to bring your own food than to dine out or pick up fast food, but it’s usually so inconvenient! I’ll bet that you hate having to microwave your leftovers or prepped foods (it makes them so dry!), or even worse, eating them cold. If that’s the case, you probably ought to check out Steambox; it’s a new way to keep your packed meals hot and delicious with steam.
You have LED string lights, bendable tubes with LED lights, and under-shelf mounted LED lights, but do you have Twinkly Dots? Twinkly Dots are pill-shaped, matte LED bulbs that can diffuse 16 million colors at 360º; you can wrap them around things or stick them to surfaces using the included adhesive pads, and they look fantastic.
WHOOSH! products make it easy to keep your devices and displays sparkling clean. Their products don’t contain harsh ingredients that can be harmful to you or your device, and their products are designed to be safe for you, your screen, and the environment. Now, they are getting even more eco-friendly with concentrated refills for their reusable bottles and cartridges.
Fresh from the 2021 Snapdragon Summit and the announcement of Qualcomm’s latest flagship mobile platform, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, an announcement has come that the realme GT 2 Pro will be using it. Launching in China today, this latest smartphone is realme’s most premium flagship yet.
Roborock is known for its robot home cleaners and other cleaning appliances; at CES, they’ve just introduced the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra and the Roborock Dyad. With the S7 MaxV Ultra, Roborock is one step closer to offering truly autonomous floor cleaning, as this latest robot needs even less maintenance or operational input from users. The Dyad is Roborock’s first wet and dry all-in-one solution that vacuums, washes, and dries floors to eliminate dirt and messes from edge-to-edge.
Smart scales continue to get more intelligent, and none is more advanced than the Withings Body Scan, which provides daily analysis and record of biomarkers associated with common health conditions. Not only can the Body Scan monitor segmental body composition, heart rate, and vascular age, it also provides measurements that will assess nerve activity and heart rhythm using a 6-lead ECG. With a tool like this in your arsenal, it has never been easier to take proactive control over your health!
Every now and then, you need to take a mental break, even if just for a few minutes, so you can manage your anxiety and stress and “place your thoughts elsewhere.” But picking up your phone or looking at another distracting screen isn’t necessarily the best way to get that done. The Morphee Zen is a pocketable, screen-free, and non-digital solution that can provide mental wellness sessions throughout the day to reduce anxiety and boost concentration and mental focus.
Have you been taking care of yourself as well as you did before the pandemic began? Or have you fallen into a survival mode existence? With all of the extra stressors, uncertainties, and everything that has been going on, has your diet, oral health, and general well-being become collateral damage? If it has, you’re not alone. While Oral-B can’t solve or stop the trauma that so many have been dealing with, the company is trying to help refocus our attention to the importance of oral health and self-care by making the tools to achieve it more accessible.
Are you looking for a health wearable that tracks more than steps and heart rate and that doesn’t require being worn on your wrist? The Movano Ring may be just the ticket. Correlating all of the data points gathered, including heart rate, heart rate variability, respiration, temperature, blood oxygen, steps, and calories to one another, allows the Movano Ring to give a more impactful level of understanding of how women’s daily activity affects their health.
We’d all like to think that when severe weather hits, we’ll be prepared. We’ll have food, water, and candles ready and waiting with enough notice. But if there isn’t a plan in place for providing emergency power during sustained blackouts, there’s still an important issue that needs to be addressed. Planning ahead and getting a 1100W OUPES Portable Power Station will give you peace of mind; when the power goes out, you’ll be able to keep your essential devices powered. It’s also handy for camping and other off-grid outdoor activities.
Ahead of CES 2022, we’ve got word that there’s a new line-up of Lenovo ThinkVision large format displays designed for remote and in-person classrooms and meetings. The Lenovo ThinkVision T86, T75, and T65 are each 4K displays that come sized by inches corresponding to their names. Each ThinkVision Display has integrated whiteboard software that offers a comfortable writing experience for the person presenting; each display comes complete with speakers, microphones, and modular webcams, so they are ideally suited for collaborating with people —in-person or over conference calls.
The Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro True Wireless Noise Cancelling Earbuds are meant to provide immersive sound with touch controls, customizable HearID active noise cancelation that monitors outside ambient noise without putting too much pressure on your inner ears, and so much more. Most importantly, they are supposed to be comfortable to wear for hours on end while sounding fantastic. Can these TWE live up to the hype?
Xbox systems come with 512GB to 1TB user memory, and PlayStation systems come with 500GB or 1TB user memory. Even with no games installed on either gaming console, the device’s software and systems will use some of that stated user memory. Considering that the average Xbox and PlayStation games require 40GB of memory for storage, it’s easy to see how memory can suddenly become a very precious commodity once you start loading games to either console. Rather than picking and choosing, or worse, deleting games, the WD_BLACK D30 Game Drive SSD proposes itself as a solution.
We covered the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform announced at the Snapdragon Tech Summit yesterday. Today, the flagship Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 and the entry-tier Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3 Compute Platforms have just been announced. And now, computing on the go is about to get even more powerful, connected, and efficient!
At the yearly Snapdragon Summit, we’ve come to expect news regarding Qualcomm’s upcoming mobile platforms that will be powering soon-to-be-released flagship mobile devices, and this year was no exception; we now have the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform to anticipate. Building on the success of the Snapdragon 888+ 5G system on chip, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is touted as able to deliver even faster 5G speeds, create more impressive photographs and video, take AI experiences to new levels, and yes, it will also provide more visually stimulating and immersive gaming experiences.
I think we are all ready to celebrate the fact that many of us will actually be together for the holidays this year, but now the pressure is on to find the perfect gifts. If you’re looking at a list of people you want to buy gifts for and wondering what in the world to get them, don’t worry; we’ve got plenty of suggestions in our 2021 Holiday Gift Guide, and you are sure to find something for everyone!
This year, we’ve gathered up a collection of toys that offer everything from something to snuggle, things to collect, items to ride, games to play, to kits that can teach STEM skills. Here are some of the coolest toys we’ve found, ready to light up someone special’s holidays! Welcome to our 2021 Holiday Toy Gift Guide!