CES 2018

Lenovo Smart Display with Google Assistant takes on Amazon Echo Show

Get ready for a showdown!

Published

January 9, 2018

Daniel Morial

Artificial intelligence is the big thing this year with numerous products having AI assistants built into devices. Lenovo and Google teamed up at CES 2018 to introduce a touchscreen display with Google Assistant at its helm.

This is the Lenovo Smart Display. From its name, you can already tell what it is. It’s got a big display, either eight or ten inches in size, which shows relevant information for your day, reminders, search results, and many more functions from Google Assistant.

It’s powered by the new Qualcomm Home Hub Platform based on the Qualcomm SDA 624 processor. It has a 10-watt full-range speaker, dual microphone arrays, and a 5-megapixel wide-angle camera complete with a mechanical cover for privacy.

The Smart Display offers free video calls via Google Duo and has a lot of Google apps and services built in, including YouTube, Photos, and Maps. If you’re already invested in smart home devices, the Smart Display can act as a command hub for devices such as Nest thermostats.

While it’s functional, the device is also aesthetically sound. It’ll come in two finishes: soft gray or natural bamboo color. It can also be positioned horizontally or vertically to make it fit anywhere, just like a digital picture frame.

If you find the device familiar, it’s because Amazon has something similar in the form of Echo Show. But that has Alexa (obviously) instead of Google Assistant and is quite bulkier.

The 10-inch Lenovo Smart Display starts at US$ 249 and the 8-inch model starts at US$ 199, both are expected to be available early this summer.

CES 2018

Podcast Episode 1: Getting lost at the world’s largest tech show

Published

January 23, 2018

GadgetMatch

In this first epidose of GadgetMatch Podcast we talk about the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2018) which just wrapped up in Las Vegas. Michael Josh and Isa share behind the scenes challenges of covering the world’s largest tech show. And the team talks about the most attention grabbing tech from the show including an entire range of Artificial Intelligence and Google Assistant gadgets, Vivo’s new phone with an in-display fingerprint sensor, Sony’s new robot dog, and Razer’s Project Linda.

CES 2018

LG’s InstaView ThinQ is one smart fridge

This is the future

Published

January 20, 2018

Isa Rodriguez

The future of smart appliances is upon us.

LG has not only dared to venture into connected kitchen technology, they’ve taken it a step further with their newest smart appliances. We got to see all this at CES.

The InstaView ThinQ is the fridge of the future. It’s equipped with the smart voice assistant Alexa which means you will be able to talk to it — the better to figure out what you want to eat! Not only that, it will suggest recipes depending on what food items you have stored. The best part is that it can be connected to your phone and all your other smart appliances for a seamless everyday home experience.

CES 2018

Best of CES 2018: Project Linda, Smart Display, and more!

From prototypes to full-fledged products

Published

January 19, 2018

Chay Lazaro

CES 2018 gave us a glance at all the wonderful consumer tech that’s in store for us — not just this year, but for the years to come. The show had tons of products, almost too many to count, so we came up with this video compiling the most interesting gadgets that caught our attention.