CES is over for another year and after sifting through the reviews its clear that one piece of tech took the crown for most talked about product – Amazon’s Alexa AI assistant.
Interestingly, the buzz around Alexa all came from third-party usage, as Amazon did not have an official presence at the Las Vegas show. Instead, the smart assistant is being baked into all kinds of devices – from speakers to fridges!
CES proved that Alexa is far more than Amazon’s Echo speaker. In fact, it can be argued that it’s turning into an operating system of sorts – one that requires voice control rather than using a mouse and screen.
Away from digital butlers, we were most impressed by LG’s latest ‘W’ television sets. The ‘W’ actually stands for wallpaper, as these screens are just 2.57mm thin and can be mounted flat against a wall using magnets!
Meanwhile, smart wearables took another step with the fitness ring from Motiv. The tracker fits on a single finger and monitors heart rate, steps and more – but in a seriously compact device.
Overall it was another fascinating event, although it remains to be seen how much impact some of the tech outside of television screens will eventually end up in our homes. Could Alexa be the next big thing? We’re looking forward to finding out throughout this year.