LAS VEGAS -- Sex toys are for relaxation. For education. For healing after childbirth. For long-term or long-distance relationships. For women's emancipation.
And also... for pleasure.
But manufacturers aiming for respectability tend to save this argument for last.
"Sex toys have an extremely negative connotation," said Jerome Bensimon, president of Satisfyer. "So we've rebranded ourselves as a 'sexual well-being company.'"
The company has gained attention for its pressure wave technology used for clitoral stimulation, and has plans to launch a smart phone app for controlling sex toys, in particular by using voice commands.
At its booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, vibrators and Ben Wa balls sit alongside mini vibrators shaped like ice cream cones.
After some ups and downs, "sex tech" is testing the waters this year.
As recently as last year the display likely would have been banned.
At the 2019 show, the Consumer Technology Association, which runs the expo, stripped the Ose massager of an award for innovation, saying it was disqualified for being "immoral," "obscene" and "profane."
After an uproar, the CTA reversed itself and returned the prize to Lora DiCarlo, the company which manufactures the Ose.
Sex toys "are consumer electronics just like any other but are not treated like that," said Janet Lieberman-Lu, co-founder of Dame Products, which manufactures small devices for clitoral stimulation.
Given their widespread use, "sex toys are by definition mainstream.... They're more adopted than a lot of products at CES."
Her company has taken New York City's public transportation system to court, complaining that it allows advertisements for erectile dysfunction medications and ads that contain humorous references to sex -- but not for sex devices.
"When you say that male sexual function is healthy and necessary but vibrators for women are obscene, you're saying that men are supposed to be able to have sex and women aren't supposed to be able to enjoy it," said Lieberman-Lu.
"That's what leads to rape culture."
STARTING THE CONVERSATION
Entrepreneurs in this industry, many of whom started out in conventional consumer electronics, medicine or cosmetics, say pleasure and health go hand-in-hand.
Given that school textbooks only recently began including information on the shape and size of the clitoris, they say they are on a mission to educate the public.
It is often "much easier to talk about health than pure pleasure, which can involve fear of rejection," said Soumyadip Rakshit, CEO of Mystery Vibe, which develops vibrators that deal with both erectile difficulties in men and postpartum vaginal scarring in women.
To open up, people often need a catalyst.
"Everyone is keen to talk about it but no one wants to be the first," he said.
"If someone does that for them, a company, an article, a doctor... it makes that so much easier."
Elsewhere on the showroom floor, Gerard Escaler, chief marketing officer at Lovense, explains how a male "masturbator" works.
The tubular objects have internal sleeves and are pink when intended for straight users and translucent for gay users.
The Hong Kong-based company offers several internet apps for use in long-distance relations -- with a partner or with online erotic performers like "cam girls" who sell access to live web video.
Lovense also is developing a virtual reality game for the male sex toy with female characters. Visitors have to imagine the contents, however, since the imagery, even if artificial, is not allowed during the consumer expo.
But the "sexual well-being" industry, which could swell to nearly $40 billion by 2024, according to a forecast from market research firm Aritzon, may have good reason to maintain an air of mystery and controversy.
Without the storm it created last year, the $300 Ose vibrator might not have taken off quite the way it did, said Lora Haddock DiCarlo, founder of the eponymous company which produces it.
"When we did our presale with Ose, after its long-awaited release at the end of November, we hit our yearly sales goal in five hours," she said, as she road aboard a transparent mobile showroom plying the streets of Las Vegas during the show.
The roving booth, like a fishbowl on wheels, displayed the catch phrase: "The pleasure is all yours."
Agence France-Presse
LAS VEGAS — Bigger, more beautiful and better connected: At the Consumer Electronics Show, which kicked off Tuesday in Las Vegas, TV makers flaunted top-notch models meant to lure a generation weaned on the internet.
LG, Samsung, Sony and others touted the visual grandeur of new 8K super-high-definition screens, which are suited for TVs larger than 65 inches in diameter, a fast growing segment of the market.
The luxury sets are meant to appeal to millennials and Generation Z with features such as video streaming services, plus smart home and video games capabilities.
Samsung's Sero TV, for example, pivots from landscape to portrait modes, the same way a smartphone or tablet lets a viewer flip a screen while watching a YouTube video, eliminating the black bands on the side.
"Screens have become lifestyle products," said JH Han, president of Samsung's visual display business.
"It has never been so clear that the role of the screen is changing right before our very eyes."
The newer sets go beyond the current 4K or ultra-high definition displays -- already an upgrade from the first generation of flat panels -- to 8K, with more pixels for the massive screens now becoming popular.
Rich 8K definition is meant to woo owners of huge flat screens, by packing more color to fill larger viewing areas.
Networks and content creators alike are beginning to come together to cater to viewers with such screens.
Samsung, for example, is working with YouTube and other partners to stream 8K content directly to its most expensive TVs, according to Joe Stinziano, Samsung Electronics America executive vice president.
He predicted 2020 would be a "tipping point" for 8K going mainstream.
Skyworth, a well-established TV maker in China, unveiled premium television models meant to break into the US and European markets.
"Only when the whole industry works together can it realize the full value of 8K to users," said Skyworth TV chief executive Tony Wang.
"The entire 8K industry chain is reaching its full development and now is the best time to launch an 8K screen, when users can fully benefit from it."
Skyworth's new 75-inch Q91 with 8K graphics will be priced at $5,999 in the United States.
PLAYING THE GAME
To stay in the race, televisions are also adapting to connected lifestyles by integrating voice assistants from Amazon, Google or Apple, and offering functionalities adapted to streaming platforms and video gaming.
The latest models presented at CES included advanced technical characteristics in terms of graphics and sound capabilities to satisfy gamers eager for greater immersion.
"A unique growth engine for our business has been gaming monitors," Stinziano of Samsung said.
Millennials see a television as a tool to help them win video games, according to TCL executives who showed off an enhanced line-up boasting features aimed at players.
That said, demand for flat panel displays fell short of expectations last year in the consumer market due in part to trade tensions between China and the United States as well as a slowing global economy, according to IHS Markit.
But it forecast "robust growth" of flat panel displays this year.
"Although there are still uncertainties due to the trade war between the US and China, demand for flat-panel displays is expected to increase on the back of historically low panel prices and the impacts of various sports events held during even-numbered years," said IHS Markit Technology display research director Ricky Park.
Such events include Japan public broadcaster NHK's plans to show the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo in 8K, which is expected to help boost that demand.
Agence France-Presse
LAS VEGAS -- Hyundai announced Monday it would mass produce flying cars for Uber's aerial ride-share network set to deploy in 2023.
The South Korean manufacturer said it would produce the four-passenger electric "vertical take-off and landing vehicles" at "automotive scale," without offering details.
The deal announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas could help Uber, which is working with other aircraft manufacturers, to achieve its goal of deploying air taxi service in a handful of cities by 2023.
Jaiwon Shin, head of Hyundai's urban air mobility division, said he expects the large-scale manufacturing to keep costs affordable for the aerial systems.
"We know how to mass produce high quality vehicles," Shin told a news conference at CES.
He said he expected the partnership to allow for the short-range air taxis to be "affordable for everyone."
Eric Allison, head of Uber Elevate, appeared at the CES event with Hyundai to discuss the partnership.
"By taking transportation out of the two dimensional grid on the ground and moving it into the sky, we can offer significant time savings to our riders," Allison said.
He said that because of its other app-based transport options, "only Uber can seamlessly connect riders from cars, trains and even bikes to aircraft."
Uber has announced it had selected Melbourne to join Dallas and Los Angeles in becoming the first cities to offer Uber Air flights, with the goal of beginning demonstrator flights in 2020 and commercial operations in 2023.
Hyundai is using CES to show the S-A1 model aircraft with a cruising speed up to 180 miles (290 km) per hour.
The aircraft utilizes "distributed electric propulsion," designed with multiple rotors that can keep it in the air if one of them fails.
The smaller rotors also help reduce noise, which the companies said is important to cities.
The Hyundai vehicle will be piloted initially but over time will become autonomous, the company said.
Agence France-Presse
LAS VEGAS -- Consumer technology spending is getting a boost from wearables, smart devices and streaming media services and should hit record levels in the United States this year, organizers of a major tech gathering said Sunday.
Kicking off the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, organizers said they expect $422 billion in sales of some 300 kinds of consumer tech products and services in the US market, a gain of 4 percent from last year.
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which organizes the annual gathering, said popularity of streaming services and wireless earbuds and the promise of new devices using super fast 5G connectivity and artificial intelligence is driving consumer interest.
"More and more consumers are embracing the faster connectivity, advanced intelligence and seemingly infinite content that technology offers today -- pushing consumer technology industry revenues toward another record-setting year in 2020," said Gary Shapiro, the association's president and chief executive.
"We'll see advancements in 5G connectivity and AI play out across the CES 2020 show floor this week -- from digital health to self-driving vehicles and smart homes -- vital technologies that are changing our lives for the better."
The show opens Tuesday against the backdrop of mounting concerns on how data gathered from connected devices can be exploited by marketers, governments and hackers.
There has also been a wave of attacks from politicians and activists against dominant tech platforms, as well as intense trade frictions between the world's economic and technology powers, the United States and China.
CTA's forecast shows strong consumer interest in a number of sectors including digital health -- a broad category including smartwatches, fitness trackers and connected health monitoring devices -- with sales of around $10 billion.
For streaming -- including video, music and gaming -- the group expects 11 percent growth in spending to $81 billion.
CTA said it is seeing consumer interest in new kinds of wireless earbuds, led by those from Apple and Samsung, with expected sales of 67 million units worth $8.2 billion in revenue.
The forecast suggests smartphone sales will break out of their torpor with a 2 percent increase in sales, helped by new 5G handsets.
But 5G handset growth is likely to be slow at first, and it will be 2020 before the faster technology accounts for two-thirds of US handset sales, according to Lesley Rohrbaugh, director of market research at the association.
Rorhbaugh said however that new chip technology is making possible many more kinds of devices, such as those for the home, infused with artificial intelligence using object detection and voice recognition.
"Voice is going into everything. And it's not just our mobile devices. It's not just our speakers, it's every product and like those smart appliances," she said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
The 2010s made one thing clear: Tech is everywhere in life.
Tech is in our homes with thermostats that heat up our residences before we walk through the door. It’s in our cars with safety features that warn us about vehicles in adjacent lanes. It’s on our television sets, where many of us are streaming shows and movies through apps. We even wear it on ourselves in the form of wristwatches that monitor our health.
In 2020 and the coming decade, these trends are likely to gather momentum. They will also be on display next week at CES, an enormous consumer electronics trade show in Las Vegas that typically serves as a window into the year’s hottest tech developments.
At the show, next-generation cellular technology known as 5G, which delivers data at mind-boggling speeds, is expected to take center stage as one of the most important topics. We are also likely to see the evolution of smart homes, with internet-connected appliances such as refrigerators, televisions and vacuum cleaners working more seamlessly together — and with less human interaction required.
“The biggest thing is connected everything,” said Carolina Milanesi, a technology analyst for the research firm Creative Strategies. “Anything in the home — we’ll have more cameras, more mics, more sensors.”
If some of this sounds the same as last year, it is — but that’s because new technologies often take time to mature.
Here’s what to watch in tech this year.
THE SMARTER HOME: TRUE AUTOMATION
In the past few years, Amazon, Apple and Google have battled to become the center of our homes.
Their virtual assistants — Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri — respond to voice commands to play music from speakers, control light bulbs and activate robot vacuums. Smart home products work well, but they are complicated to set up, so most people use virtual assistants just for basic tasks like setting a kitchen timer and checking the weather.
Then in December, Amazon, Apple and Google came to what appeared to be a truce: They announced that they were working together on a standard to help make smart home products compatible with one another.
In other words, when you buy an internet-connected light bulb down the line that works with Alexa, it should also work with Siri and Google Assistant. This should help reduce confusion when shopping for home products and improve the ease with which connected gadgets work with one another.
Milanesi said that eliminating complexity was a necessary step for the tech giants to achieve their ultimate goal: seamless home automation without the need for people to tell the assistants what to do.
“You want the devices to talk to each other instead of me being the translator between these device interactions,” she said. “If I open my door, then the door can say to the lights that the door is open and therefore the lights need to turn on.”
If and when that happens, your home will truly — and finally — be smart.
THE SLOW, STEADY RISE OF 5G
In 2019, the wireless industry began shifting to 5G, a technology that can deliver data at such incredibly fast speeds that people will be able to download entire movies in a few seconds.
Yet the rollout of 5G was anticlimactic and uneven. Across the United States, carriers deployed 5G in just a few dozen cities. And only a handful of new smartphones last year worked with the new cellular technology.
In 2020, 5G will gain some momentum. Verizon said it expected half the nation to have access to 5G this year. AT&T, which offers two types of 5G — 5G Evolution, which is incrementally faster than 4G, and 5G Plus, which is the ultrafast version — said it expected 5G Plus to reach parts of 30 cities by early 2020.
Another sign that 5G is really taking hold? A broader set of devices will support the new wireless standard.
Samsung, for one, has begun including 5G support on some of its newer Galaxy devices. Apple, which declined to comment, is also expected to release its first 5G-compatible iPhones this year.
And 5G will be going to work behind the scenes, in ways that will emerge over time. One important benefit of the technology is its ability to greatly reduce latency, or the time it takes for devices to communicate with one another. That will be important for the compatibility of next-generation devices like robots, self-driving cars and drones.
For example, if your car has 5G and another car has 5G, the two cars can talk to each other, signaling to each other when they are braking and changing lanes. The elimination of the communications delay is crucial for cars to become autonomous.
THE WEARABLES MARKET HEATS UP
It’s a time of intense competition in wearable computers, which is set to lead to more creativity and innovation.
For a long while, Apple has dominated wearables. In 2015, it released Apple Watch, a smartwatch with a focus on health monitoring. In 2016, the company introduced AirPods, wireless earbuds that can be controlled with Siri.
Since then, many others have jumped in, including Xiaomi, Samsung and Huawei. Google recently acquired Fitbit, the fitness gadget maker, for $2.1 billion, in the hope of playing catch-up with Apple.
Computer chips are making their way into other electronic products like earphones, which means that companies are likely to introduce innovations in wearable accessories, said Frank Gillett, a technology analyst for Forrester. Two possibilities: earphones that monitor your health by pulling pulses from your ears, or earbuds that double as inexpensive hearing aids.
“That whole area of improving our hearing and hearing the way other people hear us is really interesting,” he said.
THE STREAMING REVOLUTION
We have rushed headlong into the streaming era, and that will only continue.
In 2019, Netflix was the most-watched video service in the United States, with people spending an average of 23 minutes a day streaming its content, according to eMarketer, the research firm. In all, digital video made up about a quarter of the daily time spent on digital devices last year, which included time spent on apps and web browsers.
Netflix’s share of the overall time we spend watching video on devices will probably decline in 2020, according to eMarketer, because of the arrival of competing streaming services like Disney Plus, HBO Max and Apple TV Plus.
“Even though Americans are spending more time watching Netflix, people’s attention will become more divided as new streamers emerge,” Ross Benes, an analyst at eMarketer, said in a blog post.
So if you don’t like “The Mandalorian,” “The Morning Show” or “Watchmen,” you won’t change the channel. You will just switch to a different app.
2019 The New York Times Company
source: news.abs-cbn.com
