The Verge - The peripherals of CES 2012

Etymotic GunSport Pro electronic earplugs (hands-on)

2012-01-16T03:16:45Z

The Etymotic GunSport Pro GSP-1s are earplugs designed to let quiet sounds like human speech pass through, while suppressing loud sounds — specifically gunshots. They also have a switch that turns on "enhanced hearing," where the quietest sounds are given a slight boost. Although we called them active noise-cancelling earplugs in the video, that isn't entirely accurate; it might be more suitable to call them active-passthrough earplugs because the noise suppression is passive. They've been around for a while now, but we were finally able to try them out during CES in Las Vegas, a city that (naturally) has an indoor machine gun shooting range minutes from the convention center. Valiantly, we answered the call of duty.

The GunSports...

I'm Circle concept is your personal processing unit

2012-01-15T04:52:04Z

The I'm Circle concept is a totally new way of thinking about personal electronics, centralizing the processing power of the phones, tablets, and media players around you into a tiny pendant-sized box named the I'm Core. In turn, these devices will become no more than variously sized interfaces to access the Core. The idea comes from the same team as the Android-powered I'm Watch that we saw a few days ago, and is designed to be the ultimate continuous client, giving you the ability to answer calls, respond to texts and emails, or watch media on whichever device you choose — be it your phone, tablet, or TV. It's based on Android 4.0, with the interface shared across all of your devices.

As great as this concept sounds, we're a little...

Outdoor Tech Turtle Shell wireless speaker and OT Rocks headphones (hands-on)

2012-01-14T17:39:06Z

We just hiked over to Outdoor Tech's camper on the CES show floor to check out its Turtle Shell wireless speaker system and OT Rocks headphones. The Turtle Shell is a rugged, water resistant, portable Bluetooth speaker that lasts up to 10 hours on a single charge. It certainly feels solid in the hands, and we wouldn't be very concerned about dropping it. Unfortunately we didn't get to hear it, but we hope to have a listen when it debuts in May for $125.

We also got to see Outdoor Tech's OT Rocks — rugged, water resistant, wireless Bluetooth headphones with a touch interface. We didn't get to hear these either, but the company says the headphones will pump out music for up to 6 hours on a single charge. OT Rocks are also due in May for...

iLaunch Thunder iPhone missile launcher (hands-on video)

2012-01-14T16:44:01Z

We found Dream Cheeky's iLaunch Thunder missile launcher on the CES show floor today and got to play with the office toy for a bit. Unlike the USB-tethered launchers of old, the iLaunch connects to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch over Bluetooth. The iLaunch Controller app lets you aim by dragging on the screen or by using your device's accelerometer. The app is pretty simple, though we were told that the company is going to release a new version that includes a motion sensing mode (e.g. to have it fire a missile when someone walks in the room) in the first half of this year. The one thing we found most surprising about the launcher: its 25-foot range. Take a look at the video below to see the $99.99 iLaunch Thunder in action.

Cerevo Live Shell with Contour+ (hands-on)

2012-01-14T00:13:02Z

We just dropped by Contour's booth at CES to check out the new Cerevo Live Shell accessory — it's a small, light, portable device that can hook up to an HD camera via HDMI and stream live video to Ustream over ethernet or WiFi. Settings for the Live Shell can be managed on a PC or through a smartphone app, and when paired with the Contour+, the system can capture roughly three hours of 1080p video on three AA batteries. Contour had a live demonstration at its booth which looked pretty smooth — video streamed from the Contour+ to Ustream, as promised, though the company says there's a 20-second delay for streaming video. (You can see Contour's live stream on Ustream, here). The Cerevo will be out starting Janurary 21st, for $299.

GPD's Glass Multitouch Keyboard hands-on

2012-01-13T23:13:51Z

The Glass Multitouch Keyboard by Giddings Product Development is a futuristic piece of technology that was recently funded on Kickstater, but it seems too outlandish to be real. It's essentially a curved piece of Gorilla Glass 2 that uses frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR) to register touches across the 19-inch wide surface area, while the circuitry will live in its base. We saw a non-working prototype with a traditional QWERTY and numpad etched on it, but it will come as a completely clear slab.

It works by sending IR beams through the edge-lit glass continuously, and two cameras below the glass capture your finger's location when the touch disrupts the signals. It will be capable of multitouch gestures, offer custom layouts,...

LightPad pico projector for your phone doubles as a laptop (hands-on)

2012-01-13T20:12:15Z

It's not difficult to find a projector to use with your phone, and Motorola's Lapdock can turn some into laptops. But a new product called the LightPad, made by QP Optoelectronics, is the first thing we've seen that does both. The short-range pico projector itself isn't anything unusual, but attached to it is a full-size keyboard and a translucent screen. When flipped up, the screen catches the light from the projector, turning it into a decent facsimile of a laptop. A tiny trackpad lets you use a mouse on the phone but, oddly, not the LightPad screen itself.

The design is extremely simple, with no ports or even trackpad buttons (it's purely tap-to-click), although you can pair a Bluetooth mouse with the phone. The screen isn't...

ioSafe puts Thunderbolt drive to lightning test (hands-on and video)

2012-01-13T15:23:01Z

External storage company ioSafe likes to put on a show at CES. Last year, it demonstrated its ultratough Rugged Portable hard drives by unleashing journalists with shotguns and assault rifles on them. This year, it decided to test its Thunderbolt-compatible prototype's shockproofing instead — by bringing in Tesla coil enthusiast Austin Richards, also known as Dr. MegaVolt.

After shocking the drive multiple times with Richards' million-volt coil, ioSafe plugged it in. A snap-on metal cover is supposed to protect the drive's inputs, but the Tesla coil has apparently still overloaded it in about a third of the demos; unfortunately, this was one of those times. The controller board had been fried, so we got a view of the dual RAID 1...