On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

The Nintendo Switch is a fine gaming machine, but what if it could handle PC games? This is pretty much raison d'être of the Concept UFO, an Alienware prototype that's exactly, well, a portable PC imitating the Switch form factor.

“Imagine a world where you have access to AAA games wherever you are,” the company boldly states at the Dell CES 2020 conference. “You could be gaming on your laptop at home, pause, pick up another device for your commute and pick up right where you left off.”

If you know what the Switch is all about, then you know what the deal of the Concept UFO is. It is, essentially, a tablet with a detachable controller on each side. The tablet portion has an 8-inch display, making it larger than the Nintendo device, and carries an as yet unspecified Intel 10th generation Core processor and, possibly, the first Intel Xe discrete GPU, the DG1.

The August smart lock collection gets an update at CES 2020-- the Wifi Smart Lock features a design by co-founder Yves Béhar 45% smaller in volume and 20% slimmer than the Smart Lock Pro, plus a number of "key new design changes."

Available in either matte black or silver finishes, the smart lock update carries built-in wifi, meaning it does need pairing with an August Connect hub. The result, the company says, is an instant connected upgrade for any front door. Setup should be simple, since users simply need to pair it with the August Connect companion app providing remote access management.

According to Futuresource Consulting, almost 50% of the population living in the UK, France, Germany and the US owns a smart home device in 2019, up from 30% in 2018, in good part thanks to the popularity of smart speakers and smart security products.

The results come from an October 2018 consumer survey involving a nationally representative sample of around 4000 participants. It shows that while smart speakers are an entry point into the smart home category, smart security is far more prevalent among advanced users. Perhaps predictably, the advanced user skews towards male, younger, higher income and urban profile.

“Smart devices have captured consumers’ hearts,” the analyst remarks. “With 47% of the population now owning at least one smart device, the technology is moving swiftly through the adoption curve. Our research shows the number one motivator for purchase is to make life easier. Other high-ranking responses include making a home more comfortable, increasing security, improving efficiency and enabling control of devices while outside the home. What’s more, over 90% of device owners are either extremely satisfied or very satisfied with their purchases.”

Libre Wireless Technologies launches the "Universal Audio Streaming Endpoint" at CES 2020-- an embedded wifi media platform able to seamlessly and concurrently support all major streaming ecosystems.

Based on the Libre LS9X wifi media module, the platform is not only interoperable across brands and products types, but also supports voice control of devices in both single device and multiroom-multidevice groupings. Meanwhile the LS9X module is sertified with Google Chromecast, Amazon Alexa, Apple Airplay 2 and SPotify Connect, and features dual-band 11ac wifi, Bluetooth audio, simple Bluetooth LE setup and all necessary media processing.