Good morning, techies!
The spirit of CES is alive and well. But it’s not among the OLED TVs and the self-driving cars. It’s in the underbelly of Sands Expo Convention Center, in Eureka Park, a haven for early-stage startups with strict rules for exhibition. Chiefly, the technology can’t be available for consumers today, but needs to be demonstrable in a prototype. These are the 3D-printed robots that might one day take care of the elderly, or AI-powered toys to entertain your aging pets.
While the Samsungs and Sonys are spread out over thousands of square feet, these companies are given a standard-sized booth, hoping to catch the attention of a passerby for a quick demo. It’s a truly good day if that person is a buyer.
Come to CES more than once and it’s easy to feel like there’s nothing new under the sun if you spend your time walking the main show floors. Everything is thinner, faster, but has Alexa built in this year! But the Quartz tech crew was wowed a dozen times over several hours roaming Eureka. Modobag, a piece of luggage you can ride around the airport, was made possible by a new battery design. This thing is so cool, Drake owns one. Two spideresque robots played a soccer match. And don’t be surprised if someday you can buy a recyclable power pack for your phone for $2 at a convenience store, thanks to London’s Quick-e.
Long live Eureka Park.
What to watch for today
Sports, sports, sports. One of the most common sights around Las Vegas this year has been the rise of e-sports. Even the hotel where Quartz was staying, the Luxor, recently replaced its only nightclub with an e-sports arena. And the last day of CES will be all about the blending of sports and technology. Advertising magnate and WPP chairman Martin Sorrell will speak about sports tech at 10am US Pacific time at the Sands. Right after, there will be a roundtable discussion on the differences between traditional sports and e-sports, featuring baseball player Trevor May and TV executives. At 12:45pm, also at the Sands, another discussion will focus on how athletes can influence technologies that can improve their abilities.
The takes. After the news coverage fades, the takes will rise. As reporters head home and look back on what they’ve seen this week, we’ll start to get the bigger-picture stories trying to reduce the convention to a theme that we’ve almost certainly heard before. Here’s a quick list of the takes you’ll invariably see over the next few days:
- Google won CES
- Amazon won CES
- CES is boring
- The golden age of gadgets is here
- Gadgets are bad now
- Self-driving cars are now a reality
- The smart home finally makes sense
- The smart home still doesn’t make sense
CES closing party. While tech executives may hang around casinos hammering out deals and betting their bonuses on red over the long weekend, today is the last official day of CES for attendees. Everyone is invited to the official closing party, in the massive TAO nightclub at the Venetian. Doors open at 10:30pm and there’s an open bar for an hour. Just don’t forget your badge or you won’t be let in. It’s unclear whether there will be any stripper robots at this party, though.
What everyone is talking about
Google’s vending machine. Typically any roar of glee in Vegas comes from the casino floor, but hundreds of people waited in line and cheered for fellow winners each day at Google’s mega-popular giveaway. Crafted to look like a gumball machine, conference-goers could ask Google Assistant a question that the huge robot would answer before doling out prizes ranging from Google beanies to Nest thermostats.
Attack of the clones. First movers like Kwikset, Vivint, and August showed off smart-lock technologies in the main halls of the convention, but that didn’t stop several startups from trying to cling onto the trend in Eureka Hall. Video-conferencing systems that looked suspiciously like the Amazon Echo Show and smart doorbells that seemed eerily like Ring also tried to make themselves seen. While it might seem silly, ripping off a popular idea is a mainstay of CES: A few years ago everyone was copying DJI’s drones, and then hoverboards after that. Now it’s the smart home’s time.
Their hangovers. Wednesday night was the time more people could let their hair down, after keynotes had been delivered, stories filed, and booths displayed. Everyone was moving noticeably slower on Thursday, because even with 4,500 companies at CES, no one seems to have disrupted the hangover. Some of the parties people were talking about: Twitter, Monster, and Pandora, which had a live performance by Lauryn Hill.
Getting home. The conference ends today, and now Las Vegas can exhale its 180,000 temporary residents. Conference-goers are beginning to rumble about their layovers and red-eye flights, and soon Las Vegas will return to… normal. A word of advice if you’re flying out today: Give yourself more time than you’d expect.
CES by the numbers
Quartz reporters Dave Gershgorn and Mike Murphy spent the last four days in Las Vegas, and were joined by tech editor Matt Quinn for two. Here’s a quick rundown of what we did:
- Miles walked: 61
- Uber, Lyft, taxi, bus and monorail trips taken: 23
- Dollars gambled (as of this writing): $0
- Casinos visited: 12
- Backup battery charging power used: 32,654 milliamp hours
- USB sticks received: 9
- Backs thrown out: 2
News from around the world
Germany’s old coalition partners agreed to form a new government. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the Social Democrats hammered out a preliminary deal early Friday morning—the main sticking points were refugee policy, taxes, and government spending. The breakthrough means Merkel is saved from early elections.
Trump lashed out at “shithole” countries. That’s how the president described El Salvador, Haiti, and African countries during a discussion with lawmakers over granting entry to immigrants from these countries as part of a bipartisan deal. News outlets around the world grappled with how to report—and translate—the remark.
Facebook is making its news feed “more meaningful.” It said the changes will prioritize posts that “spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people.” That means less passively consumed content, like viral videos and news articles, will appear in people’s feeds.
Matters of debate
The Arctic will never be frozen again. Scientists say the region’s rapid warming is unprecedented and irreversible.
Why aren’t critics critical enough? The majority of movies, books, and TV shows are “mediocre or worse.”
The case for equal pay in journalism is the case for better reporting. The BBC’s pay-disparity dispute highlights how having more women in media (paywall) lessens the preponderance of male perspectives.
Surprising discoveries
New Zealand’s inflation gauge now includes craft beer. It has ditched GPS devices and DVDs, as people spend on fancy beers and “body massages.”
Some wild pigs mourn their dead. Skunk pigs repeatedly visited a fallen member of their herd, even protecting its corpse from scavengers.
A vegetable-selling app in China is valued at almost $3 billion. “Meicai,” which translates to “beautiful vegetable,” allows users to buy vegetables direct from farms.
Our best wishes for a productive day and a safe trip home from Las Vegas. Please send any news, comments, tech hot takes, and betting tips to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day or download our apps for iPhone and Android.