Published on January 10th, 2018 | by Brad Gibson

CES 2018: Power, speakers, smart antenna and goggle-free 3D

There’s this thing about electronics that’s really essential…power.

But Wednesday morning, parts of CES at the Las Vegas convention center were without it despite the Consumer Technology Association saying it was a “limited” outage. People in the central and south halls will tell you it was more than limited and had attendees fleeing to the south halls were things were working. About two-and-half hours later – what the CTA called “minutes” – things returned to normal, but for the first two days of the show, unpredictability continued unabated.

Okay, it wasn’t pitch dark, but it was a little boring sitting in the dark at CES on Wednesday.

With the lights back on, we found some neat products for Apple TV users. Here goes…

The Libratone Zipp speaker has been around for a few years, but what with the delay of the Apple HomePod and this speaker’s upcoming support for AirPlay 2, we think it deserves kudos and a re-visit. Supporting both WiFi and Bluetooth – something Sonos speakers don’t do – you can connect up to six speakers to fill multiple rooms with sound from your Apple TV. In varying colors at $249, we’ll be reviewing this speaker soon as an added audio benefit for any Apple TV.

The Libratone Zip has great sound and works right out of the box with Apple TV.

3D was all the buzz a few years back at CES. We all know what happened since. The problem has mostly been that people didn’t want to watch 3D content wearing goggles. Now, Stream TV Networks and BOE Technology Group have joined forces to combine the high-resolution panels of BOE with Stream TV’s Glasses-Free 3D technology offering goggle-free, ultra 3D video.

3D without the goggles.

Still photos don’t do it justice but take my word for it, this prototype looks and feels like 3D with real-world depth. How does it work? Glasses-free 3D is a method of displaying stereoscopic images (adding binocular perception of 3D depth) without the use of special headgear or glasses. Because headgear is not required, it is also called “glasses-less 3D ” or ” autostereoscopy “. When could it be a reality in our living rooms? No one we talked to was willing to venture a guess or cost.

Channel Master’s Smartenna+

And finally, we found an amplified, indoor TV antenna for those Apple TV users wanting to cord cut that improves weak signal reception. It’s the Channel Master Smartenna+ that uses an internal processor to find the best signal reception pattern for wherever it’s located. And if the signal changes or fades for some reason, it can rescan and adjust with the push of a button — no repositioning necessary.

Tags: Apple, apple tv, ces, CES 2018, Consumer Electronics Show

About the Author

Brad Gibson Brad is co-founder and editor-in-chief of BESTAppleTV.com. He has been a technology reporter since the late 1980s having previously worked for MacUser, MacFormat, and iCreate magazines, as well as MacNN.com, MacObserver.com, MacCentral.com, MacMinute.com, and Macworld.com. He hosted and produced the MacFormat This Week podcast for three years. He was also a reporter, editor, and producer for the AOL, the BBC, Associated Press, and United Press International.