{"id":2764,"date":"2025-12-08T08:08:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T14:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/?p=2764"},"modified":"2026-03-02T22:29:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:29:25","slug":"some-ces-shows-can-just-be-more-weird-than-others-2016-was-one-of-those","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/?p=2764","title":{"rendered":"Some CES shows can just be more weird than others … 2016 was one of those."},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewing 2016\u2019s CES it was obvious that the electronics tech was \u201cgrowing up\u201d and so patently different than the 2006 show that it “kinda” left me a bit agog for the upcoming 2026 show. I was going to do a list from the 3,600+ companies showing at the 2016 CES, that don\u2019t exist any longer, but after some research, I soon came to understand that this may take, at a minimum, a few weeks to compile. My time may be better spent elsewhere is what I told myself to get out of this Herculean task.<\/p>\n

So, in its place, here is some notable weirdness from the show \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cBeam\u201d, one of the most creepy things I\u2019ve EVER seen at CES, was introduced to a crowd that seemed far more interested in trying to get away from their booth and not have any eye contact with the \u201cworkers\u201d there. You see, Beam is a rolling computer monitor at the top of a stick-on-wheels with people LIVE on those monitors rolling around by remote control trying to communicate with you. All it accomplished was a distinct feeling of truly intense unpleasant creepiness and an unexpected (human response I assume) desire to find anywhere else to go rather than there \u2026 and quickly. I stopped and watched folks cringing and flee just as I did. A body-less person roaming around, trying to talk to you while suffering severe image\/sound sync (lips moving and no voice until a few moments later), swaying back & forth on their sticks like some kind of perverse Sci-Fi movie, in a rather large booth with an unfamiliar and distorted talking flat face plastered on a screen, garnered as little desire to own one as you may imagine.<\/p>\n

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Pinball was still alive and Stern Pinball showed their \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d machine. It had three different types of these machines available, at different prices for folks to pump in their dollar bills \u2026 I don\u2019t remember seeing a quarter slot any longer. Now years later, I can\u2019t help but wonder if these are collectibles or collecting dust in a warehouse.<\/p>\n

Martian showed its \u201csmart watch\u201d and I have to admit, I sincerely think it\u2019s a far<\/em> more useful smart watch than any I\u2019ve ever seen since. A true analog watch with a small single line screen at the bottom that connected to your phone and showed only what really mattered \u2026 not trying to jam an 8\u201d by 11\u201d sheet of info onto your wrist, only what was really needed \u2026 you\u2019d need an 18\u201d laptop to see\/understand what some makers are trying to jam onto an absurd 1.5 inch watch display today. I understand that after closing their doors, they are considered a collectible now.<\/p>\n

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Artec, the 3D printing company, showed an imaging device that could copy your face\/body and then print a six-inch-tall figure (in color). The ad in CES Daily showed a little girl with a birthday cake and this \u201cthing\u201d on top of it. Though the girl in the ad was smiling, you could sort of see she was a bit weirded-out. Even now, I wonder if this gave her nightmares.<\/p>\n

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Samsung had the largest booth (no surprise) and won 38 \u201cInnovation\u201d awards \u2026 however given that many of these awards over the years were given out to \u201cinventions\/innovations\u201d that were absurd, short-sighted or flat out ridiculous really make it more than obvious these awards weren\u2019t chosen by the best and mentally nimble of folks. However, it was good for a laugh \u2026<\/p>\n

Smart wallets were \u201cin\u201d at the show. Realistically, if you don\u2019t mind carrying what is essentially another smart phone with you and taking the time to load in all your info, even today looks like a really good way to be seriously defrauded if it\u2019s lost, or the folks who made the thing accessing it and getting your info. A simple RF-blocking wallet seems to be a more retro, but common-sense solution even now.<\/p>\n

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Ok, I found a company called \u201cBeeline\u201d that had a really useful phone case … doesn\u2019t sound as earth-shaking as personal direct control of an orbiting satellite\u2019s camera, but in the real world, it\u2019s useful. They built a phone case with a retractable cable and a carabiner on the other end of said cable. Clip it onto a belt loop, go into a bar and place your phone on that bar \u2026 you\u2019re not going to go to the bathroom or leave without it! Or put your keys or anything you don\u2019t want to take a chance of losing and it\u2019s a life-saver. I wish I had it years earlier at a CES show when I set down my camera for a minute and it went home with a different owner.<\/p>\n

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A real heartbreaker was remembering that \u201cPicoBrew\u201d was at this show. I was a true acolyte of this company as they had invented (even to this day) the best home-brewing rig. Their process of making these machines operational was even patented. The beers produced were close to world class quality and even a total neophyte could make brews that would shame 95% of the commercial breweries. While at their booth many of the folks walking through believed I worked for them due to my knowledge of operation and praise.\u00a0 Also, they had free beer. However, for some reason, they didn\u2019t survive and that\u2019s a real shame for the brewing community. Of note, a few people hacked the machine, got custom internal vessels made and folks still brew with them. I bought those vessels and subscribe to them on social media (the only thing I have ever joined) to keep the dream alive of a great fresh and cold brew made by me, to my tastes. They are sorely missed \u2026<\/p>\n

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Under the title of \u201cBelieve it or Not\u201d \u2026 the USPS was at the show and get this \u2026 they were touting \u201cSunday Deliveries.\u201d I\u2019d just like to get my mail not soaking wet because the postman didn\u2019t bother to close the mailbox fully during a rain storm or delivered to another distant neighborhood for a change.<\/p>\n

Just like today, some “smart” devices aren’t really all that smart and perhaps the “inventor” as well. Call me silly, but I don’t really see a need for a smart blender. If you look at the picture, you can see how much ingredients are in the clear blender … why do I need an app for that? My “smart” stove keeps hammering me to link it to the web because Samsung seems to think I need to control it from even from Antartica. So “smart”, isn’t always useful or wanted.<\/p>\n

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Let\u2019s not forget RCA smartphones \u2026 while the phones may be \u201csmart\u201d, a guy\u2019s decision (let\u2019s call him Bob) of a failing brand to attempt to sell a substandard phone produced by an obscure Chinese maker wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cCar and Driver\u201d magazine came out with lots of car tech \u2026 apparently made by the finest unknown Chinese company in a farming community next to the tractor assembly line. They had a radar detector, dash cams and phone tech. I\u2019m assuming that perhaps \u201cBob\u201d, who possibly previously worked at RCA after losing his innovation job (see above), moved to C&D to help them slide further into obscurity.<\/p>\n

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Then \u201cBob\u201d (or a reasonable facsimile thereof), after leaving Car and Driver, went to Polaroid, where (not I\u2019m joking) \u201chelped\u201d them in producing a smartphone. I\u2019m certain you\u2019ve owned one \u2026 no?\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Well, evidently even the least cognitive individuals amongst us that had a flip phone from 2005, knew better and didn\u2019t want to downgrade.<\/p>\n

I sincerely wonder occasionally if there are a few folks who float from company to company using their employment history as proof of being a part of the tech scene to get hired, then deliberately sabotaging whoever they are working for \u2026 the coincidences to me seem too obvious to ignore. Obvious ridiculous and expensive decisions that could permanently damage companies done on a regular basis \u2026 conspiracy theory? Chinese spies or just companies hiring bean counters and HR to make marketing decisions? Regardless, there seems to be no shortage of these people when you look at the staggering number of companies that go under each year from these choices.<\/p>\n

The show had a large section about connected vehicles \u2026 Very literally, essentially everything they were touting as \u201cdreams for the future car\u201d exists in every Tesla sold today. I gotta give them kudos for seeing what Tesla was up to at that time and drawing a rational opinion. Yet Tesla has leapfrogged past what they dreamed would eventually exist and with everyday uses that they couldn\u2019t have imagined \u2026 all hail the \u201cDog Mode!\u201d<\/p>\n

Not to be surpassed by the two companies that were making an electrical-shocking spoon\/fork (who shockingly are both defunct today), Nervana came out with a MP3 player that would electrically \u201cstimulate\u201d you while listening to music. This was supposed to relax you \u2026 how could this fail??? Today, you can simulate this effect for free, by turning on your home stereo and jamming a fork into a wall outlet.<\/p>\n

There were 22 drone companies in attendance and most were actually pretty interesting. At the 2025 CES show, there was one \u2026 Gee, thanks Joe Biden for criminalizing a few ounces of flying plastic and camera for vacation and special events without a special license, obtuse\/ridiculous rules and of course, a license fee with stupidly huge penalties\/fines for not possessing it. Some of the penalties are more than a mid-range criminal firearm conviction … this isn’t a joke with a $250,000 fine and three years in a federal prison at stake. We’re not talking about making a flying bomb, this is JUST for not having a license.<\/p>\n

And of course, the pi\u00e8ce de r\u00e9sistance of the show at CES is none other than General Motors CEO Mary Barra giving a keynote address. She proudly claimed GM is \u201cdriving innovation\u201d \u2026 her exact words. In reality, the only thing she\u2019s driven, is GM into the ground. So far, she\u2019s managed to lead GM to about a 50% loss of sales world-wide after her move from HR to the top DEI position within GM in 2014. The same CEO that finally recalled 23,000+ Corvettes (this number doesn’t include the vast number of unsold Vettes for sale at dealerships as well) in September that have a high probability of exploding into flames simply while refueling at a gas station as many already have for several<\/em> months. Who would have guessed that having the gasoline fuel filler literally a few inches away from an exposed red-hot exhaust manifold could cause an issue? You can find their videos all over Facebook and YouTube \u2026 even their factory test car ignited and quickly burned to the ground. In China, to say that GM\u2019s largest market sales are down dramatically, is drastically understated. One their biggest sellers isn\u2019t even made by them, the SAIC manufactured Wuling Hong Guang Mini EV at around $5,700 with 27HP \u2026 this isn\u2019t a joke. This rolling coffin, which is a little bit bigger than my kitchen table, has a driving range of a theoretical 107 miles with a hard-to-believe top speed of 62mph. Bear in mind, when you read about GM\u2019s sales worldwide, this thing is a sizable amount of their sales in China and info about it is pretty much a secret to everyone in the US. If you\u2019re thinking about buying GM stock, you may want to change your mind once you understand GM\u2019s plans. Under CEO Mary Barra, they are about $134,000,000,000 in debt with only $21 billion in cash and the debt load is increasing daily. It appears that GM could liquidate absolutely everything they own and still not have remotely enough money to pay back creditors, while the stock holders (market capitalization is $75.10B) would get essentially nothing. Experts agree there is a very<\/em> high probability that GM will not actually make ANY of their cars sold in China (their most important market) as they have begun just hiring other companies to build the cars and slap their name on it. This is the same woman that Joe Biden said was the class-leader in electric vehicle technology all the while deliberately ignoring Musk\u2019s accomplishments. The same CEO that just weeks ago, had her company instruct consumers not to park their \u201cdriving innovation\u201d GM electric auto within 150 feet of their garage as it may spontaneously burst into flames from cheaply-made and faulty batteries. The same company that doesn\u2019t allow older electric GM products to park near anything else that\u2019s flammable at dealerships. The question I pose is this: why would anyone trust her to lead what was the largest car company of all time after the dumpster fire GM has become?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m reasonably certain Musk watched her keynote, spit out some fine scotch and laughed himself silly.<\/p>\n

Of note, the “official” number of attendees are 176,000, 3,600+ exhibitors, more than 8oo speakers, 2.4 million sq. feet of show space and 150+ countries attending.\u00a0 Notably, although the “official” number of attendees is 176,000 … the number often unofficially quoted is closer to 300,000+.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 From personal experience, there may be more than a little bit of credence to this amount. I have my own guesses why CES won’t comment on this …<\/p>\n

CES … where weird, wacky, unhinged and occasionally incredibly prescient things happen. You just never know what\u2019s around the next corner. We\u2019ll see at the 2026 show \u2026 wish me luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewing 2016\u2019s CES it was obvious that the electronics tech was \u201cgrowing up\u201d and so patently different than the 2006 show that it “kinda” left me a bit agog for the upcoming 2026 show. I was going to do a list from the 3,600+ companies showing at the 2016 CES, that don\u2019t exist any longer, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2764"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2838,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2764\/revisions\/2838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}