The role customer intelligence plays in delivering seamless, personal experiences was the topic of three conference sessions organized by Acxiom, a leading customer intelligence company and data-driven solution provider. While the industry leaders and panel discussions drew from the automotive sector, the insights have broader implications. Details were also released in Acxiom’s Automotive Customer Experience study. “These survey findings highlight how critical it is for brands to have a genuine understanding of people and how hard it can be to deliver the right message at the right time,” said Steve Schmith, director of automotive strategy at Acxiom. Continue reading CES: Executives Explore the Impact of Customer Intelligence

At a CES panel, CISA director Jen Easterly sounded the alarm on the current state of cybersecurity in the U.S. “We cannot accept that ten years from now it will be the same or worse than it is now,” she said. “All the critical infrastructure we rely on is underpinned by a technology base that was created in an insecure way.” As head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Easterly is in a position to assess the coming damage, projected to be $8 trillion this year. Moderator Rajeev Chand, Wing Venture Capital partner led Easterly and CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz in a discussion on how to halt the increase of cyber-insecurity. Continue reading CES: As Risks Rise, Experts Reimagine Path to Cyber Safety

According to a group of game experts, 5G will likely skyrocket the reach and power of mobile games. IQ Labs founder Julian Mitchell moderated a conversation with Activision Blizzard vice president Jonathan Stringfield, Niantic director of product management Tom Emrich and THNDR Games chief executive Desiree Dickerson on the current and future prospects of mobile gaming. Emrich pointed to Niantic’s Campfire that gives players a place to connect. “The industry outside gaming has embraced it as the new social network,” he said. “Games are more than games — they’re synonymous with the metaverse.” Continue reading CES: Mobile Game Execs Talk About Impact of Emerging 5G

The NPD Group’s Paul Gagnon and Ben Arnold presented “7 Ways the CE Consumer Has Changed” in the last few years. U.S. consumer attitudes and behaviors changed from early-pandemic lockdown to the slow reopening, and then the fear of inflation and recession. In general, consumers are buying more for individuals than for shared home experiences, they have equipped themselves for remote work which may suppress future sales until they are ready to upgrade, and they buy when bargains appear even if they plan to actually open them for a holiday or special occasion. Continue reading CES: The NPD Group Analyzes Changes in Consumer Trends

Nvidia announced during CES this week that it plans to roll out its RTX Video Super Resolution feature in February for web video content viewed through Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers. The company promises AI upscaling up to 4K quality, but the feature requires a PC running a Nvidia 30- or 40-series GPU. The technology — which can upscale video with resolution between 360p and 1440p, including 1080p, and up to a 144Hz frame rate — has already been available on Nvidia Shield TV and Shield TV Pro streaming media players. However, introducing browser support should significantly increase its audience. Continue reading CES: Nvidia’s AI Upscaling Tech to Tackle Blurry Web Video

Nvidia will bring GeForce NOW cloud gaming to cars via Android and web browsers. At CES 2023 the company announced automakers Hyundai of South Korea, Sweden’s Polestar and Chinese EV maker BYD as the first streaming partners, with titles including “Cyberpunk 2077,” “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” and “Fortnite” among initial offerings. While Nvidia did not announce a launch date for the new service, it said GeForce NOW will “stream a real-time, full PC-gaming experience to software-defined cars.” The company added that in-vehicle gaming can “enhance time spent charging or riding in vehicles.” Continue reading CES: Nvidia Brings GeForce NOW Cloud Gaming to Vehicles

QuickVid is a new AI-driven text-to-video platform aiming for a mass market user base. The tool draws on various generative AI systems to automatically create short-form videos for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and other platforms. Created by former Meta Platforms programmer Daniel Habib “in a matter of weeks,” QuickVid is quite rudimentary, though Habib says he plans to continue fine tuning and adding features. Unlike Google and Meta have done with their nascent text-to-video systems, QuickVid has bypassed the formalities of research papers and industry previews and jumped directly to a public-facing website. Continue reading QuickVid Uses AI to Create Short Videos from Text Prompts

At Nvidia’s CES 2023 keynote, executives revealed new products and innovations in laptops, gaming, the omniverse, robotics and auto technology. Nvidia senior vice president of gaming Jeff Fisher focused on the company’s AI developments, emphasizing that, “AI will define the future of computing,” and adding that “this has influenced much” of what the company is showing at CES. He highlighted the company’s “new era of laptop computing,” powered by its Ada Lovelace architecture, GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs and new 5th generation Max-Q technologies with DLSS 3 for quadrupled speed. Continue reading CES: Nvidia Intros AI Impact on Gaming, Omniverse, Laptops

During Samsung’s CES press conference, chief executive and head of the Device eXperience (DX) Division Jong-Hee (JH) Han emphasized twin themes for the company at this years’ confab. First is to deliver on the promise of smart devices. “It’s about connecting all the devices that make up your life from home to workplace to car,” he said. Second, he added, is “a more sustainable future.” The company’s vice president of corporate sustainability Inhee Chung announced that the DX Division will reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030, with a commitment to achieve that for the entire company by 2050. Continue reading CES: Samsung Promotes Device Connectivity, Sustainability

Intel announced its 13th-gen family of laptop CPUs, including new entry-level chips and its flagship Core i9-13980HX, the high-end of its mobile processor collection (based on Raptor Lake architecture), featuring 24 cores and an impressive boost speed of 5.6GHz. The HX-series includes similar features to Intel’s 12th-gen lineup, such as 32 EUs of onboard graphics capability and support for DDR5 and DDR4, but promises significantly faster speeds to multithreaded performance. When compared to the earlier Core i9-12900HK, Intel claims game performance increases of up to 12 percent and a massive 74–79 performance jump when rendering a scene in Blender. Continue reading CES: Intel Rolls Out 13th-Generation Lineup of Laptop CPUs

LED lighting firm Nanoleaf is debuting innovations at CES that include “learning smart light switches” under the banner Sense+ Controls. The devices span categories such as hardwired Smart Light Switch, Wireless Smart Light Switch and Nala Learning Bridge, all of which work with Matter, a global interoperability protocol designed to help smart homes run smoothly, running on the low-powered Thread mesh networking standard. The new Sense+ Controls products feature motion and ambient lighting sensors that automate routines. The Nala Learning Bridge facilitates color-differentiated, soft-glow night lights and connects via Thread to Wi-Fi or Ethernet. Continue reading CES: Nanoleaf Debuts New Matter-Compliant Smart Lighting

There are people here in Las Vegas and it’s beginning to look a lot like CES again. A little sticker that says “I was at CES 2022” reminds us that only a hearty few made last year’s trip. As anticipation builds for the Thursday, January 5 opening of the CES exhibits, CTA’s vice president of research Steve Koenig kicked off the pre-show media briefings with his take on “Tech Trends to Watch.” Artificial intelligence, Web 3.0, digital health and augmented reality predictively top his list with a distinctive side note: Watch how enterprise — business at scale — innovates on top of recent tech innovations. Continue reading CES: Steve Koenig Reveals This Year’s Tech Trends to Watch

LG exited the smartphone market in 2021, but its LG Innotek division continues to supply components, and is touting a major breakthrough with its Optical Telephoto Zoom Camera Module to be unveiled this week at CES 2023. As part of the rear-mounted smartphone camera systems, the new optical zoom allows still images and video to be magnified by four to nine times “without image quality degradation even when zooming from long distance,” the company says. The results are achieved by integrating the telescopic camera functions that are mostly applied to professional DSLR and mirrorless cameras. Continue reading CES: LG Innotek Intros Optical Zoom Camera Tech for Mobile

Meta Platforms has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a 2018 class action lawsuit initiated by Facebook users who said their personal data was breached in an incident involving UK-based political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. The proposed amount would reportedly be the largest settlement in a U.S. data privacy class action. Although Meta is not admitting to any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, the firm says it has over the past three years “revamped” its approach to privacy. Lawyers for the plaintiffs called the proposal a “historic settlement” that will provide meaningful relief in a “complex and novel” case. Continue reading Meta $725M Cambridge Analytica Settlement Moves Forward

Insider Intelligence forecasts that 2023 will mark the first time since 2014 that the combined digital advertising market share for Meta Platforms and Alphabet will fall below 50 percent, indicating erosion of their “duopoly.” Projection of a 2.5 percent drop due to increased competition from rivals including Amazon, Apple, TikTok and Microsoft will put the pair at a projected 48.4 percent this year, according to the research group. While the trajectory is likely to garner negative media and investor attention, it is a plus from the perspective of fending off global antitrust attacks. Continue reading Digital Ad Share for Meta, Alphabet to Drop Below 50 Percent