Yesterday, Brendon Bigley and I walked over 8 miles on the CES show floor in search of ‘the next big thing’ in handheld gaming. We ended a long day against the backdrop of the Las Vegas Sphere to talk about what we’d seen and our initial impressions of what it all means to the future of handheld gaming.
Yesterday was a long, fun day of interesting and surprising discoveries that we’ll unpack further on next week’s episode of NPC: Next Portable Console.
CES kicked off Sunday evening with Unveiled, a press-only showcase of a subset of gadgets that I found a little underwhelming. It’s not that there hasn’t been interesting tech announced at the event, but it’s buried under strata of hype, over-the-top marketing, and a sea of buzzwords.
Most of all, though, every gadget is burdened with a fixation on artificial intelligence. I’ve seen a few interesting AI use cases so far, but most of what is described as AI simply isn’t. It’s just that in the speed-dating atmosphere between the press and gadget company PR, companies feel like they need an AI story in order to get attention. It also doesn’t help that gadgets are swallowed up by the cavernous, warehouse-sized spaces where they’re being shown off. The scale of CES (and Las Vegas for that matter) is huge and makes everything else seem small.
Still, there’s something undeniably fun about CES. Breathless announcements about answering your phone from your washer/dryer deserve the eye rolls they get, but the challenge is in the hunt to find the gems of CES. There is a signal underlying all the marketing noise, which is what Brendon and I will be on the lookout for today as the show floor opens for the first time. With so many products pre-announced, though, I thought I’d compile a roundup of what has caught my eye that I will be on the lookout for on the CES show floor.
Late yesterday, espresso Displays announced the addition of a new portable display to its Pro lineup. The espresso 15 Pro joins the company’s 17 Pro, which was released last year. Highlights of the 15.6” display include a brighter 60Hz 4K screen and a new stand, along with features from the 17 Pro like touch sensitivity.
The display, which is enclosed in an aluminum body with two USB-C ports, is capable of 550 nits of brightness over a single USB-C cable, a 100-nit improvement over the larger 17 Pro display. The new Stand+ will enable the screen to be elevated much higher, too, thanks to a clever design that can be folded up into a travel-friendly configuration.
The espresso 15 Pro will be shown off at CES starting tomorrow, where I’m hoping to spend some hands-on time with it. Although I haven’t seen the 15 Pro yet, I have tried the 17 Pro and espresso Display’s standard 1080p 15” portable display, which came with the same Stand+ as the 15 Pro model. Both displays are well-built, lightweight, and easy to use, making them great complements to a Mac, iPad, or even an iPhone for anyone who wants a second screen. I’m particularly interested in the 15 Pro, though, because despite its great resolution, the 17 Pro is a little bigger than I typically want to carry with me, and I expect the added brightness of the 15 Pro will be a nice addition, too.
Shazam has released the Shazam Fast Forward 2025, a group of artists that the music recognition service expects to break out in 2025. As explained on its dedicated Shazam Fast Forward 2025 website:
These are Shazam’s Predictions for breakthrough artists in 2025. 50 artists from trending genres revealed over 5 days.
Featuring emerging artists who, based on Shazam data and reviewed by our editors, are poised to have a breakthrough year. It’s a remarkably global and diverse selection, hailing from 26 countries and spanning sounds from Indie-Rock to UK Drill.
Today’s highlighted genre is Dance, which features 10 artists from around the world:
The artists are laid out in a card interface. Clicking on each card reveals the artist’s bio. There’s also a play button to preview their music via Apple Music. Tomorrow, Shazam will reveal the breakout Latin artists followed by Shazam’s picks for emerging Country/Rock, Pop, and Hip-Hop/R&B stars.
Today, I began packing my bag full of the gear I’m bringing to CES. I’m excited because it’s shaping up to be a very NPC CES.
Brendon, Federico, and I started NPC: Next Portable Console because we each sensed that handheld gaming had reached a tipping point. Thanks to the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck, companies around the world have spent the past year experimenting with new ways to make gaming more portable.
I’ve covered CES from afar for years at this point and always enjoy it. Sure, a lot of CES amounts to incremental changes to TVs and new attempts to embed screens into kitchen appliances. But if that’s all you see, you’re not paying close enough attention. The fun of CES is discovering what’s new and trying to separate the vaporware from truly innovative ideas. Plus, Weird CES never disappoints, bringing truly bizarre gadgets to life that everyone should know about. Who can forget Qoobo the headless cat robot?
This isn’t technically my first CES. Until the mid-‘90s, the show was held in Chicago and New York, and it was open to the public. I went a few years before it moved to Las Vegas and had a blast. That was a long time ago, but with the rise of handheld gaming, the time felt right to return.
Over the summer and into the fall as the rumors of new Windows and SteamOS devices gained momentum, it became clear that handheld manufacturers were targeting CES for splashy announcements. That’s the main reason Brendon and I are heading to Las Vegas. We’ll be roaming the show floor to see what’s coming next and get a sense of where handhelds are heading in 2025 and beyond.
However, as excited as we are about portable consoles, that’s not all we’ll be covering. There’s a lot more to CES, so we’ll also be on the lookout for the latest in smart home hardware, AR glasses, headphones, speakers, anything with an e-ink screen, and more.
What we plan to bring to you here and on the MacStories YouTube channel is something uniquely NPC and MacStories: insights into what to expect from the next wave of portable videogame hardware and the other gadgets worth keeping an eye on in the new year, plus a sprinkling of the weirdly wonderful “what were they thinking?” hardware.
To follow along, you can find our coverage on MacStories.net under the tag ‘CES 2025’ and this dedicated RSS feed. You’ll also find two playlists on our YouTube channel: ‘NPC @ CES’ for handheld gaming news and ‘MacStories @ CES’ for everything else. Plus, be sure to visit Brendon’s blog Wavelengths for even more coverage from him.
Packing for CES has been a little different than WWDC. The biggest differences are the huge crowds at CES and the limits the conference puts on the bags you can carry into venues.
My trusty Tom Bihn Synapse 25 backpack isn’t big, but it’s too large for CES, so the first thing I did was look for a bag that was small enough to meet the CES security rules but big enough to hold my 14” MacBook Pro and 11” iPad Pro, plus accessories. I decided on a medium-sized Tomtoc Navigator T24 sling bag, which is the perfect size. It holds 7 liters of stuff and has built-in padding to protect the corners of the MacBook Pro and iPad as well as pockets on the inside and outside to help organize cables and other things.
I don’t plan to carry my MacBook Pro with me during the day. The iPad Pro will be plenty for any writing and video production I do on the go, but it will be good to have the power and flexibility of the MacBook Pro when I return to my hotel room. For traveling to and from Las Vegas, I appreciate that the Tomtoc bag can fit everything I’m bringing.
With little room to spare, my setup is minimal. I’ll write on the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro, carrying the iPad with me tethered to my iPhone for Internet access. That’s a tried-and-true setup I already use whenever I’m away from home.
NPC has been a lot of fun to produce this year. If you haven’t tried the show yet, this week’s episode is a good place to start because it brings together so much of what we’ve covered since launching the show in June.
To close out 2024, Federico, Brendon and I present the first-ever HOTYs: the 2024 Handhelds of the Year awards, celebrating the best handheld gaming devices, custom firmware, and, of course, the Handheld of the Year.
Enjoy the latest episodes from MacStories’ family of podcasts:
This week, Federico and I round up the tech and productivity projects we have planned for our annual holiday break.
On AppStories+, I explain the refinements he’s made to my reading setup.
Chris has his own Mount Rushmore of iPad apps, Matt is trying to get to terms with Discord, and the gang figures out if they’re moving the group chat to WhatsApp.
Yesterday, the team at Lux announced that they are working on the next major release of their pro camera app, Halide, which will be dubbed Halide Mark III. The next iteration of Halide, which Lux hopes to release in 2025 will focus on three areas:
In addition to upcoming features, Lux announced a new community Discord for Halide and Kino, to collect feedback from customers and to allow them to share their interest in photography. The Discord and social media will also be where users can participate in the Halide and Kino 52-Week Challenge:
Every week you’ll get a photography challenge on our Discord. We’ll also include resources to help with the challenge — like app-specific tips. The challenge will be shared there and on our social media. Once you’ve got your shot, you can share your shots and see what the rest of the community came up with.
I love both Halide and Kino, and I’m intrigued by Lux’s new approach to development. Running a community can be challenging, but I expect the feedback Lux gets from users will be invaluable, as they work on the next big update to one of the App Store’s best camera apps.
