CES 2024: Pepcom’s Digital Experience

Article by Angie Kibiloski

The Eve of Experience

Continuing the pre-show festivities on the eve of CES 2024, Pepcom held their annual Digital Experience party at The Mirage. This was another Press-exclusive event, featuring 150 select companies displaying their wares before the chaos of the convention got underway. Product categories included power solutions, smart home appliances, pet products, healthcare, mobile audio, and more. I’ve chosen 5 companies to take a brief look at from this event, each having something different from the rest of the crowd.

Personal Everyday Audio

You may have seen your favorite YouTubers shouting out Raycon earbuds for sponsoring their videos, and soon you’ll probably see them touting this new lineup of Everyday Pro earbuds and headphones. I’d never seen the Everyday product line in the wild, and I have to agree with the streamers that they’re very attractive products. I especially love the brushed navy finish on the headphones and the shiny ultra blue earbuds in their cute little charging case. I admit to not trying on the communal earbuds on display at the event, but the headphones were very comfortable, with nice soft earcups and headband padding.

Looks aren’t everything, though, and Raycon definitely backs up their aesthetics with quality tech inside. The Everyday Pro line amps it up from its predecessor with hybrid active noise cancellation, 6 beamforming microphones for enhanced call clarity, new earbud shape and coating for a more comfortable in-ear fit, an extensive battery life of 40 hours for the earbuds and 60 hours for the headphones. It also has Alexa and Siri voice controls, and dual device sync so you can transition seamlessly from one audio source to another. The Everyday Pro series will be available at the end of January for an affordable $149, and I can’t wait to grab some for myself.

Ditch the Preamp

Another audio product you may see your favorite creators using soon is the SM7dB dynamic vocal microphone from Shure. It’s the newest addition to the SM7 line of professional microphones from Shure, a staple in any at-home or in-studio recording setup. I’ve wanted to get the previous model, the SM7B for myself, but didn’t want to splash out on a preamp to bridge the gap between a single device and my computer. The SM7dB solves this dilemma.

This newest model delivers all the amazing sound quality of the SM7B, with the added bonus of a built-in preamp, eliminating the need to buy an additional piece of hardware. The integrated Cloud preamp, custom tuned by Shure engineers, provides extra gain for improved mic sensitivity, and can be adjusted to suit any user’s needs, and the extra gain can be bypassed completely for an original SM7B experience. There is, of course, a lot more to be said about the inner workings of this microphone, but I’ll save that for the full review. Shure‘s SM7dB is available right now for $499.

Simplifying the Kitchen

DREO has a variety of appliances to create a more comfortable home, from fans and air purifiers to an upcoming range of beverage-making accessories and cooking tech. This last category is what was really being put into focus at CES, with their ChefMaker Combi Fryer air fryer, which gets its “combi” moniker by utilizing multiple cooking methods. This product did extremely well during its Kickstarter campaign early in 2023, and continued this success on the wider market. Unsurprising, since it’s multi-functionality makes cooking easy for all levels of home chefs, and takes up an attractively small footprint on your countertop as well.

Aided by its smart interface and companion app, any level of user can be guided through the cooking process for a perfectly done meal, using a selection of preset recipes or helping you craft your own. The ChefMaker Combi Fryer employs a digital temperature probe, atomizing water reservoir, a super convection heating system, and more to achieve professional quality food. It can evenly cook meat all the way through without drying it out, turn out perfect seafood without making it chewy, and cook flavorful veggies and potatoes in a snap. You can grab your very own ChefMaker Combi Fryer anytime for the standard price of $359, or snag one for $279 while the current sale lasts.

Your Robot Gardener

Aiper is known for their useful little pool-cleaning robots, seen trundling along the bottom of your backyard swimming holes keeping the algae and yard debris at bay. They’ve decided to let their robots touch grass this year, with the Horizon U1, a cordless robotic lawn mower. It looks and functions much like its aquatic cousins, or any in-home robotic vacuum for that matter, but with a fondness for hacking the tops off of those pesky blades of ever-growing grass.

The Horizon UI will map your yard and plan its route around all of the stationary obstacles, and be able to recognize randomly occurring obstacles as well, like toys or a curious pet. You can program it to work autonomously through the app, or get more hands on and use the app for remote control. With adaptive blade technology, it’ll evenly cut your grass across uneven terrain, so all the dips and hills in your yard will get a uniform trim. When running too low on battery to finish a planned route, it’ll return itself to the dock to quickly recharge, never running out of steam mid-row. Unfortunately, this little grass-loving yard helper won’t be available until Q3 of this year, just in time for the Autumn leaves to cover your lawn. In the meantime, you can still become familiar with the Horizon UI and even subscribe to be notified when it’s available.

Health Testing as Easy as 1, 2, Pee

Nobody likes getting lab work done, and urine testing can be embarrassing and kinda gross. Vivoo gives you an option to test a multitude of health markers that a doctor’s office would order tests for, from the comfort and privacy of your own bathroom. They have a line of single parameter test strips to track things like protein, sodium, and pH, with a new UTI test coming out very soon, which detects leukocytes and nitrite to determine if you have a UTI and need to go to the doctor. If you’re prone to UTIs like some people, this will be such a convenience.

The current star of the show is their 9-in-1 Vivoo Urine Test, which checks 9 different biomarkers that denote overall health. It tracks calcium, vitamin C, ketones, water, magnesium, pH, sodium, oxidative stress, and protein. It’s super easy to use, just download the app, pee on the stick, scan it with the app, and get your results. The app will give you personalized recommendations on how to improve your nutrition and lifestyle, and provide a daily meal plan from a cute AI blob named Welly. Tests are recommended once per week for maximum benefit, and they’re sold as a month supply, $39.99 for a single month, with varying discounts on multi-month subscriptions on their website. Checkout Vivoo and take convenient control of your health.

More to Experience

That wraps up this quick peek at 5 cool products from Pepcom’s Digital Experience at CES 2024. I hope to at least bring you full reviews of both audio products, and perhaps the air fryer, so check back in the near future for a more in-depth look at those. Next up will be a look at some inspirational and educational products from ShowStoppers, and if you missed it, check out my last article on fun products from CES Unveiled.