For the first time since *checks notes* this time last year, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is back. The expo begins today and will be hybrid this year after 2021’s fully virtual event.

Last year’s show was capped at 1,500 exhibitors and had over 86,000 people participate, and this year’s event has already booked more than 2,000 vendors.

• But since the omicron variant broke out, 150 major exhibitors including Microsoft, Google, AMD, and Intel have dropped out of in-person presentations, and the Consumer Technology Association (which organizes CES) has shortened the event by a day—it now ends Friday, Jan. 7.

Even still…CES is charging (almost) full steam ahead. As always, the show will spotlight a number of emerging technologies across fields like connected cars and digital health, and this year’s event will also spotlight trendy fields, like:

• NFTs…where companies like Art Blocks spoke about crypto’s role in the rise of NFTs. Also, expect digital assets to seep into product debuts too: Samsung already announced a TV that can support NFTs.
• Food tech…In which companies will showcase tech like an AI “pastry scanner” that a doctor has used to identify cancerous cells (BakeryScan), or a kitchen robot that makes gourmet meals on demand with the control of a phone (Suvie).
• Space tech…In which companies like Sierra Space will showcase its Dream Chaser space plane, which will eventually funnel personnel up to Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef space station.

The convention this year will require masks indoors and proof of vaccination, and attendees will have access to both self-test kits and on-site testing. In previous years, recordings of each event have been available for streaming, and digital access for connections will remain open through the end of January.

Looking ahead: While the next three days will bring with it a slew of announcements, CES itself has already identified a few companies to offer “innovation awards.” Two examples: Whill showed off its Model F foldable electric walker and wheelchair for seniors and people who have difficulty walking, while John Deere unveiled a fully autonomous tractor that it will begin selling in the fall.

+1: CES announcements will likely make their way into the next few issues of this newsletter, so stay tuned.

Click here to view this story on-site.—JM

The FAA-telco-FCC saga over the airspace added another chapter this week.

Despite earlier reports that they would move forward with 5G deployments initially planned for today—regardless of FAA and airline concerns—Verizon and AT&T on Monday agreed to delay the rollout of C-band 5G services by two weeks, to January 19.

The two spent a collective ~$70 billion to acquire this slice of spectrum last February, and they had already delayed the rollout by a month in November. C-band is seen as the “goldilocks spectrum” for 5G, because it’s fast, plentiful, and covers a wide geographic area.

Refresher: This whole standoff originated over FAA concerns that the C-band rollout might interfere with pilot cockpit-safety systems used to land in bad weather. If the FAA’s concerns bore out, planes would need to adjust flight schedules, affecting thousands of flights nationwide.

• FWIW, the FCC studied the issue last year, and says it found no evidence to support such concerns.

Looking ahead…After the rollout, the telcos will also operate “exclusion zones” around 50 airports in the US, for a duration of six months. In these zones, C-band 5G won’t run the risk of interfering with any airplane systems. These exclusion zones are modeled after European nations like France, where C-band 5G is already in place but restricted to operate within airport territory.

Click here to view this story on-site.—JM

But did you know they were this high?

Nearly $41 billion worth of Ethereum-based NFTs were sold in 2021, according to Chainalysis research cited by the Financial Times. In 2021, the global art market was worth ~$50 billion, per UBS.

• The vast majority (75%) of NFT transactions were sales under $10,000, but the wealthiest 9% of NFT wallets held ~80% of the market’s value.

Nearly a year ago, in February 2021, we wrote that the NFT market was gaining momentum after having already tripled in value the year prior, notching ~$250 million in sales, per a report from NonFungible.com.

Looking ahead: NFTs, and crypto more broadly, are quickly working their way into new corners of business and society. Platforms like Arcade—which raised $15 million in late December—have popped up to allow NFT holders to take out loans against their digital assets. Earlier, we mentioned Samsung’s new NFT-enabled TV. Brands are embracing them.

But, but, but…With the explosion of the market in both value and volume has come greater scrutiny of its risks. One example: In late December, an owner of Bored Ape NFTs—a popular NFT collection that just passed $1 billion in lifetime sales—reportedly had ~$2 million worth of Bored Apes stolen from his wallet.

And as digital assets grow more mainstream and valuable, fears of a bubble—and its potential impact—grow bigger, too.

Click here to view this story on-site.—DM

Stat: Speaking of NFTs…OpenSea, the non-fungible marketplace, raised a $300 million Series C, at a $13.3 billion valuation.

Quote: “What sets this apart from anything available online is the data sets are labelled with the ‘ground truth,’ which means with what really happened to a patient and not just a doctor’s opinion.”—Ziad Obermeyer, who curated and released a series of unique medical data sets

Read: An analysis of the relationship between Silicon Valley and Elizabeth Holmes, who was just found guilty on four counts of fraud.

Looking for more? Check out Emerging Tech’s musings on the metaverse and Web 3.0 in two articles we wrote, sponsored by JobsOhio—here and here.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

In 2000, Blackberry released its first smartphone, the Blackberry 957. In the first days of 2022, the company officially bricked all of its existing classic phones—as of yesterday, those models can no longer make calls or texts.

• Some newer, Android–based models will still function.

Rewind: In 2012, Blackberry had 80 million active users. Now, it has very few active users, and it’s not a phone company, but instead a cybersecurity and automotive tech provider. Oh, what change a decade can bring.

Some scientific journals—including all 10 published by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)—are using AI tools to scan submitted papers for duplicated or slightly doctored images.

• AACR is using a firm called Proofig, though it said it tried a number of different providers.
• Nature reports that at least four academic publishers are using similar image-recognition tech.

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions:

• Last year, experts told us what to expect for 2021. Here’s how their predictions shook out
• Quantum computing remains far from commercialization, but 2021 brought it several steps closer
• Emerging Tech Brew’s year in review