CES 2018: The Best of Pepcom With LaCie, Zagg, August, Ring and More

At CES, there are several major media events like Unveiled, Pepcom, and ShowStoppers, which often serve as a way to see the highlights of the best products on display at the show without having to brave the show floor.

Pepcom took place last night, and MacRumors videographer Dan was on hand to seek out some of the most interesting products and accessories that were being demoed.


Unsurprisingly, Pepcom, like Unveiled, was filled with smart home products featuring Alexa, Google Assistant, and HomeKit support, but the focus was definitely on the former two integrations rather than Apple's smart home system.

Ring was showing off its newly announced recent devices, including the Stick Up Cam and the Ring Beams, outdoor lights with motion sensing that integrate with existing Ring security cameras and doorbells. Though many would like Ring to introduce HomeKit support, the company has not done so.

Noon had a neat smart lighting system with light switches that feature integrated OLED displays. Noon's system is designed to work with traditional bulbs because it replaces standard light switches, but it's pricey and doesn't include HomeKit support.

There were multiple smart locks on display, including the August Smart Lock and a smart lock from Yale, both of which do, in fact, have HomeKit support and work with your HomeKit setup.

Other products on display at Pepcom that were of interest included Zagg's new iPad Pro cases that combine keyboards with rugged protection, the Alexa-enabled Voice One from KitSound, and the Lightning-equipped LaCie hard drive created in partnership with DJI. LaCie and parent company Seagate have several other new storage solutions debuting at CES, which are listed on the Seagate website.

LaCie's hard drive is designed to allow you to automatically back up drone footage, and it can be controlled and accessed using the DJI app, but it also works with other non-DJI cameras and products.

Make sure to stay tuned to MacRumors for additional CES coverage, because there's a lot more to come with the show floor officially opening up this morning. We're highlighting all of the new products and accessories relevant to Apple users. To check out what we've shared so far, take a look at our CES 2018 hub.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Expected Next Week - Here Are the Release Notes

Friday March 28, 2025 2:01 pm PDT by
With the second release candidate of iOS 18.4 that Apple seeded out today, the company finally provided us with release notes that give a full rundown on what to expect. There's an Apple Vision Pro app, new Apple Intelligence features for notifications and additional language support, plus an Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers, and several updates that should improve the...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Six Things to Know About Apple's Upcoming Foldable iPhone

Friday March 28, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We've been hearing rumors about a foldable iPhone for almost a decade now, but it looks like we might finally see the device come to fruition in 2026. We're going to be waiting many more months for the foldable iPhone, but so far we're hearing good things. Apple wants to make it creaseless. It's taken Apple multiple years to design a foldable iPhone that it's satisfied with because Apple ...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...
Facebook Feature

Facebook's New iPhone App Feature Turns the Clock Back to 2007

Thursday March 27, 2025 1:59 pm PDT by
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Facebook was all about staying connected with friends and family. However, as the social media platform added new features and grew over time, that core experience began to get drowned out. That changes starting now, according to Meta, which today introduced a new feature that will "bring back the joy" of classic Facebook. Specifically, Meta has redesigned the...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

iPhone Foldable Display Said to Feature iPad-Style 4:3 Aspect Ratio

Friday March 28, 2025 3:44 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming "iPhone Fold" will feature a foldable screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio, according to a Chinese leaker who previously leaked the book-style device's display dimensions. The Weibo-based account Digital Chat Station claims that Apple will adopt a "roughly" 4:3 aspect ratio on the inner display in order to achieve consistency between the outer display, as well as to ensure parity...

Top Rated Comments

otternonsense Avatar
94 months ago
I feel old enough to remember Steve Jobs' media event stealing the spotlight from the drab CES carousel of TVs and appliances. Good times. Look at CES 2018 ('https://twitter.com/hashtag/CES2018?src=hash') now, all jam packed with goodies while Apple has turned into a bored rich recluse that endlessly rehashes its 5 year old heyday designs. :(
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
otternonsense Avatar
94 months ago
Cnet shows that Apple’s heydays are over. What, who is Siri?
We kinda knew that before CNET turned it into a clickbait article.

Just look at each one of Apple's media events of the past years. It's like watching a TV show that's been bad for three seasons hoping this is the episode where it all turns around.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
otternonsense Avatar
94 months ago
With CNET I meant CES (autocorrection is like SIRI, most of the time it doesn’t understand)
Ah ok. Well, Apple used to trounce CES in its absence. Now it's both absent and irrelevant.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HJM.NL Avatar
94 months ago
I feel old enough to remember Steve Jobs' media event stealing the spotlight from the drab CES carousel of TVs and appliances. Good times. Look at CES 2018 ('https://twitter.com/hashtag/CES2018?src=hash') now, all jam packed with goodies while Apple has turned into a bored rich recluse that endlessly rehashes its 5 year old heyday designs. :(
Cnet shows that Apple’s heydays are over. What, who is Siri?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HJM.NL Avatar
94 months ago
I spoke with Ring Tech Support yesterday and they said that the Apple Watch is only partly compatible with Ring right now but that they expect to have it fully compatible (Where you can watch video on the apple watch of what the ring camera recorded) by mid 2018.

I also asked about HomeKit support for the Ring Doorbell Pro and they told me they were excited to finally be allowed to officially announce that support would be added for Homekit this year (no specific date of course) but good to know that they are still onboard with doing that.

Just thought I would pass along the information!

EDIT: They also told me they had a mailing list for people to be notified when Homekit support would be made available so I asked to be added to that list as well. In the event some of you also would like to do this I would suggest contacting them. Otherwise I'm sure it will be pretty big news and you will hear about it pretty soon afterwards anyway.
For me I’ve got the feeling history repeats. There was a time Apple support was a no brainer. Today it’s like the mid nineties where all novelties happens on Android, Alexa first and maybe a future support for über priced Apple products where the possibilities will be crippled and minimal compared to the competition.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Chupa Chupa Avatar
94 months ago
I feel old enough to remember Steve Jobs' media event stealing the spotlight from the drab CES carousel of TVs and appliances. Good times. Look at CES 2018 ('https://twitter.com/hashtag/CES2018?src=hash') now, all jam packed with goodies while Apple has turned into a bored rich recluse that endlessly rehashes its 5 year old heyday designs. :(
You think these are "goodies"? Yes, Apple's Jan event usually offer a lot more exciting stuff than CES, but different times. Now Apple is equally boring, not flipped with CES not being exciting... unless getting notifications from your dishwasher excites you. Everything I've seen as "best of" CES so far has been a rehash of another company's product or a marginal upgrade to their existing product. For me I have stuff like it or it really doesn't interest me. Another Wi-Fi security cam or Apple Watch band. Flip a coin to which one is more cutting edge.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)