Here’s what you need to know from Day 3 of CES 2019

Image: RAYMOND WONG / MASHABLE

Twitter showed up at CES and had plenty of news to share. However, on this Day 3 of CES, one of the more interesting stories is just who didn’t show up. 

Let’s take a look at everything important that went down Wednesday at CES.

Twitter had to make at CES. One update could very well change how people use the microblogging platform altogether. 

In the coming weeks, Twitter will start publicly testing new features such as statuses and presence indicators. These new features will allow users to set their availability so others know when they are on Twitter and actually indicate when someone is online and typing.

Twitter also showed off its latest redesign of how conversations look on the service. The company has been experimenting with threaded comments, much in the way commenting works on platforms like Reddit.

The platform also has a new events feature in the pipeline. Clicking on a hashtag for an event will soon transport users into a “room” that follows the happening and suggests who to follow for news concerning the event.

The company announced its three main priorities in the coming years. Along with a focus on events and conversations, Twitter is focused on the health of the platform. In fact, it’s Twitter’s number one priority. The service touted more than 70 updates made to the product and its policies over the last year dealing with abuse and harassment on Twitter. 

Twitter had even more to serve up at CES. The platform is teaming up with the NBA to livestream basketball games. However, this isn’t going to be an ordinary stream. There’s a twist.

Starting at the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, Feb. 17, Twitter will livestream the second-half of the game for free. However, the camera being streamed to Twitter will only focus on one individual player. Users will get to vote on which player the “iso-cam” will focus on before the broadcast begins.

Twitter has been quietly been growing its digital video operations and has some impressive stats to show for it. With more than 80 million live broadcasts last year and 950 content partners, video now makes up more than half of the company’s revenue. 

A high-tech a prestigious award at CES this year, only for it to be immediately rescinded. The reason for the revocation provided by the Consumer Technology Association, which runs CES, was originally that products “immoral, obscene, indecent, profane or not in keeping with CTA’s image will be disqualified.” The CES producers changed its tune later and simply stated that the sex toy didn’t fit in the robotics and drones category which it won for.

However, sex toys weren’t the only products having a hard time gaining acceptance at one of the biggest tech shows of the year.

Marijuana tech companies were relegated to showing off their latest products at events unaffiliated with CES because these companies are . 

“There are no cannabis or e-cigarette products on the exhibit floor at CES, as the show does not have a category pertaining to that market,” wrote the CTA to Mashable concerning why cannabis tech companies aren’t allowed to exhibit. “As the industry and regulations evolve, we continue to assess all categories.”

Recreational use of cannabis is legal Nevada, the state in which the annual tech show is held. As marijuana legalization spreads throughout the U.S., CES is going to need to assess this category pretty quickly before another event steps up the plate.

And, finally, this CES Day 3 wrap-up would not be complete if we left out these robots dancing to Bruno Mars.