This Year, Our Reporters Can’t Plug Their Phones Into the Wall at CES

WIRED

Our merry band is at it again, coming to you live from the annual electronic wonderland in Vegas that is CES. And, just like last year, it’s going to be too easy for them. Yes, they’ll have to navigate the diseased crowds and figure out how to crank out stories with rippin’ hangovers, but this is all familiar. Even Christina, our youngest and greenest CESer, has been to the show four times. Flying so close to this black hole, that means she has spent the equivalent of more than a hundred Earth-years covering tech in Vegas.

I tried to up the difficulty last year by forcing them to use only their cellphones to cover the show—no laptops, no cameras. But a funny thing happened: They liked it, said it was easier, that the technology was good enough to actually make the lack of a lugged-around computer a boon. Well shit. I had to come up with a challenge that would really make them sweat. I needed a technology that wasn’t quite there yet. And then it hit me—as I stared at the blinking red icon of doom on my own dying phone, halfway through a movie on a cross-country flight: the batteries.

Last year, Christina, who came in second in our first annual #thunderphone challenge, said she was charging her iPhone 5S about three times a day. Well, this year, she can’t do that at all—at least not using the electric grid. This year, our reporters will have to make it through every day without touching their phones to the wall in any way. They can use backup batteries and nontraditional chargers; they will have to be very smart about their power management settings. This year, WIRED is doing CES off the grid.

Yes, I know that allowing for backup batteries makes this challenge maybe not so hard—but don’t worry. Just like last year, we’ll have additional daily challenges that will force our eventual winner to really own it.

Lady and gentlemen, please unplug your phones… now.

The specifics:

• The challenge officially begins with the first post on our CES liveblog


• Reporters may charge their phones between midnight and 7AM—I still need them publishing stories every day, OK?


• As with last year, no dictation allowed unless expressly… allowed.


• Points will be awarded as follows: 25 points per day of non-wall-touching challenge completion; 25 points for best photography; 25 points for most creative rule-following; 25 points for the most (real) text written; 25 points per day per mini challenge.


• The winner will be announced Friday, and will receive a fancy dinner. Or, if Tim wins again, 20 sandwiches, probably from that same place he still goes to almost every day.