- Clarke`s CES Report

Transcription

CES 2009
By Clarke Stevens
Copyright 2009
I’ve been writing my CES report for several years now. Each year, I walk every aisle of
the show floors in the convention center, the Sands and the Hilton. Altruistically, I do this
as a public service so you don’t have to. Selfishly, this is an integral part of my
surreptitious exercise program. This ensures I get at least one workout per year whether I
need it or not.
I did, however, get a bit of a break this year. The number of exhibitors was down from
3,000 to about 2,700. The number of attendees was down from 141,000 last year to
110,000 this year. I was actually able to get a cab. Of course, I still had to cover 1.7
million square feet of floor space.
There were a few key themes at CES this year:
• Thin is in – Plasmas, LCDs, and especially OLEDs are getting thin. All were on
display in thicknesses less than an inch. In the case of OLEDs, there were screens
less than 1 mm thick. (That’s so thin, they had to use the metric system!)
• Going green – Companies were falling over themselves to show how much they
care about the environment. (It turns out that old soup cans and string can be
recycled into telephones that don’t even require electricity.)
• Internet content – Virtually every TV manufacturer had some way to get movies
from the Internet or photos from your PC. There are still many holes in the
system. For example, content may be limited and delivery is subject to the whims
of Internet traffic levels. Furthermore, there are very few barriers to prevent Uncle
Harry from publishing his vacation photos.
The most important lesson from CES, though, is that innovation thrives and the digital
universe is shifting beneath our feet. The companies who can adapt will benefit from
limitless opportunities. The companies who can’t may find themselves in the unfortunate
position of being at home next year where even if the economy rebounds (and eventually
it will), they will have no trouble getting a cab.
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So, below is my review of the products I found at CES (in no particular order) that caught
my attention. Some of them are groundbreaking and will change the gadget landscape in
significant ways. Others should be broken on the ground to prevent them from falling
into the hands of terrorists who will surely use them to further erode consumer
confidence and the global economy.
Despite the recession, I knew CES would come through when, at the first booth I visited,
I was able to move objects with my mind. Yes, it’s true. I visited the Mattel booth and
tried out their prototype toy that lets you adjust the speed of a fan with your mind to blow
a little Styrofoam ball through a three dimensional maze (the Mind Flex Maze). I admit
that my telekinesis is assisted. They put a headband on your head with a couple of
embedded electrodes and some alligator clips attached to your ears. I then practiced
concentrating on the ball to speed up the fan. At first it wouldn’t move. Then I kind of hit
it and I couldn’t stop it. Even when I was looking the other way and trying to think
random thoughts, I couldn’t stop thinking about the stupid ball. Finally, I was able to
improve my control and managed to get the ball through the first aerial loop. Obviously, I
was just adjusting a one dimensional variable measured across my head. The very nonscientific sales rep doing the demonstration said it measured “concentration.” I’m not
sure if that meant my brain density, my skin sweat, or my ability to go catatonic. In any
case, it was fun.
Opening Keynote
Gary Shapiro (CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association) kicked off the Consumer
Electronics Show. He gave an upbeat speech extolling the virtues of consumer electronics
and how free trade will lead to global prosperity. Meanwhile, he’s pacing back and forth
on the stage like some mad cricket player.
He finally wraps things up and introduces his special guest, Mr. Tom Hanks. Mr. Hanks
takes the stage and immediately begins aping Shapiro by pacing back and forth on the
stage and complaining about the Sony marketing intern who wrote his speech. He made
fun of the speech the whole time he was giving it and didn’t spare Sony in the process. It
was quite entertaining. Finally, he introduced Sir Howard Stringer, the chairman of Sony.
Sir Stringer came out and said, “Well, I took a chance.”
Sony introduced several new products, including OLED screens, a WiFi camera, lots of
blu-ray, and Reggie Jackson. Well, Reggie Jackson wasn’t a product, but he showed up to
rave about Sony products. Other celebrities who showed up were John Lasseter (director
of Toy Story), Jeffrey Katzenberg (CEO of DreamWorks) and Usher (the singer).
Innovation check list
Sir Stringer offered a checklist to evaluate the level of innovation in a new product idea.
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What is the quality of the user experience?
Does it embrace radical industries?
Is it multi-functional?
Is it an open system?
Does it create a shared experience?
Does it generate new value chains?
Is it green?
Sony
Sony’s 11” OLED screens showed up last year as perhaps the most expensive TV per
square inch ever sold (I’m assuming they sold some). At this rate, Panasonic’s 150”
plasma TV would cost nearly $465,000 (it’s slightly less than that). But OLED screens
are scary thin (9/10 mm) and the screen sizes are improving (slowly). Sony had a
reasonably large OLED prototype screen on display. They didn’t say what size it was, but
it looked like 30+ inches.
WiFi upload camera
Sony introduced a camera with embedded WiFi and a web browser. The idea is that you
would use this to immediately upload your photos to Flickr or ShutterFly. However, I
think you could also download professional-looking photos with gorgeous models in
front of famous landmarks to replace the sorry photos of your real friends in front of
Starbucks.
Mattel
Barbie Nail Printer
Leave it to Barbie to bring high-tech to fingernails. The Barbie Digital Nail printer
connects to your PC and lets you select exciting fingernail designs. Then you print them
on your nails – directly on your nails. You hold your finger really still while the printer
takes a little picture of it. Then you position the design on your fingernail where you want
it to print. You push the print button when you’re ready, and a bout 3 seconds later the
design is on your fingernail. Still not as good as a real manicure (hey, the word “man” is
right in there).
WowWee
WowWee is known for creating robotic toys like Robosapien and Roboraptor. They now
have plush robotic toys called live cubs that kind of wiggle and respond when you pet
them. Apparently, they even have a bed time mode in which they snuggle for a while, and
then turn themselves off when you fall asleep. Sure beats the old sock I used when I was
a kid. Paro also has a plush robot in the form of a baby seal.
Another of WowWee’s products is the Rovio. This is a remote surveillance robot. You
can go to a web site and drive it around while it feeds video and audio back to you.
Should you find an intruder, you can speak to him and politely ask him to leave. If that
doesn’t work, you’ll have to wait for the martialArtsOSapien.
AnyBot
Telepresence Robot
This armless robot includes sound and video as well as mobility to place a virtual copy of
you (without arms) in a different place. AnyBot was founded in 2001 by Trevor
Blackwell, who couldn’t believe it was 2001 and there still weren’t robots helping around
his home and office – lazy robots!
Clarity
On a somewhat less romantic note, there is a phone from Clarity that is specifically
designed for older folks. It can plug into a hearing aid, It has a loud ringer, a supercharged vibration feature and it flashes. This reduces (but does not entirely eliminate) the
chance that your grandmother will miss the call. It also has 4 large buttons for selecting
random directory entries to call in case she has a hair appointment or something. Finally,
there’s a flashlight, ‘cause why not?
Myine
One of the trends of CES this year is a preponderance of devices that play content from
various sources over an IP network. One of these is the IRA Internet radio. It connects to
an Ethernet cable and a couple of RCA audio jacks and can tune 1,100 Internet radio
stations. Even more impressive is their Abbee product (I don’t name the products, I just
report on them). This is an FM radio that records your favorite FM station and saves the
songs (just the songs, no commercials or DJ talk) to a portable player. This was selected
as one of the best 25 products of CES. So naturally, the RIAA will now bring on its
lawsuits.
Data Locker
Data Locker is a USB drive that includes built-in encryption. It has an LCD with a
touchscreen that lets you enter a code to enable the drive. Without the right code, the
drive doesn’t even show up. The kicker, though, is that if you enter a wrong code 10
times in a row, it self-destructs. I was hoping for a Mission Impossible style puff of
smoke, but all it does is scramble the bits.
Bug Labs
Bug Labs has an interesting set of products. It consists of a small handheld module that is
a full Linux computer. The other modules include a camera, a motion sensor, a wireless
interface, and other devices. They connect to the main module and allow you to make
various devices. There is an SDK that provides interfaces so you can program the various
modules. It wasn’t clear exactly how they intend to make money, but it was very cool.
Cell Mate
Bug Labs looks like cash cow compared with Cell Mate (again, I don’t name the
products). This is essentially a coat hanger bent into a bow. You put it over your head and
wedge your cell phone between it and your ear. This saves you all of the trouble of
buying a Bluetooth headset.
Cell Pod
The Cell Pod is a USB charging base shaped like an octopus. You connect your various
USB charging cables to it and charge your devices all at once.
Amulet
Amulet is a voice control remote control for Windows Media Center. It includes a
microphone that is activated when you tip the remote near vertical. It captures the audio
and sends it directly to the computer. The voice processing is done on the computer. This
allows for more sophisticated software while keeping the cost of the remote down.
Frequently, alternate remote interfaces fall woefully short, but the Amulet interface
seemed reasonably intuitive and worked pretty reliably in the demonstration.
Vue
The Vue is a remote video monitor that works through your PC with little complexity.
RoboLab
RoboLab and Husqvarna both one-up the Roomba by taking the robotic vacuum cleaner
concept and move it outdoors to the lawn. They have created robotic lawn mowers. Just
imagine lying in a hammock sipping lemonade while your robot does all the work. Just
lying there relaxing because robots don’t mind working. They don’t have emotions. They
don’t have feelings. They can’t communicate. They can’t organize. Hey, what’s that? I
thought you only had one lawnmower robot…
My e-mail buddy
My e-mail buddy is a USB device that detects when you receive e-mail. There is a small
figure on a little pedestal that slowly rotates and plays a song when you receive e-mail.
They are aiming at markets like college students with figures in the shape of mascots and
playing the school fight song. That’s all well and good unless your computer is near other
human beings and you get more than one e-mail message per day.
Burton
Not the snowboard company. They make little plastic covers that attach to low-cost ear
buds and convert them to passive sound isolation in-ear headphones like those from
Shure and Etymotic. While it will probably help with the sound isolation, I don’t think it
will help much with dynamic response. Still, not a bad idea…
PureSi
Pure Si makes a terabyte solid state “disk” drive. That’s it – a one TERABYTE flash
drive.
Itouchless.net
ITouchless makes things you don’t have to touch to make them work. This includes
things like trash cans that open when you’re near them, toilets that flush automatically,
and an automatic paper towel dispenser. This saves you the frustration and embarassment
of misjudging the distance to pull out the paper towel before you attempt to rip it off the
roll.
Netzeye.com
Netzeye makes, among other things, a digital video recorder in a pen. It includes a video
camera and microphone and 4 GB of flash memory in the top half of the pen. It also has a
USB interface to download the video. The guy managing the booth assured me that this
camera was used to capture video implicating Rod Blogojevich – I’m sure it’s true.
PowerCast
PowerCast is a wireless power solution. They use an inductive charging station and
inductive attachments on your various electronics so all you have to do is place the
devices to be charged on the charging station and they get charged. They also use this to
do wireless lighting. That’s right, no pesky wires to hide.
MiPoo
(Again, I don’t make these names up.) MiPoo is one of several companies showing very
small projectors. The MiPoo projector also attaches directly to the iPhone.
iPood
(I won’t even say it.) I’m not sure how this got into the show, but it’s a pocket pooper
scooper. Yes. The number of questions this raises…
iCap (not ACAP, or OCAP)
Not OCAP. Not ACAP, but iCap. iCap is an MP3 player that snaps to the visor of a
baseball cap. The speakers are conveniently placed near your eyes and you only have to
look up to see what song you’re hearing. I think I know what promo gear we need to get
to celebrate the completion of the reference implementation project.
Dream Cheeky
Forget the iPhone. All you Trekkies will be delighted to know that Dream Cheeky (good
grief) has obtained the license to produce an exact replica communicator cell phone. And
you know there’s nothing like an exact replica communicator cell phone to say, “Don’t
date me.”
MIT Media Lab
MIT Media Lab was at CES showing some new developments. I particularly liked the
pseudoacoustic electric guitar. This acoustitronic instrument substitutes a real piece of
wood as used in an acoustic instrument in place of the pick guard. It’s embedded with 5
piezo sensors that are connected to a signal processing computer. I suppose you could
buy an acoustic guitar, but that don’t getcha no Ph.D.
FastFinger
In a stroke of creative genius, FastFinger has made typing accessible to the millions of
Americans who never learned to type or don’t possess the requisite physical dexterity.
They have taken a normal “qwerty” keyboard and printed a second set of letters on the
keys in (get this) alphabetical order. A program on the computer switches between the
two formats. Hunt-n-peckers can now be equal members of society.
Electronic Cigarettes
I’m not making this up. Leave it to CES to bring us the electronic version of the cigarette.
This is a plastic tube that looks like a cigarette. A small cartridge inside is filled with a
solution of “flavor” and nicotine. The solution gets turned into water vapor as you
breathe it in. Simultaneously, a red LED on the end lights up. Then you breathe out the
water vapor solution and it looks convincingly like smoke (not at all like breathing out on
a cold day). And yes, it comes with a recharger. Still, this is not really a terrible idea.
First of all, the “smoke” doesn’t smell. Also, there’s no second-hand smoke problem.
Finally, you can get cartridges that don’t have nicotine. That’s good – right? I don’t
smoke. In fact, it’s never really been appealing to me. However, I am strangely intrigued
by the electronic cigarette. OK, I just can’t live the lie anymore. I’m addicted to
technology!
Aqua Power Systems
Aqua Power Systems has invented a battery (called NoPoPo (?!?)) that runs on water.
This ingenious device has a couple different types of metal alternating inside an
enclosure. When it’s dry, nothing happens and the battery can be stored for a long time
without losing its charge. When it’s filled with saltwater (let’s call it an electrolyte). It
magically produces a voltage. Oh wait, that was Alesandro Volta who invented that in
1800. Nevermind. (Disclaimer – OK, I may be a bit dismissive here because their website
only discloses that the battery works through a reaction with water and “harmless
substance in nature.”)
iUFO
iUFO (who else) used CES to introduce the world to the iMini dancing Obama iPod
peripheral. (see video) The President Elect was joined in his musical rendition by various
other dancing peripherals. I take some solace in the fact that they didn’t create the iMini
dancing McCain.
MOV-0004_1.3gp
AVI Shadow
Have you ever been sitting on the couch watching TV and been unable to muster the
energy to reach the remote on the coffee table. Well, you no longer have to watch the
same channel late into the night. Now you can turn your Blackberry (sorry, no iPhone or
other smart phone versions yet) into a Bluetooth remote control. Using the AVI Shadow
software and a Bluetooth to IR box, you can just unsnap your Blackberry from its holster
and click away. There isn’t even any fussing with line-of-sight issues since Bluetooth is
RF-based. Of course, you will probably miss waking up to exercise machine
infomercials.
Dictionary thing that takes photo from book for OCR
The Dixau is a reading mouse. Actually it’s a little camera that looks something like a
computer mouse. When you’re reading a book and you come across an unfamiliar word,
you line up the guide on the mouse and snap a picture. The computer takes the image and
recognizes the word. It then uses one of several online dictionaries to provide a definition
or a translation. Now you can avoid the hassle of typing in a word to look up and just
carry your computer with you and click on a word and have it looked up on the web and
have the definition returned to you on the screen. What could be more convenient?
Innovations
Each year, the Consumer Electronics Association selects the year’s best innovations and
honors them. Here are a few of this year’s innovations that were particularly interesting.
Cernium Corp.
Archerfish is a place shifting technology. However, instead of bringing your content to
you, it takes you to your content (virtually). Archerfish monitors several video cameras at
once and notifies you if events of interest occur (such as somebody breaking into your
house). You get the alert along with a video clip. Now you can watch the video of your
new plasma TV getting stolen again and again.
GE
Z-Wave is a wireless mesh networking technology for home monitoring and control. It’s
been around for a couple of years. In fact, you can buy the individual light switches,
controllers and electrical outlets at Lowes. GE now has a wireless remote control that
allows you to control up to 12 AV components as well as all 232 of your Z-Wave devices
(lights, thermostats, automatic window shades, etc.). Maybe it will even start your
popcorn.
QualCom Mirasol
Mirasol is a MEMS-based (micro-machine) reflective display technology. The pixels
transition between a reflective and a collapsed state depending on the voltage applied.
Since they move between the ends of the hysteresis loop, it takes very little voltage to
maintain them in the on or off positions. So far, they only have monochromatic displays,
but color displays are in the works.
Ooma
Ooma’s G2 IP phone is an exceptional phone by any measure. It can support up to six
DECT 6.0 handsets. It can support an uploaded phone book. It can transfer calls to your
cell phone or forward them to e-mail. It supports high-definition voice (twice the
bandwidth). It includes a broadband answering machine that supports live screening. It
even supports 911. Everything can be managed online. The really revolutionary thing,
though is that there is no monthly fee. You buy the equipment and you’re done. It appears
that their business mode relies on international long distance charges (although calls
anywhere in the world are free to another Ooma phone). It remains to be seen if their
model will work, but for now, talk is free.
Monster Wireless HD
There were several wireless HD solutions on display (mostly proprietary solutions from
TV manufacturers), but as usual, the most overpriced comes from Monster Cable. The
Monster cable version is nice (it has 2 HDMI, 2 component, 1 composite and both
coaxial and optical digital audio connections). It costs $600 (so only the price of a second
flat-screen television).
Tonium Pacemaker
The Tonium Pacemaker is not a heart peripheral. It’s a tiny DJ turntable. It allows you to
interact with your music rather than just listen to it.
IDC (not the consulting company)
IDC makes a GPS key fob device. It has one simple function. That is to get you back to
where you were. It is a virtual breadcrumb trail. You mark a spot you wish to return to.
An arrow on the key fob points back to it. Just follow the arrow and you’re there.
Conversely, you can mark a place you want to avoid in the future and just go the opposite
direction.
Belkin
Belkin’s N+ router is a normal pre-N router, but it has the interface for a NAS drive built
in. All you need to do is connect a USB drive and all your computers have access to
network shared storage.
Sonora
FM and Internet clock radio
Cotron
Cotron packs a full 5.1 channel surround sound system into a set of headphones. These
headphones are not compact, nor are they particularly attractive, but 5.1 channel surround
sound in a set of headphones is sweet. Don’t worry, you don’t have to string 5 RCA
cables to your ears. The inputs are digital (either coaxial or optical).
Zoombak
Want to know where your teenager is? Just attach the Zoombak surreptitiously to your
teenager. You can go to a web site or request a text message to find out where she is.
Why worry about your underage daughter being at a bar after midnight when you can
know she is at a bar after midnight.
Samsung
The Samsung MBP200 is a pico (4.2” x 1.9” x 0.75”) projector. This little unit connects
to a computer or cell phone and can project an LED lit, DLP image up to a 50 inch
diagonal picture. There have been others (Aiptek (LCOS LED), Microvision (laser
diode), 3M, and Butterfly), but this is the first one that isn’t a prototype and is being sold
by a major consumer electronics manufacturer. It also includes an LCD screen for
personal viewing and a built-in speaker. There is even a small device that holds an 8 ½ x
11 inch piece of paper for an impromptu screen. The projector supports an internal SD
card, so it can be used as a flash drive. It also understands Microsoft and pdf file formats,
so it can display these files without a phone or computer connected. Do you need one of
these? I think you do.
Intel
Intel showed their Atom processor in several networked portable devices.
TiVo
The TiVo HD XL DVR is the CableLabs certified set-top from TiVo. It can record two
HD shows at once. It can record up to 150 hours of HD recording and is THX certified.
LG
LG has a number of interesting new products. Here are a few:
Netflix + blu-ray player
In one of the latest challenges to the status quo, LG introduced a blu-ray disk player that
also enables an online subscription to NetFlix. So now, instead of buying a separate Roku
box for an online NetFlix subscription, you can also get a blu-ray player. Between the
two features, you can get access to most any movie ever made. This is a technology that
provides direct challenge to VoD that actually has little to do with technology. It means a
CE company can now do much of what cable has been able to do for some time – and
which cable still does much better. Instant access to HD video over cable is still much
better than going to a rental store to get a blu-ray disk or even downloading a movie over
a “high-speed” connection. If cable has the same content at the best quality, the threat is
minimal.
NAS + blu-ray backup recorder
In another interesting combination product, LG glued together a NAS (network attached
storage) drive and a blu-ray drive. In this case, the drive writes blu-ray disks, so it serves
as a high-capacity backup device for your network.
240 Hz (Tru-motion)
Last year, vendors were showing the benefits of 120 Hz refresh in minimizing motion
jitter. This year, they upped the rate to 240 Hz. Judging by all the demos, this is
particularly important if you happen to watch a lot of side-scrolling text documents.
AMOLED TV (15” OLED, 0.55 mm thick)
LG is in the game of the ultra-thing displays. The technology to watch here is organic
light emitting displays (OLED). The active matrix OLED (AMOLED) uses significantly
less power than passive OLED. LG’s AMOLED is 15” (in prototype) and 0.55 mm
thick. The several mm thick LCDs and plasmas are positively obese by comparison. Once
they get the manufacturing process and reliability down, these screens will render all
others obsolete.
3DTV
3D was everywhere at CES this year. The LG booth, though, was particularly notable
because they had four 3D technologies on display side by side. They had a plasma screen
with active shutter glasses, an LCD screen with passive polarized glasses, a projector
with passive polarized glasses and a lenticular lens LCD with no glasses. All the screens
were Full HD resolution.
The plasma screen looked pretty good, but there were a few artifacts if I turned my head
quickly. The projection image looked pretty good, but the picture wasn’t as bright and
sharp as the others. The LCD looked the best of all the displays and didn’t require the
synchronization or batteries of the active glasses. The lenticular lens LCD looked ok if
you stood very still exactly 4 meters from the screen in the center and kind of crossed
your eyes. It still has a way to go.
BD Live
BD Live was introduced last year, but it was included in several products this year. BD
live allows a blu-ray player to access the Internet for additional content. This might
include updates, new trailers, supplemental information, or even games. With BD Live,
your blu-ray player can almost do what your set-top has been able to do for a long time.
Wireless HD
LG and several other vendors showed wireless HD systems. With these systems, the
tuning and other electronics can be separated from the display so that all the display
needs is a power connection. These systems are currently proprietary, so you can’t mix
and match vendors but since both pieces are sold together, that’s a relatively minor
problem. As a bonus, these sets provide a whole new venue for sibling rivalries. If you
have a disagreement with your sister, you can just put various RF interfering objects in
the path of the beam while she is trying to watch Twilight.
DLNA TV
Several TVs included Internet content integration. Most of them used UPnP and or
DLNA for personal content within the home and had some content deal for integration of
content from the web. Samsung had a TV that used widgets (from Yahoo!) for inclusion
of things like sports scores, news tickers, and other web content. Integration of web
content was a dominant them at CES. This is clearly a glimpse of things to come. Cable
can do this as well as anybody, so it’s our opportunity to lose.
Mobile DTV
Mobile phones are the electronic Swiss army knives of the day. From taking pictures to
surfing the Internet, there’s very little they can’t do – except TV. They’re perfectly
capable of handling TV (in fact, things like MobiTV are reasonable approximations), but
live broadcast TV has until now been limited to places like Korea and Japan. Well, no
more. There are a number of technologies that will begin appearing this year that will
bring broadcast television to places where previously all you could do was enjoy nature.
ATSC Mobile DTV
The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) is promoting ATSC Mobile DTV. This
technology, developed by ATSC, uses the existing U.S. broadcast TV infrastructure. It is
broadcast alongside the existing television broadcast without interfering with them. It is
designed to work when the receiver is traveling up to 180 mph. Eventually, it will include
a back-channel as well. LG, Harris and Samsung are key proponents of this system.
MediaFlo
MediaFlo is the other major mobile television technology. This technology was
introduced at CES in 2006. It was developed by Qualcomm and is the basis for Verizon
VCast.
AT&T CruiseCast
CruiseCast is a new satellite TV service designed for delivery to cars. It uses a smaller
antenna than typical mobile antennas for Dish or DirecTV (thus eliminating the “lowoverpass” problem). It provides 22 channels of live TV. It also includes a 3 minute
buffer, so if the signal is temporarily blocked, your image won’t freeze. It’s expected to
roll out commercially in 2010. ICO is another satellite-based car TV solution. It recently
launch its satellite and is expected to offer commercial service in 2010. ICO is also
showing a screen filter that lets to passenger see the TV, but not the driver. That’s fine in
the U.S., but it’s going to be a real problem in the U.K. and Japan where the driver is on
the right side of the console.
Cell phone watch (cool, but way too big)
The LG wrist phone got quite a bit of publicity. It’s a cell phone that straps to your wrist
like a watch. The idea is very cool, but the implementation still leaves something to be
desired. The main problem is that its still nearly the size of a regular cell phone. I can
imagine some engineers might wear it, but it’s not the kind of fashion accessory a normal
person would wear.
Sony
Alex Trebeck
Ignoring the predominant fiscal restraint shown by most vendors this year (not many
tchochkies), Sony reconstructed the entire set of the Jeopardy game show in their booth –
complete with Alex Trebeck. (Alex Trebeck wasn’t actually reconstructed (at least not in
the booth), he was actually there recording a couple of shows a day.) I had tickets for
Jeopardy, but I didn’t go. Instead, I went to the 3D broadcast of the BCS Bowl.
3D broadcast of BCS bowl
Sony also sponsored this. They rented out the main theater at the Paris hotel and
broadcast the BCS bowl live in 3D. It was very impressive – sometimes. There appeared
to be some signal or link problems. For a large part of the broadcast, the audio didn’t
come through. Instead, there were loud cracks and static explosions followed by lengthy
periods of silence. This distracted somewhat from the 3D experience.
For the most part, the 3D was pretty good. However, the frames appeared to alternate
between left eye and right eye at 60 Hz which made the effective signal only 30 Hz. This
really made things distracting when there was action (which in a football game is fairly
common). I enjoyed the game more for it’s potential than its reality. I’m not sure if we’re
there yet, but it’s clear that we’re closer than ever before and it’s easy to see that the
entire chain from production to in-home consumption is falling into place.
Thin LCD (thickness of CD jewel case)
LG showed an LCD TV that was only about the thickness of a CE jewel case. It’s no
OLED TV, but that’s mighty thin.
HyPC
The Yoggie HyPC is a computer on a PC-Card that runs a secure web browser. When
you run the browser, you’re actually running it on a separate computer within the
computer with a proprietary operating system. Since it isn’t running windows and it has
no access to the laptop memory, the laptop is completely isolated and thus basically
immune to any virus threats contracted through browsing. You probably aren’t using
your PC slot for anything anyway.
Shure
Shure is famous for making studio quality microphones and high-end earphones. Now
they’ve created a new consumer device. It’s an audio converter that plugs into the bottom
of a microphone (any XLR microphone, not just those from Shure) and converts it to
USB. Now you don’t need to compromise your production values when you record that
American Idol audition on your laptop.
Philips
Philips’ goLite BLU therapy light is intended to reduce the effects of seasonal affective
disorder (yes, SAD) by replenishing the ultraviolet waves blocked out by the tilt of the
earth. When you place this light in your peripheral vision for 30 minutes a day, it is
supposed to improve your mood. Well I don’t know about your mood, but if I found out
you were expecting a bright light shining on you for 30 minutes a day to improve your
mood, it would definitely put me in a good mood.
nPower
If you’ve ever been stranded somewhere and discovered your phone battery was dead,
you may have been in a horror movie. Even if you weren’t, you know the frustration of
not being able to communicate or play solitaire. If you’ve got a solar charger and some
time you’ll be fine – unless it’s night. That’s why the nPower kinetic phone charger is so
important. A kinetic charger converts physical motion (not emotion) into electrical
potential.
The nPower charger looks something like a metal stick of dynamite. It straps onto your
belt and generates electricity as you walk around. This has the side effect of requiring you
to walk around. Look for new marketing campaigns promoting aerobic stair climbers as
cell phone charging accessories.
Peavey
It seems one of the requirements for operating a booth at CES this year was that you had
to incorporate Guitar Hero or Rock Band into your display somehow. Well, nobody does
this like the professional music gear companies. Peavey has created a “professional”
music center (called the Pro Center) for Guitar Hero. They modified a guitar amp to
conveniently hold your Wii game machine, and provide an audio input so you can amp it
to a suitably uncomfortable level for rock and roll. All you need to do now is connect it to
one of several full-size replica guitars modified for Guitar Hero and your wife (or
girlfriend) can’t help but be impressed. (My wife says I should think this through again.)
Motorola
In the “why not glue to things together that have never been glued together before”
department, Motorola brings us the picture frame/VoIP phone. This works just like a
regular phone except that it’s a picture frame. You can lean over the end table talking to
it, or walk around holding it to your face. Either way, you’ll look the very picture of
technological sophistication.
STB to SD card for media to go (supports multiple DRMs)
Motorola showed a prototype system for media on the go that works through a set-top
box. An SD card dongle is attached to the USB port of the set-top. Software on the box
lets you select content stored on the hard drive for download to the SD card. It supports
multiple DRMs, so you should be able to download protected content as well (I suspect
there may still be some political licensing hurdles). Once the content is downloaded, it
can be played back on any authorized and capable platform that can read the SD card. It’s
one small step towards the any content any time, any where mantra we’ve all been
rehearsing.
<tru2way> STB
Motorola had a <tru2way> set-top on display. It was running a guide and doing things a
set-top normally does. This doesn’t make for an amazing demo, but it does show that the
<tru2way> platform works. I’m hoping that next year we’ll have some demos that push
the boundaries a bit more.
Multi-room PVR
Although it wasn’t clear how they were doing it and there was not Motorola person there
to explain, there was a compelling multi-room DVR demo. It showed the requisite
playing form a remote DVR and stopping a program in one room, then picking it up in
another room.
Advanced advertising demo
The other demo of interest in the Motorola booth was advanced advertising. Again, there
was nobody there to explain it, but it was pretty clear. There were six copies of the same
video stream playing on one screen. At a certain point in the playback, they would all
switch to a commercial. Each stream displayed a different commercial, then returned to
the regular program. There was a minor glitch in that only the video switched. The audio
from the main video kept playing during the commercials. I’m not sure how that can
happen. The video transitions were acceptably smooth.
Intel
i7 processor
Intel’s latest power processor is the i7. It features a few improvements over the Core 2
processors such as: <fill this in>. Since the power of processors long ago surpassed the
threshold of what normal people need to do work, processors like the i7 can only be
demonstrated with applications that abnormal need to do work or that normal people need
to play. So Intel had a racing application with three HD screens for the “windows” of the
race car and a seat that simulated the terrain and inevitable crashes of the driver. I’m now
debating whether to tell my wife I need a new computer because my work is too hard for
her to understand or because a Core 2 processor can no longer support my required level
of play (and I need a race car simulator).
Atom processor (for mobile “full” browsers)
Since most people who need a computer now have one, the computer has decided to
invent a computer you don’t have – hence the netbook. Since most manufacturers have
one of these now, Intel and its partners have created an even newer niche computer you
don’t have – the “smaller than a netbook, but bigger than a PDA network browser.”
Unlike the netbooks, these computers aren’t really intended to replace your laptop.
Neither are they intended to replace your cellphone. (They are a bit awkward to hold up
against your face.) In fact, I’m not really sure what they’re for, but they need a new
processor – like the Intel Atom. …and I want one.
Soundolier
In the “why didn’t I think of that” category, we have the Soundolier (engineers should not
name things). These are floor lamps with embedded and reasonably aesthetically
integrated surround speakers. You just put a couple of these lamps in the rear of your
theater and you don’t have to fish wires and mount ugly speakers on your rear wall.
They’re also handy if your rear wall is a window, or the kitchen counter or something.
They can limit your decorating options a bit, but a good idea, nonetheless.
Panasonic
Panasonic’s easy-touch remote is a new and seemingly fairly intuitive remote control. It
includes two touch pads that can be manipulated together (like iPod stretching and
shrinking) or separately for things like nearly touch-typing from an on-screen keyboard.
You don’t have to use directional keys to navigate to a letter before pressing it, you just
slide your thumb and use the visual feedback on the screen to know when to press down.
The auto-completion feature of the software makes selection even easier.
<tru2way> TV
Panasonic’s <tru2way> TV was on display, but there was not a lot of focus on it. They
seemed much more interested in showing thin screens, wireless HD and web content
integration – like their competitors.
Thin plasma displays
On the thin side, Pansonic featured a plasma screen that was only 1/3” thick. It was
gorgeous and will apparently be available later this year. I’m not sure how much it will
cost, but my guess is that if you want something flush to the wall, it will still be cheaper
to buy a DLP, cut a large hole in the wall and push the back end into your kid’s bedroom.
Vieracast – IP web content
Panasonic’s IP web content play is called Vieracast. It allows you to fetch low quality
content from the Internet and display it in excruciating pixilated detail on your 1080p
screen. OK, there is some good quality content available on the web. Cable companies
need to provide web content as well or better than CE companies in order to avoid
disintermediation for this content. With a managed pipe, a VoD service, a consistent user
interface, and potentially higher quality sources for some of this material, cable should be
able to do this.
Casio
Casio’s most interesting innovation this year is some pretty powerful photo editing
software built-in on some of their cameras. It’s called Dynamic Photo. You can do things
like virtual green screen. A moving image (say a person dancing) against a fairly static
background can be cut out and pasted onto a new background. It would be relatively easy
to take a video of you dancing in your bedroom, and past that over a downloaded image
of you dancing in front of the Eiffel Tower. Think of the money you could save on
vacations.
Haier
Haier has an LCD TV with an iPod dock in the base. This allows you to use the remote to
control the music and videos stored in your iPod, display them on a decent TV and listen
through some decent speakers.
Sharp
Once again, Sharp brought their 108” LCD monster screen. There’s no question that it’s
impressive, but it’s sheer size makes it somewhat impractical to install in your – well,
house. I think it would be difficult to bring through ordinary doors. But if you’re
considering remodeling your garage into a theater, you may be in luck – just install the
TV first.
AquosNet – web content
AquosNet is similar to Panasonic’s VieraCast with the clever substitution of Sharp’s
Aquos brand in place of Panasonic’s Viera brand. Otherwise, they are pretty similar.
RCA
RCA had a lenticular lens 3DTV on display. As with most other lenticular displays I’ve
seen, it was hard to get in just the right viewing position. Objects in motion tended to
double and I found myself having to frequently re-sync my eyes to the image.
Samsung
Samsung had a huge booth with many cool products. This is to be expected since, as I
have been informed by Samsung employees, they follow a sort of spaghetti ready
philosophy of product development. If you have been to college, you know that one sure
way to tell if spaghetti is done is to throw it at the wall (or ceiling depending on if you
like it al dente) and if it sticks, it’s done. Similarly, Samsung makes everything from cell
phones to gigantic container ships. They will also make competing products in different
divisions of the company. If it sells, they continue to make it. If it doesn’t, they stop. This
leads to a broad spectrum of products and a very large CES booth.
WiFi content sharing UPnP/DLNA
Samsung was one of many companies showing devices sharing content over IP networks.
Samsung did this via DLNA/UPnP. This allowed them to see content on the network and
display it on their television sets. As my mother taught me, it’s nice to share (of course
my mother new nothing about copyright law). They also showed Yahoo widgets. These
are little web applications that overlay things like sports scores or stock prices on your
television. They are not exclusive to Yahoo, so you could have Google widgets or even
CableLabs widgets.
LED backlit 55” LCD and very thin
I think Samsung wins the prize for the thinnest LCD screens. I couldn’t find any exact
measurements, but they looked like they were about 1/3” thick (or thin). Part of the secret
to getting them so thin is that they place the LED backlights around the edges
(edgelights?). This avoids LED thickness being added to LCD thickness. The largest thin
LCD was a 55” screen.
MOV-0005_1.3gp
OLED 31” – scary thin
Of course LCDs are positively pudgy compared to OLED screens. (On YouTube you can
see a video of a guy slicing a cucumber with the Sony OLED screen. (Julienne fries?))
Samsung showed a prototype 31” OLED screen. It may be a bit big for slicing
cucumbers, but it looked beautiful.
Lenticular 3D – best I saw at the show
Samsung also had a 3D lenticular lens display (see spaghetti reference above). While you
may have sensed my reservations about lenticular displays by now, I have to say that
Samsung’s version clearly looked better than the others I saw. I didn’t see the double
images so much and the viewing sweet spot was more a half-inch wide.
70” touch manipulation screen
Samsung’s 70-inch touch screen was impressive in the sense that it was a freakin’ 70inch touch screen. Objects (like photos) could be dragged around and stretched (although
it didn’t work too well with five or six people trying to do it at the same time.) The screen
was also completely covered with fingerprints (and I’m assuming cold virus). It uses an
infrared touch location technology.
Giant touch-screen Coke machine
On the more practical side (well, sort of), Samsung showed a prototype soda machine
with a 42” touch-screen interface. When you touched it, it displayed graphics of the types
of soda you could get (in this case, only one brand) and presumably it would show you
the price. When you touched the picture of the soda, a real soda popped out. In an actual
real world implementation, it would presumably deduct the money from the virtual
account on your cell phone or something. It was cool, but how long would it be before
some hacker figured out how to use it to steal cable. Then you’d find soda machines
missing and soda machines on their sides on coffee tables in hackers’ apartments.
MOV-0006_1.3gp
Super HD
Samsung’s LCD TVs are not only getting thinner, they are also getting larger with higher
resolution. While it isn’t as thin as the 55” thin LCD, it is still quite thin and it’s and 82”
screen. The really cool thing about this TV, though, is the resolution. It’s 3840 x 2160
pixels. As you can imagine, the picture looked great. The only thing better was the 63”
plasma TV with 4k x 2k resolution.
240 Hz refresh on several
We’ve discussed horizontal and vertical resolution. We’ve even discussed 3D TV. The
only dimension left is time. Samsung is improving on this as well with a refresh rate of
240 Hz on several TVs.
Toshiba
Cell TV
Toshiba showed a prototype of it’s cell-powered TV. This has nothing to do with cellular
phones, it’s about using the cell processor found in the PlayStation to power the graphics
on an HDTV. With the graphics processing power of the cell processor, Toshiba can do
much better interpolation when scaling images up, and can manage multiple picture-inpicture screens. It’s much more processor intensive to process five video streams that
nobody watches than just one stream that nobody watches. I do admit that the quality of
the up-scaled image was impressive. With the abundance of screen formats available
today, being able to maintain a good quality image across multiple formats is a great
feature.
Chumby
OK, Chumby is not really new, but it’s so weird I have to mention it. Chumby is a digital
beanbag/alarm clock/Internet device. I would like to have been in the room when this
idea was conceived, but I probably would have developed a contact high. Surprisingly, it
is a pretty popular product and I suspect many digerati secretly have one sitting next to
their Teddy Ruxpin.
Sling
Sling and Dish Network introduced the ViP 922, the first Sling-loaded DVR. This DVR
implements Sling’s place-shifting technology. This offers several advantages over the
traditional SlingBox attached to a set-top box. First, since the Sling technology is
integrated, the content doesn’t have to be converted to analog, and then back to digital.
Instead, any transcoding can be done completely in the digital domain. Also, since the
box has multiple tuners, one tuner can be controlled via the Sling client at your remote
location without co-opting control of the whole set-top and setting up a long-distance
remote control war.
Nokia
Nokia has traditionally innovated by introducing what other cell-phone companies
introduced the previous year, but in a larger, more blocky form factor. So you can
imagine my surprise when I found something innovative from Nokia. It’s the carbon
footprint calculator. This calculator can be called up on your Nokia phone as you’re
driving or flying (with the phone part turned off) and tell you how much you’re polluting
the planet. I think this feature would be better if it only calculated the carbon footprint of
other people.
HP
Touch-screen PC’s
HP was promoting touch-screen desktop PCs in their booth this year. I’m a big fan of
touch screens on PDAs and cell phones. I even like the idea of touch-screen tablet
computers, but on a desktop, I’m less enthusiastic. Switching my hands between the
keyboard, the mouse and the screen seems awkward. I think I’ve got it figured out,
though. Just after these computers hit the market, look for HP branded screen cleaner to
show up.
Palm
Palm Computing, long rumored to be dead, is very much alive. In fact, their new “Pre”
(not sure if that’s pronounced “preee” or “preah”) smart phone won the CNET Best in
Show award. It’s a touch-screen phone (with multi-touch) that runs Linux. Unlike the
iPhone, it runs multiple applications at the same time. The menu bar has a unique
interface. The touch screen extends beyond the visible screen and you slide the menu bar
up from the bottom to make it visible. Many people also like the way the keyboard slides
out in a curve so the phone is shaped sort of like a banana when the keyboard is extended.
The user interface is also quite slick and highly animated. I have my doubts about its
chances against the iPhone, but it is a great challenger.
Iomega
UPnP multi-media drive, DMP, etc.
With 32 GByte flash drives on the market, it’s hard to imagine that it wasn’t that long ago
when we used massive 100 MB Zip drives to store our large media files. I still have a PCcard Clik drive (you have to admit that a motorized disk drive the size of a PC-Card is
cool). I need it to load content for my Clik-based rave:mp music player.
The demise of the Zip drive was a devastating blow for iOmega, but surprisingly, they’re
still around. They’ve now turned their attention to UPnP devices. They have a stand-
alone UPnP server (DMS) with a large disk drive, and a UPnP player (DMP) that
connects to your TV. It’s no Clik drive, but I like it.
SanDisk
Last year, SanDisk made quite a splash with a little memory stick product that stored
content, then connected to your TV to play it back. The case doubled as a remote control.
It was a very innovative idea, but they pulled it off the market a few months later when
they discovered that by the time you loaded content onto the flash drive and walked to the
TV, the content was already available on YouTube.
Slot music cards
This year, they have a couple of products I think are destined for a similar fate. The slot
music card is the microSD flash version of the record album. It contains several songs,
videos and other content that an artist would release in a single package. It comes with
(microscopic) album art and other things you’d expect to find wrapped around your old
vinyls. I don’t understand who they think is going to carry around a pocketful of these
things instead of just downloading the same stuff to their iPod.
Slot radio
Slot radio has nothing to do with radio. It’s a microSD flash card loaded with a mix of
1,000 songs and several play lists. The idea is that you buy the card ($39) and you can get
a mix of songs that somebody has already mixed for you. This gives you the convenience
of listening to a mix of songs you mostly don’t like as well as the opportunity to carry
around a bunch of SD cards that can be lost, damaged or stolen. OK, good luck with that.
NetGear
MoCA bridge
NetGear introduced a prototype MoCA bridge last year at CES. This year it looks like
they’ve got a real product. A MoCA bridge allows content on your regular Ethernet
network to be shared with devices on a coaxial cable network (which is supported by
various television provider home networks). A typical application would be to display
your family photos on your HDTV.
UPnP equipment
As another part of the home networking scenario, NetGear a digital media player that can
stream video from the Internet (YouTube, Google, CNN, ESPN, etc.) as well as from
various UPnP-based content sharing devices. They have made several deals with Internet
content providers, but so far no Hulu. Hmmm…
SD
The SD flash format has been updated to include a new format called SD XC. SD XC can
manage up to 2 tera-bytes of memory. Depending coding formats, that’s up to a couple
thousand full-length feature films. Will it be enough? Probably not.
Logic Wireless
Cell phone with built-in pico projector
Logic Wireless claims to have created the first commercial cell phone with a built-in
projector. It’s a quad-band GSM phone with a 3 MP camera. It has the features you
would expect in a capable cell phone – plus a built-in projector that can project up to a
64” screen (if it’s very dark). It understands several image and video formats, so you can
display them directly without any additional software.
Pico projectors
Several other companies displayed pico projectors that connect to cell phone or laptops.
Microvision doesn’t have a product on the market yet, but they showed a prototype
projector that was brighter than most and keeps the image focused regardless of
projection distance. 3M has a small projector that weighs less that 6 oz. and is available
now. Butterfly had a booth set up with 8 different microprojectors on display. They
varied in resolution, aspect ratio, and brightness. With this selection you can pretty much
get the features you want. Or, if you can’t decide, you can just buy one of each and still
fit them all in less space that the smallest projector you’ve seen at work.
Intellon
Intellon is best known for developing integrated circuits for home networks over you inhouse power wiring. In the past, this technology has suffered from interference issues
from household appliances. Turning on the blender tended to disrupt the network. As you
can imagine, this put a real damper on any network gaming party that also included
frozen blended beverages. The same sort of problem would theoretically occur if a
vacuum were turned on, but surprisingly this problem has not been reported by any
gamers. HomePlug AV was designed to be resistant to blender (and vacuum) interference
while providing up to 200 Mbps data rates. Additionally, it features the convenience of
true plug-and-play. You plug in the power and the network is connected. With it’s major
problems apparently solved, it will be interesting to see how well this performs in the
market.
XStream HD
XStreamHD is basically Netflix-in-the-sky. In order to use it, you need a satellite receiver
dish (yes, another one) and a XStreamHD Media Receiver. The media receiver is a
DLNA certified Digital Media Server. You use a DLNA Digital Media Player (like a
Sony PS3) to select video content from the XStreamHD collection. Your selections are
then stored to the hard drive in your media receiver the next time they’re broadcast from
the satellite. It’s not available yet, but I signed up to get product launch information at
www.xstreamhd.com.
ZV Box
The ZVBox uses a completely different paradigm to deliver Internet video and most
anything else to your HDTV. It remotely (via RF) controls a box (ZVBox) connected to
your computer. The ZV Box takes your computer screen and encodes it into a QAM 256
digital television channel. The advantage is that most any TV in your house (at least all
the ones that understand QAM 256 (what cable uses)) can tune to the channel and display
your computer content. You can choose to use any channel that isn’t already used by the
cable company. I’m not making any claims about what it might do to your cable signal.
I’m assuming that it doesn’t interfere with neighboring channels and that it doesn’t bleed
it’s signal back up to the cable company. If it does, the cable company is likely to ask
you to remove it when you call and complain about your cable signal.
DBox
DBox won an innovations award at CES last year for their motion technology that is
synched with DVDs. This year, they added support blu-ray players and game systems to
their product set with an integrated video/gaming DBox system. The GPH-120 has an
integrated hard drive and Ethernet connection so it can download motion codes for
hundreds of movies and several games. For video, the motion codes are synchronized
with the playback of the DVD or blu-ray disk. For games, the action of the game is tied to
motion codes that are fed to the actuators in real time. DBox also sells furniture that has
DBox actuators already embedded or kits that let you “actuate” your existing furniture to
roll, heave, and simulate acceleration up to 2 G’s. The GPH-120 system sells for $2,999,
so you’ve got to be pretty committed to your entertainment experience. There’s also a
subscription price if you want to keep getting new movie updates after the first year.
Also, if you actuate your own furniture, I suggest you don’t actuate furniture with a cup
holder.
MP3 Doorbell
Get ring tones. For your Door! Download your favorite songs to this doorbell via USB.
Then watch hilarity ensue when somebody rings the doorbell and people start fishing
around for their cell phones.
Shake-a-Pix
Shake-a-Pix is a digital photo frame with an embedded accelerometer. When you shake
it, the picture changes. I don’t know why – it just does. Not recommended for off-road
vehicles.
Just Cooler
Just Cooler combines the utility of a laptop cooling fan with the convenience of a bed
tray. It also has embedded speakers and everything is powered via a USB port. With this
device (and a bed pan) you may never need to get out of bed again.
nComputing
Remember back in college when you stayed up all night by the glow of a VT100 terminal
finishing that Fortran project? Yeah? Well sorry, they’re back. nComputing has brought
computing full circle by creating a little box with a keyboard, mouse and video port that
connects via Cat6 cables (not using Ethernet for some reason) to a bigger box running
MS Windows or Linux. Up to 30 client boxes can be supported simultaneously. I admit it
could save some money, but it means only one box needs to be updated with new
applications or disinfected when new viruses show up and that, my friend, takes jobs
from hard-working IT geeks.
Analysts
IDC
I attended a briefing by IDC and learned of a survey they did on what people bought over
black Friday weekend and what they intended to purchase in December. They also ranked
their spending priorities. The top five priorities are rent/mortgage, phone, food, kids and
home entertainment. (Cable has two products in the top 5 already and opportunities to
expand into the other three if we can just overcome objections to human trafficking.)
One finding that I found surprising is that 71% of respondents said they would spend the
same or more in 2009 on consumer electronics. Overall, though, consumer electronics
spending is down, but home networking product sales are increasing. The economic
downturn is the primary cause of reduced spending, but gadget saturation is beginning to
be a factor.
IDC listed the following suggestions for developing successful products in the downturn:
• Invest in a smaller portfolio of products.
• Invest in making the best user experience possible.
• Strive for simplicity and elegance.
Greg Ireland of IDC provided an analysis of the IP video landscape. Here are some key
points:
• Over the top video is real – The availability of key content (Hulu, Netflix, etc.),
simple and inexpensive hardware (Roku, Vudu, etc.) and capable broadband
networks has brought us to the point where mass adoption is happening.
• Traditional video service providers are in the driver seat, but will lose customers
if they can’t provide a content offering that at least matches the Internet threat. In
particular, they need to provide blockbuster movies and prime-time HD television
programs with the same or better selection and release dates as is available from
the Internet video providers.
Next Big Thing
I attended the session on the Next Big Thing to learn that the next big thing is “living in
the cloud.” (…the cloud being the Internet. This isn’t the 60’s.) This seems pretty
obvious, but confirmation is nice. The key is that isolated products and services may be at
a distinct disadvantage compared with connected competitors.
The primary enabling equipment for this space is the smart phone. (Think more Apple
than Blackberry.) NetBooks may be another key enabler as they are focused on
portability and multiple wireless connectivity options. The IP set-top box was also
mentioned as an enabling device.
The following factors were mentioned as key drivers for success in this space:
• Keep the experience insanely simple.
• Keep multiple devices with the same content in sync or use seamless streaming.
• Use open-source code and incubate a developer community.
Keys
Disruptive Technologies
The Disruptive Technologies Session came to essentially the same conclusion. Their
term was “connected ecosystems.” They saw new media, social power through
networking, information transparency, more capable platforms and shared intelligence as
key factors in the emerging economy.
Fin
Congratulations. You made it through some 40 pages of reviews. (Either that or you just
skipped to the end.) I hope this report has helped you develop a sense of the consumer
electronics landscape for 2009. I also hope it has sharpened your mind in some way so
that your powers of concentration are improved. This will give you a distinct advantage
when you discuss consumer technology with your boss – or when you challenge your
family to a game of MindFlex next Christmas.

- Clarke`s CES Report

Transcription

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