Conventions

Gadgets, Gizmos & Goodies galore were in abundance at Day 2 — official press day for CES. The 2 keynotes I was able to make were a modern day Tower of Babel..if by tower you mean over packed meeting rooms and if by Babel you mean Sin City aka Las Vegas.
First up was Samsung — since I just got their new ‘droid phone — the Transformer–picked because of the name–i thought it might be good to hear what was coming next. Last year the “hot” item was the 3D-tv which have now come down in price from about 5K to around 2500 for a decent sized screen. When it drops below the 2K threshold, many NextGen adopters will be lining to hang it on the wall of Mummy & Dada’s basement.

However THIS year’s hottest new item is the Tablet. Trying to take a bite out of Apple while partnering with Google’s ‘droid O/S, Samsung, Toshiba & Motorola are all showcasing their new tablets. Even IBM spin off Lenovo — maker of the Think Pad, is coming out with a 10″ tablet. ShaZam. And — are you listening Mr. Jobs — they will all have cameras attached which is my 1 biggest complaint with my lovely iPad that will be obsolete in about 3 months when the next one (complete with not 1 but 2 cameras) will be on the market.

Take note CE manufacturers who are so quick to jump on the green bandwagon.. If you really wanted to “go green’ then you would come up with a program that would allow us to upgrade to the NEXTGen product without having to purchase a complete new one. For example: I have the top of the line iPad..mainly for my son’s school but I have been known to play a game or 3 on it. Anyway.. it’s the 64gig — top of the line $900 one that I”ve only had since August. I should have waited, yes until the big “Core” announcement that I knew was coming..being an analyst for the CE industry. But I didn’t. So now I’m faced with either buying the new one, getting a ‘droid powered one or keeping this one–which i really like except for that annoying no camera thing.

I think, for me, I’d get more work done if it was a Windows 7, since i would manage my business — all run via MS office and flash… so I am really interested in what Microsoft will have.
and No I couldn’t get into the MS Press conference so I had to watch it via big screen in the over flow.

The 2nd most exciting thing — for me anyway — was the down sized version of MS Surface technology. It has so many applications that could work for it but the cost of the 1st Gen was prohibitive. Several bars in Vegas have some type of “surface” in their clubs. the Hard Rock Cafe (on the strip not the hotel) has it. The circle bar at the Rio has it and has put it to good use because they actually have interactive games like chess, checkers, monopoly, backgammon so you can play checkers for shots. Anyway the NextGen of Surface technology will be more compact – read CHEAPER – so more places can use it. I can foresee hospital applications for it so that you can have 3D modeling while your team of healthcare advisors determine what is best for you. I can see it being used in the mid sized work environment for collaborative projects. Once it is even more affordable, people will be finding home use for it as well.

Which brings me to the 2nd part of the Samsung Press conference. What will the world look like in 2013. As you can see from the pictures below, I couldn’t get very close so I am looking forward to seeing their model in the booth which will be another post all together.

BTW: Dinner at the Paris buffet. Good selection of food and good service.

Since 1967, the Consumer Electronics Association has been the driving force behind the Consumer Electronics show.  43 years of innovation all under 1 roof.  Like all industries, CEA members have taken a big hit during this recession and in 2009 it was almost a ghost town with the majority of the attendees being journalists (including yours truly) and bloggers (also yours truly) rather than buyers.  2009 saw the closing of one of the cornerstones of retail, Circuit City which came on the heels of the closing of CompUSA.

If 2009 was a grim year — 2010 CES was a resurgence to the innovative spirit with the show piece being the advent of 3D-TV.  

Many of the smaller booths were actually writing orders for the show which is a great sign on the improvement of the economy. We saw several new innovative products featured. Our favorite by far was the Phubby aka wrist cubby to hold your mp3 player secure while having better access than if in your pocket or purse. Of course this will not do you any good while driving but their display was cute even if their very young staff wasn’t very knowledgeable about their product. We’ll forgive them for being overwhelmed at the sheer number of people that they were seeing before we arrived on Sunday.

Other random pics from around CES:

By far my favorite gadget was this Dragon Xbox 360 controller with light up eyes and tongue. It comes out on March 1st 2009. You know i’m getting it.

There were other pretty cool things at the show as well. Of the PCs, the one I really wanted was the Firefly by HP. Dual core, 2 removable Hard drives (that can be switched with their Firefly laptop) and liquid cooled. It’s truly a gamers’ dream. Not that I’m a gamer but could be if pressed hard enough. OK I do love games like Civilization and Caesar.
Here are a few other little gadgets that I’d like to add to my collection of Geek Girl stuff:

NOTE: I did offer to let either Ford or Hyundai not pay to ship their prototype cars home but park them in my driveway.

I Gots to get me one of these!!

Originally uploaded by Doc Holly

Xboom made a bean bag chair with stability and it vibrates while you play.

For some reason I was obsessed this year at CES with furniture.

For example, and I’m sure every mother can relate to this. Don’t you just hate when you walk into your kids room and they have their gaming supplies all over the place?? The controllers (more on that in another post) the games, the wires etc??

Check out this nifty little doo-dad.

The down side is that whoever this company was didn’t want me to take pictures –Hello Press badge means I can take pics of anything I want — so I left in a huff and didn’t write their name down but did find a nifty carpenter who’ll build me one.

Mostly the rest are chairs:

the last one, btw, I’m having built in my patio and out to the fire pit. Thanks to Nokia for the inspiration.

CES

Originally uploaded by Doc Holly

I’d say at least 20-25% of the attendees to CES are press. This year was no exception except given the fact that attendance was down from a high in 2008 of 142K to about 110K. There were several reasons for this.

In 2006, CEA, the parent company that produces CES, decided to start charging for late registrations. If you didn’t register by 10/31/2008, it was 100.00. If you registered on-site, it was $200.00.

At this same meeting in San Francisco, it was decided that also in 2009 the days would be moved to encompass a weekend, thus giving buyers a few days in their offices before heading to CES.

and then there is the 800 Billion elephant in the room, the Economy. Despite what all the press releases said, how it was ‘planned’ you just knew from the looks on the vendor’s faces, the huge empty spaces made to spread out to look like “lounges” and how when you walked passed a booth you were assaulted by companies that had spent 100′s of 1000s dollars on their booths.

They do take good care of the press, we have our own space with the latest in PC or laptop docking stations. Nice loungey area with lunch daily and ever ready coffee and bottles of water.

..oh and then there is the schwag.

Here are a few more pics from the press end of it: