Hellfire
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Joined: 05 Aug 2003
Posts: 3473
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 Posted: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 23:04:54 Post Subject: CES Unveiled - CES 2008 Press Preview |
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The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is upon us again and as usual it was kicked off with an event called CES Unveiled. This sneak peek for the press was held in the Marco Polo Ballroom at the Venetian Hotel on Saturday, January 05, 2007.
CES Unveiled was really packed tonight. Barely any room to move, everybody was complaining about the cramped quarters, including vendors. Everybody was taking it in strides though, being as patient as possible, making circles and coming back around to what they wanted to see.
Lots of things that were there we'd have a passing interest in, but most of it was the same thing we've seen before.
A few things did catch my eye though.
First was Logitech. They had a new Bluetooth DiNovo Mini Keyboard that was making me drool. It is designed for a home theater sysytem, so it is not a full size keyboard. It was approximately the size of a $1 bill, and included many features that home theater users will want. A nice scroll pad for mouse control, a mini-qwerty keyboard, and media center controls. Finally a nice touch is a keyboard guard that allows you to close the keyboard so keys can not be hit accidentally, however it is not activated by keystroke, there is a hard power switch that most users will use, so the keyboard guard will mostly help protect it from being damaged. MSRP of $149.99 will keep it out of many peoples homes. It should be available late January into Febraury.
It seems everybody will be manufacturing things for the Apple iPod. There were several different covers, and players to suit every taste. Several of the more interesting ones was a waterproof iPod speaker system. They were imersing an iPod into water while it was playing.
Scosche was there showing a new iPod Phone cover that helps to protect it from damage. This is a clear case that surrounds the iPod Phone, however it does not appear to protect the screen.
Probably the nicest iPod cover is a system by Zagg. Their Invisible Shield is a very tough layer of plastic that was developed for military use, however they have released it for the consumer. The Invisible Shield will be avaialble for over 1,500 devices, and is basically a skin to surround your device. This is a non-skid skin so your device will be much easier to hold onto and will be well proected from scratches. It will also cover touch screens, and allow full use of the touchscreen. Zagg was showing two demonstrations of the Invisible Shield. The first was taking car keys and trying to scratch the shield, obviously they weren't putting a whole love of pressure, but after running the keys across it, there was no damage. Second demonstration was using a ballpoint pen to puncture the skin, I was not able to get the pen to pierce the skin, the skin stretched, however it was not pierced.
Ladybug was there showing off several different models of their iPod speaker docks. These are really interesting, as they fold up into a ball when not in use, and the speakers fold out when you want to use the speakers and plug in your dock.
Another big item that was on display are digital photo frames. Several manufacturers of them from Parrott, Hannspree. I'm sure we'll be seeing lots of these around the show.
Finally, one of the biggest HD announcements was the announcement of a Wireless system for HDTV. Pulse Link was showing off their system with a Westinghouse display. This device will broadcast your HD signal between 30 - 40 feet, and can support four HDMI with HDCP devices. Full 128-bit AES encryption between the receiver and the transceiver. It will support most standard formats of 480i, 480p, 576i, 720p & 1080i. I did not see anything documenting 1080p. The broadcast is done using the same JPEG2000 video codec that is used by movie theaters for digital movies.
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