by Daniel Dern
If you want to know what's new in the world of technology, the Consumer Electronics Association's annual International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), now running from January 7 to 10 in Las Vegas, is the place to be!
This year, more than 2,500 companies — "manufacturers, developers and suppliers of consumer technology hardware, content, technology delivery systems, and related products and services," according to CES — are introducing an estimated 20,000 new products and showing currently available gear. CES' exhibit areas include automotive, home, desktop and portable computers, personal electronics, home appliances and home/personal health care products, robotics, toys for kids of all ages, electronic gaming, small home office products and, of course, lots of digital television and home theater gear, like Panasonic's new 85-inch professional-class plasma flatscreen, plus a 25,000-square-foot iLoung area for iPod/iPhone/Mac-related products.
What's hot? According to Tom Henderson of Extreme Labs, 3D television — and deals with sports franchises and others for content, like a 3D all-sports network from ESPN. Vizio, for example, has announced a $1,999 3D-capable TV; LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony, Samsung are also announcing 3D-capable sets. (You'll have to wear special glasses, of course.) Tom says Lenovo's "hybrid" tablet/notebook computer, where the display detaches from the keyboard base to act as a freestanding tablet computer, is also intriguing.
The CES is over 40 years old — the first one, held in New York City, had a mere 200 exhibitors and 17,500 attendees. Today's CES is roughly 10 times that size.
Past CESs have seen the debut of products — some still with us, some not — including the VCR, the laser disc player, camcorder, CD player, DVD, HDTV, Microsoft XBox, plasma TV and Blu-Ray DVD.
Strolling the floors of the Las Vegas Convention Center, Venetian Hotel and other locations will be long buyers representing stores, corporations, builders and others, and maybe a few flush individuals — plus would-be sellers, developers, cable/satellite providers, engineers, and others including plus several thousand members of the media, analysts and bloggers.
At the Storage Visions 2010 preview event on Tuesday and Wednesday before the main show floors open, consumer-oriented goodies among the mostly business exhibitor tables included a nifty, futuristic-looking wireless display connector from Iomega which plugs into your flat-screen TV or other display via HDMI or VGA cable; put the tiny dongle into your computer and presto, watch stuff from your hard drive or the Internet. Due out March 2010, MSRP $199.
The show floor opens Thursday morning. Exciting products this year include mobile fuel cells, new netbooks and notebooks, digital cameras and camcorders, storage, wireless, batteries and chargers. And there are always a few of what veteran technologist/science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle aptly dubbed "The Dangdest Thing I Saw." (Past "winners" include the iShoes and the CatGenie; what this year's will be remains to be seen.)
Daniel Dern (www.dern.com) is a freelance technology/business writer based in the Boston area.
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