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December 29, 2005
Sleeping in the 24-hour city at CES won't be cheap
Hotel owners are preparing for a bumper January next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Delegates who haven't yet arranged for lodging should expect to spend more than $350 for a hotel room, as a simple search on one of the major travel websites show (Eg: Travelocity or
The 3.5-star Hilton, conveniently located next to the Las Vegas Convention Centre where CES will be headquartered, charges a hefty $499 for a Thursday night stay. The 2-star Howard Johnson outbids them with $534. Most other hotels are simply sold out.
The secret is planning. Most hotels started selling out in November. If you were planning on dropping by and don't have a room, the law of supply and demand will do their work.
Las Vegas Boulevard, aka: The Strip
photo: Savan Thongvanh
Tags: CES, hotel, expedia, Travelocity, orbitz
December 28, 2005
Commodore 2: Back with a Vengeance
What better way to celebrate the birth of Jesus than by introducing the resurrection of my own personal Jesus, Commodore. They are back, and like the Antichrist, they have a thirst for blood. They are trying to get into digital media players (Commodore fanboys versus Apple fanboys, thunderdome anyone?) and also the GPS market with a couple of new gadgets that will make any old-school techie pee himself. The full product unveiling will happen at CES 2006 and expect us to be there with coverage.
December 28, 2005
New Standard Keyboard for Kids?
At first glace this appeared to be one of those keyboards designed for kids so they can have a grand ol’ time smashing the keys, but after further investigation, this keyboard appears to be for adults and has a new layout. It’s the same 53-key keyboard that showed up earlier this year, but apparently the manufacturing company, New Standard Keyboards, will be introducing this at CES 2006. Looks like this keyboard could be faster than the standard QWERTY board and has enough colors to feed a horse…feed a horse a rainbow. The inventor is an electrical engineer with degrees in psychology and experience with industrial psychology and ergonomics, so he has to be smart. We will keep you up to date from CES 2006.
December 21, 2005
Technology for the home
For those that can't think of technology extending beyond checking e-mails, there's hope.
Focusing on improving the convenience of home gadgets, the CES show has special demonstrations and showcases for new products combining technology for exclusive home use, and general well being. Examples include the EZ automatic kitchen faucet system (EZ faucet 3rd generation), automatic soap dispenser for the shower, and the Touchless trashcan, not to mention a heated vest and belt to wear in the colder months, which of course would probably be needed in the desert heat of Las Vegas.
And if none of these interest you, perhaps you can be tempted with a solar powered air purifier for your car? It's worth a look at the very least.
December 21, 2005
Win a ZAP car
As much as we all love technology, it can be hard to concentrate, especially if there are casinos, all-you-can-eat buffets, and hot sunshine just tempting you to tear yourself away from your IT world. The folks at the CES show know that it's hard, so they're sure to keep you comfortable with air conditioning, feed you free American junk food, and bribe, er, convince you to get the most out of the show by offering incentives.
Sound interesting? It gets better. The 2006 International CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards offer a contest for audience participation. Visit the booth for the Scientific American Innovations People's Choice Award on January 7, and register to win a ZAP zebra electric car. The winner will be announced at 5pm at the Innovations showcase, leaving you plenty of time to hop in your electric car and cruise the Las Vegas strip. To visit all the Vegas IT shops, of course.
December 20, 2005
Robotics
Advancements in IT has actually led to a growing consumer need for robotic technology, rather than it just being a novelty for research and experimental reasons. To display the tangible growth in robotics, the CES show has set up a series of 7 sessions on January 6th to demonstrate how robotics technology can be incorporated into use in both home and business. Each session covers categories ranging from governmental use, to using robotics in education and bringing robotics into the home. Starting with the first session titled Global Trends in the Consumer Robotics market, individuals can see how robotic engineering and technology has been processed from start until its advanced present state.
December 20, 2005
Technology is a girls best friend showcase
We've reached a point where the market for technology is divided into 2 categories, his and hers. In this modern day and age, one of the biggest trends in technology is that girls can now have their stuff custom made, like magenta mobile phones with diamond studded initials and designer totes to lug around laptops. So to fully understand the impact of just how much girls have to choose from, CES has made one of their biggest showcases dedicated to all the fluffy pink and sparkly gadgets that make IT a little more fun. In the Technology is a Girls Best Friend showcase, products have been chosen from categories ranging from mobile phones, to audio players, computers, and digital imaging inlcuding the Motorola Magenta Razr, HP Photosmart R817 digital camera, and Sharp M400 WideNote. Winners of the showcase will also be featured in the upcoming issue of CE Lifestyles.
December 20, 2005
Microsoft plans to shine on Windows Vista at CES
Microsoft today released its latest Community Technology Preview version of Windows Vista, one of several test versions of the forthcoming operating system that will be released between the main beta releases.
Stealing some of Bill Gates' CES opening keynote thunder, Microsoft said that the preview is set to take centre stage at the consumer show.
In a conference call with media, Shanen boettcher: senior director windows client group said:
"You are going to see some updates to the Media Center user interface, that 10 foot remote control that you may be familiar with in Windows Media Center. You are going to see some updates there as well as update to the media player, Media Player 11. You will see how it is consistent with the integration and use of search throughout the system – the very visual aspects of using thumb nailing to give the end user a better view of their information and better focus. As we head into CES you will see us focus more on these areas. But for the December CTP, we are really focused on the areas of security, performance and mobility as the key things in the feedback areas."
The company later further clarified that it is already shipping the new functionalities, including Media Player 11, in the CTP that was released on Monday. It just won't make a lot of noise about it, opting to wait until January instead.
Microsoft planning to demonstrate beta software... does Bill Gates really want to risk repeating last year's CES demo debacle?
Tags: bill Gates, Windows vista, CES
December 7, 2005
Brits on show at CES
A number of British companies will be exhibiting at CES in Vegas this coming January, in the hope that such international exposure will increase their market size.
Voice over IP is expected to be big in 2006, and Manchester-based VoIPvoice is demoing uConnect Plus, a USB-powered PSTN to VoIP adaptor to integrate its software to use with Skype. Such products are beginning to become fairly common now, so it's got a tough job ahead to stand out in the market, but it has received a CES Innovations Honoree award.
It also has its Cyberphone–W, a USB handset to make Skype calls. Again, there's now loads on the market, and some are very good, so this is going to need to be particularly special or very cheap to make an impact. If we get the opportunity though, we'll try and get them in for review and see how they compare to the products we've recently seen.
Imagination Technologies, best known for its digital radios such as the 'love it or hate it' Bug, is showing a range of products, including multi-standard HD video decoder that supports all major standards, such as jpeg, H.264, WMV9, VC1, Mpeg-2/4 and DivX, from a single IP core. It also has mobile phone application processors and a multi-standard mobile TV platform that supports DVD-H, T-DMB and ISDBT-ss to enable roaming-mobile TV handsets.
On the consumer electronics front, the list includes Atlas (Scotland), which develops audio visual and hi-fi interconnect leads and cables. It's launching a range of HDMI cables and Hyper speaker cables. Also from Scotland is Wolfson Microelectronics, which supplies mixed-signal semiconductors for digital audio and imaging applications. At CES it is focusing on portable audio, including new amplifier technology to provide portable hi-fi audio and extend battery life.
Audio Acoustics is launching its Radical Nexgen loudspeaker and cable systems, plus showing its Sapphire Ti-C and Fundamental-k2 range of speakers, which have a frequency response of 20Hz - 43KHz (+/-3dB).
Finally, London based Oregan Network has a system to deliver video, audio, images and data over IP networks in the home. It is demonstrating a range of home entertainment devices that use its Oregan Media Browser. Network DVDs, digital media adaptors, set top boxes and gaming consoles can become web-enabled, entertainment products.
December 7, 2005
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail...
The CES show is vast. There is so much going on at all times, you sometimes feel that you may be missing the best speakers or the coolest equipment on show.
Mix in a few late nights, some alcohol and you have all the potential to suffer from show fatigue, perhaps even trade rage as you rush around frantically trying to cover as much of the show.
If you suffer from any of these symptoms, we suggest you register for MyCES,an online event planner from the official CES site. By matching your profile with the events, the event planner suggests meetings, helps with networking to find people you may want to meet at the show and suggests sessions you should go to.
With a full list of the exhibitors, the only thing the planner doesn't do is pour cocktails or suggest whether you should fold or raise.
December 6, 2005
UK braces for Consumer Electornics Boom
Digital products like flat screen TVs, MP3 players and game consoles are driving a boom in the consumer electronics (CE) market across Europe, with the UK top of the heap. According to the European Information Technology Observatory (EITO) the market has grown by 9.2 per cent in 2005 to an overall value of 36.7bn. MP3 players experienced the highest growth at 98 per cent, while flat-screen TVs and projectors have outsold traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) TVs for the first time. 
Thankfully, for us consumers, demand has resulted in severe price competition in most sectors. In terms of growth, Italy has grown fastest by 13.6 per cent, followed by Spain and Germany. The UK, described by EITO as "technically enthusiastic", managed to grow by 9.1 per cent but remains the biggest market by far at £8.6bn.
technology TV home entertainment
This post originally appeared in InterActive Home, thanks Martin
December 5, 2005
When your keys drop off the radar
For all the people losing time looking for their keys, UK firm loc8tor plans to use the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to launch the ultimate key tracking device.
The Loc8tor is a $99.99 radar-like device that will track specially marked, easy to loose items like keys, children or weapons of mass destruction within a radius of 500 feet (150 metres). It will use both a display signal, noise and vibrations to guide the owner to its lost items.
The loc8tor also is available as a $169.99 premium model with an alert mode that will send a warning signal when your keys or kids get out of range of the device.
Now don't say that the obvious problem for these kind of devices is that people who tend to loose their keys will also be prone to losing the tracking device. Then you simply buy a loc8tor to track the whereabouts of your loc8tor.
December 2, 2005
Digital home revolution to rage on at CES
Everybody wants in on the digital home. Home networking and digital entertainment have been the focus of CES for the past years, and this years thing are bound to get worse.
In a strong reminder to days of the internet hype, companies are looking at their existing product line-ups and try to take short cuts to enable them for the digital home. Slap on a wifi radio, bundle some proprietary software and you've got a brilliant demo and a horrible product.
Hard disk manufacturer Maxtor at CES plans to unveil a "new family of innovative consumer storage products to store and share videos/photos/MP3s, etc," the company is saying in a PR pitch leading up to the show.
So expect Maxtor to launch some kind of media server device that will make data accessible throughout the home. I have no doubt that is will work. And personally I would like to see an inexpensive device that will stream media across the home without the need of a computer – as is the case in current generation media adapters. Something that you put in the meter closet and access about once a year. But I doubt that Maxtor will be able to actually deliver.
San Disk – the maker of flash memory chips that power the world's digital camera's - earlier this year unveiled its TrustedFlahs MicroSD memory cards in an effort to turn a memory chip into a CD or DVD. It just has yet to sign up any partners and face the fact that its flash albums are more expensive than music downloads or an old fashioned DVD.
The home media networking vision by now is about three years old, and has failed to excite consumers. These home networks are simply impossible to set up and manage, unless you are will to buy into a vendor lock-in. Surely Maxtor too will create a brilliant solution with a flashy demonstration, as San Disk did earlier this year.
But don't count on being able to replicate all that at home without spending a small fortune on new equipment, and without a PhD in networking technology.
SanDisk chief executive Eli Harari unveils TrustedFlash last September at the CTIA Wireless tradeshow in San Francisco
France
Germany
Italy
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