My CES Short Novel(what I remember)
With all my unemployment free time you’d think I’d be cranking out 5 posts a day complete with captioned pictures. At least this is my rampant daydream in between noon coffee meetings and driving my other unemployed friends around to interviews(hey, at least somebody’s getting some!). But then I remember I’m not a journalist, nor am I even a paid blogger, so I can start sentences with “but”, “and”, or “because” if I even take the time to form a complete sentence at all.
There’s something true about hardship taking its toll on people creatively, so I did what’s best in these circumstances and decided to wash away my woes by way of dehydration and binge walking. That’s right, I went to Vegas.
And now, here is my CES Short Novel(what I remember):
2009 was my 1st year at CES. A helluva year to go considering the state of the economy which delivered a less than jam-packed LV Convention Center. Some companies pulled out leaving empty booth space converted to quick-lounges for weary nerd soldiers. Swag was virtually nonexistant; I got a box of Beechies chewing gum from Nokia, an RCA keychain dog and a goldmine of a microSD card from Samsung among other trivialities(read:pens). Oh! Let’s not forget the much needed refreshment from Ryan Bros Coffee (courtesy of Qualcomm). On the bright side, being a woman at CES means no bathroom lines!
Without further ado, here are some highlights from the show:
1. 3D TV at home: Sony, Samsung, Intel, and LG all had demos with glasses for in-home viewing. LG was by far the best with their “Active-Shutter” glasses which blew away the simple plastic lenses the others had. However, even the plastic lenses from the other manufacturers were a step above what you’d get in say, Disneyland.
2. Netbooks, or small laptops are all the rage. I’ve already seen a number of them popping up in wi-fi cafes and it’s easy to see why. They’re lightweight and have much of the same capabilities of a larger notebook. Intel had a great display explaining their new Atom processor which they are using in a variety of small hardware such as these laptops.
3. New cell phones were weak. Of course the Palm Pre has some people excited. I was surprised to see that LG had an impressive display including the LG Renoir which is a phone I’ve been pining for lately. Good news is that it might get released in the states soon so I won’t have to buy a gray market model. It’s basically a touch screen phone with 8mp Schneider-Kreuznach certified optics. That’ll come in handy. LG also had a Bond style watch phone that was pretty interesting, although that was behind glass. Sigh.
4. Speaking of touch screens, get ready to see more everywhere. They even had a touch screen Coke vending machine! The major manufacturers had touch-screen technology incorporated in their booths in some manner. Intel was showing off the power of their new i7 processor with a sci-fi movie looking display that was essentially a plane of see-through glass as a monitor with an image that could be manipulated by touch. Sony’s new ebook has touch screen technology too. For some reason NBC Universal had a booth there with a Microsoft Surface so I got to see that.
Actually, I went to eat at the Rio Casino and they had touch screen directories in the hotel lobby and a number of Surface machines in their iBar. I wanted to go check them out, but I wasn’t much for partying after walking around so much. Funny thing was a shorter Asian gentleman was attempting to use the lobby directories but they were mounted so high that he had to get on his tip toes to make a selection. Doh!
5. Cameras: pretty standard-there wasn’t really anything there that you couldn’t get ahold of somewhere in a proper camera store, it was just nice having them all in the same place. Canon had a great booth with plenty of compact models and DSLRs to play with. I enjoyed trying out the new 5D Mark II(a girl can dream). Sadly, I had to really hunt down Nikon as their booth was literally tucked away in a section of meeting rooms and was just 1 simple glass case of cameras and a table of brochures. I was really hoping to be able to check out the Nikons on a more personal level, but at least I got some literature to read up on.
Sony had an interesting new top of the line cyber-shot, the DSC-G3. The big hoopla about it is that it has wi-fi built in. The idea is that you can take photos/short video and then immediately upload them to number of online photo storage sites. The sites are limited to YouTube, Dailymotion, Photobucket, Picasa, and Shutterfly though. It’s a neat idea, but I’m not a big fan of the camera for several reasons. One being that usually I like to edit photos before uploading them. Secondly, the front lens cover slides horizontally which in my opinion is visually unappealing and physically awkward. Most of the slim cyber-shot lens covers slide vertically and are very smooth and easy to operate. Not so here. Lastly, I have a feeling that many friendships will be shaken by misfortunate use of such devices during times of inebriation. Still, it’s an interesting concept and could appeal to some people.
6. TVs: they’re big; they’re slim. The mhz is just going up making for a crisp super realistic picture. Not much else to say here. The OLEDs were back this year and a bit bigger. Some companies had integrated speakers with the OLEDs so that was a nice improvement.
7. Microsoft 7 is coming. Whoo.
So those are the things that come to mind when I think back on the 2009 CES Show. In all honesty, conventions never really seem as exciting when you’re trudging through them trying to avoid getting bag-whacked or shoulder-butted by yet another navigation challenged suit. Don’t get me wrong, it was interesting, however media always hypes things up to an extent, so in the end, it’s almost like watching the Rose Bowl on TV vs. camping out and fighting for a spot on the parade route. In other words, you’ll get the gist of it just staying at home. In fact, you might even get a better view.
Still sounds like something I should have been at, oh well. I suppose you’re right, I can read most of it right here and get a good view.
Jim: Seriously, now that I’ve finally attended one, I can say it’s much like SEMA in regard to being a bit overhyped. It’s still a good time, but especially these days when money is tight, best to save up for more important things. There’s always the future!