Hannspree is showing off a few “designer TVs” today. They’re 32-inch and 37-inch HDTVs that seem fairly pedestrian, with the exception of the natural wood paneling. These TVs look great, and there’s no way my camera can capture the real rich texture and look of the wood on the CES floor. In the world of usually ugly HDTVs, I’m for one happy to see something that looks classic, not “slick”. And I hope the trend continues, it’s rather a throwback to the TV sets of old. Who knows, maybe we’ll get big square ones so we have sets that we can put our “set-top” boxes on. → Read More
Somebody call the lawyers — I think they might have messed up on the patent application. Either that or they weren’t the only ones who thought up an AI-navigating, robotic vacuum that moves in expanding spirals. You can tell from the prognathic aspect and heavy epicanthic folds that this little robot is from an earlier, more brutal era. → Read More
Tired of your mom calling you and saying “Honey, do I plug in the blue cable to the printer? Or the modem? Or the wall?” Well, you can set her up right now and the only thing she’ll have to plug in and out is a little USB receiver. All the other junk plugs into the cute little hub and the data is served from there. This D-Link thing isn’t too impressive, but it’s practical and if the holidays weren’t already over, I would have gotten your mom one myself. Of course, Valentine’s day is coming up. → Read More
Even your parents can make it all work. Well, that’s if your mom and dad have an AV system going and you’re not around to set it up for them. What THX’s Media Director aka Blackbird does is basically turn all your content (games, movies, or music) into ‘smart content’ that sends out its AV settings, which is then dynamically configured for the best playback experience. We’ve all encountered situations where the aspect ratio is not correct and the audio isn’t suitable for the content that you’re viewing, right? Well, Blackbird takes care of it all for you. → Read More
Passing by a Duracell booth, I had almost skipped it completely but noticed that some of the batteries were small and thin, and said “SD” on them. It turns out that Duracell is lending its brand name to a new set of other small, ubiquitous things. Not sure if you’ll be seeing these in retail any time soon but they looked perfectly sellable. Jump drives after the, er, jump. → Read More
http://www.crunchgear.com/video/player.swf?movie=2kwestinghouse.mov.ff.flv Product Name: Westinghouse’s 64″ 2K ultra-HDTV Description: 1080p is SO 2007, Westinghouse is going ultra-high-def Price: Not announced yet In-store date: Depends, but soon. Site: None yet, likely Westinghouse.com Why it’s cool: With the RedOne rolling out now, ultra-high-definition is the new buzzword in video. 1080p is getting to be consumer-friendly, so Westinhouse is quite literally taking to the next level with this dope 2K display. Exact specs and other goodies later today. But look at that gameplay. → Read More
Product Name: Guitar Hero Guitar Skins Description: You can customize your fake axe with these decals. Price: Probably around $20 Site: RedBeard Why it’s cool: All the coolest rockers have custom guitars, why shouldn’t you? You’ll probably be able to print your own ones soon. → Read More
Product Name: ChangHong TVs Description: Low-cost HDTVs that could rival Olevia and Visio when they enter the US retail market for real later this year. Price: Varies In-store date: Our man on the floor wouldn’t say a date, but he said it wouldn’t be until after NAB, which is usually in April. Site: Changhong.com Why it’s cool: Sometimes sold as an OEM, China’s ChangHong is planning on launching under its own brand in the US later this year. Microsoft recently tried to purchase a stake in the company but was rebuffed by the Chinese government. There are a few ChangHong-branded TVs in the US now, but they’re usually at discount retailers, whereas the company wants to have real Target-and-Wal*Mart sales this year. → Read More
At the Olevia booth, they had this TV with a big line down the middle. On the right was a regular HD feed, and once it crossed the line it entered the enhancement zone. The normal signal actually looked fine, but the image processor really made it pop, as they say. Motion blur was reduced, sharpness of edges was increased, and the contrast seemed better because of the enhanced edges. Unfortunately, the nature of the technology seems to be such that the left side of the screen actually looks worse when photographed, so you’re going to have to take my word for it. We’ll get more concrete info later. → Read More
Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins, naturally. It was there to show off TI’s DLP projector technology, but durn it if I wasn’t tickled pink. → Read More
Specs here. They sounded pretty good from what I could tell in the noisy hall, but they look freaky. → Read More
Listen: covering CES is hard. It’s fun, don’t get me wrong, but it’s exhausting, frustrating, and full of stuff we all have seen already. To that end, we present CES WTF, a way for us, your humble narrators, to blow off some steam. Here are some exciting new WTF posts for you enjoy and you can always view the WTF stories right here. Bumblebee rocks CES The LG booth is staffed by douches Jook → Read More
[photopress:blackout.jpg,full,center] Make your own joke Sony, riding on a high after Warner’s decision to exclusively back Blu-ray, has used CES to announce Platinum MusicPass download cards. The cards, which will be available here in the U.S. on January 15, will let music fans download “high-quality” MP3s; they do look to be free of DRM, as we found out last week, since they’re playable on iPods or another digital audio player. Most cards will retail for $12.99, which includes the album download as well as additional bonus material. Album art, photos and the like, I’d suspect. The cards will be available in Best Buy, Target and Fred’s, a store I’ve never heard of. → Read More
Alienware’s Virginity Shield A friend of mine bought that flight chair from way back when that lets you sit in a deep bucket seat and control an on-screen plane or tank from the comfort of a womb-like simulator that will ensure you never get laid. Well, Alienware’s oddly cool but wildly impractical curved monitor is more of this same concept — something hardcore nerds will love but will probably be prohibitively expensive and kind of silly once you sit down and do the math. This is a DLP monitor that’s about three feet long and consists of three separate “screens” stiched together seamlessly. No availability or release date, but listen, kid. You have a long life ahead of you. There are girls to meet, beaches to hang out on, things to learn. Don’t be the guy with the big weird three-foot surround monitor. Just don’t do it. → Read More
[photopress:87027_WL_Nunchuck.jpg,full,center] Product Name: Nyko Wireless Nunchuck, Charge Base 360 and Frontman wireless guitar controller Description: The Wireless Nunchuck eliminates the wire between the Wii controller and the nunchuck attachment; the Charge Base 360 wireless charges the included battery for the Xbox 360; the Frontman is a wireless guitar for the Wii (and PS3 and PS2) that works with the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games. Everything’s wireless! Price: The Nunchuck is $30; the Charge Base is $30; the Frontman (Wii version) is $50 In-store date: Nunchuck comes out Q1 2008; Charge Base is Q1 2008; and Frontman’s release date is mysteriously not listed… Site: Nyko Why it’s cool: Because Nyko makes the console accessories that you really want to use. The Wireless Nunchuck, for example, just makes sense; why it’s not wireless to begin with I’ll never know. → Read More
[photopress:pacemakerrrr.jpg,full,center] Product Name: Pacemaker Description: A pocket-sized DJ system Price: 520 Euros, or $763 (right now—I’m sure that’ll change by the time it comes out) In-store date: February 2008 Site: Pacemaker [Tonium] Why it’s cool: Really? Why is it cool? It’s a complete DJ system in your pocket, for starters. It’s also a DAP that works with pretty much every format under the sun, including FLAC. I want it like I want to get to level 70 in WoW. → Read More
LG’s exciting new watch concept. A few douches decided to prevent me from taking pix of the red hot LG watch concept which, as you can imagine, is a watch with a phone in it. Amazing stuff, to be sure, but I got the Sean Penn treatment from a full set of booth douches informing me in no uncertain terms that a device that will never come to market and is already well documented elsewhere is not to be photographed. Overreaction? Maybe, but this sort of thing happens at almost every show — overzealous little men hiding crap that we have already seen. → Read More
[photopress:blackarmor_lr.jpg,full,center] Product Name: Seagate BlackArmor encrypted++ portable hard drives Description: A 160GB portable hdd with government-level encryption. That’s only good if you put faith in our government to be competent. Price: $150 In-store date: Q1 2008 Site: Seagate Why it’s cool: Because people are paranoid about their data being compromised while on-the-go. $150 for 160GB rides the high-end of the price curve, it should be noted, so you’ll really need to place a premium on data security to fully appreciate the drive. It’s pretty shiny, though. Still, shiny = cool, right? → Read More
San Francisco, CA
