If you’ve been Tweeting or Facebooking or G+ing at all this week, you’ll notice that there is something called “CES” happening in Las Vegas. CES is clearly overwhelming the tech news cycle – it can’t be helped – but this seems to be the first time it’s started overflowing in social media causing one TC writer to quip: “Wish what happened in Vegas actually would stay in Vegas. #CES”.
Topsy is seeing 77,000 #CES2012 and #CES Tweets in the past 7 days, plus countless Facebook messages. → Read More
Rather than do a CES pre-round-up of exciting products I’d like to address this interesting slant on the whole “massive electronics trade show in the middle of the desert” concept that has kept the Gadgets crew here up for the past few weeks. MG said Apple won CES. He was being snide, but, in a way, honest because, in the end, nobody wins CES.
The Consumer Electronics Show is, as its name implies, a show for consumer electronics. These include, but are not limited to, TVs, DVD players, Blu-Ray players (if they still make those), and accessories. TV stands! TV brackets! Speakers! Remotes! In fact, there’s an entire hall dedicated to the Asian purveyors of the components that make up those consumer electronics, a sort of Fishmongers Row to the CE industry where the smell is at least far more tolerable. → Read More
Are you ready for CES? I know I am. The PR emails are flowing in and I’m going to respond to every single one of them. I can’t wait to hear about Samsung’s social media stuff. And Vizio’s new thingy. I can’t wait to get my hands on that one thing made by those guys who did that other thing last year that no one bought. It’s gonna be fantastic. So pumped.
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No, I’m not going to CES. I’ve never been to CES. I doubt I’ll ever go to CES. Why would I? → Read More
This year will be Microsoft’s last year at CES where the company usually runs the keynote and takes up a huge portion of the show floor. “In looking at all the ways that Microsoft is now reaching its’ customers today (its’ owned events, marketing campaigns, retail stores, etc.) this felt like a natural time to make this transition,” wrote an MS PR rep.
This will also be the last time CEO Steve Ballmer keynotes the show.
CES 2012 is going to be a crapshoot of predictable products. How do we know? Meetings, lots and lots of pre-show meetings. Like previous shows, Apple will not be present in person but still has a major presence. Consumer electronic companies are seemingly trying to build product lines and feature sets that compete directly with current and future Apple products. It’s as if these companies are prematurely releasing items just to head off Apple. The iPad took them by surprise and they’re not going to let that happen again — even if that means announcing and releasing half-baked products.
So, what can we expect to see at CES this year? What are we going to cover live at the show? Read on. → Read More
Microsoft head honcho Steve Ballmer will return to CES in January 2012, kicking off the consumer technology tradeshow with a preshow keynote, the fourth time he’ll be taking the stage to do so.
“We are pleased to welcome Microsoft back to the CES keynote stage,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), which owns and produces CES. → Read More
The so-called HAL-5 is probably the most advanced of the robotic suits designed to help elderly or disabled people walk out there. Made by Japan-based Cyberdyne, it enables handicapped people to walk around and lift heavy objects almost effortlessly – by thought alone. → Read More
This is the CG CES Crew: Jon Orlin, Matt Burns, Greg Kumparak, Kyle Thibaut, Devin Coldewey, and John Murillo. Nicholas was somewhere else and I was taking the picture. They are the coolest bunch of guys you’d ever want to meet and we had a blast talking to you via Twitter and UStream all last week. If you’d like to see the things we carried, check out Jon’s post on his streaming rig and check out our remaining CES coverage here. → Read More
As the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show wraps up today, we’d like to share a few secrets. The CrunchGear writing team, with support from TechCrunch TV, provided more than 20 hours of live CES video coverage, taking our viewers right to the industry and media access only exhibit floor. For a look at video highlights, check out ces.crunchgear.com. Hundreds of Twitter questions were answered in real-time, giving our viewers a chance to interact with the company reps and win some giveaways. We also got a lot of questions on how we did it.
We wanted to stream at a moments notice, from the Sands Expo during CES Unveiled and the following Media Day, from the inside and outside the Las Vegas Convention Center, and from hotel parties and events all over the Las Vegas Strip. Plus, we wanted to roam the halls without any wired connection. We investigated some RF and microwave transmitter options but they involved great expense and production limitations. We finally settled on a mobile streaming solution, with a backup ‘nearly live’ wired solution. We never needed to resort to the taped backup. → Read More
The Gillmor Gang reconvened after the holidays. Robert Scoble took the occasion as an opportunity to catch up on some much-needed rest from his Vegas hotel room, albeit on camera. CES continued to be the ghost of conferences past, as the @Scobleizer famed let’s-walk-the-show-floor-with-a-camera-tour took a record 60 minutes or whatever. For those who remember Johnny Carson, this has become Robert’s version of the Ed Ames tomahawk throw.
John Borthwick weighed in on the inevitable Year of the Tablet discussion from New York, where my view of Apple dominance is met with healthy skepticism but no real counter argument. Borthwick’s Bit.ly service continues to prosper even as Twitter consolidates services and clients in-house. As a self-described former member of the entertainment cartel (AOL), he declined repeatedly to join my cartel-bashing while essentially agreeing with me.
Androiders @JTaschek and @KevinMarks ably represented the Android-will-beat-Apple-if-we-have-to-ship-individual-tablet-models-for-each-customer crowd. Marks even had one of the paperweights that he brandished on camera. I fended off a plea from @Borthwick to fix the RSS feed for the 7 remaining people who would rather podcast than stream. Other stuff was talked about. I had fun.
Video Ahead → Read More
Hulu CEO Jason Kilar made an appearance at the Samsung press event at CES today, where he announced that a Hulu Plus app will be coming to Android 2.2+ in the coming months. He demoed the app on a Samsung Galaxy S running Android 2.2. Unfortunately, there was no mention of the price of the app, nor if it will net you an extra subscription fee. I guess time will tell. [via Mobile Burn] → Read More
I know that most of you can’t bring yourself to sit through the hour of power that is now available online, or just can’t stand the hype music that CES keynotes bring (I know I can’t), so I’ve condensed and brought to you all the Windows Phone 7 highlights from Microsoft’s keynote in handy blog post form. Nice of me, eh?
Jump on through the break for the full details. → Read More
In what only can be described as the Dyson Nano, the DC35 gives you the power of an upright vacuum with the guts of the gun-like DC31. The long tube allows you to suck up spills without bending over (and lord knows I don’t want to do that in my house) and the main tube has a spinning brush along with Dyson’s powerful motor. The best thing? It’s cordless. → Read More
Every year, it seems the buzz starts building around now for CES, the giant consumer electronics expo in Las Vegas. And every year at CES, much of the buzz seems to be around the one company that isn’t there — perhaps the most important consumer electronics company these days: Apple.
And this year will be no different. Except that this year, the CES buzz-kill may be more intensified as there are not one, but two key Apple products expected to be announced shortly after the expo: the iPad 2 and the Verizon iPhone. → Read More
BB has some great images from Nepal’s CAN InfoTech, a 17-year-old tech trade show. It had 238 stalls where folks were flogging amazing 8TB hard drives and the three year old Nokia N81. → Read More
Comic from the great NatalieDee The Grube talks about an Apple-less MacWorld and how it will be a pretty sad show without the regular one-ring circus that is the Steve Jobs keynote but that it won’t be absolutely horrible, with smaller companies actually getting some attention this time. My thinking? Nah. Big trade shows are going down and here are a few reasons why: → Read More
Nyko, proprietor of fine gaming peripherals, showcased several new items at CES. For the Wii we have the upgraded Wand+, the Type Pad wireless keypad, the Perfect Shot pistol grip attachment, and the Charge Base Quad charging station. We also have a media hub for the PS3 Slim, and a new personal headset/speaker combo for the Xbox 360. → Read More
Everything is always better in surround sound. Most 5.1 or 7.1 headphones are a convoluted mess of speaker drivers, usually resulting in massive ear cups. But these headphones from Psyko Audio Labs have a rather innovative way to trick you into thinking sounds are coming from all directions. → Read More
I decided to take a gander through the car audio section of the show and was met with quite possibly some of the most grandiose automobiles I have ever been within 5 feet of. Despite the purpose of these vehicles being to showcase the audio systems these companies can create, flashing lights and bright colors seemed to be the attention getting method of choice. Although, more often than not, I heard Soulja Boy being passed as music. Gross. Anyway, the image descriptions will tell you exactly why these constructs made the most ridiculous list. → Read More
We found a pair of these previously announced Sennheiser headphones here at CES and got a hands-on demo for you guys.
The short version: Rugged, solid feel and great sound quality. A bit pricey, but if you are an avid outdoorsman, you won’t go wrong with these. → Read More
