The first post from CES 2009 is about Logitech, since they were the first booth on my right as soon as I walked in the door of CES unveiled, the cocktail hour/preview event that’s going on upstairs right now in the Venetian. I’m here in the Blounge reporting to you because I don’t like to have fun and mingle. I like to type things and edit video. Lucky you!
Let’s just start this off by saying that Logitech is obviously not letting the economy bother their business interests. Everything they’re showing is shiny, beautiful, and really expensive. But, as I may have mentioned, the stuff is also very shiny. Let’s take a look.
There was only one G19 and everyone was crowded around it as if it were giving out free beer — which is weird, because there is free beer just across the room. That gives you an idea of how sexy it is. It looks, predictably, exactly like the spy shots we saw the other day, and it feels very solid. The little screen is 320×240 and looks excellent. It has its own little navigation buttons and you can switch between a system monitor, clock, custom background, and they also had a YouTube app running. It played back perfectly well and the controls were simple and responsive. I’m guessing they have other modules you can turn on and off, and games will likely take advantage of it as well. Looking nice, too bad the lighting is truly awful; I’ll have have crappy video up in a few minutes…. And here it is:
Too bad at $200 it’s beyond even my luxury keyboard sensibilities.
I I also got to see the new Harmony remote. Video should be up in a few. I’ve never taken a shine to the Harmony before this, but the big, sharp touchscreen and very handy size make this a little more attractive. That is, if I were a rich man. The thing costs $500, people.
You should probably get a couple, since you’ll want one of these in your money bin as well.
I didn’t see these sitting around anywhere, but the new G35 headphones look pretty swanky. They may not fire the sound directly along your skull, but they are billed as being 7.1. The on-headset controls let you set macros, do voice morphing (gag me), and of course control music and volume. I like the swappable headbands, but I don’t trust USB headphones. In my experience USB audio is kind of sketchy. I guess I just need to move into the future. $130 is well within range for a surround sound headset, but honestly I’m more interested in Psyko’s weird-ass solution.