LAS VEGAS--On the Internet, no one knows if you are a dog. And at trade shows, no one knows if you are Jeff.
I had to meet Jeff Ziegler and Jake Player, the CEO and president, respectively, of PC recycler TechTurn, for a breakfast meeting at a restaurant. I had exchanged e-mails with the company but had never seen them in person.
While waiting outside the appointed restaurant, two guys approached me, and one pointed his finger at me. "Jeff?" I asked. "Yes," he said.
We sat down and exchanged pleasantries. Then another guy joined us. I hadn't expected that.
"Are you guys from TechTurn?" I asked.
No. They were from a speaker company. I excused myself and waited outside. Minutes later, my real meeting had arrived.
Trade shows are like that. Invariably, you have to go to hotel rooms and other places where you don't know the people. In a way, it's kind of like being a gigolo.
"Are you Mike?" someone might ask.
"I can be whoever you want me to be," I have to reply.
First, special thanks to CNET Networks for the opportunity the company granted me to sound off from CES. I thought I'd end this series with what I'll be thinking about on the flight from Las Vegas to Austin, Texas:
• Even as we rapidly introduce new technologies, existing innovations are maturing and increasing in quality and affordability.
• Wireless connectivity is de facto for electronics, and connectivity devices are driving personalized and affordable new options.
• We live in an increasingly visual world and HD is renewing the potential and interest in technology.
• Appealing holistic technology solutions are merging information and entertainment content and devices.
• Green technology is a requirement not a trend.
• Average consumers are seeking simple, integrated technology solutions that don't require an engineering degree to set up.
The chaos and craziness is drawing to an end. We, the humble (and just a little weary) show-goers, are returning to the "real world." In the next year, we'll see how consumers embrace the new technologies unveiled over the past four days and separate hype from reality. See you next year.
Phil Hester is senior vice president and chief technology officer at Advanded Micro Devices, responsible for setting the architectural and product strategies and plans for AMD's microprocessor business.
Green is big here at CES 2008, and I'm not just talking about the kiwi-colored gadgets and lime-green LED gizmos. For years, the tech industry pushed performance with little consideration for environmental and economic consequences. No more; the awakening on this issue as expressed in power-efficient device designs and the accompanying product messages at the show are unavoidable.
This decade the industry accelerated its focus on decreasing the energy consumption even of high-performance consumer devices and PCs. As more and more always-on technology integrates into our homes and offices, we've made a targeted effort to make superior efficiency as much a priority as a superior consumer experience. Many companies are aggressively citing the energy consumption of devices, and there's considerable dialog about meeting new generations of Energy Star-type standards.
* Energy saving HD LED and OLED TVs from Samsung and Sony promise reduced energy use and heat emission.
* Panasonic also demoed prototype plasma display panels (PDPs) that stand to cut energy consumption in half without sacrificing brightness.
* Total energy consumption is also becoming a more important factor in consumer buying habits and we're seeing more Energy Star stickers here on the CES show floor.
* Many companies also promoted solar energy solutions for powering handheld devices and eco-friendly packaging for CE gadgets and accessories.
* GM made its debut at CES with the Cadillac Provoq concept car that is projected to go 300 miles on a tank of hydrogen and a fuel cell. Not too shabby.
As an industry, we're headed in the right direction but still have work to do to reduce the energy burden of technology. Will energy efficiency become as dominant a discussion at a future CES, just as "Full HD" is this year? I hope so.
Phil Hester is senior vice president and chief technology officer at AMD, responsible for setting the architectural and product strategies and plans for AMD's microprocessor business.
Apparently, your life is too wired.
(Credit: Kevin Ho)The open assault on cables and wires was on particular display at CES. Apparently, wires clutter your life and cause you misery, or some vendors would have you think. Whether it's faster and faster Wi-Fi from Intel, streaming video from Slingbox, in-home HD distribution, Bluetooth home theater audio from Samsung at different parts of the radio spectrum, the trend is moving away from physical media and physical connections.
Samsung's Bluetooth home theater
(Credit: Kevin Ho)Various measures of fidelity, range, and quality were touted by the Monster rep I talked to, who naturally said there is nothing better than a physical connection. In an age that features cleanly designed, minimalist, and clutter-free environments and products, it is kind of difficult to reconcile the need for cables and wires to connect our amazing HDTVs to our computers, DVDs, and other devices with the urge to minimize. It's telling that Monster is, itself, pursuing wireless technology.
View complete CES 2008 coverage from CNET.
LAS VEGAS--Every year, I schedule too many meetings at the Consumer Electronics Show and don't get enough time to just roam the show floor in search of gadgets that are either ultra-cool, absurd, or preferably both.
This year, I made a commitment to wander the show floor and absorb as much as possible. It should be said, in three hours on the show floor, I covered a very small portion of the south hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
CES 2008 is here
the massive electronics show.
So the seventh wonder of the tech world could have been in the north hall, central hall, or the far-flung Sands expo hall, but I couldn't tell you.
What did I learn? First of all, there was not one product that everyone was talking about. If there was a universal hit, it was the huge flat-screen displays that many companies were showing off. I spent a few minutes watching video on a 100-inch screen. It's by no means the biggest on display here at CES, but it was three times the diameter of anything in my house.
From there, I decided I needed a rest, stopping at what might be the best massage chair I've sat in--a $4,000 model from Anaheim, Calif.-based Omega Massage. I make it a point to always try these out, whether at trade shows or the airport Sharper Image. It's all part of my sacrifice for you, my loyal blog readers (or you, the random clicker on this post).
From there I made my way to the folks who needed the massage chair far more than I did--the HD DVD booth. There, association members and technology partners put on a brave face, despite the major blow delivered by Warner Bros. last week, announcing that they would exclusively support rival Blu-ray.
I'd heard about some wireless earbuds from Sennheiser, so I went by the booth to check them out. They were behind glass, but I could see enough to know they weren't for me. They look kind of like a pair of those Bluetooth earpieces I already find annoying, plus they require your iPod or other device to wear a somewhat bulky transmitter. I think there's probably a market for these. It's just probably not for the average iPod owner.
Continuing on the headphone theme, I went to the booth of Skullcandy, a company whose hipness factor is hurt only by the fact that I own a pair of its earbuds. There were DJs and hip-hop musicians performing and an artist doing a skull drawing as the company showed off a variety of products, including a set of iPhone earbuds and a DJ-style headset that also includes a built-in SD card slot for playing music without a separate MP3 player. Both products sell will sell for $89, with the wireless SD headphones due out around March. I also stopped by Shure, which was showing off an attachment that turns its line of in-ear headphones into an iPhone headset by adding an in-line microphone.
Having heard enough, I moved on to other areas of the hall. Among the places I stopped was a Dell environmental booth that consisted of some eco-furniture and two glass whiteboards where people could scribble their ideas on how to improve our ecological impact. The booth rep told me the ideas would be taken to an executive meeting back at Dell headquarters. Not sure what they will do with the posts, which included "Take public transit," "No more products, no more people," and "Killjoy."
My favorite moment was when a woman from Baton Rouge asked if she could get a brochure.
The booth rep tried to handle it politely. Well, no, see, the whole point is...
I decided to let Dell save the planet without me and continued on in search of more tech fare. I stopped by several random booths that caught my eye, including a company peddling a mini-photo studio perfect for snapping shots of your eBay trinkets without casting a shadow. I stopped by HP and Kodak to check out the latest in photo-printing kiosks. I'd been pretty impressed with the HP model I tried out at a drugstore this holiday season, and found Kodak's models even more versatile. Both make choosing prints easy, but I liked the quick photo books that it was capable of cranking out, as well as a new Photo DVD maker that lets you set your photos to one of about 20 songs, ranging from a Hootie and the Blowfish track to the theme from St. Elmo's Fire.
I found myself drawn to the Brother booth, where it was showing software, apparently not new, that turns your digital photos into something stitch-able with one of its embroidery machines. The software sells for around $1,000 and the machines range from a $600 model to one that sells for $13,000.
I was also drawn to a small booth in the corner, with a sign "We buy closeouts" and showing a smattering of non-tech and low-tech items such as whiteboards and fax machines. Carolina Wholesale owner Larry Huneycutt said the Charlotte-based company has been coming to CES for 20 years and finding customers and sources for his far-from-state-of-the-art gear.
His catalog includes label makers, digital projectors, and calculators. "We even sell typewriters," Huneycutt said.
But some of the latest gadgets were also low-tech, including the oft-maligned Quik Pod, a camera attachment that holds a camera at a distance allowing for better pictures of oneself. It's a gadget that I reckon plenty of people would like, but few would want to admit to needing, much less buying.
The latest model is an even tougher challenge. It's an SLR model for larger cameras. My colleague points out that this only increases its dorkiness factor.
I don't disagree, but also think that there is a market, even for pros who want to snap their own picture as well as the legions of wannabes. I just think that the pros (and wannabes, myself included) are less likely to want to admit it. That's why it's nice that the SLR model can also be used as a monopod.
View complete CES 2008 coverage from CNET.
LAS VEGAS--It's not just inside the CES hotels and convention center that you find technology and tech enthusiasts here in Sin City.
Vegas cabbie Daniel Habtewold has quite the collection of gadgets. Here he shows off a Casio watch that also acts as a TV remote control.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com)One of the most passionate techies I met all week was Daniel Habtewold, the cab driver who took AJ and me back to our hotel after visiting with the Pleo robot dinosaur on Monday night.
Habtewold was playing an eclectic mix of reggae and other music, and AJ asked whether it was a CD or the radio. He said the tunes were streaming from his iPod, noting that it was Apple's beefiest model, the 160GB iPod Classic introduced last fall.
"I have 20,000 songs on my iPod," he said. That makes it the largest collection I've ever encountered.
Habtewold said he's had a regular iPod, a photo iPod, and an earlier video iPod as well. At the end of each summer he sells his current model for $50 or $75 less than he paid, knowing a new model will come out in September.
"This is the last one," he said. I told him he owes me a free ride when I see him at the next CES and he has some new Apple creation.
Habtewold's tech lust isn't limited to iPods. He also has a $3,000 camera setup including a Canon D30 and L-series lens, a Windows Mobile phone, and a Casio watch that also acts as a television remote control.
"I'm high tech," he said. "I don't care about clothes. I don't care about shoes that are brand name."
View complete CES 2008 coverage from CNET.
LAS VEGAS--Lots of companies here are touting green design and environmental thinking, though in some cases it seemed more sloganeering than anything very deep. Here are just a few samples from the floor at the Consumer Electronics Show:
Among other things, Nokia was showing off their reduced packaging (50 percent smaller; most of their phones now shipping in it; have saved them $150 million to boot)
HP had a large area of their booth dedicated to their environmental efforts, and like Nokia had several people on hand who could talk knowledgeably about it.
There's still a long way to go on this issue, though, as can plainly be seen by looking at the sheer quantity of stuff at the show. And those massive plasma TVs look fantastic, but they sure gobble energy like there's no tomorrow. Not to mention the fact that most of what's being shown here will be obsolete (and non-upgradable) this time next year, if not sooner.
Here are just a fraction of the shipping crates stacked outside one of the convention halls that were used to bring everything to the middle of the desert. Remember that closing scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark? It's like that.
The next explosive growth in the microprocessor industry, according to chip guru Levy Gerzberg, won't be powering a consumer electronics device. It will more likely be planted somewhere in our own bodies, under our skin, delivering critical information and executing actions that can quite literally prolong our lives.
Speaking at a forum at the Consumer Electronics Show on disruptive technologies, Gerzberg, the CEO of microprocessor designer Zoran, said that by definition a "disruptive technology" is one that changes our lives in a drastic and positive way. With that in mind, there can be no greater disruptive technology, he said, than technology embedded within the body to aid our health.
"As processors continue to shrink and use less power, the mathematical algorithms we can implement in silicon will make a very significant impact on our lives. In order to enjoy the high (Internet) speeds, the good music, all the things we keep talking about as being disruptive, we need one thing--to live longer."
Gerzberg said the chip industry is already half-way to producing processors small and power-efficient enough for such applications.
"This is an electronic pill," he said, holding up a tiny cylindrical device. "It is a camera you swallow. It goes through your intestines and it transmits via RF to a gadget in your belt. Where an endoscopic tube is a destructive technology, I call this a disruptive technology."
Future biotech advances will be even more drastic, he said. If today the industry can develop chips for cameras that are able to recognize facial features, Gerzberg says it is not unrealistic to see the same technology used to help the blind recognize the characteristics of the human face. Another potential chip, he suggests, could bring movement back to bodies with damaged nerves. Embedded in the human brain, the chip could send a signal to a damaged area within the body to zap a muscle into action whenever movement is required. Or better yet, a GPS-enabled chip might be included in a pacemaker, he postulates, which could "stimulate the heart just before the heart attack happens" and immediately give medical services personnel a heads-up as to where to find a person experiencing difficulty.
"We (those in the processor industry) are making progress," he said. "The evolutionary technology for this exists. We are getting closer to having human intelligence on a chip. Now it's time to pull it together and make it a revolution."
"I think in 20 years' time if we meet again here again at CES, there will be a new building dedicated to consumer medical electronics."
"It won't be called the Consumer Electronics Show," he said, "it will be the Consumer Medical Electronics Show."
Little over a month since Facebook's Beacon advertising service came under fire over privacy concerns, the company's chief revenue officer has said that the "social ad" will remain a key focus for the social-networking site.
Owen Van Natta, chief revenue officer at Facebook, told an audience at the Consumer Electronics Show that most Facebook users are comfortable with sharing information about the products and services they consume.
Facebook's Beacon is an advertising service which posts messages on users' Facebook profiles about any purchases they make on Facebook-affiliated e-commerce sites. These social ads expose to other users such information as what movies their friend has watched, what music they have consumed, or what brand of clothes they prefer.
The premise of Beacon is that friends and other people who are intimately connected to a user are more likely to influence a purchasing decision than any other form of advertising.
The service came under fire late last year when it was discovered that users had little control over the release of information pertaining to their purchasing decisions. After a period of intense media scrutiny, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg responded with an apology and offered an option which allows Facebook users to opt out of the Beacon service altogether.
But Van Natta says it was the press and other privacy advocates, and not users, which forced the apology upon the company.
"One of the reasons it took us so long (for us) to respond was because it wasn't really a user thing as much as it was the press and the folks who are trying to highlight it and make it important to people," he said.
Van Natta said that only a "small single digit percentage" of Facebook users have since taken the remedial step of a total opt-out from Beacon. And not a single advertiser pulled out of the project when the privacy concerns were exposed.
In fact, the company plans to "open up" the Beacon service beyond the first 60 companies it began with, and will eventually make it "self-service."
Facebook users, he said, are predominantly young people who have grown up in an age where they are used to their information being shared on the Internet.
"We built Beacon because when you look at people's profiles, they are already doing things to share this kind of information; there is just the friction of having to enter it all in manually," he said.
As more and more content floods the Web, Van Natta believes that a greater emphasis will be placed on the "credibility of identity and content."
"Amazon.com reviews have become far more useful since posters have had to provide their name and since users have been able to vote on whether the review is useful," he said.
"Every day I hear radio ads for restaurants, but they rarely convince me to go eat at that restaurant. A friend, on the other hand, a person who actually knows me and knows my taste, can cause me to take action. The lens through which (the recommendation) is provided is the big difference," he said.
"We think people will want to expand what they are doing with Facebook," he said. "We just have to get the product right so that there's a comfort level and people don't think their privacy is being invaded. If you don't give people that comfort they won't share that information and usage won't happen."
The R2D2 projector from DLP Texas Instruments
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET Networks)Smack in the middle of the Las Vegas Convention Center, Central Hall shows off some of CES' wildest booths and exhibits. CNET photographers scoured the hall on Tuesday to bring you the best photos in this CES 2008 slideshow.
View complete CES 2008 coverage from CNET.
