Historically, the Consumer Electronics Show hasn't been a place where we'd find a ton of new laptops, desktops, or computer components. After all, PC makers had Comdex (a now-defunct Vegas trade show), and are generally more interested in hitting the back-to-school and holiday seasons than releasing new products in January.
Still, this year was a decent one for new introductions, and almost every major name in the computer business had a handful of new products to show off. Most were more evolutionary than revolutionary, but when you're dealing with essentially the same small pile of CPUs, GPUs, hard drives, and chipsets, anything that breaks away from the commoditization of PCs is a plus.
HP's Firebird desktop continues the integration of HP and its boutique brand acquisition, Voodoo. The system has the distinct look of a high-end Voodoo PC, but is branded as being "HP with Voodoo DNA," and carries a relatively mainstream price.
We also liked HP's Mini 2140 Netbook. In a field already crowded with essentially identical competitors, the brushed metal design and ExpressCard/54 slot are welcome points of differentiation.
Other players who tried to take the basic Netbook concept and improve on it include Sony, whose Atom-powered Lifestyle PC is an upscale take on the mini-laptop; Asus, with a swiveling touch-screen version of the popular Eee PC; and AMD, with the new Athlon Neo platform--essentially a low-price midpoint between Netbooks and mainstream laptops. (AMD also has a new desktop gaming platform called Dragon).
Interestingly, one of the most interesting laptops at CES made only a cameo appearance. Dell's slim Adamo was officially announced, and briefly glimpsed, but no real details or hands-on time were forthcoming. Contrary to earlier rumors, the Adamo looked a lot more like Voodoo's Envy 13-inch than the MacBook Air.
Perhaps the biggest pleasant surprise was the warm reception Windows 7 received, despite not really having a big push at the show. Beta testers reported that the upcoming operating system scales very well to low-end Netbooks (which just plain don't work well with Vista), meaning that growing category might have a very big future.
If you've been keeping up with my monitor blog posts from CES 2009, there's one term you've probably heard tossed around more any other: "Full HD."
Samsung's LED-based 2370L is more than a little easy on the eyes.
(Credit: Eric Franklin/CBS Interactive)Yes, Full HD was the buzzword for monitors this year. Full HD basically means a monitor has a 16:9 aspect ratio screen--as opposed to a 16:10--and either supports 1920x1080 (1080p) resolution natively or is at least compatible. All of the monitor vendors I covered this year had either their full lineup moving to 16:9 or at least the majority of it.
The reason for moving to Full HD is that monitors can then display 1080p content, like movies and broadcast sports, without requiring the be stretched or shrunken to fit the screen.
The second trend I noticed was more a lack of a trend. Of the vendors I covered, Samsung and Dell were the only vendors to debut new monitors with LED backlights. This surprised me, as the industry has been hyping LED backlight for the last year at least as the next big thing.
Going into CES green was already the new black, out now it seems we are approaching the pinnacle as far as green thinking goes. Dell launched a new line of eco-conscious monitors, and LG showed off how much power you can save from going green.
I first started hearing about stereoscopic monitors last year and I finally got to see them in action last week. Both Samsung and Viewsonic showed off their 120Hz stereoscopic displays. Through the use of 3D glasses--and a few other requirements--stereoscopic screens make 3D games to get, well more 3D.
What you actually see, though, is an enhanced depth perception, where the background looks further away and the foreground looks closer. Kind of delivering on the promise of old "3D" movies like The Creature from the Black Lagoon 3-D. And yes, I'm still bitter. The stereoscopic displays are probably the ones I'm looking forward to the most to test of the next couple months.
Thanks to Samsung, you'll be able to connect your monitor to your laptop via wireless.
(Credit: Eric Franklin/CBS Interactive)As for overall innovation, the title of winner has to go to Samsung. It had by far the most eclectic mix of monitors on display. With its stereoscopic screen monitor, an LED monitor that actually takes advantage of the technology, monitors built for laptops that even work wirelessly and other more aesthetic things like sparkling crystal necks. Bottom line: it's difficult to make monitors exciting, but Samsung was at least taking some chances with display technology.
The last trend has nothing really to do with monitors, but more with vendors themselves. They were branching out. Viewsonic announced a Netbook, an all-in-one PC, and the PC that attaches itself to monitors.
BenQ also has an all-in-one PC coming that's targeted at seniors and children and the first projector that can run solely from a USB thumb drive.
While this year's showing wasn't great for monitors, there were just enough innovations to keep me excited (and working) til mid year at least.
LAS VEGAS--So-called Netbooks or mini-notebooks are all the rage at the Consumer Electronics Show. A number of PC companies including Dell, Acer, Lenovo, and HP have unveiled notebook PCs that are smaller, less expensive, and more energy efficient than traditional notebook PCs.
In this podcast, Hewlett-Packard's Marco Pena shows off a new business Netbook.
Listen now: Download this podcast
Netgear shows off its Internet TV Player at CES 2009.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CBS Interactive)The main networking themes at CES 2009 were faster, greener, and more diverse.
The nicest surprise, however, was not a product but the return of Buffalo. After two years of court sanctions, Buffalo now has regained the right to sell networking products in North America. It's interesting that in the Chinese calendar, 2009 is also the year of the Ox.
The company offers a few sleek-looking routers, both Wireless-N and Wireless-G. In my experience, Buffalo offers great budget routers, which are affordable and yet reliable at the same time. This is good news for consumers.
While Buffalo's portfolio doesn't contain anything revolutionary, Trendnet D-Link showed off new Wireless-N routers that offer speeds up to 450Mbps, a 50 percent boost from its cap of 300Mbps. This is achieved by adding more single streams to an antenna, much like adding more garden hoses to better the watering. The new technology uses three signal streams per antenna.
The new speed is based on a common standard, and therefore, once certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance, routers and adapters from different vendors will interoperate at the new high speed.
Speaking of the Wi-Fi Alliance, the organization, together with In-Stat, released a report CES at saying that the consumption of Wi-Fi chips increased by 26 percent in 2008. The group expects this momentum to continue into 2009.
... Read moreLAS VEGAS--Trackballs, keyboards, and Bluetooth car adapters may not be as exciting as many of the products shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, but they are practical and a lot of people buy them. Kensington has been building products like these for years and continues to innovate in these pedestrian but very important categories. Kensington's Leonard Tsang manages to keep podcast host Larry Magid awake and interested as he describes his company's latest products.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
The new Classmate PCs will have twistable displays, allowing the Netbooks to be used in tablet mode.
(Credit: Intel)Intel has revealed the design for a tablet version of its Classmate PC, a low-powered Netbook designed for use in primary schools.
The tablet-format Classmate, which was unveiled Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will let manufacturers build Classmate PCs that can be used either as a standard clamshell laptop or--with a 180-degree swivel of the display--as a touch-screen tablet. As with most Netbooks, it will run on Intel's Atom processor.
"Education is one of the best ways to improve the future for individuals, villages or nations," Lila Ibrahim, the general manager of Intel's emerging-markets platform group, said in a statement Friday. "There are 1.3 billion school-age children around the world and of those only five percent have access to a PC or the internet. The IT industry has a huge opportunity to contribute to how technology can improve students' learning and students' lives."
Ibrahim's division developed the reference design for the convertible Classmate PC based on ethnographic research. Child-friendly features include a water-resistant keyboard and a sturdy frame. Another feature is dubbed "palm rejection"--in tablet mode, the user can rest their palm on the touchscreen while writing, without the screen registering the palm's pressure as input.
... Read more
If you stare at this pic long enough, eventually it stares back at you.
(Credit: Westinghouse)In Westinghouse's press materials it states that either of the following monitors would be an ideal solution for a tailgating party. Finally, vendors are starting to give tailgaters the respect they deserve. No word yet if these TVs/monitors include beer holders.
During CES Westinghouse announced three new LCD HDTVs. The 19-inch PT-19H340S, the 22-inch PT-22H340S, and the 22-inch 1080p PT-22F380S. Each display includes support for 720p (1,366x768) resolution, a 16:9 aspect ratio and a purported 5ms pixel response time.
In addition, each display includes connections and support for ATSC/NTSC/CATV/ClearQAM tuner, which allow for over the air and direct cable transmissions. The displays also have support for 1080i, 480p and 480i formats. Connections options include HDMI, VGA, component, and composite.
All three feature Westinghouse's Daybright technology, which automatically adjusts the brightness based on ambient light in the room.
Some other specs include 800:1 contrast ratio and 300 candelas per square meters (cd/m2) brightness for the PT-19H340S and 800:1 contrast ratio and 400 cd/m2 brightness for the PT-22H340S. The PT-22F380S features a 1,920 X 1,080 (1080p) resolution with a 1000:1 contrast ratio, 300 cd/m2 brightness and 5 ms response time.
All three HDTVs will be available in March. Prices are TBD.
(Credit:
Viewsonic)
I guess I can thank Viewsonic for ensuring that I'm not writing about monitors and monitors only for CES 2009. The company has made a few attempts to diversify its product line, and I for one appreciate it, if for no other reason than you can say only so much about HDMI connections and screen sizes before you're driven batty. Take it from one whose been there (and maybe is still there).
The LinkPC or ViePC (Viewsonic's press material claims two different names) is Viewsonic's most unique offering at CES. The LinkPC is a small, square-shaped PC that attaches to the back of any VESA-compatible monitor. The device is powered by an Intel Atom 1.6GHz CPU and 1GB RAM. It also features a 160GB hard drive, gigabit Ethernet LAN, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, VGA output, sa erial port, and four USB 2.0 ports.
Like the VPC100, don't expect anything near a performance powerhouse here. The LinkPC is tailored to tasks like e-mail, Web surfing, and basically anything you'd expect to do on a Netbook.
The LinkPC has an MSRP of $399 and will be available in March 2009.
You know there's trouble when you combine birds, spheres, and targeting computers.
(Credit: Viewsonic)I'm starting to notice a trend among monitor vendors. Simply selling monitors just isn't enough anymore. We already covered BenQ's foray into the all-in-one PC market and now Viewsonic is following suit.
During CES, Viewsonic announced the VPC100 all-in-one PC. The VPC100 is 35mm thin, and following the monitor trend of CES 2009, has a 18.5-inch 16:9 LCD screen.
Powered by an Intel Atom 1.6GHz CPU and 1GB RAM, the system also has a 160GB hard drive, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, a 1.3-megapixel Webcam, DVD +/- RW drive, integrated stereo speakers, 3-in-1 card reader, and comes with Windows XP Home installed.
Viewsonic says that thanks to its slim size, the VPC100 is ideal for office workers, call centers, libraries, emergency operations centers, interactive kiosks, and information terminals. Not that you can't buy it for your home, but don't expect to be doing much gaming on this thing. Unless you like watching low-res slide shows of your favorite games.
The VPC100 will debut next month for $549.
(Credit:
Viewsonic)
Seems like you can't swing a dead thumb drive on a string around at CES without it hitting some vendor's new Netbook. Many are stepping into the Netbook ring--even vendors that have never tried anything like one before; Viewsonic is an example.
During CES, the company announced its first ever Netbook, called the Viebook. The Viebook weighs 2.6 pounds, has a 10.2-inch screen and is powered by a Intel Atom 1.6GHz CPU and 1GB of RAM.
The Netbook also features a 160GB hard drive, 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel Webcam, and a 4-in-1 card reader. In addition, the system comes with Windows XP Home installed, and Viewsonic claims a 3-hour battery life.
The system will debut in February 2009 for $429.
