Davis ThinkingIt was a slow year for gaming at the CES, and one glimpse of the future left us scratching our heads. Mattel’s Mind Flex, described by the pitchman as the “future of gaming,” converts theta brain waves into radio frequency signals that direct a small fan to move a light-weight ball through an obstacle course. We recognize and respect the potential, but wonder whether this simplistic application of the technology will inspire or underwhelm potential investors. Mattel also unveiled the Barbie Digital Nail Printer, which connects to your pc and prints custom designs directly on the fingernails. We love that the product, much like the recent ad campaign, promotes parent-child play and individuality.
In the long run, LG’s partnership with Netflix to bundle the online movie rental system into its new flat-screen TVs might prove to be the biggest news from CES last week. The announcement didn’t get the press other gadgets received from the show. After all, the idea for the technology has been around since you still had rabbit ears on top of your idiot box. But the South Korean underdog turned household name - together with the leader of online rentals - may be the first to make the inevitable marriage of TV and the Web work.
In the wake of the Consumer Electronics Show, we look at the most promising products for 2009 and discuss our favorites from 2008... Palm stock jumped 34% Friday after the company wowed CES with the prē, the first real contender for iPhone killer. Noteworthy features include quick scrolling though open applications, a three megapixel phone with flash and slide-down QWERTY keyboard.
If it seemed like Pandora was everywhere at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, it's because, well, it was.
The slow collision and then merger of media and tech has been underway for more than a decade, and it's playing out again at the Consumer Electronics Show, which has become a required stop for media, agencies and, increasingly, brands. For tech brands such as Intel, Microsoft, Sony and Samsung, this is the Super Bowl, but non-tech marketers are playing too, in part because, well, there really is no such thing as a non-tech brand.
The end of last week was the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which attracts more than 120,000 people from all parts of the technology industry together to Las Vegas to share their latest innovations and visions for the future. NBC was reporting live from the tradeshow floor, all the big tech publications were there and anyone who works in the technology industry spent the weekend either talking about all the things they were doing, or wishing they were in Vegas to be part of it. The hype this year was definitely around the promise of 3-D TV technology, with ebooks following as a close second. But what about if you are not in the technology industry at all?
The technology industry is going retro — moving away from remote controls, mice and joysticks to something that arrives without batteries, wires or a user manual. It’s called a hand. In the coming months, the likes of Microsoft, Hitachi and major PC makers will begin selling devices that will allow people to flip channels on the TV or move documents on a computer monitor with simple hand gestures. The technology, one of the most significant changes to human-device interfaces since the mouse appeared next to computers in the early 1980s, was being shown in private sessions during the immense Consumer Electronics Show here last week.
Sometimes it takes a million square feet of gizmos to understand where humanity is headed. After all the pageantry and pixels, here's what the world learned about tech in 2010.
To most people these days, an "app" is something you download on your smartphone to help you do a specific task -- say, find a good nearby restaurant. But big tech companies, seeing how applications have boosted the appeal of gadgets such as Apple's iPhone, are starting to view apps as low-cost enhancements for a broader range of products, from netbooks to TVs and beyond.
We stopped by the LG Electronics booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to talk to Josh Lovison, practice lead for gaming and mobile at IPG's Emerging Media Lab. For all the talk about 3-D TVs, widgets, e-readers and tablets, Mr. Lovison thinks the most disruptive technology on display at CES is one that has been talked about a long time, but is quickly coming to fruition: 4G mobile networks.
Kia Motors America and Microsoft Corp. are forming a partnership to equip Kia vehicles with a system that drivers and passengers can use to make phone calls and control the car's audio system using voice commands. The hands-free system, called UVO, will be offered in several Kia Motors Corp. vehicles by the end of the year, according to the auto maker. The first vehicle to offer it will be the 2011 Kia Sorento crossover, likely to be out around July.
The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show doesn't officially kick off until Thursday, but some forthcoming gadgets, including tablet-like wireless devices and phones that can show live TV, are already getting buzz here.
Apple just announced that its App Store has blown past three billion app downloads, which is impressive. But the timing is curious, as are the swirling rumors about the upcoming Apple Tablet. Is Apple trying to out-PR CES and Google?
We've become a nation of early adopters -- now can the consumer electronics industry lead the U.S. recovery? That's what CE manufacturers (who happen to include a few of the world's biggest consumer marketers) hope for as they gather in Las Vegas this week for the annual Consumer Electronics Show.
Companies gambling that they can shake up the portable-computer market plan to lay some cards on the table in Las Vegas next week. The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show will be a coming-out party for a new breed of ultra-small laptops that act more like smart phones—designed to be always on and connected to the Internet via 3G cellular networks, ready to call up a Web page or post an update on Twitter. Promoters of the new devices have been pushing the term "smartbooks," partly to distinguish them from the low-end portables called netbooks that have been the hottest thing in the PC industry over the past two years.
Three-dimensional TV is coming to a living room near you. But will the technology spur a consumer spending spree like digital and high-definition TV did before it? Or will 3D end up being the next big flop?
As we look back on the CES conference of 2009, it is clear that there have been some notable and exciting announcements. The unveiling of the new Palm Pre, the Polaroid PoGo and the implementation of wireless charging just to name a few. Wired Senior-Editor Dylan Tweney expects to see more electronic manufacturers pitch more affordable gadgets as the economic situation tightens wallets and even noticed that this years CES was more subdued than previous years. Check out his full report.
My comments yesterday about CES notwithstanding, such a large agglomeration of smart people is sure to yield come valuable insights. I believe that the panel conversation that I moderated was one of those moments. There were at least three conclusions that I thought were very powerful.
I just finished walking through the exhibits at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and my shopping list is blank. I don't need anything that I saw.
Actually, it's been very hard to judge the effect of the recession on this show, which in the past has been one of the largest in the world. Ask five different CES veterans what they thought, and you get five very different answers.
Microsoft's excitable CEO Steve Ballmer showed off Windows 7 -- the slick, fast, user-friendly successor to the much-maligned Windows Vista -- and said it will be available as a public beta on Friday. Unveiled by an intense Ballmer during his keynote address on the eve of CES 2009, Windows 7 will offer better performance on underpowered machines such as netbooks, support for multitouch interfaces, and simplified home networking.
It's the eve of the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, and the floor is a flurry of activity as thousands of vendors set up their wares. Wired.com took a backstage tour of the preparations to bring you a glimpse of what, in a few short hours, will be the latest incarnation of North America's largest technology tradeshow.
Copyright © 2009 Davis Brand Capital. All Rights Reserved.
