There isn’t a lot of revolutionary stuff this year at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show, but there quite a few evolutionary devices. One of the bigger parties occurring at the periphery of the show is the Pepcom event called the Digital Experience, where companies made an attempt to rise above the noise of the main event and make themselves known to the press.
The motif was pirates for some reason (I think they were linking to the recent release of the latest “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie), and there were actors in costume wandering around giving out chocolate gold coins. For the even more whimsical, there was also a bar made out of solid ice.
OQO showed off their latest pocket-sized computer, the model 2. It can run Vista.
Microvision showed off their latest protoype for a handheld projector. Cute.
The Presto email terminal is for total luddites or really old people. It accepts emails, images, and other data sent to the user and prints it out without any input needed. Just think of it as an electronic in-box.
With all the peripherals dedicated to the iPod, devices like the TuneStudio by Belkin were just a matter of time.
There were multiple parties (as there will be every night), and I will selflessly attend as many as possible to bring you, dear reader, the latest cool stuff. ;-) The HP party had products lined up right behind the steam trays, I guess they wanted to make sure the attendees actually saw the devices the party was being thrown for.
That’s a really innovative approach to parties from HP – putting products on show!
Alix- you get to all the best shows…
LG unveiled their dual format (HD DVD and Blu-Ray) player at CES on Sunday. It appears to primarily be a Blu-Ray player (LG is a member of the Blu-ray Disc Association) that can play HD DVD’s in a basic manner only. It is called the “Super Multi Blue player” and will be priced at $1200.
Personally I hope both formats fail. The whole HD experience is an overpriced, over hyped waste of money IMHO. Your opinion may vary.
See more information at:
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196801714
Steve
I was in Vegas last week, and all the locals are excited about taking your money.
Have fun!
That Belkin TuneStudio looks so cool! Seems like an excellent way to get decent pirate audio from live concerts.
The price is right, too, at under $200 (plus the iPod, of course.) according to some blog.
Belkin has no obvious mention of it on their website which means it may be a convention-invention unit.
The problem with products like the “Presto” is that they seem to make fun of the very people they are selling to. Look at the graphics on the box. They scream: “We know you are an idiot. This product is for you!”
StoreRep: “Can I help you?”
Customer: “Yes, I wanted something that prints the internet.”
StoreRep: “You mean you’re looking for a printer?”
Customer: [Looks at his wife confused.]
Wife: “Our boys want to send us e-mail and pictures of the grandchildren. That’s what he means.”
StoreRep: “…OK… we have printers over here. You just hook it up to your computer, and …”
Customer: “We don’t want a computer. We just want to print the internet.”
StoreRep: “Well… you would need a computer to print web pages….”
Customer: [Confused, agitated, almost angry]
Wife: “Is there some way that our children could send us letters and pictures without a computer?”
StoreRep: [Finally sees the light] Oh, I know what you want. You want a Presto! [Walks the couple to the Presto display.]
On the box, the couple sees the perky sender and another clueless couple who appear to be able to receive these things without having to learn a damned thing. What a relief ! Sold!!!
Lets see…
Presto $150
Service $ 10 per month…Hardly ever used, and gets more spam then email.
why not a Printer with a CD, USB, Ram card connection, ??
WOW, they almost have that NOW..
Pay once and get all the pics you want.
OR…
The kids send the pics and you find a HALLMARK display that READS the CD, and prints the photos for $0.35-$2.00 depending on SIZE.
#6, I have had many interactions like that with customers, especially older people that do not know how packaged media is distributed and sold.
People that get the urge to buy a 20 year old album that is out of print and think they could walk into any movie or music store and they would have it. On audio cassette.
Once I went around and around with a customer who was looking for “a track.” We went through, did she want an 8 track tape, a soundtrack, a CD single, a full CD album, a cassette, etc. etc. etc. All she would say is she wanted to buy “a track.” She wasnt that old either…