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Hardware

Consumer Electronics Show 2002 Report 153

Posted by timothy from the toys-toys-toys dept.
An anonymous reader writes "I've noticed that Target PC posted their report on this year's Consumer Eletronics Show in Las Vegas. Looks like 2002 will be the year of wireless networking and recordable DVD. In the same article they cover Samsung's upcoming portable computer based on the StrongARM 206MHz processor that will be available in 2Q." Many wireless products (including 802.11a), huge LCD displays, and more -- I hope people who were at the show can comment on the things missed in this report, or in The Washington Posts's report.
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Consumer Electronics Show 2002 Report More

Consumer Electronics Show 2002 Report

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  • Yeah .. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by hygelic ( 181078 )
    and just how many products were shown as "new" products last year?

  • LCDs (Score:1, Interesting)

    by SirHalcyon ( 267061 )
    LCD's have already come down a lot... hopefully 2002 will see them really become affordable.

    • Re:LCDs (Score:3, Interesting)

      by FastT ( 229526 )
      You mean projectors? Yeah, absolutely. Some friends and I watched a couple movies on an InSync projector at work last night. The picture quality was stunning, far better than any TV I'd seen. It was even better than most movie theatres.

      Apparently, at least InFocus is getting on board with marketing to consumers. Check out the InFocus ScreenPlay [infocushome.com]. Unfortunately, the home models are more expensive than some of the corporate models, but I'm hoping that volume and word of mouth will start to lower prices. At least these companies are finally realizing that they can market to the consumer.

      • TV! Bah, the _real_ use for video projectors is playing Doom/Quake/$FPS_OF_CHOICE.

        • TV! Bah, the _real_ use for video projectors is playing Doom/Quake/$FPS_OF_CHOICE.


          True story. Back in 1996 I was buying a projector for the chemistry department I worked for. For the first demo of prospective equipment (it was a lot rarer then) for my boss I showed a few images. He told me that the projector was fine but that the demo was a bit dull- I should do something exciting.

          Next time I had Hexen up on a 25' wide screen. Don't exactly know what he thought of it, but we ended up getting the other projector...

          Eric

    • And if you don't mean projectors, the nice folks that make LCD monitors think they will be able to raise prices this year - as demand is finally catching up with supply. There is a story about it over on zdnet [zdnet.com]
      Of course, they are talking about shortages "especially in the 15 inch segment". I'm looking for something bigger to replace a 21" CRT - so I hope the larger ones keep getting cheaper.

  • Recordable DVDs (Score:1, Informative)

    by kila_m ( 548924 )
    My site will be covering recordable DVDs :) OK shamless plug... http://www.dvdwriters.co.uk

  • 802.11a..... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by wo1verin3 ( 473094 )
    and i just shelled out for 802.11b in the house :(

    I'm more curious about linksys's cable modem/access point/router solution, does it depend on your cable ISP to determine if you can provide your own?

    Also, if anyone has a truckload of those 23.1" lcds..please reply :)

    • Re:802.11a..... (Score:3, Informative)

      by Holophax ( 21693 )
      The Linksys box still plugs into your existing cable modem. You connect your cable modem into the Linksys box and it does the rest from there. Same deal as using a FreeBSD or Linux NAT solution. So it doesn't matter who your ISP is since your still using their equpiment.
      • Actually if you read the article they mention a complete all-in-one solution that I am reffering to. I currently have a linksys wireless router.

        The article talks about a cable modem/router/wireless access point device coming out in the future. [targetpc.com]

        >>In the second quarter of 2002 they have an
        >>interesting all in one solution combining a
        >>cable modem and a wireless 802.11a router
        • I just had some problems with my cable service, the guy came out and gave me a new modem to see if it would fix it.

          The modem he gave me was a different model, and he had to call into the main office because the modem I have usually isn't in the area that I was in, and they had to let it on the cable network.

          So im curious to see if its something that will cause problems or not. I am also kinda thinking my cable guy was bullshitting me but who knows..
          • Nope, same thing (more or less) happened to me...the cable guys couldn't use a particular cable modem that would have been better for my connection because I was in "area 3" and the modem was only used in "area 2"...from what I overheard the cable guys saying I think certain areas work on different frequencies with different qualms?...so if you know what the values are and you can configure your modem to match them I would assume you can use just about any cable modem
            • Yea, pretty much what I figured, I was in area 1, and the new modems were for the newer areas.

              Which is why im kinda amazed that linksys would open this can of worms upon themselves. I have a linksys router now, and I have not a single problem in the world with having my cable modem plugged into it, then to my machine.

              I really dont see why getting them both in one box would help, im sure my cable company wouldn't be happy if I called them up with a "new" modem they know nothing about. I doubt it would make things run any different, heck my cable modem, the only time it hasn't worked, was when a physical problem happened in one of the lines around my house, and there isn't much I can do to prevent that. So im kinda wondering what their idea is behind this, I guess it simplifies things a bit, having one box instead of 2, but its looking more like one of those solutions that dont have a problem yet..

              Ah well, linksys is making some cool stuff, let em keep on going I guess.

  • This is the year of wireless networking? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by tony_gardner ( 533494 ) on Monday January 14, 2002 @09:29AM (#2835975) Homepage
    The last five years have all been the year of wireless networking. How about a surprise?

    The year of realising that wireless networking is at best a niche market.

    or maybe

    The year of realising that most people want their old broadband connection back, more than any low speed network.

    Or have these businesses already forgotten the dot com problem of basing your business model on niche markets: there is no room for expansion.
    • I think that wireless networking has great potential in the private sector. I know my boss has 3 kids but broadband to only 1 computer (you do the math). He doesn't want to lay Cat 5 everywhere and he doesn't have even a regular phone jack in every room. Wireless would be an excellent option for him even at the premium cost.
      • That's a really fantastic idea.
        Get a load of muppets broadband enabled, plug in some Wireless access points, and never have to pay for my net access again!
        Thus starts the Evil (tm)[1] scheme to freeload off people with more money than sense, by shipping 'wireless enabled' cable and xDSL modems.
        (Yes, I did (tm) Evil. I am the owner of the universe and thus can do so.)
    • The IBM software lab in Markham (Toronto-ish) has all it's laptops (pretty much everybody get's one) on a wireless network.

      Take your laptop and go. I like that idea. Apparently you can work 50 feet from the building, which brings up security conserns. But I'll leave that up to ppl smarter than myself.

      Cheers.

    • Yeah, but wireless networking may turn out to be the solution to everyone getting their broadband. There's the whole NAN thing, and lack of need for expensive cables/fibers, etc going for it.

      I'll admit I'm probably wrong. Still, the possibility is there. Don't count out wireless yet.

  • What does CES stand for again? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Zocalo ( 252965 ) on Monday January 14, 2002 @09:30AM (#2835983) Homepage
    Only from the coverage, it looks like Samsung have renamed it from the "Consumer Electronics Show" to "Consumer Electronics? Samsung!".

    At least someone out there has an impressive marketing budget to spend in this year we're all expecting doom and gloom...

    • I was at CES this year and while Samsung was there, they only had sales people there (big suprise) and where right across from the MS (CE .NET) booth. Anyway, CES has thousands of exhibitors from Car Audio and Entertainment to Cell Phone Battery manufactures. The Sharp Booth was showing off the Zarus to a very positive crowd reaction and Royal was showing the Li@ux Device they had to a very mild hmmm. With the exception of the Xplode Demo booth and the Super CDs Sony was noticeably absent this year in the main halls, there was maybe 1 or 2 PS2s I saw being used in TV demos. The Coolest addition this year was the Digital Convergence Fashion Show held in the main hall. Though the models didn't er quite know what they where suppossed to do with these gadgets damn did they look good showing them off. I would say that CES has gotten too big, It was really hard to find specific catagoies of products without just walking around until you're back hurts, even with all the books and magizines it was still difficult. BTW the 20ft by 60ft. Blue Screen of Death shown at the Phillips booth Wednesday for 2 hours was cool.
      • Digital Convergence Fashion Show held in the main hall. Though the models didn't er quite know what they where suppossed to do with these gadgets damn did they look good showing them off.


        Isn't Digital Convergence the same makers of the cuecats, those lovely scanners that look like dildos? If so, that must have been fantastic pr0n. :)

  • side note - "for optimal performance..." (Score:5, Funny)

    by sammy baby ( 14909 ) on Monday January 14, 2002 @09:31AM (#2835989) Journal

    I found the following quote pretty amusing:

    For optimal performance we did not compress the pictures, loading times might be longer for some and click the picture to enlarge.

    Translation: we wanted to tell all our friends we'd been Slashdotted, so we made sure to include an assload of moderate-to-high resolution pics right in the page. We did, however, mess with the aspect ratio [targetpc.com] of some of the pics to make people think they were looking at super-long TVs displaying female dwarf powerlifters.

  • Apple at the forefront... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Mac Nazgul ( 196332 ) on Monday January 14, 2002 @09:33AM (#2835996)
    And how long has Apple had high-end solutions (they work) for both Wireless connectivity and DVD recording capabilities?
    The PC side is only just getting around to it in consumer machines...
    • Yes it's fair to say that apple actually does innovate, the shame is that most people will still stick with PC's because they are too afraid to make the paradigm shift.

      Personally OSX has made it a lot easier for me to make the shift, but really I'm now faced with the choice of; should I pay an extra $500 for OSX vs linux?

      Probably not until they ship a proper mouse by default at least ;-)
    • Um, upwards of $1300 for DVD recording ability is not "comsumer" electronics.
      • Not that I disagree, but it's funny because I can remember when $2000 was considered feasable for a new computer. It hasn't been THAT long ago :)
    • And how long has Apple had high-end solutions (they work) for both Wireless connectivity and...

      Er, the big deal with Apple wireless is it ain't high end. They were the first with affordable base stations (~$250 when PC ones were far more), and affordable cards ($99 when PC ones were more like $300). Of corse PC base stations are now $200 or a little under, and Apple's have just moved up to $300 (well, and gotten a bit better), and the cards are still $100 (or $47 referb). So all Apple has left is the built in antennas (which totally rock, I like having an antenna I don't have to worry about breaking off when I walk with the laptop).

      and DVD recording capabilities?

      I'm pretty sure Sony had one within a few months of the G4, and it may have been a few months before, similar price though, and Sony's software really does suck huge. iMovie works much better :-)

    • Additionally, Apple was smart and is going with the recordable/rewriteable format (DVD-R/DVD-RW) santioned by the DVD Forum [dvdforum.com]. Many of the PC manufacturers are going for the non-endorsed DVD+RW.

      Heaven only knows why, since manufacturers won't be required to support the format in order to get the DVD logo licensed (unless and until the DVD Forum is persuaded to adopt an additional write/rewrite standard which is highly unikely). Ie., the discs may play in PC drives, but won't necessarily work in licensed players (particularly set top). If I'm only worried about backups, then DVD+RW has a couple of features that help, but if I'm interested in making standard video DVDs that play on the widest possible range of players, then DVD-R and DVD-RW are the way to go.

      DVD-RAM is an even worse proposition, since it is designed for forward compatibility only and concentrates on data storage.

      • Which version of the Superdrive has DVD-RW? I couldn't find any specs on it on the Apple website. They only mention DVD-R. Ironically, they do sell a DVD-RAM device [apple.com] in the Apple Store.
        • The SuperDrive (Pioneer DVR-A03) handles the following formats:
          • CD-R
          • CD-RW
          • DVD-R
          • DVD-RW
          I'm not sure why Apple doesn't play up the DVD-RW feature, since it's nice to burn a test of your DVD before committing it to a DVD-R.

          Note neither iDVD or DVD Studio Pro support DVD-RW. You basically save your DVD to a local drive in DSP and then use Toast to burn the DVD on DVD-RW media. Maybe this is why Apple doesn't talk about it, since their tools don't yet recognize the DVD-RW media as being valid.

  • nice LCD (Score:3, Interesting)

    by f00zbll ( 526151 ) on Monday January 14, 2002 @09:55AM (#2836079)
    Of all the photos on that review, the LCD's are the most "drool worthy". Wasn't LEP (light emitting polymers) supposed to revolutionize the flat screen industry. I guess everyone will have to wait another 2-5 years for that to pan out and make large cheap screens a reality.

    I'll be ready to trade in my 19" when I can get the same size flat screen for 10% more than what a CRT costs today.

    • Nothing will revolutionize the flat screen industry until it's in production. And if
      you are looking for "large" you'll probably
      have to wait for a bit longer.

      Why aren't there a market for displays with a limited lifetime when cellular phones are replaced every other year anyway?
    • I recently acquired one of the vp201m's at work and I am quite impressed. Not only is it nice and bright, but it has a wide viewing angle as well. However, the price is absolutely obscene. The 18" viewsonic costs about $2000 (not sure about the 20" vp201m). The 10% margin is a *long* way off. I'd be happy if the bigger models only cost twice as much as the equivalent CRTs.

  • Wearables? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Raleel ( 30913 ) on Monday January 14, 2002 @10:00AM (#2836095)
    You know, it's funny, but there does not seem to be an expansion of wearables. Lots of personal assistant things, but all that require you to pull it out and look at it and control with a dull plastic implement. DO people feel they need to get even smaller?

    • Re:Wearables? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Until wearable displays are implanted in the retina and can read your thoughts for their input, I doubt they will be anything more than a small niche market for hardcore geeks and professional mechanics/engineers. Most normal people ("consumers") would prefer using a small handheld box than walking around looking like a borg. Wires and eyeglass-mounted projectors and arm-mounted keyboards just aren't very stylish. I'm not surprised there were far more handheld PDAs than wearables at the Consumer Electronics Show.
      • Re: "Borg"
        Ever seen or used the Microoptical-clipons? Ever seen through the shimatsu-display of a Hitachi WIA before? That distinct borg-look is changing rapidly now that all size-problems are basically solved. There are people like myself and Don Papp you can build you a display into sunglasses, and they look _real_ cool.

        Re: "niche market"
        I'm working hard on changing that myself on jAugment [sourceforge.net] by providing what you need in software to do your everyday work in a new way.

        So we do have the hardware comming and the software. Let's see what comes out of it in 3 years!

        PS: what else is a high-power PDA with voice-recognition and a wireless keyboard than a tiny wearable?

  • m$'s part (Score:3, Funny)

    by jeffy124 ( 453342 ) on Monday January 14, 2002 @10:09AM (#2836149) Homepage Journal
    at the show, billy gates did a keynote involving something rather cool for MS. (hard to imagine something like that coming form MS, but oh well) they came up with a flat touchscreen monitor that detaches from it's base and can be carried around the house like a tablet, and a wireless link allows you to keep using your computer.

    http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/01/08/microsoft .gates.reut/index.html [cnn.com]
    • "The opportunities for the consumer electronics, software and media industries have never been greater and this cycle of innovation has the potential to deliver valuable stimulus to the economy," Gates said in his prepared remarks.

      Man, it must be nice to be able to say these kind of things with a straight face.

    • Great, now I can lose my monitor behind the couch. Whereas you can still grudgingly watch TV without a lost remote, it might get just a little difficult downoading pr0n without a monitor.

    • Big deal.

      About five years ago at the Ottawa 2600 meetings that I frequented, there was a guy with a device just like that. Now, it was kind of impressive to look at (had a keyboard app which loaded at startup), but the specs were OK at best. If I remember correctly, it had at least

      a 12" LCD touch-screen

      a 386 or a 486

      a built in 14.4 modem

      It would have been even more impressive, except that the batteries didn't work anymore - so the guy had to plug it in like a normal computer. Supposedly he'd gotten about a half hour of battery life off it just after he'd gotten it from another guy from some forsale newsgroup. I wish I could remember the name of the company that made it, but I'm pretty sure it's long since dead.

      In conclusion - stuff like this has been around for ages. Just because it's what MS is hyping hardly means it's new or revolutionary.

    • Let me summary this, both products will never fly,

      Freestyle - POS, if webtv failed, I don't see why this would even fly, PC are so cheap these days, what's to point to have this?

      Mira - Really cool, remember that the rumored iMac would do this, however, 802.11b is too slow for this kind of stuff, wait for 802.11g and the lower cost of LCD Touchscreens until this thing will start to fly.
    • Personally, I'm not so impressed. Apple's already been there. I suspect that no matter how over-engineered the joint might be, anybody with a new iMac and a five year-old in the house will soon have a machine with a flat LCD that conveniently detaches from its base for easy portability around the house. Of course, Apple's doesn't have the wireless link yet...

      -db
  • It is a situation analogous to Compaq iPaq and Digital Itsy: the techs learn whatever they need with free software, management kills the transformation of the prototype into a product and instead release a proprietary system. So the enterprise uses free software to learn enough to promote proprietary systems.

    That's why we need the GNU GPL and FDL, but still that's not enough.

  • Gadget confusion (Score:5, Insightful)

    by michaeljs ( 550788 ) on Monday January 14, 2002 @10:34AM (#2836244)
    This may yet be the year of wireless gadgets and DVD burners - but standards are a problem. Until things converge, or someone is boldly declared the winner (DVD-R, DVD+RW or whatever the bloody acronymns are) I'm not sure I'd want to invest in a piece of soon-to-be obsolete equipment. DVD players took ages to take off (years longer than predicted) because of differing DVD disc standards. The same thing could happen with burners.

    RE: Wireless. 3G is still ages away and given that GPRS is only a temporary fixup, I'm not sure how great this year will be.

    Nevertheless, bring on the gadgets.
    • Besides that, media, for any of the standards, is still insanely expensive, is it not? Though I can't really deny that I would love to have a dvd with my 16 gigs of mp3s on it. Kinda nice to have 300 hours of music on one disk.
      • All current DVD writers support only single-layer DVDs, meaning you have a maximum of 4.7GB of data on a disc. Assuming you have high-quality MP3s that's only about 50 hours worth of music. Only? Still sounds pretty cool to me.
      • Besides that, media, for any of the standards, is still insanely expensive, is it not?

        Apple sells DVD-Rs for $25 for a five-pack. While high compared to bulk buys of CD-Rs, it no longer costs more to copy a movie than to buy the original. Now i just need an in-dash DVD MP3 player...
        • JVC and Panasonic both make nice ones. I believe that the Panasonic even has a motorized slide in/out screen. It's only about 5", but it looks sweet. The only downside is the cost...~$1200US last I checked.

    • I'm not sure I'd want to invest in a piece of soon-to-be obsolete equipment

      Like a PC, for example? You could always donate your obsolete DVD-ETC to charity when it becomes obsolete. At least, until they catch on... (Charities Say No To Obsolete Crap) [acm.org]

  • Remember the days before E3 back when the CES was where video game publishers showcased their upcoming material? It's strange that now E3 is one of the largest conventions.
  • David Levitt and I demonstrated "ConnectedTV [connected.tv]" at CES for the first time.

    ConnectedTV is an online service and Palm application that functions as a universal remote control with integrated personalized TV guide, spam filtering and intelligent categorization.

    We designed the ConnectedTV interface so you can hold it in one hand and easily operate it with your thumb or finger. ConnectedTV features pie menus: a fun, fast and reliable selection technique that you can do with your fingers.

    Pie menus are provably much more efficient than old fashioned buttons and pull-down menus. Just as The Sims lets you use pie menus to direct the lives of virtual people, now ConnectedTV lets you easily navigate your own personal entertainment schedule, and control your TV and other devices. Because selecting entertainment should be more like playing a video game than taking the Standardized Aptitude Test.

    More information about ConnectedTV including screen snapshots are available at: http://www.Connected.TV [connected.tv]

    -Don

    • I've read that the IR on the Palm PDAs is not quite strong enough to operate as a standard remote. Is this true?
      • The newer Palms and WinCE Pocket PCs have quite powerful IR, but some of the older ones aren't very powerful, or have the window in an inconvenient location (so you have to tilt it forward to point it at the TV).

        We tested the m505 at CES, and I was able to operate the TV from quite a long distance away. As with any IR control, it also has a lot to do with the angle from which you're facing the TV. Fluorescent lights also cause problems, but most people don't use those in their living room.

        Of course ConectedTV is not limited to IR remote control. More and more handhelds support Bluetooth, 802.11b or have built-in cellular phones. It can be programmed to open URLs, send UDP packets, make XML remote procedure calls, query and control ".NET" services, etc.

        It's also great for indexing all your music and controling your MP3 jukebox or computer. And the fact that you can operate it with one hand makes it great for watching porn.

        ConnectedTV filters out all the channels and shows you don't want to watch, and brings the good ones to your attention, according to your personal preferences. So you can find just what you want, and don't have to put up with all the stupid spam and useless channels.

        If you have a cell phone with a built-in Palm (or WinCE Pocket PC for that matter), and you misplace your remote control behind a couch cushion, you can just call it up and find it by the ring!

        With a wireless RF connection, it's extremely useful for controling all kinds of home automation like lights, air conditioning, home theaters, alarms, security gates, etc. There was such a demand for this at the show, that we're also developing an extremely customizable, general purpose remote control product called "ConnectedHome", that enables you to program your own commands, behaviors, graphical skins and user interfaces.

        For example, one of my hobbies is programming live video processing effects for parties (like interactive screen savers), and I can use it to remotely control all the effect parameters and switch between different modes, without messing up the nice full screen graphics with ugly user interface widgets.

        One important thing about ConnectedTV is that it does not infringe on GemStar's obnoxious on-screen TV guide patent. It's much better to have the TV guide off of the screen and in your hand, so it doesn't distract from what you're currently watching.

        That's one reason it's so inexpensive: just $30/year. TV Guide is $40/year, and it doesn't change the channels or filter spam. While ConnectedTV doesn't waste paper and postage, fill up your mailbox and garbage can, or bring anthrax spores into your living room.

        Once you have a TV guide that you can hold in your hand and pass around, instead of taking over the TV screen, you will never want to go back to the slowly scrolling half-screen channel guide with that loud mouthed fakin' jamacian pseudo psychic.

        -Don

        More info and screen snapshots: http://www.Connected.TV [connected.tv]

  • Extreme Tech's Report (Score:5, Informative)

    by asv108 ( 141455 ) <asvNO@SPAMivoss.com> on Monday January 14, 2002 @11:02AM (#2836360) Homepage Journal
    You can check out ExtremeTech's report here [extremetech.com]

  • Solutions (Score:2, Funny)

    by frunch ( 513023 )
    Why the hell is everything called a "solution" these days?! A network card isn't a network card, but a "wireless network access solution". Samsung displayed their latest LCD and flat TV solutions [targetpc.com]! Yamaha had their DVD+RW solution [targetpc.com] on display as well.

    Jesus! Someday soon a mouse won't be a mouse but a "cursor-moving and activation solution". I liked it better when a monitor was a "monitor" and a flat-panel monitor was an "expensive, cool-looking monitor".

    • Blame marketing (Score:4, Insightful)

      by freeweed ( 309734 ) on Monday January 14, 2002 @01:10PM (#2837092)
      Why the hell is everything called a "solution" these days?!

      Let's face it, the majority of consumer electronics never really take off, and manufacturers know this. In many cases (Commodore Amiga) it's because there IS no market for the product at present. Calling something a 'solution' immediately makes management think that 'well, if there's a solution, there MUST be a problem!'. And the buying spree commences...

      Of course, the honest route of 'our goods are useless and can't sell themselves solely on their own merit' went the way of the Dodo several decades ago. LCD monitors are some of the worst offenders here: sure, some people need every available square inch of desk space. But guess what? Most offices do not. That extra space just ends up turning into a mess of unorganized filing space. So what does every 'modern' secretary have on his/her 3x5(ish) desk? A nice new LCD monitor, to save that precious square foot or so of space! All because we've become convinced that monitors are somehow 'space-wasting'. I guess that explains the slow adoption of PC hardware over the past 20 years :)

      • Ah, I had thought the same thing till I visited an office in NYC. They just moved into a new building and discovered every time the subway went under their building, the magnetics messed with the standard CRTs. No (visual) effect on LCD's however, so everyone was upgraded way before the price point dropped. Power consumption is lower too - enough that it covers a fair chunk of the difference over a normal CRT. You are right in most cases, however....
        • Ok, that has to be the coolest "you need this" hardware story I've ever heard :) Coming from an area with some of the lowest electricity costs in the world (bless Hydroelectricity), the power issue is never much of a point here, but I must admit, you got me on that one!

    • Its funny cos its true... I hate marketing and their new jargon!!

  • Tunein -Tuneout! (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Some of these "fantastic new products" are rather pointless, and I fail to see any market large enough to recoup any costs of developing/launching such a product.

    For instance - who needs or even WANTS to watch movies on their pocket PC? Great - I can see a highly compressed movie(3 Stooges? WTF?) full of artifacts(or is that the crappy LCD display) ANd you can seel it to me on an IBM Microdrive? Even better - 'cause I really wanna pay $400 for Ishtar(those meetings can be soooooo boring) How on earth do they think that this is going to be a money maker?

    I'm convinced that more and more "tech" companies are fronts for money-laundering("Seriously - we thought the online Greeting Card industry was set to reach $300Bil. by 2003", "Everyone will want to listen to crappy tunes on their cell phone! AND they will pay dearly for it!")

  • DVD standards (Score:2, Insightful)

    by stubob ( 204064 )
    In light of last week's statements by Philips that copy-protected cd's are not really cd's, I wonder if this cause the RIAA to begin pushing DVD music formats. We won't really mind region-encoded, can't-play-on-your-computer, enhanced-for-your-pleasure music DVDs (for $30 each), will we?

    I just can't see the RIAA/MPAA sitting idly by as we start burning DVD's full of music rather than piddly CD's.

  • Any SACD news? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by abischof ( 255 ) <alexNO@SPAMspamcop.net> on Monday January 14, 2002 @12:32PM (#2836874) Homepage

    For those not familiar with it, SACD is similar to (and competes with) DVD-Audio, as it uses much more storage space than an ordinary CD in order to garner higher quality (while still just a single disc).

    By all accounts that I've read, SACD sounds significantly better than ordinary CDs [stereophile.com], and better than DVD-Audio, even. So, I'm probably going to buy a combination DVD/SACD player within the next few months. Anyhow, has anyone heard any CES announcements on upcoming DVD/SACD players?

  • I'm an ardent fan of wireless communications (practically my whole home network is wireless, I have a wireless connection between an MP3 server in the basement and speakers in my room, my PDA is wireless, and my cell phone [of course] is wireless). I think in terms of space, clutter, and speed (the 802.11b standard does 99.9% what I want it to do) wireless is the future.

    However, as anyone who's ever taken an economics class (or played a RTS) can tell you, resources are everything. I'm wondering if by descreasing the number of wires, and increasing the number of wireless transmissions, we aren't opening up a huge can of radiation. Are we exchanging the resources built-in to wires (wasted space) with the ones built-in to wireless (radiation)? And what happens when we're being bombarded by waves (moreso than even today).

    I'm no physicist or biologist, so either can shoot me down if this is all illogical. But sometimes I wonder if we can ever get away from the "problems" or we just change them into other ones.

  • Heh, last night I was writing a Python class to handle all my talking to lcdproc [omnipotent.net] for me, so my mind was in a goofy mode when I read the summary. "Oooh, 21 inch LCDs! Is there an lcdproc driver for that yet?" Oh wait, these LCDs plug into the svga port instead of a serial port? It suddenly seems so boring. These LCDs are intended for GUIs and games and stuff, and here I was, thinking how nice they would be for displaying my system's uptime and CPU usage. ;-)

  • If I had gone to the show, the one thing I would be (and still am) most interested in is OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) displays.

    Can someone who was there tell me if there was anythihg at the show on OLED displays, and if so what?

    I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of OLED desktop monitors and laptop dislays.

    Vortran out

    • Re:OLED Displays? YES! (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Sanyo displayed prototypes in mocked-up 3G phones as well as displays measuring about five inches across. They were simply stunning. Sanyo rep claimed they were cheaper to build and had lower power requirements then LCDs. They are coventuring with Kodak and expect real products to roll in a month: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20011206S0078
    • Most car stereo manufactures had one or more high end units with these displays.
  • i can't believe this wasn't picked up by slashdot already, but Kenwood USA is releasing a car mp3 player [kenwoodusa.com] that runs linux! this is yet another victory in the embedded market.
    i believe the product was actually made by these guys [phatnoise.com], but now it's being carried in retail chains.

    other than this, ces was a total disappointment. nothing new or original there.
  • What, no mention of Jackie "The Jokeman" Martling's appearance at the show?

    Man, I hope he did the right thing quitting the show... I am starting to worry.

  • This is a solid critique that seems to appear below most peoples' threshold settings since it was posted anonymously (post #2839376).

    It may be redundant but I'm reposting it because it's easy to miss and I think it deserves to be read.

    - Factomatic

    'anonymous reader' = Target PC = FREE ADVERTISING (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 14, @08:05PM (#2839376)

    Preface: Criticism does not equal flamebait. However I'm sure that this post will be modded down for that very reason.

    There are sites that deserve to be Slashdotted and sites that don't. Target PC is one that doesn't.

    By posting this link from an 'anonymous reader' (I'm sure there were many other legitimate CES 2002 reports submitted) the editors have given an undue and unfair boost to TPC at the expense of those of us interested in real computer and electronics reviews and reports.

    TPC is well-known to be yet another one of those so-called 'review' sites that do not really review anything at all. Instead they regurgitate press releases and echo the company line from product manufacturers. Of course PR departments love that so they give all kinds of support and cooperation to sites like TPC and we, as consumers who are trying to evaluate which items to buy, gain nothing.

    To call this item a 'report' is insulting especially to the average consumer who have a hard time telling the difference between serious reviews and reports, and a reformatted press release. It is also insulting to legitimate sites that are unfairly lumped into the same category as TPC i.e. other sites actually try to do real reporting and evaluation.

    I personally know 3 other site owners in the computer/electronics review category that have stuck to their integrity and have had a hard time gaining the cooperation of electronics product manufacturers because they don't guarantee glowing 'reviews'. They have actually been told to adopt a more 'favorable editorial stance' like other sites -- TPC's name has been mentioned as an example. It's rare these days when tech review sites have the integrity to actually insist on being provided with actual products to conduct proper product reviews. Most are content to be marketing flaks like TPC.

    By posting this link, you have given TPC a massive boost in page impressions (even the structure of the 'report' is set up to inflate page views), letting them artificially inflate their traffic numbers and their own ad rates as a consequence. If TPC wants advertising and traffic from Slashdot then you (the Slashdot editors) should direct them to the advertising section to pay for and place a banner.

    Editors: Please exercise some better discretion in which items you choose to post. Aim for quality and integrity and substance over PR flash. Don't encourage noise. Submissions like this one from TPC amount to nothing more than free advertising for 'anonymous readers' who are undoubtedly TPC staff.

  • I saw Bill Gates give the keynote address at CES, and he demonstrated several interesting technologies including wireless web pads, tablets, and ".NET" services.

    What he didn't mention is that Microsoft never invented those things -- they're simply exploiting the "Ubiquitous Computing [ubiq.com]" research developed by other people at Xerox PARC, MIT Media Lab, and many others places.

    Our product ConnectedTV [connected.tv], which we demonstrated at CES, is also inspired by the same Ubiquitous Computing [ubiq.com] research, as well as using other proven user interface techniques like pie menus [piemenu.com].

    Besides the personalized TV guide and universal remote control, it has many useful home control applications, as well. For an idea of where it's heading, please read some the literature [gatech.edu].

    We owe a lot to pioneering researchers like the late Mark Weiser [ubiq.com] (director of Xerox PARC Computer Science Lab), and visionary writers like the late Philip K Dick [philipkdick.com]. May they forever continue to guide and inspire us from half-life.

    -Don

    "I am Ubik. Before the universe was, I am. I made the suns. I made the worlds. I created the lives and the places they inhabit; I move them here, I put them there. They go as I say, then do as I tell them. I am the word and my name is never spoken, the name which no one knows. I am called Ubik, but that is not my name. I am. I shall always be."

    -Glenn Runciter

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