CES Tidbits

Various newsbits from the Consumer Electronics Show: Verizon promises cell phone TV; USB flash drives get more useful; Transmeta promises a fanless media center device, sometime; things you can stick on your iPod; and a tech site offers a photographic overview of day 0 of the convention.

Microsoft CES Torrent

[mnordstr]

In case you missed Microsoft's less than successfull opening event on Wednesday, hosted by Conan O'Brien and including two full system crashes and other glitches, the torrent is still available on my blog [nordstrom.fi].

Some good laughs in there (not only Conan's perfomance). :)

U3

[HeghmoH]

Flash storage manufacturers SanDisk and M-Systems are slated to announce Friday at CES a new USB standard called U3, which enables users to carry, store and launch applications directly from a USB flash drive without installation.

Do we really need "a new USB standard" to allow apps to run without installation? I've been doing this on my Mac forever. I know that this can work on Windows if you write the program correctly. Why the need for a giant consortium?

iPod Video Display

[Attar81]

I think that video attachment for the iPod looked pretty cool. I've not seen a HD-based video player that has a clamshell design. It makes a lot of sense (protects the screen and keys and kind of makes double to space for keys and screen)

Nyko's iPod movie player

[Dark Paladin]

I read the press release for this a day or so ago, but didn't know it would be this cool.

My wife and I have been talking about getting a pair of portable DVD players for the kids - or, as I call it, "sanity preservers" so during the 10-12 hour drive to Grandma's house, Dad doesn't kill them after the 6000th "Are we there yet? I'm bored!"

I can take their entire "Angelic Layer" and "Magic Knight Rayearth", rip the DVD's to AVI's and then slap them onto an iPod. 20 GB of data should store about 60 movies (at about 300 MB apiece) - plenty to store an entire season at once, with room left over in case Daddy wants to watch one of "his" movies while Mommy drives for a little while.

No worrying about the DVD disks getting lost in the car or damaged (a problem since the cartoons belong to Daddy who gets very upset when they get scratched), and since the 5 year old is now listening to her own music she can either watch her movie or listen to something.

Very cool idea from Nyko. Depending on the cost, I can see myself snagging one of these things.

Re:U3

[Genady]

Hrm... this seems.... like a potential for evil. I can see this as a virus propagation vector. Just like floppies, but better because you can put a lot larger payload on a thumb drive. Am I the only one who can see a 'Windows XP Root Kit Thumbdrive' surfacing on eBay? Will we be talking about 'Thumb Kiddies' in a few years?

With universities pushing USB flash as the storage medium of choice in their computer labs I think that college IT's job is about to get a bit tougher.

Re:Wow

[The-Dalai-LLama]

I used to work for a company that made memory upgrades. One of the key purchasing agents was a smoking hot little petite blonde who, at the time of this story, was not even old enough to drink.

One year at CES some would-be vendor made a remark about the company having a piece of "fluff" at the booth. She wheeled on him and let fly with a diatribe that showcased her comprehensive knowledge of RAM chips, PCB issues, and our company's component needs and then she let him know, in no uncertain terms, that whether or not we ever purchased a single capacitor from his company would be a decision made by the petite piece of fluff with bubble gum-pink fingernails that he was speaking with at that very moment.

He walked away dazed. I don't think we ever did business with him.

The Dalai LLama

Re:use my dads method:

[LetterJ]

Yeah. The one time my brother and I were left by the side of the road we learned our lesson on this one.

Threats were not idle in our house. I did go without supper, did have the TV physically taken away and my father was ALWAYS told when he got home.

Of course, I also went to a school with pretty harsh discipline, where the entire male population of the 8th grade was given group detention for 2 weeks.

I definitely never needed any of these lessons taught twice, so I'm a fan.

CES rocks this year: there's a pr0n convention too

[Ralph Spoilsport]

I'm not being a troll or anything - my former boss just emailed me - she is now at CES and said that there's some kind of pr0n convention going on at the same time down the road in some other center.

Woo Hoo - I say it's time for some Silicon and Silicone!

Can anyone else confirm this news? If they could co-ordinate the two events they would get Even More Attendees...

RS