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Consumer Electronics Show 2002 Report
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.
and just how many products were shown as "new" products last year?
LCD's have already come down a lot... hopefully 2002 will see them really become affordable.
My site will be covering recordable DVDs :)
OK shamless plug... http://www.dvdwriters.co.uk
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
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.
tried submitting this link to /., rejected
t .gates.reut/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/01/08/microsof
all told, looks like quite an interesting (and somewhat original) product. originality being something rare for MS.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
At least someone out there has an impressive marketing budget to spend in this year we're all expecting doom and gloom...
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
I found the following quote pretty amusing:
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 of some of the pics to make people think they were looking at super-long TVs displaying female dwarf powerlifters.
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...
Yeah, that article mentions the new MS technologies "Mira" and "Freestyle"
I guess "Hawk" and "Skater" will be following soon...
Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit!
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.
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?
-- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
Yeah... they just have that cute little frown face when something serious goes wrong (at least that's what the earlier Macs did)
T
---- It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. It does this whenever it's told.
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.
t .gates.reut/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/01/08/microsof
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
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.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
Dear sir,
It has come to our attention that you have spuriously claimed to own the trademark to evil. It is a widely know fact on slashdot that Microsoft owns evil and any associated trademarks, copyrights and patents. Desist from making further misrepresentations or you will hear from our lawyers.
hugs and kisses,
Billg
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.
* As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
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.
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.
Given a reasonably level playing field, who would win a fight between a bear and a shark?
HTH, HAND etc.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
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
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
The PC had both solutions before Apple adopted them. As far as DVD recording is concerned, the DVD recorder included in the powermacs and the new imacs is mickey mouse at best.
I'm from Las Vegas... they aren't that hot. ;p
You can check out ExtremeTech's report here
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! Yamaha had their DVD+RW solution 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".
Compaq had it nearly a month after Apple in their consumer line. Their 3rd party recording software was a piece of shit, however.
This year is not going to be a good year for anything, let alone tech stuff.
Lame anus licking analysts are touting the fall of capitalism saying how the economy is {supposedly} down the toilet (despite good gains on the market latley). These moronic reports on the economy do nothing but scare the crap out of people who know nothing about the real world, then they stop spending, and people lose jobs. If the fucking media does nothing but talk about a recession, then it is bound to happen, I think CNN and MSNBC want a recession, this way that guy with a pole in his anus (Brian Williams) will have something to talk about because the Taliban is passe`.
Most of the misinformation out there with the economy is due to people's misunderstanding of tech stuff anyway.
They can kiss my anal cavity, I will keep taking violent shits and spending as much money as humanly possible.
Fuck MSNBC!
Hello, if is doesn't work then its not a solution, pal!!!
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 in the Apple Store.
Well, well, the crack... err, Mac addicts are out and about today I see.
Here is an interesting test we did here at State Farm in the Advanced Technology Test Center at corporate south. We test just about EVERYTHING, and do it comprehensively and competitively with real world users. (remeber that we are one of the largest IT buyers of software and hardware in the US, and have a very large IT/IS infrastructure with multiple network types and standards in use as well as desktop solutions).
We set up a Mac running OS X, a PC running XP Pro, and the same type of PC running Linux RedHat. The only apps installed and used were Nutscrap and Star Office (latest builds).
They were connected on a 10/100 network (Bay Networks router) to a NT domain server.
We ran them 5 days a week for 2 months. Test results were, well... enlightening.
The Linux Box locked on average of 1 time a day. Users were confused by the OS but generally picked it up after a week or so. Most locks were related to hardware drivers for the NIC as well as some compile issues in advanced features of Star Office.
The WinXP box crashed twice in 8 weeks. Once for the infamous Infinite Loop BSOD (NVIDIA card), once for a spam site that launched over two dozen "pop ups" which was Nutscraps fault.
The Mac had an up time of less than 3 weeks total. First the HD failed. Replacement HD worked fine, reloaded, but OS crashed in Nutscrap every hour or so. Star Office locked the computer up on average of every 15 minutes in use. Video driver updates and a reload did not help. HD thrashed uncontrollably when on graphics intense websites. Five seperate browser based java applications crashed the machine, once resulting in the need for yet another reload. The mouse had to be replaced, as did eventually the PS fan... thats in 8 measley weeks.
The Mac rep couldn't offer up an explaination. She did disclose that there were some quality issues with the latest cases and PS, but nothing to "worry about". We concluded that the OS was pure crap and that the PS was at fault for quite a few problems as well.
Network monitoring tools on the bridge indicated that the Linux box performed best, followed closely by XP (especially with QoS uninstalled)... the Mac was flat awfull, with trash traffic and dropped packets left and right.
I am so tired of this whole debate... there isn't really anything to debate. Crap OS (any number, they all suck), awful interface, slow hardware that is overly expensive, and a significant lack of functional applications with mainstream functionality and compliance really cripple the MAC. They are still only in existence because small to medium education and print institutions are stuck in the Mac IT cycle and can't afford to break out. It's a PC for those non-conformist hippies... thank god natural selection is slowly eeking you out of the world population, just like MAC is slowly sliding from the IT scene.
I would rather be stuck with a quirky Linux based PC box or a overpriced MS powered box anyday.
Depending on the chasis series. I just installed a Radeon on one for somebody (don't ask, his dept paid for it...).
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!")
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.
Planning to be moderated ± 1: Bad Pun.
The foil lining on the walls will take care of that. What? Why are you all looking at me like that?
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, 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?
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
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
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
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 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. ;-)
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
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
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
Compared to what's available in his hometown, maybe they are.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
It's very telling how the number and hype
around Linux is finally dying as people realize
it was just a Tulip bubble without any substance.
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
Knowledge is like ignorance.. too much can be just as bad as not enough.
- 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.
* As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
sucker...keep buying ms until they put YOUR industry out of business.
then cry to anyone you want.
by the way, how do you edit a digital video movie and burn it to dvd without a mac?
you dont! (at least not painlessly.)
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....
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
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
i can't believe this wasn't picked up by slashdot already, but Kenwood USA is releasing a car mp3 player that runs linux! this is yet another victory in the embedded market.
i believe the product was actually made by these guys, 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.
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 agree with this criticism. Slashdot is a site that people go to for information, not for more of the idiotic hype of the sort that was responsible for the dotcom crash.
The effect this slashdotting will have will be to increase the appearance to manufacturers that this hype site is a good one to supply products for "review". The overall effect is to reduce the access that legitimate evaluation and review sites have to those companies' products.
We effectively vote with our clickthroughs and pageviews. If this is the kind of thing that we are granting our votes to, we will inevitably get the kind of products and "reviews" that we deserve: more empty opinions about how "fun" and "good" and "cool" these products are, without actually getting any information.
Food for thought.
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.
What he didn't mention is that Microsoft never invented those things -- they're simply exploiting the "Ubiquitous Computing" research developed by other people at Xerox PARC, MIT Media Lab, and many others places.
Our product ConnectedTV, which we demonstrated at CES, is also inspired by the same Ubiquitous Computing research, as well as using other proven user interface techniques like pie menus.
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.
We owe a lot to pioneering researchers like the late Mark Weiser (director of Xerox PARC Computer Science Lab), and visionary writers like the late Philip K Dick. May they forever continue to guide and inspire us from half-life.
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
We were discussing user interface design for handheld computers, handwriting input and pie menus.
It feels great to have finally put pie menus into ConnectedTV on handheld Palm computers, after just talking about it for 10 years.
They're called "Finger Pies", because using the penis not necessary!
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.