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Neat Stuff In Sin City: CES 2004
Even for convention-happy Vegas, CES is one of the city's biggest annual events -- approximately 120,000 attendees and more than 2,000 vendors have gathered to sell, buy or window-shop all sorts of electronic and related products, from high-end turntables (for pre-digital music stored on extruded polyvinyl) to message-scrolling LED badges, batteries and chargers, metal detectors, digital cameras, strange-looking MP3 jukeboxes, LED-strewn computer cases, and more.
Repeat: CES is not necessarily about computers -- at least it's not centered around devices with keyboards, rectangular CPUs and monitors. There's plenty of computer industry action here -- Michael Dell is one of the keynote speakers, for instance, and several of the biggest exhibitors are computer manufacturers -- but the "consumer" part of Consumer Electronics Show is an unsubtle hint that anything which beeps, glows, plays recorded music, takes batteries, or has a circuit board buried somewhere within is fair game. (I'll skip details on some of the products that slip past even this catch-all description, among them ceramic figurines and other gimcracks.) There are companies represented who will cast your industrial design in aluminum, and one which will let you do the shaping yourself, but in plastic. There's no way to see everything here; here are some impressions of what I did see, though.
May I interest you in a humongous television?
Plasma and LCD displays are everywhere at CES, in the form of new but current products, prototypes to whet your appetite for next year, and as visual aids selling other products. The ongoing switch in the U.S. to digital broadcasting and the uncertainty attached to early adopter purchases generally make me glad not to be in desperate need of a television right now, but the home-entertainment hardware on display is enough to make my eyes water. LG, both inside the show and on a billboard outside the convetion, proclaims that they have the world's first 76" plasma television (their booth has this on display, and many smaller ones as well), while Samsung's giant blue-themed booth tops that by featuring a crowd-paralyzing 80" model; people stood to watch the demo loop, which was mostly natural imagery rather than the bikini show running on many other companies' sets.
(This display, and LG's 76" model, brings up a point that seems to generalize well to many of the claims made at CES and in less overt marketing circumstances as well: Samsung calls theirs the world's first 80" plasma TV, but they also are showing a 70" model inexplicably labeled "The World's First Plasma TV." These companies are far from the only ones making dubious contradictory claims; the standard of evidence to be a "world's first" at CES seems lower than you might expect.)
TV and monitor overload is easy: Toshiba, Panasonic, Sony, Philips, Sony, Aquos (made by Sharp), Daewoo, Apex, ViewSonic, and other brands more or less familiar to electronics-friendly American householders all had their LCD displays out, both computer-only and TV-friendly devices. So did low-end, badge-stamping names like LennoxSound and Coby; some of the Coby displays had lifelike paper screen mockups rather than actual moving images. (If you're in the market for a flat-screen television, beware that some LCD televisions are really only monitors; if you need a tuner, don't assume one is built it.)
LCD computer monitors are now so mainstream that nothing stands out as spectacular in what I saw of this year's crop, though it's nice to see that bigger models are eroding 20" as a gigantic-LCD standard and pushing it down to merely large: suffice it to say, 20" LCDs may remain in the high end of computer displays for a little while, but far larger ones are now at the high end.
While on the topic of big-screen displays, two products from InFocus stand out: First is their 7"-thick, 61" screen (the model is labeled Screenplay RPTV; this may change before it ships), which is easy to confuse with a plasma model, but it's not -- it's actually a rear-projection system that's had its guts folded into a silvery rectangle taking up about a foot of vertical space beneath the display's screen. This rearrangement means it lacks the spare, picture-frame look of most plasma TVs, but the result still whips old-style console sets. Pricing is not yet set (it's not shipping until later this year), and smiling InFocus representatives deflected the question of price from several people, including me, only hinting that it would be cheaper than similarly-sized plasma models. And only your aesthetics and stud placement can determine whether a near-100-pound television qualifies as "hangable" for you. A 70" version is set to follow.
The second product, happily, does have a price; unhappily, that price is $2700. That much money buys you their LP120 model, introduced earlier this year, which InFocus says is the smallest XGA projector on the market -- it's about the size of a 5-pound block of cheddar cheese, weighs less (a hair less than two pounds) and has to be seen to be believed. It sits strictly in the middle end of the brightness scale (1000 lumens) but on the moderately lit convention floor, the image is actually hard to distinguish from that of a non-projected screen. I'm not sure at what price I would buy this (I would really like to take a projector this size along with me, everywhere), but at almost three grand (and replacement bulbs are the industry-norm 2000/hour life, $300-400 replacement cost) this is for business travelers and jillionaires more than those of us who'd like to watch "L.A. Confidential" in a hotel room.
Black boxes for your humongous television.
The electronics industry would obviously like you to buy a big (expensive) display of some sort, and they're happy to help supply moving images to make it worthwhile. "Convergence boxes," with different logos on the front, but with for the most part similar capabilities and interfaces, are on display from many manufacturers. Convergence is like perfection, though -- the pursuit is worthy, but ongoing. There will always be new file formats, media, and output devices to fold in.
Drawing a composite sketch, this year's standard-issue convergence box runs embedded Linux like TiVo (for instance Daewoo's DX C811N Digital Video Recorder) and in many cases the TiVo name (under license), holds a hard drive from 80-120GB (like Toshiba and Panasonic are offering), features composite and S-Video outputs (nearly every maker), lets you record to DVD-RAM or DVD-RW/+RW, and is still at standard resolution (rather than High Definition). High Definition PVRs will eventually arrive in force; I bet they'll be next year's big trend of the show. Also next year, you'll probably see more all-in-one boxes which can play back WMV files; one Microsoft display area was showing off the first WMV-capable DVD player, the Malata DiVA DVR-489. Confusingly enough, a few feet away Microsoft was giving out sample DVDs with WMV format high-density program examples; these can't be played back (for now) in anything but a PC running Windows; the Malata and similar, soon-to-market players are for standard definition only.
(The Daewoo PVR I mentioned, by the way, is really a different beast altogether, built for things like monitoring multiple security cameras: I lust for the built-in 8-way video multiplexer).
Considering that PVRs are becoming ever more commoditized, I hope that Apex's prototype PVR-9280 (with a DVD burner as well as an internal hard drive) becomes a reality. When I asked about that, Sal Fiore from Apex did what a lot of exhibitors at CES have to do: he hedged, resorting to a smile and calling it "a definite possibility." Though known as at best a medium-grade electronics brand, Apex has followed the path of eMachines by making more impressive products over the last few years. I'd be happy to find the PVR equivalent to today's low-end DVD players.
On the high end, though, Samsung was showing a working and very polished looking Blu-Ray recorder, which they say will be able to store up to two hours of high density programming (and 12 hours of standard) per Blu-Ray disk. (Blu-Ray, mentioned briefly here, is an optical format storing up to 27GB on a CD-sized disk.)
And now for something completely obscure ...
Since I'm in the market for a portable Ogg Vorbis player, I've asked at several of the manufacturer's booths whether they plan to support it, and specifically whether they will sell CD-based units with Vorbis decoders. (I've been encoding my CDs to Vorbis for the last few years; YMMV, but I like it.)
The results are about what I'd expect: a polite "not on our radar screen" is the gist of responses from representatives at Creative, Sony, and nearly all the other Big Names; at the lower-end makers booths (who, after all, make things like $40 MP3 CD players available at mass-market retailers), I never even found anyone who'd heard of Ogg. iRiver is the current standout in this regard, since they're releasing firmware to make their CD-based players Ogg-friendly; I'll be visiting iRiver's product lounge soon to take a look at their current lineup. I also found flash-based players from Samsung and Rio.
This isn't surprising in the crowded world of audio codecs: MP3 has the benefit of years of market saturation; Microsoft has the research and marketing clout to develop and license WMA; and the Apple touch, via ITMS, has make AAC a nearly overnight contender. (Microsoft was showing off in a dedicated booth a few dozen models of portable audio players, like the Rio Nitrus, that will play WMA files in addition to MP3s, including the smallest 20GB hard-drive based model I've yet encountered, the not-yet-in-the-U.S. Toshiba Gigabeat MEG200J. Think of portable audio as sculpted by Minox.)
However, I did find one working CD-based Ogg-playing portable (model MCD-CM600, part of the "Yepp" line) on display in the Samsung area. "On display" is pushing things; several examples of the player were on hand, but behind plexiglas as window dressing rather than as a demonstration product. A company representative did some Won-to-dollars calculation, and said the player is available in Korea for between $130-140 dollars at current exchange rates, but that Samsung had no current plans to sell it in the U.S.
Tomorrow, look for a report collecting some of the wackier (and stupider) stuff at the show -- like a Segway do-alike (sans balancing brains and with more wheels), the electronic home of the future as seen from 1982, interesting swag, and the sad fate of the Wurlitzer name.
Aren't the Porn awards held whenever Comdex is held? How many people say they are going to comdex but really try to sneak into seeing Jenna get an award or whoever is the top girl nowadays?
But the real question is, did you go to Star Trek the Experience at the Hilton? Cuz if not, your review ain't worth shit, as you're not a true geek...
:)
Anxiously awaiting reply before taking article seriously...
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
http://www.immunitysec.com/
-dave
Yes, they're in LV right now as well, at the Sands. Might get there later this evening.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
... I parked very far away (not my intention, just my typical parking job) yesterday, had to hike past it but had no time to stop; perhaps this evening I will talk some people into it, but ... they also want to go to AVN, which is full of naked people.
Hmmm, will let you know.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
... a bunch of geeks sitting around on Saturday night reading Slashdot!
Time for some fuckin' NOISE POLLUTION!
at current exchange rates can anyone afford all these gadgets ? sure they may be designed by USA countries but they are made in Japan etc and with the dollar at a massive disadvantage everything is really expensive (cue inflation)
and I thought the most surprising event of the entire conference occurred during Bill Gates' address to conference attendees.
In front of God and everyone, Bill Gates categorically denied any involvement in the entire SCO fiasco and stated in no uncertain terms that he hopes that Linux "breaks the back of SCO".
It really made a lot people rethink their image of Bill Gates as some sort of monopolistic ogre.
However, if I do break down and get a hard-drive based portable, the Rio Karma looks nicest to me -- good interface, ethernet jack (on dock), plays FLAC even (does that iRiver?).
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
According to Intel, this time next year we will be enjoying 55" LCD and plasma screens for under $1,000.
I can't find the link right now, but I read an article saying that Intel had come up with a new semiconductor that would make these displays possible. The best part was that they should be on the shelves in the next 12 months (take that with plenty o' salt).
Did anyone else hear about this or know anymore?
I commend timothy, a so-called "editor" at Slashdot, for trying to write a summary of his experiences at CES. However, the following reviews are done by more qualified journalists. I recommend them instead.
Wireless Week, High Fidelity Review, Stereophile, CNN.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Media-Savvy Internet Pundit
I'm not Seth Finkelstein. I still speak the truth.
Did anyone else misread the title as "Neat Stuff in Sim City: CES 2004".
Man, a CES show in my city, I knew it was too good to be true!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34804.html
Carly clearly show where HP stands on the issue of consumer rights.
If you watch the video she shows an example where HP DVD burners won't make back-ups of VHS tapes.
Since when did backups become illegal? HP is obviously choosing to ignore fair use rights.
I thought the headline read, "Sim City" On a more serious note, I hope that anyone attending this show, or going to Vegas for any reason is willing to open their minds a bit and see some of the surrounding deserts. Twenty miles West, or fifty miles northeast on smooth fast Nevada roads brings you right to Red Rock and Valley of fire, respectively. Spectacular sandstone cliffs, rugged hiking trails, and an abundance of desert quiet.
Best portable *Compressed music file* player I have seen is easily the Rio Karma. Features include
* Platform independant Software
* Ethernet Socket (in addition to usual connectors)
* Smaller footprint than iPod
* Supports non DRM file formats including ogg, and flac.
Only minor gripe is that it doesnt look as nice as the iPod. (Although there is nothing inherently ulgy with the way it looks)
Rio Karma
technically speaking its a better player.
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
I've been happy with my Apple 22" Cinema Display (LCD), and other manufacturers have improved the technology. I still have two gripes though:
:-\
- Better support for non-native resolutions. I mean come on...if I want to show ~800x600 in a 22" display I should have the benefit of no screwball artifacts.
- Consistent lighting. The Samsung 213T is a really nice monitor. Unfortunately, every one I've seen has a slight flicker to it...like it's running at 60Hz (this despite using a DVI connector).
Please please please....improve the technology! I actually miss my Sony CRT, and I really shouldn't
...when I say "where are the pictures of the booth babes?"
No.
Don't feed the trolls. Leave the whores in Las Vegas.
iPods rule
I'm not shelling out any cash for a new display until I can get a true flatscreen display. This means I'll be waiting ~5+ more years for OLED, and flexible FOLED to hit the mainstream market.
Of course, this better and cheaper tech will canibalize the huge investments in current LCD/Plasma/etc, but that's not my problem. I'm just glad that the era of expensive, heavy, highly-toxic, energy-wasteful displays is almost over.
--
Power to the Peaceful
So you found my video too huh? I won't comment on my experience sir
MoFscker
... the following reviews are done by more qualified journalists.
by "more qualified" you mean biased and dull
Heh, at first I thought this article was about a new GTA game.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
wait a couple of months for Borg Invasion 4D. It's very cool... some of the Voyager crew are in it (as am I!).
http://www.startrekexp.com/indexborg2.php
I probably shouldn't feed the trolls, but... The last time a COMPLETE Linux install took me more than 3 hours was like 4 years ago. If Windows can be installed more than 3 hours faster, they've got something patentable there!
Copyright (c) 2004 Mike Bouma, MCSE, MCDST, MS Office Specialist
Dude, you're embarrassing yourself. Let it rest.
Anyone else read the headline as "Sim City" rather than "Sin City"?
"Excuse me, did you say 'Trekker'? The word is 'Trekkie.' I should know; I created them." -- Gene Roddenberry
Anyone know if there's been any news on Sharp's Zaurus 6000 series? The specs and manual were released, but it was more of a leak through the FCC than official news.
It'd be nice to know more about pricing and release date...
Flat panel TV's are becoming more and more impressive... and they'd sure look nice in my living room. But why are they still so expensive? Even the small models. A 15" LCD TV would be perfect for my bedroom... by I'll be damned if I pay upwards of 600 Euro's for one, while a computer flat-panel LCD of the same dimensions costs less than half that. Somehow, I get the feeling I am being ripped off. It looks like some manufacturers of computer LCD screens agree with me... they're offering computer screens with a built-in tuner now, just for people like me who'll just rip the thing off its socket and hang it in their bedroom.
I'm glad to see that LCD projectors have come down in price. Since I watch a lot of movies but very little else, buying a big flat panel TV would be a really bad compromise: I'd still have this big thing sitting in my living room (even though smaller than a really large TV), and I'd have to pay some ridiculous price for it. No thanks... I just got a nice LCD projector. Do yourself a favour, dump the TV, and get a 1200 lumen entry-level model for 1100 Euro's, and a good roll-up projection screen for another 200. You'll never even think about flat-panel TVs anymore...
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
It's a pretty cool little device... Myself and another coworker were at MacWorld, and my coworker told me that he was talking with a friend of his from Apple... The Apple guy said that he had seen at least a few of these, but his eyes bugged out when he found out it was only $99. heh heh heh....
Check it out... http://www.zvue.com
Strip clubs don't hire the girls. Any girl can enter through the back door and pay $50-100 a (un)dressing room. They split any tips they recieve 50-50 with the club, and pay more for drinks (if they buy them). By law, they can't do anything more than go topless in an establishment that serves alcohol, so none of the pink. Of course, you can find girls that will fuck or suck, but it's cheaper to drive around in a convertable and cat-call every girl you see. (you might be surprised what some girls will do for a ride in a "nice" (30k) car and $20).
Did I mention that most strippers are single mothers or drug addicts? There are some college girls too, but not a whole lot.
The best strippers I've found are in Montreal, Canada. $5 (cdn) for a 5 minute lap dance. And they'll be panty-less 2 minutes into it. In Vegas, it would cost $20, and they won't do much more than wave their tits in your face and grind your crotch.
They are similar to an LCD, but not transparent. They are reflective instead. They can be used in rear projection TVs, like Sony's RP LCD GrandWegas or Samsungs DLPs.
They cannot be used in place of direct-view LCD (i.e. hang on the wall or laptop types).
http://www.xiph.org/minutes/2003/december/raw/
Vorbis I will soon be old news
actually, he copy/pasted it from OSNews.com
What I want to know from CES is whether the Sony VAIO x505 is coming to the US soon. Anyone know? It's a 1.8 pound Centrino-powered laptop that's made out of carbon fibre. Holy crap!
Yeah I know a guy at Intel.
Need Mercedes parts ?
Lizzity.
I'm stilly pretty happy with the Sun badged SONY GDM's you can buy on ebay at STOOPID cheap prices and while all this LCD/Plasma stuff looks right frikkin groovy and all I do have to wonder about the longevity. Note that I still have the industial Sony monitor (KV1311CR) I got with my Amiga 1000 (serial # 13!) back in 85 and it's still got a great great great picture.
Are these LCD/plasma things gonna work in 10 years? 15? 20?
Need Mercedes parts ?
The ability of a projector to give a large image is certainly enticing, but projectors have certain disadvantages that won't work for some people. 1. projectors (even short throw ones) require a large room, at least a larger viewing distance than a plasma or lcd, this means they don't work well in your bedroom or apartment 2. light bulbs don't have that long of a life and are expensive to replace 3. projectors require a pretty dark room, any ambient light and the image will be washed out, this is one of the best things about plasma/lcd, you can have them in a room with multiple windows and the image is still detailed and bright
He said in another post that he's going to AVN..
This is going to fail, hardcore. Why on Earth would you have chosen the awful SD format for storage? Being limited to 512Meg is going to kill any market of gadget geeks who would want one to view divx movies on the go. In addition theres no mention of any sort of output, so great it is a personal only video player. Thats got a market of what? 5k people? 10k?
I've heard one reason 15" LCD TVs are more expensive is that they use fairly expensive electronics to drive the scaler and deinterlacer, even in small TVs, and when coupled with the tuner and other electronics it really does add up to more money than a 15" LCD monitor, but that leaves me wondering why Apex hasn't released a bargain basement one coupling low-budget VGA-out type TV tuners to low-budget LCD panels and delivering a TV in the $500 range.
Another quesiton -- why can't I buy a desktop LCD monitor with the same size and native resolution as they make for laptops? My laptop display is maybe 15" but does 1400 x 1050. All the 15" LCDs I can find are only good for 1024 x 768 (there might be an oddball that does 1280, but usually they soak you for the 17" model).
And speaking of laptops, why haven't the laptop industry made its VGA and video-out ports on its laptops *bi-directional*? I can think of plenty of times when it would have been great to just use my laptops display. And while we're doing that, let's just integrate a TV tuner into the display chip (a laptop with an All-In-Wonder type chipset).
Simcity was fun when I played it on the state on 386dx computers with cool VGA graphics with 256 colors!
But it got old.
Simcity2000 and 3000, are the same really gameplay wise with a few addes bonuses/
Maybe I am older and games are less appealing now but simcity and the warcraft clones since dune2 are no longer fun. At least for me.
http://saveie6.com/
Umm, isn't that exactly what makes DLP, ah, DLP?
It actually reads more like a reflective instead of a transmissive LCD system.
But I get your point.
Post-scarcity? What energy source that isn't scarce would such economies use?
Likewise, I gave up on SimEarth after a half hour because I couldn't figure out how to replay the first six days of how it really happened.
I'm not sure if this guy knows about the karma or not, but I just bought one and it's great. It's a 20gig portable player that plays MP3s, WMAs, Ogg, and FLAC. If anyone out there is looking for a portable player, I would seriously look at this player. Besides being a good player, it has a very supportive forum where rio engineers visit so if you want something in the new firmware update, they can possibly do it at http://www.riovolution.com/. You can also check it out on RIO's site here: http://www.digitalnetworksna.com/shop/_templates/i tem_main_Rio.asp?model=220&cat=53 Good luck
How else would he have heard about Carly Fiorina's attack on music sharing? It seems not only is she a lousy CEO but also is in the pockets of the music industry. Read and hear about the heart wrenching story of rapper 50 cents who having sold 6.5 million records this year alone now feels the need to take away some college kid's lunch and car. Or the tale of a company that for the sake of innovation is attempting to destroy everyone's freedom to innovate...
There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
most of us won't be able to afford it.
-- Lemmy
YHBT. That's not really Seth Finkelstein. It's a troll.
Who to believe? Michael trashed censorware.org . Nothing to debate.
Everyone agrees on that - even Michael.
"Seth Finklestein" is a troll impersonating Seth Finkelstein, to stir up trouble. You bit, hard.
The first real life model of the phantom game console was also show at CES. There are pictures of it at gamespot . Not sure if this is a working model or not.
Not that this wasn't entirely predictable.
You probably haven't noticed a small device that stands a chance of replacing PVRs. If you're still at CES, look for MVP by Hauppauge and check it out.
;) Hell, you can probably even watch those divx movies you downloaded off the net.
In a few words, it uses an ethernet connection to connect to a computer with the video data, then just forwards it to the TV over RCA or S-video cables.
Who needs a VCR that takes up space if you can record TV directly to your computer and then watch it on the TV in the comfort of your living room (that is, if you have one
Did you know that "FTW" ("for the win") is a direct translation of "Sieg Heil"?
after all these years maybe someone could bring an os that works
I believe that if Intel can get LCoS working properly at a low price and we get decently bright displays from LCos-based Rear-Projection TV (RPTV) units, it could finally spell the end of high-end large-screen CRT TV's (except for a few models to satisfy CRT fans) and could even threaten CRT-based RPTV's on the low end of the market.
This might be the thing that finally get the critical mass of widescreen TV's needed to deploy 16:9 ATSC-standard HDTV and get a large viewing audience. I can see two years from now LCoS-based RPTV's being available from 38" to 65" diagonal sizes in 16:9 aspect ratio at well under US$2,500 in price for the 65" model.
I think right now the thing that will drive the wide adoption of larger-screen widescreen TV's will NOT be flat-panel LCD, plasma or OLED displays for the immediate future. OLED's may have a chance once the issues of display longevity is solved--but that is still several years down the road.
The real breakthrough will be Liquid Crystal on Semiconductor (LCoS), which will offer the same advantages of DLP (namely no convergence problems and "screen burn" problems that plague CRT-based rear-projection TV's) but will likely do it at a much lower price than DLP units. Sure, LCoS TV's do have the disadvantage of needing about 6-8" of depth on the TV box, but then, it's going to be vastly cheaper than large-screen plasma displays (which are still going to be very expensive to build and also plasma TV longevity is a issue--they tend to lose picture quality after a few years).
I can envision within 24 months wide-scale availability of LCoS-based RPTV's, something that will last until OLED's finally become practical.
As far as TV, I don't think you can do better than 10' HDTV, with front-projection. Dazzling.
/. and that's what I wanted to read. I have the option of reading other reviews, but I choose this one, OK?
For a portable player, how about an IPaq running Opie? Run almost any Linux software, including GPS, contact management, SIM phone, movie player, etc in a pocket-sized computer. Yeah, it is HP, but I think the 3970 is the finest device I've ever owned. (once I tore out Winduhs and put in Opie)
I read this CES review, because it's by
Campaign finance reform is national security.
Neuros 20GB:
- Needs software like the Karma (but open source, linux version, cool dev community)
- MP3, WAV, OGG, (FLAC beta)
- Voice, radio, line-in recording to WAV, MP3
- FM tuner and Transmitter
- other Misc features (site)
IMO, you can't really have a compressed audio "jukebox" without the ability to play your music anywhere with almost any device.
The song browsing by filesystem or media library on the iHP is nice though.