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.

Comments

Day 0?

[Neil Blender]

Oh, now I get it. Nerds.

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.

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?

Re:U3

[stratjakt]

If you have an autorun.inf file on the media, Windows (if configured to do so) will read it and do what it says.

I know it works with removable USB hard drives, we have various demos setup on usb drives, so all our dopey marketing folk have to do is plug it in to their laptop, and it starts up.

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.

Cell phone TV

[nizo]

Great, now people can not only talk on the phone, but also watch tv on their cell phone while they drive.

Do they have:

[AtariAmarok]

Do they have:

Digital cameras that act as cell phones?

Handheld gameboy clones that play MP3s?

Mp3 players that play videogames?

Cell phones that play MP3's?

Cell phones that play videogames?

Mp3 players that take digital pictures?

Gameboys that make phone calls?

If I left off any of the the ridiculous convergence that makes up so much of tech buzz these days, let me know.

Re:Do they have:

[Speare]

I swear, Brookstone and Sharper Image share this business model: they make a huge grid chart with every geek gadget labeling each row, and every yuppie gadget labeling each column. They then produce a Taiwanese product that implements each intersecting grid. Mix most combinations of golfball-caddy, hammock-pole, grill-fork, lawn-lamp, wine-caddy with phone-minder, address-book, usb-stick, music-player, calculator. Now you get the picture.

How about THINGS YOU CAN STICK YOUR IPOD IN?

[stratjakt]

Like, your ass.

Apps launching from USB

[davidwr]

Gee, we've had apps launching from CDs and before that floppies since, what, before 1980?

Seriously, I wish more vendors would put "try me"/no-install versions of their apps on their distribution media, so I could use my apps without the bother of installing.

Day 0

[AtariAmarok]

All: Day-0, day-ay-ay-0
All: Bill Gates come and he wanna go home
All: Day, he say day, he say day, he say day,
All: He say day, he say day-ay-ay-o
All: Microsoft come and he wanna go home

Boys: Hack all night on a drink a'rum
Girls: Daylight come and he wanna go home
Boys: Hack manana till thee morning come
Girls: Bill gates come and he wanna go home

Fanless media center?

[Anonymous Coward]

In the /. world, Microsoft's media center is already fanless.

use my dads method:

[geekoid]

me: "Are we there yet? I'm bored!"
dad: "yes, get out."

What it's all about

[buckhead_buddy]

If you take the worlds of television, telecom, games and music, and then remove content, you wind up with the consumer electronics show. Despite what you may be assuming, I think the inteligence level goes up quite a bit once content is removed. I envision telecom devices having fascinating conversations with my sister in Uganda rather than listening to telemarketers. I recall television products replaying some of my favorite cancelled shows rather than endless hours of mind-numbing nonsense.

I find it a bit disheartening that so much of the success of these products will depend on the success or failure of the content. Finally, when I heard Conan's lame double entendres about flacid penises (as in the Microsoft intro) that shook me out of my interest in what was presented at this convention. More and more I'm coming to the conclusion that products that allow the common man to produce content are far more interesting, revolutionary, and important than the evolutionary products shown at the Consumer Electronics Show to allow you to consume the content of others. The products at CES that catch my eye are ones that allow me to create or enojy the creations of others, unfortunately I think I'll see more of that sort of thing at NAB in April than I've seen at CES so far.

Please, tell me that I'm wrong and point out some great consumptive and productive tech that's made its debut.

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

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

I can beat that.

[Rimbo]

Let me tell you about a guy with an MBA from Harvard I know who grew up in Midland, Texas -- aka the Ass End of Nowhere. He was absolutely brilliant, particularly with human relationships.

Now if you spoke to this guy, you'd never believe he graduated from college, much less got through grad school at the finest institution of higher education in the USA. He actually used that to his advantage. I saw him do this time and time again... he'd slip into the backwards Texas drawl, mess up some word or speech on purpose, and then people would think, "Oh, what a stupid hick." Of course, at this point, they were at his mercy, just like the lady and the vendor in the tale you describe.

Only this guy one-upped your gal and then some. He became President of the United States this way.

Twice.