So the delegates have gone home, the halls are emptying and yes, Gates (and Elvis) have left the building. The gadget fest that was CES 2006 is now history. Yet before we bury it for good here's our list of the ten best gadgets to emerge at the show (in no particular order).
Remember Speck Products - the company behind the iGuy that cute little iPod holder? Well turns out the company has shed loads of iPod related stuff from see though plastic case to audio cables. The big story at CES is the forthcoming launch of the Mobile 3in1 an in car unit accompaniment for your fave Apple player. The device, which is designed to work with the nano, features an FM transmitter so you can hear the tunes on your car radio while powering it via a lead to your car's battery. There are no details on price yet.
The company also has the Mobile Tune a $59.99 transmitter for the iPod which is a great deal more stylish than most of its rivals. Both models apparently pause and power down the iPod when you pull the keys from your car and apparently recharge the iPod at twice the speed of other systems. They will be arriving in the UK soon too as Speck says that FM transmitters of this type will soon be legal here. Interesting.
Most supposedly portable DVD players are quite bulky beasts that aren't great for carrying around for long periods of time. However, Philips has come up with a new lightweight design. Essentially the PET320 looks like a traditional portable CD player, but with a 3.5inch 320 x 240 pixel screen built into the disc cover.
Expected to cost $129 in the US (UK prices to be decided), it comes with built-in stereo speakers and a composite video input. It also offers up to 2.5 hours playback with rechargeable battery. Philips also showed a 10inch portable DVD player at CES in Las Vegas. The PET1002 offers DivX, MPEG4 playback and boasts five hour battery life. It will retail in the US for $399. Philips
Here's one that's sure to get those Shiny Shiny laydeez excited: a pink Solio. Originally only available in white, the Solio now comes in two different finishes of the girl-friendly colour. As you may remember, the iSolio is an environmentally-friendly gadget that uses solar power to keep your iPod charged up (it recently scooped second place for Hippy Shopper's Green Gadget of the year award ). At CES iSolio also showed special jackets made out of inner tube tyres found from landfill sites. Solio
British smart fabric firm Eleksen are an interesting company (and not just because they gave us a free bag with built in iPod controls for visiting their stand at CES in Las Vegas, one of the better freebies at the show). Eagle-eyed readers may remember they produced the controls for the O'Neill solar bag which we featured on sister site Hippy Shopper recently. Now they've come up with a foldable Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard which you can use with your smart phone/PDA.
Practise your golf swing at home without endangering the lives of any family members or pets. A golf simulation game, Launchpad is now available for the PS2 as well as the PC, priced 149 pounds. It's compatible with a number of golfing games including Tiger Woods Golf, Microsoft Links and Sony HotShots Golf 4. It works by using a series of eight opti cal sensors on the supplied green and you can use it conjunction with any of your golf clubs
Announced alongside the XPS 600 Renegade über-PC is this: the Dell 3007WFP, which threatens to do the same for monitors as the Renegade is meant to do for gaming. Admittedly this kind of hardware is probably going to be found in 3D graphics design studios rather than sitting on the average computer user's desktop, but it is still pretty exciting. It is capable of resolutions up to 2560 x 1600, though for that you'll a special kind of graphics card that supports WQXGA, and despite its immense size still offers a none too shabby 700:1 contrast ratio and 11ms response time. Amazingly this beauty is already up on the Dell website to buy, albeit for the princely sum of $2,199.
via I4U
Having used a Gyration mouse with a Media Center PC recently, I can vouch for the fact that they're a pretty neat innovation. This Windows-licensed remote control is therefore another step in the right direction if it can offer the decent mouse pointer precision of Gyration technology and the easy functionality of Windows Media Center controls all on the same device. Details are a little bit scarce but what we know is that it has a range of 100 feet, can be programmed to control other home appliances using infrared and will cost around $149 when it launches in April.
via Gizmodo
More CES Media Center news
Dell's 20 inch notebook
Intel announces deal with Google
Mid-way through 2005, these PhysX cards seemed set to be the next big thing in PC gaming. Then, perhaps in part due to their association with the woeful Bet On Soldier title, they seemed to just drop off the map. Now they're back and still touting the same graphical performance leap as before and with the possibility of actually going on sale in the near future. For a quick recap, the AEGIA PhysX card takes over the complicated physics processing normally handled by your CPU and GPU, basically freeing up the two to give you not only an improved frame rate in games, but also dramatically enhanced physical events that greatly improves realism. They should be on sale sometime in the first quarter of this year.
via The Inquirer
More gaming news over at our sister site Games Digest
Obviously a projector so large that it looks like it could quite happily double up as a component of the planet-destroying Death Star Superlaser isn't made for private consumption; however these Sony SRX-R110s digital theatre projectors are set to start sweeping through cinemas across the US this year. Though you may not be able to actually own one you can at least enjoy its 4,096 x 2,160 resolution, 10,000 ANSI lumens and 2000:1 contrast ration in 2 hour long snippets (or 3 ½ hours if Peter Jackson is involved) at the pictures. Although it's about time for an upgrade to the existing projector standard, there has been the slight problem of convincing both movie theatres and production companies to support this rather massive technological shift. However, the first film to do so is due out later this month and is called Bubbles.
via Gizmodo
Just as I was complaining of the lack of robots at CES there comes word the latest evolution of the increasingly popular Robosapien series. This next-gen version is called the RS2 Media and offers enhanced programming abilities as well as a 320 x 160 LCD display and a removable memory card slot. The robot's head cam can record 13-15 fps MPEG4 videos which can then be stored on to the SD card and you can teach the device new movements by positioning the limbs as you want them then saving the sequence. The idea is that you'll be able to give your robot even more of its own personality than before and it comes with a host of software to help achieve that. Removable memory is seen as they key to this latest step.
via engadget
There hasn't been that much in the way of toys or robots at the show so it's nice to see a big name wheeling out some neat robotic accessories. I say accessory because what LEGO has really done, rather than just make a cybernetic companion, is give you the chance to design and build your own. At the heart of it all is the NXT brick (it's the thing that looks a bit like an iPod) which contains and autonomous 32-bit LEGO processor.
Programs can now be uploaded wirelessly via Bluetooth and the NXT kit has a host of extra features including a new ultrasonic sensor to let you robot see, sound sensor for voice commands and a set of 18 'challenges' to help users from the age of 10 to get to know the system's abilities so that they can eventually come up with original ideas like some of those shown at CES. The MINDSTORMS NXT is going on sale from August for an RRP of $249.99 or if you can't wait, you can apply on the website to be among 100 lucky enthusiasts who will get a kit in February.
The new MSI MEGA VIEW 591 seems like more of a portable TV than a personal video player as it doesn't appear to have any internal memory. It does however support SD/MMC card memory with MPEG4 compatibility. It has an external antenna jack to boost its own internal DVB-T antenna and it supports an electronic programming guide. The screen is a 4.2" LCD although it can handily be output to a TV too. All this leaves the 591 feeling a little poor in features but that might not matter if the price is right.
The MP3 player offering looks a bit more exciting; these consist of the MEGA PLAYER 554 and 555 which offer 8GB to 10GB microDrive storage space, MP3 and WMA playback only and FM radio. The screens are 1.8" LCDs which you can use to view JPEG photos but not MPEG4s. Looks-wise they are reasonably appealing but their lack of features is a bit of a let down. Again this could be somewhat cured by a low price but no details are out yet. MSI usually bring their AV stuff to the UK so hopefully we'll see thme both soon.
More MP3 players at CES
iPod style pendant player
Ziclay SlideKey MP3 player
Skype and VoIP in general have been big themes this year and there's a lot of 'Skype Phones' kicking about. Technically I suppose this offering from Netgear, purveyor of a huge amount of networking products, has a little more right to that title than most others given that it is not dependent on a PC to work and is in fact a stand-alone phone. All you need to use it is a wireless internet connection and a Skype account, then you enter your details into your handset and make free calls. It also looks pretty smart although you would probably get it confused with your mobile pretty quickly. All SkypeOut functionality works fine too. No word on pricing or availability just yet.
More VoIP at CES
Skype partners up for new products
The coolest VoIP gadget of the show
Two very decent looking media players have emerged in the LG booth excitingly known as the FM30 and PM70. Details are a bit scarce at the moment but they both certainly look the part. The FM30 is a normal flash DAP with the colour screen and slim design that we're starting to see so many of. Needless to say, on top of the usual selection of audio format compatibility (with the notable inclusion of Ogg Vorbis), it can play MPEG4 videos. Just like an iRiver U10 really but with a very impressive 60 hours of battery life.
A bit more interesting but with even fewer details is the PM70; it is a PVR run by the new Windows Portable Media Center so it can record videos straight off the telly. Its Windows origins will also give you the chance to perform other tasks such as Outlook synchronisation. There's a TV out put as well but it's a bit unclear as to what audio/video formats are supported and there are some fears that Microsoft's hand in the device may limit its compatibility to Windows Media files but nothing is certain yet. More details as they emerge.
via DAPReview
More personal audio
Samsung and SanDisk launch their nano beaters
Philips' new MP3 player
The great game of who's-got-the-biggest, um... telly was played once more at CES this year. Panasonic came out as winner wielding a 103 inch monster plasma, beating Samsung's previous 102 inch effort. This prototype unit offered 1080p HD high speed pixel drive and overcame the technical challenge of ensuring that the image quality remained uniform across the whole 2,269 x 1,267 x 2,603 mm viewing area. It also achieved a contrast ratio of 3,000:1. So will we see 100+ inch plasma screens on store shelves in the near future? Probably not. But who knows, we may get to see a 105 inch screen next year...
Pic via engadget
More CES TVs
Philips ambilight TVs
LG TVs with hard disk
The original Pepper Pad showed up early last year and proved to be an interesting piece of kit. It uses a custom Linux operating system, now becoming common in internet browsing gadgets such as the Nokia 770, and looks durable enough to be lost down the back of a sofa without too much risk. The Pepper Pad Plus now uses 802.11g wireless technology as well as Bluetooth and infrared which also means you can make it double up as a programmable remote control. Further features include a 30GB hard disk to keep you music, videos and pics on and this enhanced version now claims to have improved battery power by 60 percent. The new software also includes VoIP technology as well as Windows Media 9 Series audio and video and Universal Plug and Play which allows for direct streaming other devices like PCs. Anyone skilled in using Linux could also stand to get a lot more fun out of one of these too. The Pepper Pad Plus should be available sometime later in 2006, no prices yet but the woman on the stand said that UK buyers could grab one via the company's website. Btw Nokia has sold out out of its 770 web tablet which suggests to us there might be a market for this type of device.
More CES computing
Cybernet PC within a keyboard
Google PC rumours
In answer to Palm's Treo 700w, this is Samsung's take on the smartphone. It is also powered by Windows Mobile and incorporates EVDO technology. The screen is slightly less impressive than Palm's device, offering a 2.8" 65k colour touch-screen with a resolution of 240 x 320. It does have a pretty nifty sliding keyboard action which is always nice but has a notable lack of camera. Still, that can only be good for those who work for one of the increasing number of companies that are discouraging phone cameras and should make it easier to blag one off your boss. The i830 will be launched stateside on January 12th but there's no pricing or UK launch details yet.
via Gizmodo
More smartphone news
Palm announces Windows based Treo
Speaker dock for smartphones
The incredibly cool Sonos wireless music system has enhanced its range by introducing a slightly smaller version of its ZonePlayer. Unlike the bulkier ZP100, this ZP80 has dimensions of 136.0 x 136.8 x 74.0 mm and comes without a built-in amp. This acknowledges the fact that many people will already have existing Hi-Fi systems (especially if you have the cash to blow on a Sonos) so it isn't always the best solution to let your ZonePlayer take over all the amplifying duties. The ZP80 offers all the usual ZonePlayer abilities including a huge list of digital audio format support, internet radio streaming, analogue auto-detecting line-in connections, plus added compatibility for audio services Rhapsody 3.0 and Audible. The fact that it costs over a hundred quid less than the ZP100 makes the Sonos system a little more reasonable in price. The new ZP80 goes for £269 and will start shipping in spring.
More CES wireless goodies
MicroLink dLAN Audio
Linksys internet security camera
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