I take a hands on look at the new Samsung MP3 players - the K3 and the T9, the latter of which will shortly be available with Bluetooth built in. Until then, they have the fact that they're pretty on their side.
Surfing would be great fun if it didn't involve quite so much getting wet in the sea, don't you think? Thankfully, Prosepra has the answer. Although better known for its massage chairs - more of which later - it's also got a marvellous device called weSurf, which mimics the motion of a surfboard, developing and strengthening your muscles.
Actually, you could pretend it's a snowboard or skateboard if you like. Obviously, I would have had a go, but I was still a bit sore from the Giddyup horse gadget. So the friendly man on the Prosepra stand leapt on to show me how it works. Look at his legs wobble!
USB gadgets were huge in 2006, whether you looked on gadget sites like Firebox and Iwantoneofthose, or in high-street shops like Argos. US firm Dream Link targets all of those retailers, and had a new gadget on show at CES.
The roll-up chess set connects to your PC, and has sensors in each of the board squares which let the companion application know what pieces you're moving where. You can play against the computer, and it records your game and gives hints on demand. Or you can just play a friend, and have the program record it for posterity.
You get a warning sound if you try to make an illegal move, but the coolest feature is an online multiplayer mode, although I didn't get to see how you get matched up with other users. In the US, the set costs $35-40. So far, Argos is the only UK retailer that's committed to selling it, in either the Spring or Summer.
Before you go any further, I should point out that I am officially short. Saying that, there's no two ways - this screen is bloody enormous at 120". Thankfully, Sharp can hang onto their title of largest LCD for a little while longer, as this is a rear projection screen. This makes it slightly more cumbersome, at 40" deep, but still comes fully souped up with 1080p HD and 10,000:1 contrast ratio. But never mind that, we really just wanted to show you the ridiculous size of it. Unless you've got the spare $50,000?
While stumbling wide-eyed through CES' gigantic South Hall, I ended up watching a demo of an interesting piece of software. Actually I was looking for the Belkin booth and got lost somewhere along the way. The software is called Network Magic and it aims to simplify home networking by managing all your PCs and printers.
Like most geeks I tend to tackle phantom network problems with a dismissive wave and a "that'll take me five minutes, no problem". And usually, after a torrent foul language and some loud pleeding to a higher being, I emerge an hour or two later spitting venom and cursing Windows and everyone involved in its development. Therefore Network Magic seems pretty appealing simply as a stress reliver.
The new Mac beta version of the software is the real news, although I only got to see it run on Windows XP, but I expect that it all works in pretty much the same way. You get a very straight-forward user friendly interface that maps out your network with all your various computers and printers displayed.
Samsung had a couple of CDMA phones on display on their stand, and of course, no one's sure if they're going to ever make it to the UK. Still, they both look flash, although why you'd ever want 10 megapixels in a camera phone god only knows. Really in depth photos of your mates down the pub perhaps?
Look, I'm a bit confused by this gadget, so I'll just quote the text on the sign next to it in full: "Personal private washing machine for ladies. For your beloved babies. For your beloved pets. For students."
I can't imagine you can actually put a baby in there, so I assume that means baby clothes and/or nappies. But pets? A chihuahua might fit, but I don't fancy your chances of squeezing a doberman in. Or a student. Still, it's made by Technosonic, and comes in blue/white or yellow/white versions. See it in action below.
You know when your computer goes arse over tit and you do a clean install, then can't find half of your driver CDs, and are forced to spend several hours trawling company support sites looking for the right driver software? That could soon be a thing of the past (for printers anyway). A new technology called DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) is a future alternative, possibly a replacement, to Universal Plug and Play, aka UPnP.
Where as UPnP lets you attach devices to any machine, but then requires you to install the appropriate drivers, DLNA will make everything work as soon as it is attached, without any further intervention from yourself. Although this currently happens on a smaller scale with things like USB thumbdrives, the demonstration showed the technology working by simply plugging a printer into a network connection. A Bluetooth USB dongle was attached to the DLNA demo machine and that meant we were able to print photos straight off with to a newly attached printer without a moment spent configuring software.
Digital photography has mercifully seen an end to the need to have hoards of prints piling up in a drawer somewhere while you half-heartedly try to get round to putting them in an album. But actually displaying your pics can still a bit of a problem - that is unless you have a digital photo frame. Kodak has announced a new selection of EASYSHARE Digital Picture Frames that get your pics off your computer and actually let other people see them.
The technology inside these is really neat; all four models, the 7" SV710, 8" SV811, 8" EX811 and 10"EX1011 have 128MB internal memory, USB port, memory card slot compatible with most memory card types and they will also take photos straight from your home PC. The EX811 and EX1011 also have WiFi connectivity. If your house has WiFi internet access, they can even connect up to your Kodak gallery and display your stored pics.
Kat's at CES showing off Toshiba's rather good looking vista-ready tablet PC, complete with Apple-esque 'swooshes' when you minimise. Bill Gates loves it...but do we?
Kodak has unveiled the latest in its EASYSHARE lineup - the V1003 and V803, which offer 10 and 8 megapixel resolutions respectively. Make sure you check out our video on the turn for a hands on view. With these models, Kodak is keen to push the personalisation aspects of photography - so you can get the cameras in a wide range of ridiculously named colours including pink bliss, red shimmer, cosmic blue, mystic purple, golden dream, white glaze, silver essence, slate gray and java black. They even come with some funky beady thingies that you hang off the side to give your camera a bit of a bohemian feel.
Each now sports a new maximum ISO sensitivity of 1600 as well as 22 scene modes, VGA video recording with on-screen editing, and a 2.5" LCD for viewfinding. You can also mark your best pics as a Favourite and, according to their PR person, that stores them on the internal memory and "makes it extremely hard to delete them". Presumably she meant to add 'by accident'.
It's not a brand new product, but the Tres Bien by Fresh Seat was still attracting its fair share of attention in CES' South Hall today. It's a 'bidet seat' - a loo seat that does the job of a bidet (that job being squirting warm water up your jacksie at a temperature and intensity of your choice). It comes with a wall-mounted remote control for easy operation, and costs around $1,000 in the US.
"Because people can now talk about what goes on in their bathroom, and how they want to be more hygienic, people are really starting to talk about this and say hey, this is pretty nice!" says Rebecca Majoros, sales and marketing representative for maker Takagi.
"I like to use the analogy that if you go out and work in your yard, are you gonna wipe your hands on a paper towel, or are you gonna wash them? You're gonna wash them! So why should the rest of your body be treated any different?"
Hear hear!
Criminals don't look half as rugged when they're rolling around the floor in agony after being Tasered by the cops. And they look even more rubbish when the cause is a PINK Taser gun.
At least, I assume that's the thinking behind the Taser C2, which comes in a fetching metallic pink edition, as well as the more manly black pearl, electric blue and titanium silver versions.
Still, the device has a range of 15 feet, can last for up to 50 firings before needing a recharge, comes with an optional laser sight, and requires a background check before you're allowed to buy one, so you don't use it to hold up your local supermarket.
While nosing around the Taiwanese section of CES, I found iMTC's stand, where one of the key products was a Bluetooth MP3 watch (although its official name is the less obvious iM-MP-2220B).
It comes with 128MB to 1GB of internal memory depending which one you buy, and can stream music via Bluetooth to a set of wireless speakers or Bluetooth headphones. The watch can handle MP3 and WMA files, is water resistant, and is shockproof to ensure your tunes don't jump when you do.
Obviously, you can't stream Bluetooth music with a regular watch battery, so the device includes a built-in Lithium ion rechargeable battery, and a USB connector to recharge it. No news on possible distribution in Europe, sadly, but it's surely only a matter of time.
Even the humble alarm clock is getting connected these days. We've written about WidgetStation before, but I took the opportunity to get hands on with it at CES. It's a desk clock with two 2.5-inch LCD screens side-by-side. On the left, there's a mono screen which displays the time, and data like the weather, a calendar and a world clock if desired.
But on the right, there's a colour screen which displays a number of 'widgets' - small applications that you download from maker Emtrace Technologies' website, which can pull in data from the internet via a Wi-Fi, Ethernet or USB connection. Example widgets include news, webcam feeds, stock shares, internet radio stations, and even services like Flickr or Google News.
You can create your own widgets too, and share them with other WidgetStation users, while Emtrace plans to come up with a constant stream of them itself too. The WidgetStation won't go on sale until the second half of 2007, and although the price hasn't been fixed yet, it'll be less than $300 in the US. European distribution will hopefully follow later, says the company.
It wouldn't be CES without the odd pair of futuristic video-playing eyeglasses. And right on cue, how about the myvu personal media viewer, which is out in a Made for iPod edition?
It's compatible with 30GB, 60GB and 80GB iPods, and promises a battery life of up to eight hours watching TV shows, music videos, podcasts and films from your iPod. It also acts as a hard case for your iPod, and even comes with a car adapter. I don't think you're supposed to use it while driving, mind.
myvu costs just under $300 in the US, although no news on whether it'll come to the UK, I'm afraid. I can tell you that it works well, with fairly comfortable earphones. I'd still feel a bit self-conscious wearing it in public, though. But if you're keen to surf the futuristic video wave (i.e. you don't mind looking like a Star Trek extra), it's cool.
Horses rule, but I'm a bit scared of them. If only there was a way to get the health and fitness benefits of riding a horse, without the horse part. WAIT! THERE IS! It's called the Giddyup, and it's ace. A company called Sunpentown is showing it at CES, and it's due on sale in the US later this month.
The idea is that you sit on it, and it works your abs, back and legs. You can alter the speed to give yourself a harder workout too. Previous versions have been available in Asia, but this is the first time it's come West, initially to the US, although sales representative Andrew Nakano says there's no reason why it wouldn't come out in Europe.
In the US, it'll cost $599. Did I have a go on it? Of course I did. Watch the results below.
HP has unveiled a new concept PC for home users in the form of the TouchSmart IQ770. It is clearly designed with multiple users and a family environment in mind: its custom SmartCenter software acts as a sort of home page with organisational tools that make use of the large 19" touchscreen. You can leave notes for on SmartCalendar - a sort of fridgedoor like environment - and you can write them simply by running your fingers across the screen (there's also a stylus secerted in the top).
The design looks a bit funky as the screen rotates, raises and lowers to let shorter/younger uses get easier access. It doen't fold away exactly, but it can be tucked back slightly to keep it out of the way. The wireless keyboard can also slide in underneath into its own slot. At the rear there is a space designed specifically for compact HP PhotoSmart photo printers and the position there means that printed pics slide out of the front. Adapted PhotoSmart software is also aimed to resemble to an in-store photo booth.
So, the Apple iPhone has finally been announced (read all about it here if you're still in the dark). So what does this mean for existing mobile phone makers? I just interviewed Nokia's vice president of Nseries Computers Pekka Pohjakallio at CES, and here's what he had to say, having spent the morning receiving text messages from Nokia's spies watching Steve Jobs' speech.
"I think it confirms our story," he says. "We have been preaching the message of converged multimedia in one device, with lots of use cases and a good experience for the whole life of Nseries. And now Apple have come and said basically the same thing, even if they have implemented some things differently.
"It just confirms our message, and it's good to have others preaching the same message. The best company will win in the end, so I think it's good news for us. It's not a threat, although of course it's hard competition, but that usually makes you perform better yourself."
Honda unveiled their newest Asimo robot at CES today, and he showed off some sweet moves, including running the length of the stage, running in circles, dancing, playing football and going up and down stairs. Here's four videos showing it.
First up, Sporty Asimo. He can play football, run like an athlete (a slow one), and even run in circles - which is really hard for a robot to do, trust us.
From: A fifth of Brits regret buying an iPhone