标签: las vegas

I am not at CES – the Consumer Electronics Show – in Las Vegas this year, but it doesn’t seem to matter any longer whether you are physically at a major event or not – it’s now possible to follow the entire proceedings via the web and social media.  With web feeds from key magazines and newspapers, virtual press offices, Twitter, LinkedIn and FourSquare, I am constantly bombarded with newsbytes of what someone is doing or what new technology or gadget has been launched. Utilization of the latest electronics technology for real world applications has always excited me, which is probably why I studied electronics but went straight into journalism after graduating. While others designed new systems and chips, I wrote about them. So what’s caught my eye in the last couple of days?  Here’s a selection of what I have seen – ranging from the fun to the useful, plus some market indicators.   This is just a snapshot – I’ve gone into them in full on my personal blog. ‘Quadricopter’ for augmented reality video games piloted by Wi-Fi: One of the demos that impressed many at last year’s CES was the flying quadricopter powered by an iPhone app.  This year, the company that makes it, Parrot , is showing the final version of the Parrot AR.Drone quadricopter for augmented reality gaming –  where you pilot the device using wireless via your iPhone or iPad.   3D without glasses – TV, picture frame, and PC, all in 3D Stream TV Networks announced a new line of eLocity 3D Without Glasses devices at CES, including TVs, digital picture frame and the 3D desktop computer. The company says it is a technological breakthrough with resolution that surpasses all the other 3D display products. These products will all be available to consumers by Q4 of 2011. Wet iPhone, iPad, smartphone, and tablet emergency kit The video that goes with this announcement dunks a phone in water and shows how it can be dried with an emergency kit available to purchase for about US$ 30. This new kit has hyperfast dry time and a patent pending absorption chamber that dries wet cell phones in as little as six  hours. 3G connected blood glucose meters Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM) and Telcare  Incorporated announced plans to integrate Qualcomm’s wireless Internet of Everything Module (IEM) into the Telcare 3GM™ blood glucose meter being developed by Telcare. Telcare 3GM, currently in prototype phase, is designed to transfer blood glucose readings to a patient’s family members or physician with each test.   Asus Eee Pad and Eee Slate (claimed to be ‘the most powerful tablet ever’) ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih introduced a family of four new tablet/slate products . The Eee Pad MeMO has a 7-inch capacitive screen powered by the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ mobile processor and will ship with Android® 3.0 (Honeycomb) featuring HD playback capabilities, mobile gaming, an exciting Web experience and is accompanied by a stylus pen for taking handwritten notes. Tablets and the decline of PCs Tablets seem to be all the rage at this year’s CES. In addition to the Asus announcement, there were also announcements of tablets from Wacom and Netbook Navigator, among others in the last day.  Supporting the tablet theme, an Accenture  (NYSE: ACN) survey predicts that consumer purchase rates for personal computers and mobile phones (excluding smartphones) will decline by 39 percent and 56 percent this year compared with last year, respectively. By contrast, buying rates of 3DTVs are expected to rise 500 percent; tablet computers 160 percent; ebook readers 133 percent; and smartphones 26 percent. Storage standard: we’ve had USB, now we’ll have USM for portable storage The Serial ATA International Organization ( SATA-IO ) announced it is developing the SATA Universal Storage Module (USM™) specification for portable storage applications. The USM specification will enable developers to incorporate slots into televisions, game consoles, set-top boxes, computers, docking stations and other consumer electronics applications that will accept powered, cable free storage modules with integrated standard powered SATA interfaces for expanding storage capacity with an external storage module. That’s all for now. I’ll update this if anything else catches my eye in the next few days from CES..

I am not attendig CES in Las Vegas this year , but this doesn’t seem to matter any longer whether you are physically at a major event or not – it’s now possible to follow the entire proceedings via the web and social media.  With web feeds from key magazines and newspapers, virtual press offices, Twitter, LinkedIn and FourSquare, I am constantly bombarded with newsbytes of what someone is doing or what new technology or gadget has been launched. Utilization of the latest electronics technology for real world applications has always excited me, which is probably why I studied electronics but went straight into journalism after graduating. While others designed new systems and chips, I wrote about them. So what’s caught my eye in the last couple of days?  Here’s a selection of what I have seen – ranging from the fun to the useful, plus some market  indicators. ‘Quadricopter’ for augmented reality video games piloted by Wi-Fi: One of the demos that impressed many at last year’s CES was the flying quadricopter powered by an iPhone app.  This year, the company that makes it, Parrot , is showing the final version of the Parrot AR.Drone quadricopter for augmented reality gaming –  where you pilot the device using wireless via your iPhone or iPad.  3D without glasses – TV, picture frame, and PC, all in 3D Stream TV Networks announced a new line of eLocity 3D Without Glasses devices at CES, including TVs, digital picture frame and the 3D desktop computer. The company says it is a technological breakthrough with resolution that surpasses all the other 3D display products. These products will all be available to consumers by Q4 of 2011. Wet iPhone, iPad, smartphone, and tablet emergency kit The video that goes with this announcement dunks a phone in water and shows how it can be dried with an emergency kit available to purchase for about US$ 30. The new technology from DRY-ALL absorbs all of the moisture in your phone quickly, allowing the phone to continue working as normal without losing your valuable information.  This new kit has hyperfast dry time and a patent pending absorption chamber that dries wet cell phones in as little as six  hours. 3G connected blood glucose meters Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM) and Telcare Incorporated announced plans to integrate Qualcomm’s wireless Internet of Everything Module (IEM) into the Telcare 3GM™ blood glucose meter being developed by Telcare. Telcare 3GM, currently in prototype phase, is designed to transfer blood glucose readings to a patient’s family members or physician with each test.  ”One in 10 American adults today has diabetes, and experts estimate the disease’s prevalence could triple in the next 40 years,” said Jonathan Javitt, Telcare’s CEO. “Using Qualcomm’s IEM technology, we are developing Telcare 3GM as an evolutionary leap beyond today’s glucose meters. Asus Eee Pad and Eee Slate (claimed to be ‘the most powerful tablet ever’) ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih introduced a family of four new tablet/slate products. The Eee Pad MeMO has a 7-inch capacitive screen powered by the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ mobile processor and will ship with Android® 3.0 (Honeycomb) featuring HD playback capabilities, mobile gaming, an exciting Web experience and is accompanied by a stylus pen for taking handwritten notes. The Eee Pad Transformer and Eee Pad Slider are equipped with 10.1” IPS touchscreens, NVIDIA® Tegra™ 2 mobile processor technology and will ship with Android® 3.0. The Transformer comes with a docking option that incorporates a QWERTY keyboard and serves as a battery extension station for up-to 16 hours of non-stop computing. The Slider is equipped with a sliding keyboard. Tablets and the decline of PCs Tablets seem to be all the rage at this year’s CES. In addition to the Asus announcement, there were also announcements of tablets from Wacom and Netbook Navigator, among others in the last day.  Supporting the tablet theme, an Accenture  (NYSE: ACN) survey predicts that consumer purchase rates for personal computers and mobile phones (excluding smartphones) will decline by 39 percent and 56 percent this year compared with last year, respectively. By contrast, buying rates of 3DTVs are expected to rise 500 percent; tablet computers 160 percent; ebook readers 133 percent; and smartphones 26 percent. ———- For more on all of these, visit my personal blog.