Archive for January, 2008

So, at CES there’s all those zillions of big pretty tv displays, right? Well, what happens when someone gets ahold of a universal IR blaster that turns any tv off and has a field day…

Video for what Gizmodo did at CES

I don’t think they’re going to be getting any more press passes anywhere for a while…

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Gah, I think a full day of CES and one of AVN are about the limits for me. I could probably do a third day, but it would definitely be beginning to wear. Some more of the evening parties, especially the AVN Awards and Sony evening events. It’s twice now that I’ve had invites but not been able to make use of them because I didn’t stay very long.

 I’m typing this up as I’m sitting at the Vegas airport and getting ready to head back to good ol’ Ess Eff. It takes a place like Vegas and these shows to make you think that going to the Bay Area is somewhere refreshingly normal. After a morning of AVN today, I’d wandered off in search of something to eat. My first idea was to hit the concessions stand in the CES area. That brought about two realizations – first, that the CES management (as warned by some of the guards outside the CES area) loathes AVN and it’s attendees. So when you’re a double badge wearer, you want to hide your AVN badge when walking the CES floor. Second, that the CES companies set up over at the Sands (as opposed to the main Las Vegas Convention Center in all it’s monolithic splendor) are rather the poor red headed stepchild companies. Not sure if they just got their applications in late, or if the floor space was cheaper, but it was definitely not the same tenor and level of the main body of CES. So anyway, I wander back into the CES realm and find that the food at the Sands halls is very different as well. Now for our friends of the covenant, it’s nice that they have little hand written signs attached to the concessions stands informing the patrons that the food is all certified kosher by some rabbi, but it seems they also altered their menus pretty severely as well to make it work out that way. So off I went, and the one thing I will say is that the Mario Batali place in the Venetian right off the main square is FABULOUS. However warning, a pair of appetizers is quite large enough to fill most people. So if you’re there for lunch, don’t overdo it. The portions are huge, and given the name and the casino, the prices are great.

So the plane is about 20 minutes late (no biggie, I’m used to the antics that is Southwest), but I’ll start getting pictures ready for your entertainment during the flight. I wonder if anyone will be on the in-flight chat room this time around.

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Well I’d really intended to blog as the day went along, but as you can tell it got a bit crazy and I never had a chance.

So, here’s some of the day in recap.

With every year, as you walk around you get a sense of a what the main trends for a year – what the focus is on by a number of companies, and what they’re feeling is going to be the next directions in the various tech industries. It’s often not unlike the french high fashion weeks, and similar to there, often times there’s really no real humans that’ll ever wear the stuff, but it’s cut/lines/colors do set in motion a cascading effect across all price points.

for a starter, let’s chat about a great little R2 unit – actually it comes in two sizes, a large and a small version. Both are fullly operational, move, and make all the expected sound effects. The coolness factor is that the smaller model carries a built-in wireless webcam, and the larger unit is a high definition projection tv unit.

The larger model

The remote for that one

And R2 doing it’s projection routine

Here’s the smaller model and it’s remote (the sabre)

So here’s something fun, this model is wearing a fetching pink force feedback vest (it also comes with a matching helmet) for use when playing first-person shooter games. Whenever you take a hit, you feel a pressure response in the outfit in the proper are of the body. Granted it’s not as severe as the one in the game, but it does add to the experience.

Yes, the alienware wraparound monitor is cool, but it should be noticed that it’s not a flat panel, it’s a smallish tube design, so while you get the cool, it’ll also take up some desk real estate. Theres an interesting shading at edging around the screen at the wrap points, but when you’re right in front of it, you don’t notice them at all. Note to self however, you need the best dual graphics cards to really run it without chop.

What doesn’t warm one’s heart like watching three girls hand some smack talking guys their asses at Unreal Tournament?

These are some of UbiSoft’s FragDolls all-girl pro gaming squad. While they didn’t blank the guys fully, it was pretty much a knockout in the 1st round with blood on the carpet. The girls didn’t even break a sweat. It was great.

Now this little number I just thought was cool, and it was one of a series of digital paintings..

What makes this spiffy is that the frame is emitting a bose sound field of your regular japanese spa sounds of wind and water in the distance very softly, and the brushstrokes of the plants on the image move gently along with it. It’s a simple gizmo, but rather effective.

Microsoft has been pushing their at home servers this CES in a big way. That’s fine, more power to them, but this little baby I found a stack of next to the microsoft booth, and somehow it just seems so wrong…

Capturing the hugeness and awe-inspiring beauty that’s the Pioneer 150″ plasma tv is just something I wasn’t ready for. It’s not just big, it’s elegant, and sexy as hell. Looking over the faces of the audience, you could see the Menfolk all twitching at their inner caveman wanting the bigger stick.
To get an idea of scale, the presenter fellow in the shot is right at 6′ tall. Price? Why worry about such trivial things when in the presense of such majesty. You wouldn’t haggle over the price of a picasso would you? (Note: the picasso would probably be cheaper)

It’s late, and I’m tuckered, but I’ve got to end this off with the most positively bitching (and positivly inspired) piece of tech I saw all day. Yea, there’s all kinds of things out there, but this.. this was just fuck’n awsome: That would be the DLP splitter technology being shown off by Texas Instruments. Unfortunately the pic I’ve got of it will just be a blur, but that’s the glory of it. Remember the polarized lenses that you can use for getting 3d effects on monitors? one eye sees one frame, then the other sees the other interlaced? Well this is such simplicity but sooo effective. They set up the tv/plasma/monitor/whatever (they were demonstrating it on a stock plasma screen), and interlace the signal from a game, with one player seeing one thing, and the other player seeing something else. They both see a perfectly clear, no distortion image, but of the game from their own point of view. The example here is of a car racing game, both players seeing their point of view alone. Think of the end of split screens, where players shouldn’t know what the other is doing. That can finally be accomplished on one screen. As an added kick, the presenter ended one of the players games and switched to watching a dvd movie. The other player was still playing along, but both people still seeing their own thing – the movie looked great, the car game also looked perfect. Think of no more fighting for who gets to watch what show, when you could both be watchin different things at the same time on the same screen. Sorry, but I think it’s just the best thing of the show.

I think that’s about it for now, and I didn’t even get into talking about the trending of the show yet. I’ll get to that tomorrow, or maybe the next day. I fly home tomorrow (wednesday) evening, but wednesday day will be filled with AVN. Yes, I’ll get pics. But they rather all look alike after a while.

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It’s been a good day, lemmie see where to start -

Virgin America, an airline definitely working to play toe to toe with JetBlue. After so many flights with Southwest, it’s just a rock’n experience. From the newer aircraft to generally more polite staff to the really nifty in-seat entertainment systems (there’s something rather novel with the whole plane able to jump into a chat room). Though the games could use some updating (but it was kinda cool to play the original Doom once again – scary to still remember some of the levels). But the capping element was getting off the plane here in Vegas and a large red wall as you exit the gangway with big white text remind disembarking passengers “ok, now lets all get our stories straight, we’re in cincinatti, right?” Harkens back to Southwest’s early years with their tongue in cheek style.

Went to my absolutely fav place in town for dinner – to the SW Steakhouse at the Wynn. Now while it wasn’t the best meal I’d had there, it was well up there. But one thing that I think I have decided, while I LOVE Kobe, I need to take some time away (like 6 months or so). That or I just have to be completely jonsing and in the mood for that taste, otherwise it’s almost just too much. I’ll stick w/ the New Yorks, foie gras, and truffles. Its great in it’s own way, but not as… well, challenging as Kobe (Wagyu) can be sometimes.

All set to hit CES in the morning. The camera’s charged and ready to go, and I’ll be ready to report in.

As a side note, leaving the Wynn this evening, gawd but the taxi line was an hour long or so. Always rent when in Vegas, it just works out better in the long run. Both in flexibility as well as patience.

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