CES gadget round-up
- 11 Jan 07, 11:39 PM
The Consumer Electronics Show has closed its doors for another year.
We round-up some of the gadgets and devices which caught our eye as we wandered around the three million square feet of show floor, and playing with a few of the estimated 20,000 products on show.
Motofone
It lacks net access, you can’t play your music on it, there’s no way it will play video and it’s not even 3G – so why is the Motofone in our gadget round-up?
Simple - the Motofone is Motorola’s phone for what they call “developing markets”. In other words, the Motofone is designed for countries like India and China.
It will cost around $35 and sports a screen using cutting edge technology called ClearVision, which is designed to be cheap and durable.
The phone also has a user interface with voice prompts in local languages and is extremely well designed.
It looks desirable - forget whether this is a dumbed-down phone for the developing world; it’s simply a sexy phone.
Netgear Digital Entertainer HD
CES is filled with solutions to get your media on a PC to your TV but one of the most interesting was Netgear’s Digital Entertainer.
The device will access your library of content on a PC and Mac and let you control it via a remote control on your TV. It can output in high definition - at a higher resolution than Apple’s TV device - and can also play protected Windows media files - which is useful if you’re a Napster user.
The device has an elegant on-TV screen interface which makes searching for media very easy and it can pull content from services such as You Tube and BitTorrent on to your big screen and provide RSS feeds and weather information direct from the net.
It can also pull content from home servers and MP3 players like the iPod can be plugged in to it.
If your Windows PC has a TV tuner you can use the Netgear device to schedule and then playback recordings.
The one criticism is that the wi-fi in the machine is only .11g standard - which is not fast enough to wirelessly stream high definition video.
It will go on sale in the US for about $349.
Samsung FP-T5894W
Televisions and CES are a match made in heaven. Beautiful, bright displays dominate the central hall and typically the battle is to have the biggest screen on show.
But one screen in particular caught the eye - a TV which receives all its audio and video inputs wirelessly from a separate device.
Instead of having to have your amplifier, Xbox, DVD player etc all attached directly to the display, causing unsightly wires, the Samsung TV has a separate “base station” which accepts all those connections.
That information is sent over a built-in, high-speed wireless network to the TV directly, which will then display the video in glorious 1080p high definition. That base station can be up to 300 feet away from the screen - but that would mean a long walk everytime you want to change the DVD or play a different game.
Annoyingly, it only comes in a 58-inch model, so unless you have about $6,000 to spare, you won’t have a wire free solution just yet.
And of course, the machine still has at least one unsightly wire - the power cable.
Novint Falcon
All manner of gaming peripherals were on show at this year’s CES - from luxury gaming chairs to virtual reality headsets.
Actually, CES always has firms showing off virtual reality headsets and few of them are any good!
The Falcon is described by its maker as “the first controller that makes high-fidelity interactive three dimensional touch possible and practical for consumer computing applications".
What this means is that you plug it into your PC and it gives you 3D control of your character/vehicle/weapon etc and you also get feedback from the device if you collide with anything, or get shot.
It is almost like the wired version of a Wii-mote in that you get intuitive control, with dynamic feedback but without the wireless freedom.
CES is also filled with the bizarre and the cute...
Baby baby
Toy company Hasbro and digital media firm Creative have formed an alliance to create a series of MP3 players for babies; yes, babies.
The PlaySkool device is not designed so that you put headphones into your babies ears - that would be dangerous - but rather it’s an ordinary looking baby toy with a slot to add the Creative-made MP3 player and then the music plays through the toy.
Wi-fi rabbit
If there’s one gadget missing from your life, then perhaps it’s the wi-fi rabbit.
The Nabaztag is a cute piece of hardware that connects to your wi-fi network and then springs to life - delivering spoken news, SMS messages, RSS feeds and even notifications when your friends have uploaded new photos to Flickr.
The software side to the device is open source so people are encouraged to deliver new applications for it. It costs $170.
Ring ring
One of the strangest gadgets I came across was a door bell and intercom system that is connected via internet protocol - so the intercom voice data is carried across a network and the door bell can connect to a PC or other device to retrieve MP3 files as the chime of your choice.
And the cost? $1,100 to you.
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Netgear? Nabaztag which came out six months ago? Motorola and its notoriously bad phone interfaces? A ridiculously overpriced door bell? Is this really the best that CES had to offer us?
Nabaztag is the best one here but as I said is six months old, and its a long way from providing us that internet interface away from a screen. Its still a prototype essentially. Poor picks.
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I'm sorry you think that. Three of them were either CES award winners or nominees.
But it's in the eye of the beholder....
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Too much money for a wi-fi bunny.
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The CES show has been completely overshadowed and dwarfed by the Macworld conference and most certainly the announcement of the iphone. Not a Mac user only having an ipod personaly, so still indiferent about the Mac / Microsoft nonsense, everyone I have spoken to in the past few days are talking about the iphone.It must be the most read news artcile both internet, blogg and normal media format. This device is the true winner this week and by a long shot.
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I have owned a Wi-Fi rabbit for nearly a year now. They are superb, everybody asks "whats that", "what does it do". Very good talking point. Don't hurt the bunny.
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MP3 players for babies? Surely this is taking things a bit far. Babies should be communicated with, not dumped in a crib with a glorified walkman.
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Yeah not the best bunch for CES this year, the Wifi Bunny is good, and the Netgear Digital Entertainment HD system has my eye, providing its pulled off efficiently, I know from experience streaming movies over Wifi can be troublesome sometimes.
As for the Motophone I like the idea, but Motorolas software and hardware has a tendancy to crash too often for my liking. Good idea, flawed execution.
The Falcon, baby mp3 player and the doorbell are just gimmicks in my opinion. The falcon has potential, but it will need to be rather impressive and cost effective to be worth further investigation, but no one needs an mp3 player for their baby, and a grand and a half for a doorbell is a tad on the overkill side.
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I think that these gadgets in themselves are nothing special, but at least they are showing the direction that gadget makers are attempting to take. Yes the nabaztag is "old" but it shows that developers are looking into new interfaces to react with your other gadgets. The cheap developing-world phone is heartening, showing that companies are prepared to get everyone in on the technology revolution. And the TV is my personal fave; trying to keep a neat and tidy lounge (and thus avoiding a nagging) is difficult when DVD player, PS2, GC and even an old skool VHS player insist on spagetti'ising the floor!
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I think Motorola has hit the nail on the head.
Most phone users really want a phone that phones.
Don't need a camera, web-brsowers, bluetooth, MPÂŁ player or even SMS. Just let me make a call with the lightest, slimest, longest lasting battery and I would be a very happy man!
Forget emerging markets, this thing would sell like hot cakes in Europe.
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the technological revolution is slowing. for two years I've had a hauppage Music Video Photo player. it plugs into our router & lets us watch movies, listen to music or look a pictures stored on any of our pcs & is controled by remote control.
the rabbit has been available to by for months from varoius websites.
The phone is great for developing countries but is not high tech or cutting edge.
in the 90's I worked at a 'theme park' with interactive feedback virtual reality.
what happened to emagination?
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I am really glad that I did not bother to go to the show if these items are the best! What must the rest of the show have been like?
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That Wi-Fi Rabbit is cute. The only problem is it would look abit out of place in my Uni Halls room! if they came in other shapes there would definately be people to buy it.
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There is nothing here that is really cutting edge, works and worth buying. At least the $100 laptop for the Third World, mentioned elsewhere is a noble project and worth a look. Technology with a purpose and has everything kids really need. Not hi-tech, but it has a purpose.
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Nabaztag has been out for about a year, but they released a new version (the strangely named nabaztag/tag) in December which has voice recognition and an RFID reader - this is probably the one that was shown at CES.
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Mark420, you forgot to mention that the lack of a stylus now means that people can't draw, sketch, or take written notes anymore, either.
I've used a Orange M2000 and now T-Mobile MDA Vario II for 3 years now, and like you, sat in bewilderment watching the keynote. Yes, it's a beautiful looking device. Yes, employs wonderful "rubber-banding" scrolling, "pinching and pulling" zoom methodology and "coverflipping" just looks gorgeous, but seriously, is that it?!
I'll not mention that Steve Jobs said "that'll be coming on later versions of the iPhone", either. Oh.
I still want one though, how bizarre!
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I'm only guessing, but I think Mark420 doesn't like Apple!
In life's big picture, is any phone worth that much effort? No.
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At last a phone that is just a phone! Bring on the motophone! How can I get one?
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might it be fair to say that there is nothing really new at CES? The pre hype and ±«Óătv run up coverage indicated that there might be something really new at the show and it seems now that all providers are desperate to justify the trip to Vegas.
I have not noticed any reports saying that it has been a bit of a damp squib but if the above listed items are the award winners (1 having been on the market for a year) I can tell you from afar it is!
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The Nabaztag/tag that is shown is the updated model. It now includes a microphone and can sniff out RFID tags.
I've just purchased a first generation one, as the new features didn't really justify the extra ÂŁ30.
I love the fact that it's open source too.
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The Nabaztag is all marketing and no substance. Violet's webside fell over at Christmas and only a few functions work. Many of the advertised features like RFID haven't actually got off the drawing board. ÂŁ70 was a lot for a talking alarm clock. Less time and money at CES more time and money in the office working on the servers please.
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I too would love a Motofone, and would buy one for my mum and one for my gran as well. Simple, cheap, durable - just what we all need. But from what I gather I haven't got a hope of getting one unless I live in a developing country. Here in the UK, the networks just want to push the expensive, hi-tech, short-life versions - because that's their biggest revenue stream.
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iphone.
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I can't wait to get my hands on a Nabaztag, I have been waiting for the latest incarnation which comes with RFID tags, and can play radio channels and speak to you. I also have in mind programming some applications for it. I don't think around ÂŁ80 for a rabbit is too much money.
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Forget the iPhone (as functional and stylish as it undoubtedly is) - I want a Motofone. Like some other people, I have a diary, digital camera, mp3 player, laptop and wi-fi connection that I am perfectly happy with, and now all I want is a phone simply to make and receive calls on. One as light, simple, sleek (and hopefully inexpensive) as this looks spot on. Does anyone know if it will be released in the UK?
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i heard on bbc radio 1 that the reporter had come accross a devive which connected to different types of mobile phones to download the contacts from it. does ant one know what it is called or where i can find it?
many thanks kieran.
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My husband is disturbed constantly with a ring in ears, whether it is possible as that to correct? Speak it because of a high blood pressure? WBR LeoP
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What is the difference between Form PA and Form SR?
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