Dave Weinstein , Gizmodo ’s Special Correspondent for the Consumer Electronics Show , contributes an excellent report about the best gadget he saw there :
LAS VEGAS — As each year end there ’s a modest section of our populace that starts to get really excited about upcoming events . Is it the coming of the new yr that ’s got them smiling like schooling children on the fashion to a candy memory board , or is it the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show ( CES ) that ’s held at the commencement of each January ? CES usually foretell the arrival of new menage entertainment gear , but in recent geezerhood , this has expanded to all sorts of home and portable technology product , include flat panel telly , wireless networking , personal picture recorders ( PVR ) , home theatre PCs ( HTPC ) , and a embarrassment of hand-held devices . This year ’s Ce did n’t disappoint , in summation to a huge amount of new find products , there were glance of the components that will be show up as part of next years gadgets as well . Here ’s a few of the interesting intersection and technology expanse that were shown this year .
Flat Panel Television
( From leave to rightfield : LG ’s 52″ 1920×1080 HD , Samsung ’s 54″ 1920×1080 LCD , and LCD Sharp ’s 37″ 1280×720 HD LCD )
The competition is heating up as just about every company that makes TVs is pose to make the modulation from CRT based product to plasma and LCD ones . Interestingly enough , although 2002 was a breakthrough year for Plasma displays , with breakthrough in both lineament and price , there was n’t any new Plasma technology announcements at CES . There was however a fuss of fresh action in the expectant LCD area . Both LG / Philips and Samsung showed paradigm full resolution HDTV displays in the over 50″ family , and Sharp showed 37″ high resolution LCD TV that ’s ship now . It seems that LG is potential to win the wash to liberate a full firmness HDTV ( 1920×1080 ) with product schedule to send 2004Q1 , with Samsung stating that they are considerably more than a year away from bringing their 54″ LCD display to market .
( Left : Sanyo ’s 15″ OLED prototype . Right : Toshiba ’s 57″ 1920×1080 LCoS Rear Projection TV )
In summation to the LCD displays establish at CES , there were extra technologies exhibit . Sanyo demonstrated a 15″ Organic Light Emitting Diode Display ( OLED ) as well as a fair high solvent 2″ OLED show to be used in mobile phone and portable mpeg player . OLED engineering is a bright future technology that may someday interchange LCD and blood plasma engineering science as the good pick for large plane panel displays . Do n’t take for your hint waiting , it ’s not probable that there will be a 40 + inch OLED video display until 2007 - 8 or later .
Another interesting TV was Toshiba ’s 57″ 1920×1080 LCoS rear projection unit . Toshiba chose to expend liquid crystal on atomic number 14 technology to produce a gamy resolution display at a relatively reasonable price ( MSRP $ 8999 , with street prices around $ 8000 ) . LCoS disagree from normal LCD video display in that instead of having the liquid crystal shutters deposited on Methedrine , it ’s deposited at once on a silicon wafer ( which acts as a mirror ) , so instead of light being sputter through a traditional LCD jury , it ’s reflected off the LCoS one . LCoS benefits are that it allows for smaller pixel sizes ( hence high resolution ) and the electronics that control each pixel are under the silicon mirror layer ( instead of along side the pixel cell ) , which nigh eliminates the screen door core that is common to LCD front and rear projectors . Toshiba ’s 57HLX82 is useable now .
Want a high-definition television PVR ? Look to the sky …
Both DirectTV and Dish connection denote combination PVR / Satellite Receivers at CES this year . Both companies are trying to get a jump on Digital Cable TV provider that will start send new Scientific - Atlanta boxes power by Digeo ’s Moxi software that they acquire last twelvemonth .
Of these products the Dish PVR 921 looks the most hopeful , with an expected going date of 2003Q2 , the software development squad on site at CES was confident that they ’d meet their expect delivery date of tardy June or early July . The 921 sport dual tuners as well funding of recording OTA HDTV content ( the unit is fully capable of register 2 orbiter place and an OTA HDTV station simultaneously . ) The unit show include advance software for battle result , a 14 day electronic programme guide ( EPG ) and support of verbatim connections to eminent resolution displays via a DVI - five hundred connection . The unit contains a 250 GB hard drive that can hold close to 40 hours of HD substance or 250 hours of SD cognitive content . In cursory examination , the EPG responded more quickly than any other that I ’ve seen ( by at least a broker of 2 ) and the UI was consistent with old recorders manufacture by the company . The price for the social unit has not yet been set , but should be in the $ 1000 + range . Apparently I was n’t the only one impressed , the Dish PVR 921 advance a “ Best of CES ” award .
With a soft merchant marine date that will be sometime near the end of the year , the DirectTV HD - TiVo is less impressive than it ’s Dish vis-a-vis . Although the social unit has TiVo ’s marvelous exploiter interface , and adaptive recording capabilities , it only feature one satellite tuner , and on OTA high-definition television radio set . To make matters worse , even though there are two piano tuner , only one may be used at a fourth dimension ( presumably to keep the UI dewy-eyed and consistent ) which makes it impossible to learn one show while recording another or to record two show simultaneously ( both characteristic that are part of the current standard definition Direct - TiVo ) . TiVo has yet decide the sizing of the intragroup hard crusade , or any pricing quarry , which is have a bun in the oven for a gadget that is n’t slate to ship for virtually a yr .
So what happened to Moxi ? They strike the picture at the 2002 CES with the honour advance Media Center intersection that looked brace to redefine the PVR and gear up top box seat market place . Well , the ship’s company was gain by Paul Allen ’s Digeo , and has refocused the Moxi engineering on the Digital Cable space . The society has announced a deal with Scientific - Atlantia to ramp up Media Center box that connect now to cable TV systems , so do n’t await to see them back in the Satellite - PVR business until long after their cable products have ship . Chalk it off as another casualty of the busted tech house of cards .
Throw out those honest-to-god unnetworked organizer , there ’s a whole new stock fare .
( From left to right : B - Squared ’s Power Handheld , Sharp ’s Zaurus C-700 , Samsung ’s i500 Palm Phone , and Samsung ’s i700 Pocket microcomputer phone )
In the PDA arena , Samsung stole the show with two new intercrossed speech sound / PDA equipment that combined the best features of mobile phones with the feature article of a Palm or Pocket microcomputer free-base PDA . The Samsung i500 Palm CDMA phone is a 66MHz Dragonball ground Palm gimmick that runs Palm operating system version 4.1 . The interesting part of combining these two types of devices is that the machine can play as a fully connection connected PDA that exploits Verizon ’s new 1xRTT information services . This mean that you’re able to use your earphone to browse real ( not WAP ) web page , check e - mail or range any other of one C of web capable Palm applications and plot , all at a full 144kbps . This is quite a step up from last generations speeds of 9.6kbps ( which is the maximum data speed for IS95B ) . Samsung ’s other Modern gimmick , the i700 , is Pocket microcomputer with integrated television camera and CDMA phone . Microsoft as two versions of computer software for PDA / headphone combos , the first is the Pocket microcomputer Phone variation ( which is what the i700 uses ) , which is mean for devices that are more PDA than phone . The second is SmartPhone 2002 , or SMP2002 ( which the upcoming i600 will utilise ) , which is meant for devices that are more telephone than PDA . Expect Samsung ’s i600 SMP earpiece to be formally announced at CTIA in March , but you could get a sneak top of the gimmick ( which is like in appearance to the i500 ) here .
Although HP showed their new iPaq twist ( the h5455 and the h1910 ) , they were both eclipse by two innovative PDAs that boast in high spirits resolution 640×480 displays and keyboards in the same size software package as the now august iPaq form . The first is a reference political platform progress by the folk at B Squared . For those of you that are n’t conversant with the caller , they ’re the real talent behind Windows CE . Their Power Handheld Reference Design have a 640×480 display Coyote State card IO ( SDIO ) , and a fully retractable QWERTY keyboard . Late in 2002 Sharp embark their C-700 Zaurus in Japan , but CES marks the first look at the machine with an English language interlingual rendition of the OS and UI . Sharp expend a modified clamshell designing with a screen that can be flipped around so that the display covers the keyboard and the equipment reckon like a standard keyboard - less PDA . Both the B Squared and the Sharp equipment allow wireless networking using SDIO and Compact Flash 802.11b placard ( severally ) and included full browser app , eastward - mail and synchronization package . Too bad we ca n’t go out an bargain them now !
In addition to these products , Sony also announce their newest Clie equipment , the NZ90 , and revealed a few more particular about the Sony - Ericsson P800 smart sound . Sony ’s new NZ90 Clie is a act thicker than it ’s predecessor , the NX70 , but feature a few extra bells and whistles to make up for it ’s add together mass . The two major raw feature of the NZ90 are a 2 M pel ( 1600×1200 ) digital camera , and a new removable battery . This is the eminent resolution television camera ever desegregate into a PDA , so it will be interesting to see how well the gimmick fairs versus the slimmer , and less expensive , NX70 Clie . The honorable news show from Sony on the PDA front at CES was the acknowledgement that their P800 smart telephone will finally send in the US through AT&T Wireless and T - Mobile by March 2003 . to boot the society stated that there will be CDMA versions for SprintPCS and Verizon quick for Christmas 2003 . It seems that Sony - Ericsson cogitate that the CDMA version of the P800 would make a with child stocking stuffer , I have to admit that I consort . Even with the large selection of options I intend that the P800 attend like the best compounding phone / PDA gadget that we ’ve seen to date . Expect that the GSM version will be available from AT&T and T - Mobile for under $ 600 with help energizing of reference .
Other interesting technologies and curiosity
( From left to right : eMink ’s Internet PayPhone , the MouseRug Mouse Pad , La Crosse ’s Home Weather Station )
In accession to the hard technology shape up that always arrive at a CES show , there ’s always a few novel gizmo that seem to show us as well . eMink displayed there newInternet PayPhonea novel combination of a tactile sensation projection screen web browser app and a traditional payphone . If you take a newfangled mouse mat , theMouseRugmight be for you , the company has copied definitive rug figure from a variety show of sources ( including the Library of Congress ) to create a false woven carpet for you to creep over . And finally the folks at La Crosse Technology have recently released a young line of personal wireless weather station . For about $ 80 you’re able to buy theWS-7078UF Wireless Forecast Stationwhich acquire you a clock with wireless connection to the national atomic time touchstone . indoor and outdoor temperature , and a personal weather prediction for your home and surrounding arena .
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