Impressions from CES 2010
Brett Holey, NBC Nightly News
A SHRINKING GIANT IS STILL A GIANT
If the Jolly Green Giant lost 1/3 of his height... he'd still be able to kick your butt. But if you'd seen him grow up, you might not be quite as intimidated as you used to be.
I first came to CES over 20 years ago and I've seen it grow from huge, to unbelievably huge. But my first and clearest impression this year is that the recession has taken its pound of flesh and then some from the annual geek fest in Sin City.
Don't get me wrong It is still gargantuan and glitzy and more than any mortal can really cover in 4 days but it is somehow less over-the-top than years past. Now to some first-timers this may be hard to believe but it may be like a Vegas show girl appearing in just the sequined body suit, sans the 3-foot feathered head dress.
Other big impressions of CES 2010....
3D TV...(IF THEY BUILD IT, WILL THE AUDIENCE COME?)
The industry's major television manufacturers have set aside their annual mine's bigger than yours contest and have joined in a common chorus..."You need 3D."
They are all showing they're own version of 3D; hoping to use "Avatar" as a giant lead-blocker into your living room. They all use some version of glasses, that create varying degrees of discomfort, or a lenticular screens that give varying degrees of headache. Yet it is a unison chorus that manufacturers and production companies seem to be singing. We'll see if the audience joins in.
The best 3D image I've seen here is on a 24" Sony OLED screen playing the video game "MLB 10 'The Show'" on a PS3. They were showing a Yankees, Phillies game and I felt like I was Jorge Posada catching the game.
Panasonic's 152" plasma screen wins the biggest, coolest award TV AS COMPUTER / COMPUTER AS TV.
More and more TVs are including web access, widgets and apps to use right on your screen. There's Skype built in and all your handy web tools right there in your what is still known as your TV. Of course PCs have morphed into all manner of devices to provide video via the web and anyplace you want to get it. And in between are a plenty of new devices to bring the web right to your screen. Two of the more promising ones are from iOmega and the "Boxee" box from D-Link which won the "last gadget standing" competition... the CES equivalent of winning best in show at Westminster. (And a bit like a little dog beating the big beauties.) It has a simple yet clever remote and a good looking interface. WHERE HAVE YOU GONE PC?
The major PC manufacturers have less presence than they have in years yet computers are part of everything.
Of those PC makers here the biggest push seems to be netbooks, tablets and form factors combing both.
Lenovo is showing (behind closed doors) a netbook that the screen pulls off to become a tablet.
A company called Entourage Edge was showing a dual-screen device that is half netbook, half eReader. (Promising but I would guess many buyers may be waiting to see what is coming from Apple and Google).
NEED A NEW WAY TO SPY ON YOUR NEIGHBORS AND HAVE FUN DOING IT?
Far and away, my favorite toy at the show is the AR Drone from a French company called Parrot (www.parrot.com). It's a four-bladed, remote-control helicopter with a built in camera that you can control with your iPhone. It looks like something out of Avatar but could be very handy to see what your neighbor is doing on the other side of that big fence or maybe to get your own aerial coverage of junior's soccer game. That's all for now... back out for a last spin on the floor. Maybe more tomorrow.
