It took me awhile to sift through all the products and gear I took in at the show but I think I have finally narrowed down my list of "cool things" to this group of products. I think most of us can safely ignore the bulk of the announcements as they seem to be little more than enhancements to existing technologies that very few of us are going to appreciate. For example, 1080p televisions will offer even higher defintion that the sets that are already on store shelves. Next-generation optical discs will provide higher quality and greater capacity that today's DVDs. Portable video players are coming out of the woodwork and support more formats than previous generations but are no easier to use for the average guy. And the list goes on. For this report, I chose to concentrate on things that should be of interest to the mainstream audience.
Get Off The Couch and Play
First up is an amazing game console from Xavix which requires you to get off the couch to play. The console itself is tiny, about as big as a portable DVD player. And CHEAP! Compared to the next-gen gaming systems from Microsoft and Sony which are well over $250 each, the Xavix console is only $79.99!
The real key to this system though, are the games. Each "cartridge" comes with companion sports and/or fitness equipment which you use to play the game. For example, the boxing game comes with boxing gloves, the golf game with a club, the baseball game with a bat, and so on. A very popular title is the fitness package that comes with a mat that you stomp on as you follow along with the program on screen. In fact, all these games will exercise your muscles, and most of them combine physical exhaustion with exhilaration.
Electronic Books
Sony finally announced the Reader which is essentially an electronic book. This slim, oversized PDA can store hundreds of titles and lets you "page" through high-resolution, black and white text and illustrations on its screen. Dan Brown, author of The DaVinci Code, was onstage with Sony to tout the benefits of electronic books and I have to say he made a very convincing argument. One good point was the ability to bring dozens of books with you as you travel without the extra space and weight that the paper variety requires. Mr. Brown also explained how easy it would be to download new titles in the middle of the night if necessary, when traditional bookstores would be closed. But perhaps the best selling point concerned using this new device for school textbooks, where a single e-book could be used for a student's entire curriculum, where textbooks would never be out of date, and where children could significantly reduce the strain of heavy backpacks.
Finally - Someone Heard Us Complain About Charging Devices
I had already seen the iGo solution at Radio Shack and was impressed. But now there is another entrant into this space which virtually guarantees that the category will be around for awhile. And that shouldn't be surprising since it seems so obvious and even inevitable.
The newcomer, CellBoost is providing a similar solution called iRecharge where you invest in a single charging "brick" to which you can connect a variety of "tips". You only need to buy the tips for the devices you own so you can create a customized charging solution for your home and/or car. These companies thankfully understand just how many different types of gadgets we own and are scrambling to make sure you have all the available connections for your cameras, laptops, handheld gaming systems, cellphones, and MP3 players. I think the solutions make all the sense in the world and would make great gifts for anyone!
Cordless Phones That Call Over the Internet
By now, most of you have cut the cord at home and are using cordless phones throughout your house. Some of you may have even stepped up to cordless phone systems that can run anywhere from 4 to 10 handsets off a single phone jack. Well your next step may be to add Internet phone calls to the mix.
The technology, called VoIP for Voice over Internet Protocol, has been making a big splash over the past few years with companies like Vonage having great success convincing its customers to make cheap long distance phone calls (in the US and Canada) over their broadband Internet connection. Typically, these calls had been made using computers or crude home phone solutions. This year at the show, there were plenty of fancy cordless phone solutions that provide the same convenience of the familiar cordless phone but rely on VoIP for the service instead of the traditional phone company. Eventually we should see the VoIP feature be better integrated into other phone systems as well as cell phones and even TVs!
The Right "Right Turn Ahead" Solution
Anyone who has ever come in contact with a GPS navigation system will attest to the value this particular piece of tech offers. Well, now you can overlay real-time traffic conditions to those maps so that you get the best route possible.
The folks at XM Radio are now shipping products that deliver live road and traffic conditions to your navigation system so that you can make better driving decisions while on the road. If you see that your typical drive home was just recently backed up due to an accident, the nav system can offer alternative routes - how cool is that?
Power Squids
Saved the best for last although many of you won't necessarily agree. I had already got one of these as a gift during the holidays and it was probably my favorite present. The Power Squid from Trident Design revisits the whole power strip idea and offers a huge improvement. Instead of lining up outlets in a line which inevitably wastes ports as you introduce bulky plugs, uses separate extension cord "legs" to offer the same function but without any of the previous limitations. At the show, they showed off the next logical extension which adds surge protection to the mix. Either way, this is a cool and practical product for all of us.
Well, that's it for this report. Join the discussion with any questions about these or other things you heard from the show. I hope many of you will try out these products and share your experiences with the rest of us here at TechLore.
