Impressions of CES

First huge tech conference that I attended turned out to be a tiring yet refreshing experience. You know one of those things that you wonder why you signed up for, but glad that you never the less did. Anyways, here is what I learned by going to the mecca of tech conferences known as CES.Some trends that I could spot just walking across the floors of the three main convention halls:

1. 3D was the buzz word: So much so that everywhere you turned your head you could either see a 3D TV, or a 3D gaming product or a 3D camera or 3D digital frame. But what remains to be seen is that how fast 3D will get adopted. To me, 3D experience really did not provide a better visual, immersive experience for all kinds of content. The digital photo frames with slightly demented images is not what I would like to put in my living room.

2. Obsession with Touchscreen: Be it phones, tablets, smartbooks, netbooks, e-books, gaming consoles, TVs, ditial frames or table surface it needs to be touchscreen – otherwise its just not hip. Plethora of products met this feature and the different touchscreen experience with using just two fingers or using both hands was not something that would have struck me if I hadn’t attended CES.

3. Connectivity anywhere and everywhere: Multimedia Convergence has been a trend for some time, though content sharing and synced media, connectivity be it at home (living room, kitchen, bedroom, media room, garden), work (home work space, conference room,) On the Go (car, plane, train), outdoors – basically anywhere and everywhere – was so evident. Be it Intel’s Wi-di technology, or Skype calls over the TV, or Marvell’s Home Connectivity solutions this trend was big and tough to miss.

4. The hardware by itself will not suffice: Partnership between content providers and device manufacturers is the winner in the future. Let’s look at e-book readers. An E-Ink enabled display and similar connectivity features and attributes is just not enough. The consumer wants it all (long tail – short tail, basically all) and content in the form of magazines, newspapers, images full of color and motion, video will be the differentiator. Same in Mobile TV- ATSC enabled devices is not the winner, but combination of content and user friendly interface and device could do the trick.

7 cool gadgets that I saw at CES …why just 7? – Why just 7 days in a week, 7 deadly sins, 7 seas..you get the drift..

1. Samsung’s Transparent OLED MP3: This cool MP3 player had a OLED screen which allows one to see the surface behind the device. It had something so cool about when you saw it that I cant really describe it in words.

2. Intel’s VOIP Phone: This device already introduced in UK and going to be launched in US soon is made by a company in Florida called Open Peak. The User Interface was aewesome and how cool it is to browse the internet while talking to someone at the same time on the same device.

3. Light Blue Optic’s Light Touch: Funded by some well known VCs this cool projector can instantly turn any flat surface into a touchscreen. Using infrared technology the projector detects the spot where your finger is placed and works on a light tap.

4. Marvell’s Home Connectivity Solutions – It is kind of cool to access the lights, thermostat, sprinklers, turn them off and on while away from home using an app on your Iphone powered by Marvell’s technology.

5. Sony’s Intelligent HDTV: A TV that switches itself off if it detects no one in the room, or detects people in a sleeping position or a child who is too close to the screen. This cool TV works on a face detection software.

6. D-Link’s Boxee: It plays media from all over the internet on the TV in your living room. It had a cool interface and was small enough in size to keep over your DVD player in the TV stand.

7. Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid. After hearing so much about it in the media, the tablet with multi touch display lived up to its expectations.

A brief mention of some gadgets that didn’t really hit it with me: Digtal 3D Photo Frame’s was something that I didn’t completely get. Samsung’s two new e-books seemed more like ‘me-too’ kind of devices and weren’t really there for me. A service that would call people before conference calls to remind them about meetings seemed to be a serivce that Outlook currently provides for before meetings.