January 15, 2012

International CES 2012

The International CES 2012 (Consumer Electronics Show), held in Las Vegas, is now in the record books. We were among the 150,000 attendees who came to see some of the 20,000 new product introductions from 3,200 vendors. What caught our eyes? Read on.

The TVs are bigger, brighter, thinner and oh so “Smart.” For example, the LG 55" OLED (organic light emitting diode) TV set displayed a gorgeous borderless picture in an incredibly thin 4 mm screen. Both 3D and 2D models will be available later this year for an estimated price of $5,000. “Smart” comes from the ability of the TV to connect to the Internet for a variety of services, your computer or your home media server to access movie, TV, music and photos.

Smart phones are becoming more multi-functional, such as the Samsung Notes smart phone that incorporates a small tablet with freeform writing and drawing capabilities using a stylus to create, edit, save and send. In color, of course.

Home automation controls from a variety of manufacturers are more available as control formats are being standardized. Heat/AC, lights, entertainment, security and more are available for remote control and monitoring. You could open or close your garage door, check house temperature, view the front hall video camera and more from anywhere in the world using your smart phone or iPad and the appropriate home automation controls.

With more and more devices using a home wireless network, there is a need for a secure, stable, strong wireless system, and NetGear introduced several new products to fill this need. Dual-band wireless routers, range extenders and a media server that can simultaneously play video, show pictures and backup your systems.

We saw a wealth of fun gadgets, such as remote control helicopters (from Parrot or Interactive Concept) that house a video camera to record the flight or even stream live video if in range of a WiFi network. There were fun, stylish and useful cases to protect phones, laptops/netbooks or cell phones. Need a charge for your phone? Slip off your Mohzy Loop bracelet and plug one end into your phone and the other into any handy USB port. Coming in March.

A glimpse at the future comes from Sony, showing off their Crystal LED TV display technology producing the drop-dead, eye-popping brightest, clearest picture we’ve seen anywhere. Availability TBA. And Tobii Technology introduced their amazing eye-control system that tracks where you’re looking on the screen. Look at a thumbnail picture in a group, and it’s selected for enlarged viewing; look at a command in a list and it can be selected. A wide potential for hands-free work, controls for the disabled, and gaming.

There was much more so stay tuned.

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