Wow… It really was a heptic week last week… Trying to keep up to date with all the Consumer Electronics Show news was a challenge, and I really must give LOTS of credit and thanks to the efforts of technology blog sites that followed CES. The main ones I followed were CNET and Engadget, who quite frankly, really do deserve some sleep… I am stealing a lot of info off Engadget by the way…
I must say that I was a little dissapointed at what was announced at CES this year, especially in the digital audio player market… We saw a lot of Televisions, Netbooks, Tablets and E-Readers… Too many e-readers if you ask me… Speaking of which I saw someone with an Amazon Kindle the other day in the city. The Kindle doensn’t really interest me that much, and I thought I didn’t like the design of it, but as I walked past it, I was “Wow… That looks pretty awesome”…
Anyway, here’s a list of the tech that I was most interested over the CES period.
Sony Dash
It’s not a tablet or anything really uber, but I certainly thought it was a nice product I’d like to have in my room as an alarm clock. The Sony Dash features a 7 inch touch screen, runs the “Chumby” OS (Which I thought was interesting), has Wi-fi and really is basically a super-special-awesome clock-radio gadget that you put on your bedside table or something. If it weren’t expecting a sale price of $199US, I’d probably buy it. Engadget Link
Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid
It’s been getting a lot of attention, and I too think, that it is a pretty cool laptop. The Lenovo U1 is essentially your normal laptop with an Intel Core 2 Duo, 128GB solid state drive, and it runs Windows 7 Home Premium. But what really makes it stand out, is how the screen is detachable, and it becomes an 11 inch tablet device! The tablet moves to Lenovo’s “Skylight” OS, and runs on the Snapdragon 1Ghz processor. It’s pretty awesome, and I wouldn’t mind my hands on one, but I don’t think it will be my laptop of choice. It should be shipping in June for $999US… Engadget Link
HP TouchSmart TM2 Laptop Convertible
I don’t really want to “remove” the screen, I’d much rather it convertible, hence why I much prefer this, and will probably be my laptop/netbook of purchase for this year. It has a 12.1 inch screen, and has a Core 2 Duo processor, and has a 9 hour battery life (which I like). The laptop is tablet convertible by flipping the screen around, and laying it flat on the keyboard. From the pictures, it looks very pretty, and it is cheaper than the Lenovo U1 Hybrid. It will be avaliable in the US for $949US by the end of January too! Engadget Link
MSI Dual Screen Netbook/E-reader
Rather novelty, and at the moment, it’s still just a concept, but I think it is awesome. It has an Atom Z Series processor and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. Other than that, there’s not much news about it. MSI had a prototype and engadget did a hands on video. Engadget Link
Samsung LED 9000 Series Television
I love LED screens. They are super-pretty, and Samsung makes them super awesome. The 9000 series is less than 7mm thick! It’s thinner than a pencil! And I love the design of it! So sleek… So slim! I’d expect some great picture quality too! It also comes with an awesome remote, as well as some other awesome features! I want one. Engadget Link
HTC/Google Nexus One
Not technically CES related, but it was announced during the week of CES. The latest and most awesome Android running phone, it has a 3.7 inch AMOLED screen with an 800×480 resolution. (Awesome!) It also has the 1Ghz Snapdragon processor inside it, as well as having an awesome kind of “industrial” design. 512MB of RAM, as well as having a removable battery and microSD slot, it’s a nice phone! Though it’s not a media phone, so I can’t say it’d be my immediate phone of choice once available here, but it is still awesome. Engadget Link
Inbrics M1
Another phone that runs Android. Engadget describes it as “probably everything we ever wanted”. Like the Nexus One, it has a 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED display, but has a a full QWERTY keyboard that the Nexus One lacks. It is similar to the Motorola Droid, though the Inbrics does focus more on media though, which I like the sound of. Not much about it though… I may be keeping my eye out for news on it. Engadget Link
Viliv P3
Suprisingly not a phone, but a portable media player! It has some nice specs, and if it released here, I’d like to get my hands on one. It has some nice specs! Runs Google Android, 800×480 AMOLED display an 800MHz processor, 32gb internal storage, with microSD expansion and has Windows CE dual-boot capability?!?! I’d expect it’d have some good codec support too! So… I’ll be looking out for more info on this! (I like how Engadget compares it to the Zii EGG) Engadget Link
iRiver K1
Something that also caught my interest nearing the end of CES, iRiver finally moves into close to iPod Touch competition with the announcements for specs of the K1 “Smart HD” portable media player. It has a 3.5-inch display with a 480 x 320 resolution, (same as the Touch) WiFi, and supports a lot of formats including .mkv, .flac and .ogg! I’d like to know a little more about it before saying “I want one” but from the specs, if it’s cheap, and works well, I may just get me one. No word on pricing or anything just yet though… Engadget Link
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