It’s always an exciting time for tech folks at the beginning of each year, as the first two major electronics shows debut at that time: the Consumer Electronics Show and MacWorld. This year marked some major changes in both shows, one in particular.
It was already well known that Apple’s Steve Jobs would not be giving his usual keynote speech at MacWorld this year, and Apple had made it clear that this would be their last appearance at the show. Even so, many predicted that Apple would make some major announcements there, possibly including a new Mac Mini and iMac model.
This turned out not to be the case, as I discuss in my podcast this week at timesfreepress.com. While they did introduce some new products, most Mac watchers, including me, were disappointed that no major announcements were made there.
CES was a different story, however. Today I’ll preview just a few of the products and services introduced there. I’ll be covering some of these in detail later in the year.
By far the most surprising product introduced was the Palm Pre cell phone. Palm has been in decline for quite a while, and everyone agreed they had to make a strong showing at this show to even stay in the game. They did well in that regard, probably generating more buzz than any other announcement.
This phone is similar to the iPhone but differentiates itself in several ways, mostly in the “card” interface that it uses. The video I saw was very impressive, but keep in mind that Palm has a long way to go just to get even in this market.
One major drawback is that the phone will not natively run older Palm OS applications. This ability probably will be provided by a third party at some point. If so, it will help the phone get a foothold.
There were a number of Blu-ray DVD players introduced that connect to the Netflix streaming service. Samsung introduced some of the best, and it seems that more and more devices are following this path. There was even an HDTV announced with Netflix support built in. A good sign.
Vizio announced a Blu-ray disc player that should retail just under $150. While it is not full-featured by any means, it appears to be very well worth the price. If they can hit the $150 price point, it will be a huge step for Blu-ray acceptance.
RCA, Sony, Kodak and others announced new models of the so-called mini camcorder. These devices generally deliver acceptable video and allow the user to directly upload video to YouTube. Their prices range up from about $100 to $250.
The Kodak model looks particularly interesting, and I hope to get one to demo for you at some point. Kodak also released a video streaming unit to connect your computer to your HDTV. It sells for around $300.
Several companies announced upcoming full-featured camcorders, including some high-definition models. Panasonic claims its new models will have a 70x optical zoom. Optical indicates true zoom ability. This is amazing, if true. While not everyone would need this range of zoom control, it could be useful for distance shooting, such as animal documentaries and so on.
The convergence of the television set and the computer is ongoing, as evidenced by several products at CES. Yahoo and Intel have advanced their TV widget program that tries to integrate TV and the computer in a seamless and nonintrusive way. Samsung and other HDT V makers announced models that support this function. It will take some time and trials to see just what works in this area, but we’re definitely in the pond, so to speak, with TV and computers getting closer to each other.
There’s much more to tell you about, and I’ll be discussing many other tech items of the show in future columns.
E-mail Donnie Jenkins at
donniejenkins@yahoo.com
