January 8, 2010
Talk about a fast start to the day. I decided to go straight to the big boys today and visit the Central Hall where names like Microsoft, Intel, and Samsung reside.
The biggest section in Central was definitely Microsoft. Their section showed off massive amounts of technology that have mostly been unvieled in the past such as Surface, Microsoft Office 2010, or even Windows Media Center. I actually got to play around with Surfae and my impressions of it are very positive. I could definitely see it in a business setting when disussing things like reports as a group or even in a personal use setting such as gaming. Similarly, touchscreen monitors with Windows 7 was quite impressive. Microsoft has a program called Globe which, conceptually, is like Google Maps where zooming in and out using touch worked flawlessly. However, I was not able to locate the newly annouced HP slate that Steve Balmer touched upon a couple days ago.
One of the most amazing things I saw today was Panasonic’s 102″ Plasma LCD screen. It is one of the most intimidating and imposing screens ever made. It’s really hard to imagine a resolution over 4000 pixels big. In fact, I can’t even imagine a home that would fit it through the door.
Probably one of my favorite gadgets at CES has got to be D-Link’s Boxee Box. It’s basically a media-focused computer running a custom built distribution of Linux minus a few features. It has 3 USB ports, HDMI, Ethernet, WiFi N, Audio ports, as well as a remote which has a built-in QWERTY keyboard on the back for searching for media. Think of Boxee as your gateway to Internet media such as Youtube, Hulu, CNet, IGN and other video sites that stream content. But it also can play local media stored in the Boxee itself. It plays 1080p without a hitch and has the newly announced Nvidia Tegra 2 chip which powers the ability to play 1080p smoothly. It doesn’t come out until May but I will definitely be picking up Boxee Box for $199 at Boxee’s website.
The more notable events at CES are the CNet awards who award companies Best of Show based upon their product’s category like best media product, computer product, green product and other categories. The winners will be announced tomorrow morning and can be deemed products to look out for in 2010. So I’ll report back the winners in each category tomorrow as my CES trip winds down.