Issue 4.13
Each year in January, Las Vegas hosts one of the biggest technology shows on earth. Usually during the first or second week of January, well over 100,000 professionals from all over the world converge to see what is new, interesting or different in the world of electronics. There is a lot of glitz and glamour, a lot of things you may have never seen before and a lot of booths and people to navigate.
I usually try to attend for one day which doesn’t give you time to really see everything, even if you walk fast. It really takes at least three days to get around to all the displays and if you want to take in the speeches and product announcements, you should probably bring a friend to see what you don’t have time to – then compare notes. This year I focused on networking, video and television, and music. There are some pretty cool musical instruments (mostly keyboards) that are coming out soon. Being a keyboard player, that caught my eye.
I did have time to see some of the other offerings, but I noticed that computers and software have continued the trend away from the CES, with very little shown outside of some of the novelty items like the new ultra-small computers from Xi3. They come as a cube about 4 inches square and can be linked to create more powerful systems. Microsoft didn’t even show up this year, but their CEO gave an address at the conference center.
I didn’t get to the car audio and security displays or the home theatre and sound systems, but I saw a lot of new TV’s including the new 4K standard types that are even sharper than Blu-Ray. There are new types of 3-D systems, some that don’t require glasses and there are even glasses that are 3-D displays without the screen.
There were lots of interesting products that are in development like the see through TV that displays a picture, but is transparent if there is light behind it so you can have a screen in front of sculpture or collections that give you information about what you are looking at.
It seems that bluetooth is the rage this year. Everywhere I looked there were wireless bluetooth speakers and headphones at fairly low prices. There were a lot of other interesting and innovative products including robots that wash your windows, dance for you, clean or entertain. Home automation and remote control from your smart phone or IPad is big as well.
All-in-all, I came away feeling that there are lots of people out there still coming up with new ideas and that innovation is far from dead. At the same time, most of it didn’t excite me because it seemed like ideas that neither I nor most of the people I know would spend much money on. It was fun and interesting though and I came home with a bag of flyers and business cards from companies I want to do more research on.
I will let you know if anything else tips my excitement meter but in the meantime, remember to always make sure you have a back up of anything important.
Shaun McCausland has worked in the computer industry for over 30 years, 20 years of it locally with Bits ‘N’ Bytes and Musicomp and currently does in-home and on-site computer consultation, service, training and repair. If you have questions you can reach him at 435-668-7118 or through his website at www.bitsnbytescomputers.com.