Posted on: Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Big TVs, Elvis big stars at tech show
By Jefferson Graham, Edward C. Baig and Kevin Maney
USA Today
LAS VEGAS — The giant Consumer Electronics Show has always been about bragging rights: who has the slickest computers, most-miniature camera and most awe-inspiring gizmos and gadgets.
No surprise, the biggest crowds yesterday at the annual industry confab surrounded amazing high-definition TVs on display at booth after booth. Sharp crowed that it had the "world's largest LCD TV" at 108 inches, roughly the size of a small movie theater screen. No price or shipping date was announced.
Just a few feet away, Samsung displayed its mammoth TVs, up to 102 inches. Down the hall, mobs surrounded Panasonic's 103-inch set — available now for a cool $70,000.
If you can live with a mere 65-inch high-def set, Panasonic will sell it to you for only $10,000.
What else is happening at the show:
No wires. Kodak is going wireless with digital photo frames that can connect directly to its www.KodakGallery.com Web site. All you need is a wireless connection to pump complete online albums through the frames, which come in 10-inch, 8-inch and 7-inch models. Most current frames accept images from media cards, but don't connect to specific Web sites.
"This extends the experience of online photo viewing into the living room," says Nancy Carr, Kodak's director of strategic relationships. The frames range from $129 to $279 and will be available in March.
Lost. An in-dash navigation system can keep you from getting lost. But what if you want to use it in another family vehicle or rental car? Eclipse's AVN2210p fits snugly into your dashboard along with your car stereo. The navigation unit, developed with TomTom International, also can be removed and operated independently. The car stereo still works when the navigation piece has been detached.
The portable navigation device has a 3.5-inch display, its own GPS antenna and loudspeaker. It also has a battery that is charged when docked in its main compartment. You can update the navigation device via computer. North American maps are stored on a compact SD memory card.
Eclipse says the system will cost less than $1,000 when it becomes available in the spring.
Blog, blog, blog. Six Apart, the firm behind TypePad blogging software, and cell phone giant Nokia introduced a phone that lets bloggers type posts directly from the phone to the Web. The new Nokia N93i uses Six Apart's Vox blog program, which lets you restrict posts to friends and family. The phone includes a 3.2-megapixel camera (a megapixel is a measurement of a camera's resolution).
Old media meets new. CBS chief Leslie Moonves speaks at CES today, with a little help from friends in the new media world. YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley and Sling Media CEO Blake Krikorian will discuss their experiences working with CBS.
He's in the building. What would Las Vegas be without an Elvis sighting? Hong Kong-based WowWee, whose first humanoid robot Robosapien arrived in 2004, introduced the interactive WowWee Alive Elvis. It's licensed with Graceland's blessing. You control the lifelike, talking and singing bust of the King with a remote control shaped like a microphone. Elvis is decked out in his 1968 special comeback garb. If the robot itself doesn't weird you out just a little, the $349 price may leave you, um, all shook up.
A cartridge with Elvis monologues and eight songs you can sing along with costs $29. Elvis the robot is expected to appear later in the year.
Relief. It's heartening to know that a big-time tech CEO actually pays attention to things about technology that drive people nuts. During his speech at CES, Motorola CEO Ed Zander talked about the "two biggest consumer dissatisfiers" with cell phones. One is getting music on a cell phone, and the other is getting photos off.
Motorola introduced a couple of services that Zander says should help. A new version of the Rizr music phone can play songs from a multitude of online music stores and can be filled with songs by connecting the phone to a PC and dragging the songs into a playlist.
In photos, Zander unveiled a partnership with Kodak. With a click, new Motorola phones will send photos via wireless Bluetooth to Kodak's EasyShare software or to a photo printer.
Calling all authors. Blurb.com lets you self-publish a book and sell it online for a profit, for as little as $18.95. Similar to the photobooks from e-tailers such as Shutterfly and Kodak Gallery, these have room for lots of text in addition to photos to appeal to cookbook writers, real estate agents and architecture students.
