The CES 2009 Thread

[xtop]

ok so there's a bunch of fun CES news and rumors lately and its got me in a nerd spin. so hopefully somebody else cares to read about all the fun gadgets coming next month

Although we've seen some interesting demos, wireless power systems have mostly been a novelty -- apart from a couple gaming accessories, the most notable thing a wireless company has done so far is declare bankruptcy. That's hopefully about to change, however: a new group called the Wireless Power Consortium plans to introduce a series of charging standards aimed at making sure all this magical tech plays nice with each other. The eight-company group includes Logitech, Philips, Sanyo (and now Panasonic, we'd suppose), TI, National Semiconductor, ConvenientPower, and Fulton Innovation -- which demoed that wireless hamburger for us, you'll recall. The group plans to first release a five-watt standard targeted at mobile phones, after which it'll take aim at laptops and other more power-hungry devices. Based on the flood of wireless-related PR we've been getting as CES gets closer, we're expecting some big things to happen in this space -- it sounds like Energizer is also going to get involved, which could be interesting. We'll see how it plays out -- hopefully this is the year we finally cut that power cord.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/19/w...less-charging/

Mention 3D, and you'll get an enthusiastic shrug from most. Mention three little words in conjunction, and everything changes. In case you haven't guessed that magic trio, it's "no glasses required." We've seen the technology bandied about, but we're sensing that companies are about to get serious with it at CES 2009. Case in point: Alioscopy and TCL have tag-teamed in order to showcase the former's 3DHD autostereoscopic 3D LCD display (40-inch) and content creation technology in just under a month. There are no real details on the underlying juju, but you can bet we're stoked to see what it delivers in Vegas. Maybe those plans for a 3D Olympics in 2012 aren't all that loony after all?

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/18/a...ed-for-ces-no/

3d without glasses

i'll keep this thread updated assuming anyone other than me cares lol

[hoju3508]

That's a neat trick.

Originally Posted by xtop

3d without glasses

[Maximus]

Little bit early for this thread, no?

[quexos]

Those might come next month to the CES but we are a bit farther away from actually owning them. I hope they'll have OLED screens.

[MoPe]

Yeah, please keep it updated for discussion, even though I frequent tech news sites about 5 times a day, its nice to keep this updated fcr discussion as I mentioned before.

[xtop]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Little bit early for this thread, no?

yes but i keep reading about electronics i want to start threads on and don't want to clutter the forum with stuff only a select few care about

besides..ces is jan 8th..thats not too far off

[xtop]

not ces, but worth noting..

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/22/v...ete-brief-mai/

It was short and mildly sweet, but Virgin Galactic has a lot to be relieved about. The outfit -- which is vigorously attempting to make space tourism a reality for the affluent -- saw its long-awaited WhiteKnightTwo craft complete an hour long maiden flight above its Mojave headquarters. If you'll recall, we were expecting the craft to take flight in September, though we can't say that a three month delay is all that unforgivable given the nature of the task. We suspect Buzz Lightyear would have an excellent closer for this one, so we'll just let you all imagine what quip he'd share.

[EricJ]

Remember last year at this time, when we were wondering whether CES'08 might finally push the tables against HD-DVD?

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Remember last year at this time, when we were wondering whether CES'08 might finally push the tables against HD-DVD?

Not everyone here was wondering...

[AranhaHunter]

I wonder what's gonna be shown there....there's a teaser about a new Vaio laptop

CES 2009 is fast approaching, and rumors of new laptops are everywhere. This week though, the focus is on Sony.

Though enterprising news outlets have dug up hints at new products from the likes of Dell and Lenovo weeks before the big gadget exhibition, Sony is outing itself as having a new portable PC that will "change the way you think about laptops." A clock counting down the days and hours until January 9, when the new product is scheduled to appear, popped up on Sony's New Zealand site, as pointed out over the weekend by Engadget.

Putting the teaser in context of the photo of the oddly-shaped Sony device that popped up on the FCC's Web site two weeks ago, it certainly seems likely that this will be a notebook unlike what others are offering.

But the question is, will it be a Netbook? Sony has been conspicuously absent from the Netbook market among its Windows-wielding brethren. (Apple has held out too, but it's not price-matching with other PC makers.)

Netbooks have taken off in the past 12 months, moving from a quirky offering from Asus to the form factor that's giving the PC industry a whiff of hope. All the major manufacturers are on board, and it's paying off now since the price tags are cheaper than standard notebooks. However, how it will hurt them in the long run (dragging down average prices of notebooks, cannibalizing lower-end laptop models) is still to be determined.

The argument for Sony keeping out of the low-end fray is certainly there. Sony--like Apple--fancies itself a maker of luxury devices and is loath to get into price wars with the likes of Dell and HP. (Of course, it didn't want to wrestle with the lower-tier Vizio and Westinghouse in LCD TVs either, but the reality of the HDTV market forced Sony's hand.)

The electronics giant has also objected to the Netbook concept several times publicly. In February, Sony's head of its Vaio group in the U.S. called the Netbook movement "a race to the bottom," though by July Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow refused to confirm or deny plans for such a product.

Most recently, though, a Sony exec in the UK told ZDNet UK that Sony is "not in for the moment" when it comes to Netbooks, clearly not ruling it out completely. Netbooks, are they are now, "are not properly designed for consumer needs," Nicolas Barendson told ZDNet.

Does that mean that they have an entirely new design that will meet the needs of people looking for a Netbook-like device? Perhaps. But the key will be the price, and low-cost laptops are not Sony's cup of tea. So if they do edge into Netbook-like territory, expect them to market it like something other than a laptop, and more like another kind of portable consumer device.
Originally posted at Crave

http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-101...?tag=mncol;txt

A Vaio with Ubuntu as it's default OS....or a new OS developed with Google....yeah, no I have no idea what it is.

[Maximus]

http://kotaku.com/5116522/street-fig...t-against-sony

It's like something out of a fanboy fantasy land. At next year's CES, there will be a Street Fighter IV tournament. In which Capcom, Microsoft and Sony will select champions, then do battle.

For real. They will fight, you will take sides, shit will get real.

Each publisher's community leader - Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb for Microsoft, Jeff Rubenstein for Sony and Seth Killian for Capcom - will be there, and they'll be leading teams of 20 (with contestants drawn from people like you) in a three-way festival of dick-swinging, name-taking and all around shit-talkery.

CES is due to take place January 8-11 in Vegas. Further details on how you sign up for this apocalyptic event to come.

[MoPe]

I would love a Viao with Ubuntu. I have no idea how to install OS's, other than OSX, because you just slide the disk in and hit upgrade.

[AranhaHunter]

Originally Posted by MoPe

I would love a Viao with Ubuntu. I have no idea how to install OS's, other than OSX, because you just slide the disk in and hit upgrade.

It's not hard at all, and I recommend it.

1) Download Ubuntu
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
2) Either partition your HDD and install it on your machine or you can run Ubuntu off the CD drive. It'll give you the option once you have burned the files on a CD and have that CD in the tray.

Easy as pie

[xtop]

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/29/l...-480hz-lcd-tv/

Seriously, there's only so much picture improving you can do before the law of diminishing returns demands some recognition. While Sony just spent boatloads creating an over-the-top advertisement for its largely unimpressive 240Hz Motionflow technology, LG Display is laughing all the way to Vegas with its Trumotion 480Hz LCD TV. Set to debut at CES 2009, said panel will boast a four-millisecond response time and an unprecedented 480 refresh rate per second. Curiously, we're not informed of the screen size nor the resolution, so we could theoretically run into a 9-inch 320 x 240 display and be totally underwhelmed. On the real, the outfit is expected to launch the world's first Trumotion 480Hz LCD TV panel in the second half of next year, but we're just about to lay down good money that Sony or Samsung accelerates development in order to beat it to the punch. Full release is after the break.

LG Display Unveils the World's First "Trumotion 480Hz" LCD TV Panel

TV Panel Featuring Impressive 4ms Motion Picture Response Time to be Demonstrated at CES 2009

SEOUL, Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE--LG Display (NYSE:LPL, KRX:034220), a leading innovator of TFT-LCD technology, announced today that it has developed the world's first "Trumotion 480Hz" LCD TV panel, which has an impressive 480 refresh rate per second, accelerating the advent of ultra high-speed images, without sacrificing picture quality.

LG Display's 'scanning backlight' is the technology that enables a backlight to be repeatedly turned on and off to reduce motion blur. When combined with the company's 240 Hz technology, the display can refresh 480 images per second.

In addition, LG Display's "Trumotion 480Hz" display boasts an lower motion picture response time (MPRT)of 4ms, eliminating motion blurring for fast moving images and enabling a realistic, crystal clear picture. The display also makes dark images even darker and bright images far brighter - providing unparalleled, vivid picture quality. Moreover, it can reduce energy consumption by adjusting the backlight brightness.

"The world's first Trumotion 480Hz LCD TV panel is planned to hit the market in the second half of 2009. LG Display will provide its customers with unique, high-end products while delivering crisp picture quality for fast moving images," noted Mr. Eddie Yeo, Executive Vice President and Head of LG Display TV Business Unit.

LG Display will showcase its newest cutting-edge display technologies featuring improved motion picture response time (MPRT), eco-friendly displays and more in a private room at the Bellagio Hotel during the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2009.

[xtop]

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/30/w...-force-at-ces/

So here's an interesting one. The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) will be pumping up two standards at CES 2009: one with great potential for the future, one that'll be lucky to survive the rest of this decade. Despite setbacks for Wireless USB, the USB TechZone will be showcasing the latest and greatest in cordless USB, though we suspect we'll be spending most of our time checking out the progress on SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0). Hit the read link if you're interested in seeing what involved firms will be taking part, and keep it locked right here for live coverage as the mayhem unfolds in early January.


usb 3.0 needs to come out now!

[xtop]

not ces news, but i don't feel like starting a macworld thread

Listen, you know the drill by now: Macworld is less than a month away, and that causes a Cupertino-sized rumor mill to fill up with hints of new / refreshed hardware of all shapes and sizes. The crew at TUAW claim they've heard from sources that a new Mac mini will be unveiled with an aluminum finish, a Time Capsule-esque "lip," and a SATA optical drive that can be customized as a second HDD instead. Additionally, TechCrunch says it has three independent sources that confirm there's a large iPod touch is coming next Fall with a 7 or 9-inch screen. There's no indication if they expect a Macworld announcement here, but if true, we expect the cargo pants industry to react accordingly. Finally, and possibly related to the TechCrunch rumor, a Taiwan news site claims Quanta Computers is expecting to add Apple and Sony (is that you, Vaio P?) as clients for manufacturing netbooks in 2009. For those playing along at home, at some point next year we should expect a bigger iPod touch, a netbook, a smaller iPhone, a revised iMac, a revised Mac mini, and absolutely no love at all for the Mac Pro.

OH

MY

GOSH

[xtop]

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/02/c...ell-computing/

Pretty big talk, Creative, for such a mysterious product. According to information gleaned from an email that's making the rounds, Zii is "revolutionary" -- in fact, it's about to change everything you know. Everything. The company says they've invested over 10 years, over one billion dollars, and 10,000 man-years (that's a lot of men! and years!) on "stem cell-like silicon that is able to grow and multiply into different solutions and ecosystems," which will "better lives beyond our imagination." Has your mind been blown yet? No? Just wait until you "discover incredible recession-friendly business opportunities that enable you to thrive and prosper." Just what we need in the midst of these turbulent times. Of course this begs us to ask the question: if life as we know it is over, couldn't they have spent a little time coming up with a name other than Zii? And might there be a better place to announce this epoch-making discovery than booth #30651 at CES?

[joeorc]

Originally Posted by AranhaHunter

I wonder what's gonna be shown there....there's a teaser about a new Vaio laptop



http://ces.cnet.com/8301-19167_1-101...?tag=mncol;txt

A Vaio with Ubuntu as it's default OS....or a new OS developed with Google....yeah, no I have no idea what it is.

in my OPINION it's android, there's a team that made android on a EEEPC 1000, they did it 4 hours, got it up and running...

[xtop]

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/03/t...d-movies-that/

We hate to harsh on Toshiba here, we honestly do, but what in the world is it thinking? As if its clearly unimpressive Super Resolution Technology wasn't embarrassing enough, we're now hearing that the outfit is expected to release a line of prototype players at CES next week that tout SD card slots. Why, you ask? To accept the flash card movies that -- you guessed it -- no one on the entire planet is interested in. Okay, so maybe a handful of people (you know, the same characters who thought slotMusic was a solid idea) will buy in, but seriously, this has failure written all over it. The move comes hot on the heels of a Toshiba / Mod Systems tie-up to establish kiosks that sell films on SD cards, though we're still curious as to whether these SD card players will be of the standalone variety or integrated into upscaling DVD decks. We'll keep an open mind 'til we see the final product(s) at CES, but it'll take a belated Christmas miracle for this to be even halfway awesome.

heh

[xtop]

some more macworld rumors...

We've got less than 48 hours until Apple's last Macworld keynote, and the rumor mill keeps hinting that Phil's gonna announce new Mac minis, which so far are purported to have the Macbook's NVIDIA chipset, aluminum casing, and an SATA optical drive that can be swapped out for a second HDD. Go ahead and add dual display support to that list, which is what Apple Insider is speculating based on their sources saying the new minis will sport both a mini DisplayPort and a mini DVI connector. Additionally, the site has managed to snap some shots from the Moscone Center of the expo being set up. There's a picture of a monitor showing what's presumed to be a live feed of the keynote rehearsal with a blurred figure that kind of looks like Al Gore, and inside the south hall there are several mysterious banners concealed in white cloth. So pretty much status quo, though is it just us or do the banners seem to look a little tired and thin this year?

9to5Mac is reporting that a unibody, 17-inch MacBook Pro will be announced at Macworld, following in the footsteps of the previously released unibody 13 and 15-inchers. The rumor, backed up by some "whisperers" at Macrumors, isn't really an earth-shattering surprise -- though the accompanying revelation that this model is expected to have a slim, extended-life, non-removable battery is rather eye-opening -- and somewhat disappointing, considering the lameness of non-removable batteries. We'll know for sure on Tuesday at the keynote.

Update: Apple Insider is now independently confirming the imminent arrival of the unibody 17-incher, and also corroborating the fixed internal battery theory.

just hit up engadget for the links if you really want them.