By Andy Goldberg Jan 7, 2006, 10:34 GMT
Las Vegas - With over 2,500 exhibitors stretched out over three massive convention centres, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is one of the biggest gadget festivals in the world.
Featuring everything from massive televisions to tricked out cars and boats, there's hardly an electronic gadget on earth not represented in Las Vegas. But several devices stood out for extraordinary innovation, usefulness or efficiency - or sometimes just for being madly over-the-top.
One laptop that every road warrior was drooling over came from Panasonic and boasted a fuel cell instead of a chemical battery. The new cell uses methanol and can run a laptop for up to 20 hours, throttling the flow of the fuel depending on the power needs of the device. Fuel will be provided in cartridges, though Panasonic has not determined how they will be sold or if they will be disposable or returnable for recharge.
While everyone was hoping that Sony would unveil its hotly awaited Playstation 3, the company confined itself to releasing new televisions, digital cameras and an electronic book reader that might one day do away with the need for paper books.
The eReader will go on sale in April for about 400 dollars, features a battery life of 7,500 page turns and a screen that uses technology from a company called E-Ink to minimize the glare and flicker that typically cause eye strain. The reader device will hold about 80 books in its internal memory, and Sony will sell digital texts at an online store.
Kodak was once considered a company on the verge of extinction as the emergence of digital photography undermined its main film products. But in a turnaround that will be studied for generations at business schools, the company changed direction and re-emerged as the market leader in creating powerful but easy-to-use digital cameras.
Its latest offering is the EasyShare V570, which includes a wide- angle lens and a regular lens that combine to make a 5x optical zoom that doesn't protrude from the body of the camera. The camera also carries built in wi-fi to allow images to be downloaded, printed or emailed without a computer.
Another company reinventing, technology bellwether Hewlett Packard (HP), underwent years of management upheaval as it struggled to cope with the massive changes in the tech world over the last decade. Recent months have seen HP's financial results improve, and things will keep getting better if the company's first foray into flat- screen televisions is any indication.
At CES, HP introduced nine new HDTV models, including a 37-inch LCD television with built-in wired and wi-fi capability. That means owners can use the monitor to stream audio, video and photo slide shows from their PC and or the Internet.
Netgear Inc. showed off the first wireless voice-over-Internet- protocol phone that doesn't require a computer. The networking equipment company said it is working with Internet phone pioneer Skype to develop the Skype Wi-Fi phone, which can be used to make free calls over the Internet. Skype was purchased by eBay last year.
Bluetooth has long been touted for its ability to connect machines without the use of cables. One of its most popular uses has been to link headsets to mobile phones, with the drawback that such headsets have been relatively large to hold all the necessary Bluetooth technology.
Now, Motorola's H5 Miniblue has miniaturized a system to just 33 millimetres, and the device is barely visible because it fits inside the ear like an iPod earbud. The Miniblue ingeniously does away with a conventional microphone and registers the user's voice vibrations via bone conduction through the ear canal. <!--page-->
Nokia, meanwhile, attracted attention with its Series 60 3rd Edition Mobile Browser, which for the first time makes the Internet a comfortable place to visit from your phone. Previous mobile-phone browsers have done poorly at both putting web pages on the small screens of cellphones and offering convenient navigation systems using telephone keypads.
But Nokia's new Series 60 phones run a new browser based on Apple Computer's Safari browser. Full Web pages load quickly as small images, and surfers use the numeric keypad to move a red box around the page, highlighting and zooming in on desired sections.
People who can never go anywhere without the Internet might be interested in the 6,000-dollar SpeedRay 3000, a mobile satellite signal receiver and wi-fi Internet hot spot for the car. These flat, round satellite signal-receptors strap to the roof of the car and allow occupants to browse the web on any wi-fi device at high speeds.
This year's show has also seen the debut of new formats for DVDs amid the continuing rivalry between Sony's Blu-Ray and Toshiba HD- DVD.
Toshiba drew first blood by announcing a pair of HD-DVD players to ship in March. The prices are between 499 dollars and 799 dollars, and are cheaper than expected. The first Blu-Ray players are not expected on the market before June.
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