Pre-CES: CES Unveiled Neat-o Items

Posted: January 6, 2009 in Computers and Internet
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Ok, I saw a few cool things at CES Unveiled today…

  • nVidia and Mitsubishi were showing a 3D-capable television, using shutter-based 3D lenses, connected to a computer with a special version of nVidia’s driver. Basically, the driver takes the depth information provided in DirectX games and makes basically any 3D game, well, 3D. They showed this last year, but they didn’t say much about how it worked. No info yet on pricing, but still cool to see, even if there’s hardly a home market for it.
  • Eton showed a crank radio for emergency situations. Yeah, nothing new, except this radio also sported a USB port for charging a cell phone. Not bad, especially if your battery dies when you need to prevent doing the same…
  • I got to see Lenovo’s 2-screen laptop… It’s a 17" display with a slide-out 10.6" display with the same resolution as the primary. Neat. Expensive – $3500 – and as big as you think it is. Come to think of it, I should have asked about battery life.
  • On an non-CES-related topic, Apple announced a Macbook Pro at MacWorld that has a built-in, non-replaceable battery, that sports up to 8 hours of battery life. But, umm, if you need more juice, you’re screwed. Oh, and why wouldn’t I just buy a PC with 12+ hours of battery life and a replaceable battery, like the ones from HP, Lenovo, and Dell. Well, I guess that 17" is nice.
  • And then there was Duck Hunter from Inter Active Toy. No play on words here – it really is a gun that shoots off a remote control duck that flies around the room. You have to shoot the duck down within 30 seconds or you "lose." Should be at Best Buy and Circuit City (RIP?) by the Spring. You can download photos from this link. (note, I haven’t checked what’s in the ZIP file they linked, so use at your own risk)
  • Meade Instruments showed off their ETX-LS auto-configuring telescope. Yes, it’s a telescope that does everything for you. With its built-in CCD imager, it looks at a photo of the night sky and auto-calibrates itself. No star references needed. Sweet.

Duck Hunter from Inter Active Toy

More news coming as I tour the show floor…

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