CES 2010, Complete Coverage Part #1

source: hardwarezone.com
The Latest Gadgets and Gear for 2010
CES 2009 was a bit of a muted affair, no thanks to the downward state of the economy back then. Fast forward a year later, and things are looking much better in the financial sense. As such, CES 2010 appears to be a much livelier affair, with hordes of attendees thronging the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center, as well as the emergence of 3D televisions as the next big thing to keep an eye out for.

The outside of the Las Vegas Convention Center ws festooned with large banners and posters from some of the biggest names in the consumer electronics industry.

What follows in the coming pages and follow-up articles is a selection of the latest gadgets and gear on the CES show floor that caught our eye; suffice to say that even after two whole days of walking, there's still much that we haven't covered. In this edition of our highlights from the CES 2010 show floor, we take a look at the latest tech from 3M, Altec Lansing, Audio Technica, Canon, Creative, Edifier, the HomePlug Power Alliance, iFrogz, Inwin, Iomega, Optoma, Plantronics, Sonos and Toshiba.

Here's another view of the Las Vegas Convention Center, as seen from the nearby monorail station.

Registration room: some interesting social media-related statistics relating to CES 2010.

3M

3M showcased their new MPro 150 micro projector. The update to the MPro 120 now sports 1GB of internal storage and the ability to open PDFs, Excel files and PowerPoint documents, aside from movie and audio files. You also get a microSD card slot for additonal file storage and access.

Altec Lansing

This iPod dock from Altec Lansing boasts a pair of 1" horn-loaded tweeters, dual 3" mid-range drivers and a 5.25" side-firing subwoofer. While running on DC power, it also accepts eight D-cell batteries for music enjoyment on the go.

The compact Orbit USB speaker not only gets your PC's audio stream via USB, but power as well. As such, there's no real need for a built-in battery, making this tiny little gizmo perfect for laptop-toting geeks.

Audio Technica

This is Audio Technica's ATH-ANC7b active noise-canceling headphones; great for the frequent travelers who prefer a touch of silence to properly enjoy music and videos.

Also on display at Audio Technica's booth were a selection of their full range of audio solutions, ranging from over-ear to on-ear and in-ear products.

The Audio Technica ATH-ANC3 are their latest active noise-canceling solution geared at fans of in-ear audio.

Canon

Wireless prints are made easy with Canon's PIXMA MX340 Wireless Office All-in-One Printer. A 30-sheet automatic document feeder enables quick scanning, copying and printing, while the security-minded will like the printer's ability to accomodate password-protected PDF documents.

While most of us may regard Canon as a major maker of printers, cameras and camcorders, its also important to know that they also make calculators. Take for example, the Canon X Mark 1, which looks more like a sweet desktop accessory than a productivity enhancement tool.

On display for CES attendees were Canon's wide range of handheld camcorder. Expect to see some of them reviewed in the pages of our sister magazine, HWM, sometime soon.

Shows like CES are also a good opportunity for companies like Canon to properly showcase the abilities of their latest products, such as this stage set up for attendees to try out their newest DSLR cameras, camcorders and professional video cameras.

Creative

Singapore's very own Creative was present at CES with a relatively large booth, though oddly enough, the only product on show was the Vado HD pocket camcorder.

Edifier

Edifier's Luna5 Wireless is quite literally an iPod dock that's very much larger than life. With a total power output of 45W RMS (2x 10W + 1x 25W), you're set for a stylish living-room audio experience.

On the wall of Edifier's showcase area was an array of colorful compact desktop speakers.

HomePlug Power Alliance

The HomePlug Power Alliance's booth showcased powerline solutions from their various partners, one of which was Netgear.

ZyXEL's homeplug solution as pictured here is designed for audio/video in the home, with data transmission rates of up to 200Mbps, as well as DLNA support for compatibility with a wide range of digital home A/V equipment.

iFrogz

It would appear that iFrogz also produces a selection of cases for a selection of mobile devices, including the iPhone 3GS, BlackBerry Storm 9500 and iPod touch.

Also on display from iFrogz were an array of headphones sporting funky, colorful and outrageous designs such as the one pictured above, targeted at the young and trendy.

Inwin

Moving away briefly from consumer electronics, here we have a sweet computer casing from Taiwanese maker Inwin, namely the Maelstrom, sporting a very cool desert-camouflage design.

Following up on the Maelstrom computer casing is Inwin's selection of high-end power units, also designed to look like rugged, military equipment.

Iomega

The demise of the home theater PC is nearly upon us, with a variety of HD media players now available on the market. A new addition to the likes of the WD TV Live and the Seagate FreeAgent Theatre+ HD is the Iomega ScreenPlay Director HD Media Player. You get 1TB of internal storage, as well as connectivity options including HDMI and component video. It's also certified with DLNA and DivX standards. File format support includes H.264, WMV, AVCHD and MKV at 1080p.

The Iomega iConnect Wireless Data Station simplifies the addition of USB devices such as thumb drives, printers and other hardware onto your network for easy sharing with multiple computers. As the name says, it also comes with support for 802.11b/g/n networks, though it does have a wired gigabit Ethernet port as well.

Optoma

Riding on the 3D trend is the Optoma HD66 3D Ready Home Theater Projector. With a brightness rating of 2500 ANSI lumens and contrast ratio of 4000:1, the HD66 also supports a 720p output resolution.

The Optoma PK310 Pico Pocket Projector now sports a brightness rating of 50 lumens, while tipping the scales at just over 220g in weight. This pocket-sized projector uses an LED light source and is able to project widescreen images of up to 120 inches diagonally.

Plantronics

Sporting on over-the-head design, the Plantronics Audio 626 DSP USB Stereo Headset gets both power and audio data via USB, and also sports a noise-canceling microphone for clearer conversations.

Going up the ladder one step is the Plantronics Audio 646 DSP USB Stereo Headset, that's designed with a behind-the-head mount.

Sonos

Sonos didn't have a proper booth at CES, but rather a suite at the nearby Renaissance Hotel, where they set up the new Sonos ZonePlayer S5. While previous ZonePlayers required you to buy your own speakers, the ZonePlayer S5 comes with a sweet set built-in.

Controlling the Sonos ZonePlayer S5 (or any other ZonePlayer, for that matter), can be done by using the slick CR200 Multiroom Music System Controller (pictured above). With this handy controller, you can easily control your multiple music zones from the palm or your hand. Or if you're too cheap, you can always download the free Sonos Controller app for iPod touch and iPhone, which pretty much duplicates the CR200's function.

Also set up for attendees enjoyment was the 'older' Sonos ZonePlayer 120, which boasts a built-in amplifier that lets you hook up a pair of bookshelf speakers, for example, without having to worry about additional power sources.

Toshiba

At Toshiba's booth were an array of their latest laptops, one of which was the Qosmio X505, powered by the Intel Core i7 processor, and boasting a slick 18.4" widescreen display for the ultimate in mobile gaming.

The Satellite T135D shown here isn't new in design, but this model now carries an AMD platform using the Athlon Neo processors. The Intel CULV variants also go by the same T135 model nomenclature since the general features and notebook design is identical - so take extra caution during purchase on what you intend to get.

This is the NB305 and is the successor to the almost similar NB200. The NB305 netbook now sports the just released Pine View platform consisting of the Pineview processor (which now integrates the CPU core, memory controller and graphics engine on the same die) and the Tiger Point I/O hub chipset. Other than the internal updates, the aesthetics of the notebook have improved ever so slightly over the NB200 with slightly more curves and tapered design at the ends.

Toshiba made a big fuss about their latest CELL TV technology, which integrates a KIRA2 Panel designed to interface with the CELL TV's array of high luminance LEDs. Quite frankly, we can't wait to get one of these to try for ourselves.

Toshiba too has a Blu-ray player that supports 3D content, though the BDX3000 will apparently only be made available later in the third quarter of 2010. An additional tidbit: it'll also come with integrated WiFi.

To round up this edition of CES floor highlights, here's one for the Transformers fans: a set of USB drives and mice that transform into various characters from the famous cartoon many of us grew up watching.

3D Tech Zone Highlights

The organizers for CES 2010 allocated a section of the show floor for 3D technology and while the important TV brands had their own dedicated booths, there were some takers. Here were some of what we saw:

A big fish in a small pond, Mitsubishi was the clear brand name among the other vendors at CES 2010's designated 3D Tech Zone.

A trailer setup with almost complete darkness was where Mitsubishi showed off all its TVs, mostly models along with a huge LaserVue, if you would know, is limited in retail and priced substantially.

Even with so many TV brands showing off 3D displays, there was still quite a queue at Mitsubishi's demo. Is there really such a demand for 3D in TV and movies? We even overheard two employees in the Mitsubishi trailer remarking that some attendees appeared to be repeat visitors.

The one and only company with a 3D digital compact camera, the Finepix Real 3D W1, Fujifilm had a smallish booth showing off this camera.

Even though the Fujifilm camera can take pictures in 3D, you can't display them easily on your typical PC monitor. Instead, special equipment like this 3D capable photo frame is required, limiting the adoption of such cameras.

Here is the 3D camera, the W1. While you can view the captured image in 3D on this camera, if you want the 3D image in print, you'll need to send it to a lab in Tokyo to get it printed. Estimated turnaround time is 10 days with a US$5 fee.

Hyundai may not have a presence in terms of televisions but it does displays too like this 24-inch full HD 3D LCD monitor (W240S) that has all the usual specs you expect from such a monitor.

A much larger 46-inch full HD 3D LCD monitor, the S465D has a 6ms response time, contrast ratio of 3000:1 and three HDMI inputs.

Along with the bigger companies doing the 3D TVs and cameras, there are the smaller ones like MicroVision here which does custom passive 3D glasses for other companies e.g. for marketing purposes.

Polaroid's Booth

Polaroid has had to reinvent itself with the advent of digital cameras. Its iconic analog cameras stopped production last year and the company now appears to be in the digital camera business, along with related imaging and display products.

When we arrived, we were initially surprised at the huge crowd gathering at the Polaroid booth.

And the reason for the crowd - Lady Gaga was at the booth to be unveiled as Polaroid's new creative director, essentially a brand ambassador and spokesperson for the company.

A full HD TV with integrated Blu-ray player from Polaroid, one of the new directions which the company has turned to in recent times.

CoolIT Systems' Booth

CoolIT Systems, a firm specializing in liquid cooling technology swept four Innovation awards at CES 2010 for its cooling products. We just had to check out its booth.

The Vantage CPU liquid cooling system features a wireless chassis monitoring and control system that automatically regulates the fan speeds, even those by third parties through a special fan node.

The Omni A.L.C has a universal plate solution that makes it reusable for different GPU models, something that's not possible for current products by adding a layer in-between that can be adjusted to fit the location of the GPU cores in different models.

Monster's Booth

For those who have keener senses than us, or a desire to aspire to the expensive things in life, there's always Monster willing to charge you the privilege.

Why a Ferrari? Beats us. Perhaps it's to show how fast Monster cables are capable of. Or that the company makes obscene amounts of money from selling them?

Monster has a cable for every occasion, often with the cables having higher rated specifications than the standard.

HP and Monster working together to provide you with the best available cables you'll need, or think you do.

QNAP's Booth

QNAP, known for its network device had the usual products on show at its booth.

The NMP1000 HD media streamer/player is not exactly new and while the performance and hardware is undoubted, our hands-on didn't leave us with too many positive feelings about its user interface.

The new products from QNAP are its refreshed range of NAS products, all of which now use Intel's latest dual-core Atoms (D510) for better performance and more importantly, lower power.

D-Link's Booth

D-Link had quite a healthy crowd at its booth, mostly attracted to one device, the Boxee Box.

And here is the Boxee Box and a glimpse of its rather polished interface. That's before we found out that Boxee is a software application that's free for download and is in essential a media organizer that draws on sources like the internet, your hard drive and your network drives to create an unified interface for your media.

The Boxee Box as we learnt, uses the new Tegra 2 inside, so playback of media should not be an issue, especially since the software supports subtitles and an extensive list of formats. Here you can see it has a SD card slot and a USB port.

The prototype D-Link DNS-213 is a single-bay 2.5-inch ShareCenter NAS. All you need to do is to plug it into your router and it should take care of everything else, like serving files to your other networked PCs and even over the internet. No pricing info yet nor firm availability.

Can a touchscreen make a router sexy? Well, the printer guys are doing it so why not? Personally, we aren't too sure but D-Link is taking this route with the D-Link Touch. Available by the end of Q2 for around US$360.

Shuttle's Booth

It was rather quiet at Shuttle's booth, which had its main attraction its updated multi-touch AIO. The fact that half the booth was dedicated to Shuttle's motherboard designs could be a reason too,

Now with Intel dual-core Atom D510 inside, the Version 2 of the Shuttle X50 All-in-one now comes with multi-touch too, though the other specs are quite standard and ordinary.

We also spotted a new barebones PC using the Intel H55 chipset. The SH55J2 supports both Core i3 and i5 processors with built-in graphics.

Garmin's Booth

Navigation specialist Garmin had its range of GPS navigation devices on show, along with its Garmin-Asus nuvi phones.

One year after CES 2009 where ecoRoute was first announced, how is the state of this software that helps to make you a greener (and likely save costs) driver? There's a new ecoRoute HD, which is available on the Nuvi 1260, 1370, 1390, 1490, and 1690, and has a wireless dongle that transfers crucial information like throttle position and air intake temperature to the nuvi device. The better for the software to calculate the best and green route. Or even teach you to drive in a greener fashion.

Here is the Gauge panel, which shows useful information about your vehicle. Having the vehicle in excellent condition is important to improving your mileage.

The highest end nuvi 1690 has Google Local Search integrated for the additional info like traffic, fuel prices and other real-time info from Garmin's nuLink! services. For those who need to stay connected at all time, the location enabled social networking on this device can be useful when organizing road trips among many people.

SuperTalent's Booth

SuperTalent had its mix of flash based products, from RAM to SSDs and USB drives.

This pocket sized SSD RAIDDrive from SuperTalent promises to be one of the fastest USB drives ever with its support for USB 3.0 and the built-in RAID accelerating things even further.

Some of SuperTalent's high speed memory modules for overclocking on display with their distinctive heat spreaders.

NVIDIA's booth was crowded as usual, no thanks to its many 3D Vision demos. Graphics and GPU computing enthusiasts will be disappointed that the next-gen Fermi GPU is not available yet.

There's some candy for hardware fans in the form of the second-gen Tegra. The Tegra 2 features a faster ARM processor but retains its solid HD performance. No properly tested word on battery life however, and the demo units we saw were mostly tablets, not smartphones.

One of those Tegra 2 concept devices, an ASUS tablet that's in the prototype stage.

The Pegatron Neo is at least an usable netbook-like device running Android. It's extremely light and no word on availability besides it being slated for this year.

We had a Tegra 1 Mobinnova that died on us soon after reaching our labs. Here is apparently a newer version with Tegra 2 inside. The software appears to be a proprietary interface on top of Windows CE.

A 3D gaming demo with NVIDIA's 3D Surround Vision. It looks rather impressive and a fan favorite. Powering it inside however is the next-gen GPU, GF100, which presumably is Fermi or a variation of it.

Zotac's Booth

An Ion based mini-PC from Zotac, the MAG is a portable system packed with many ports and uses both dual core Atoms (230/330). It was released late last year.

A new mini-ITX board from Zotac using Intel's new H55 chipset, the H55-ITX WiFi has a single PCIe x16 slot, support for dual-channel DDR3 with 6 SATA ports and up to 14 USB 2.0 ports. In short, standard H55.

Meanwhile, this is a mini-DTX board for the new dual-core Intel Atom 510. The Zotac NM10-DTX has a HDMI output for 720p that seems to be unique to its design, but we'll wait to see if it can use that output properly.

In this next part of our coverage, we picked some of the latest products spotted in some of the more familiar manufacturers. From components to consumer electronics, you can tell that a lot of new innovations are poured into these new products. Without delaying anymore, let's start off with the latest and greatest from ASUS.

The Asus EeeKeyboard PC EK1542 is an iF Product Design Award winner due to its unique design which incorporates a multi-touch 5-inch screen that recognizes unique touch gestures. Inside the keyboard, it's actually powered by an Atom N270 with 1GB of memory, 16/32GB SSD storage, UWB wireless HD streaming and operates on Windows XP Home.

The screen display on the EeeKeyboard which allows the user to access multiple applications easily.

The new Asus Bravo graphics card is created for home theatre systems as it's equipped with light sensing technology that automatically changes the brightness of the graphics output based on the room ambient lighting. It is also tweaked for energy savings, reducing power by up to 28% in 2D. The Bravo is based on the NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT GPU.

The Asus EeePC MK90H is a kid friendly Disney design netbook. The pink netbook comes with an 8.9-inch LED backlit screen and an Atom N270 processor.

Asus netbooks are not just about being functional, but they are designed for style conscious consumers. The new EeePC Seashell 1008P Karim Rashid Collection, comes with an Atom N450, 10.1-inch LED backlit WSVGA screen, 1.3MPixels webcam and promises up to 6 hours of battery life.

The Karim Rashid Collection comes in hot pink for the more daring...

... and coffee brown for those who prefer a more subtle design.

The Asus EeePC T91MT is the first ever resistive multi-touch netbook that comes with a 180-degrees rotatable screen. This convertible tablet lookalike netbook is powered by an Atom Z520 and it comes with Windows 7, a 32GB SSD drive and weighs only 960g.

The G51J 3D is the latest gaming notebook that comes with a 120Hz screen for 3D playback. The notebook comes bundled with the NVIDIA 3D glasses and transmitter. The Core i7 equipped notebook comes with a GeForce GTX280M graphics, 15.6-inch HD LED backlit screen and DVD/Blu-ray optical drive.

The Asus G60Jx is another gaming notebook that comes equipped with either an Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processor. It is equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M graphics, 16/15.6-inch LED backlit screen and a DVD/Blu-ray combo optical drive.

The G73Jh design is inspired by the F-117 stealth fighter and is equipped with the latest Core i5/i7 processor with the Mobile Intel HM55 chipset. It comes with the Mobility Radeon 5870 graphics and dual SATA HDD supporting up to 1TB in total. This giant gaming machine comes with a huge 17.3-inch Full HD or HD+ LED backlit screen.

The Asus NX90Jq comes powered with an Intel Core i7 processor with the Mobile Intel HM55 chipset. This unique looking notebook comes certified with the Bang & Olufsen ICEpower audio technology for enthusiasts who want the best in audio reproduction. The notebook comes with dual touchpads as well, enabling intuitive DJ-like multimedia controls. Besides that, it also comes with a large 18.4-inch Full HD LED backlit screen, NVIDIA GeForce GT335M, dual HDD support up to 1280GB, slot-in Blu-ray/DVD drive, USB 3.0 ports and up to 12GB of DDR3 memory.

The Asus U30Jc is based on the Intel Core i5/i3 processor with the latest Mobile Intel HM55 chipset. Comes with a 13.3-inch HD LED backlit LCD screen at 1366x768 resolution. The 1.99kg notebook also comes with a 640GB SATA HDD and DVD/Blu-ray combo optical drive.

The Asus U33Jc Bamboo Collection is based on the latest Intel Core i5/i3 processor and the Mobile Intel HM55 chipset. The notebook is cladded with bamboo both on the outer shell and on the palm rest. Comes with USB 3.0 and NVIDIA GeForce 310M, the display is an LED backlit HD screen at 13.3-inches.

Aigo's Booth

Aigo's cutesy Glide-Mouse Z1668 is super portable and it's touted to be more reliable and accurate with its blue optical tracking.

Aigo's 1500mAh battery extender pack for iPhone 2G, 3G and 3GS.

Aigo's portable digital microscope GE5 is equipped with a 1.3MPixel sensor to allow you to capture images and videos directly into the PC. This educational tool also let you directly measure feature sizes through the capture software.

They also have a binocular digital microscope for more elaborate lab work. Also comes equipped with a 1.3MPixel CMOS capture sensor and the appropriate software for measurement of length, diameter, angle and more. It's illuminated by white LED lamp.

The Casio EX-10HG is not just a camera, but comes with GPS as well. It automatically geotags your pictures as you take them. Great for vacations.

The map interface is based on Google Maps.

The new Casio EX-FH100 is a 10.1MPixel camera with a 10x optical zoom lens. The super high speed camera is able to capture videos at up to 1000fps, creating ultra slow motion video that is 33x slower than real life.

A look at the Casio EX-FH100 from the back.

The new Casio EX-Z2000 point and shoot digital cameras come with a 14.1MPixel and driven by the newly developed EXILIM Engine 5.0. It comes with a Dynamic Photo function which allows users to cut out images from moving objects while pasting it onto a still/animated background, creating a composite of moving images that can be uploaded to YouTube.

The Casio EX-Z550 is similar in feature to the Z2000, except that it has a shorter optical zoom at 4x.

Casio's latest Digital Art Frame is not just another digital photo frame. Besides still JPEG images, the 10.2-inch WSVGA color screen can also display animated Flash images. But that's not all, as it can also stylize normal photographs into various art forms.

The picture above is transformed into a painting automatically. The Casio Digital Art Frame is capable of rendering up to eight different forms of art, such as water color painting, color pencil sketch, pointillism, gothic oil painting, oil painting, pastel painting, air brush and Fauvist oil painting.

Casio introduces the first ever eco friendly lightweight projector. At 1.7-inches thick, this projector uses a solid-state hybrid light source which is based on a combination of laser and LED. As these form of light source is not manufactured using mercury, unlike other projector lamps, the XJ-A130 is totally mercury and lead free. Besides having longer lamp life, Casio claims that color reproduction is also enhanced due to its unique light source.

Kodak's Booth

The new Kodak ESP Office 6150 AiO is a four in one system with print, copy, scan and fax functions. It also prints from WiFi and comes with a duplexer for time and paper savings.

This is the new Kodak ESP 7250 All-in-One printer which offers direct WiFi printing from devices such as the Blackberry. It also comes with a built-in duplexer, intelligent paper sensor and auto-engaging photo trays, 2.4-inch color LCD and card slots.

The Kodak Playsport portable digital camera can capture full 1080p HD movies at 30fps. It comes with a 2-inch LCD screen and an expandable SD/SDHC slot for additional memory of up to 32GB. Although it seems similar to more other handheld HD recorders out there, Kodak's latest offering is waterproof up to 3 meters.

A flipside view of the Kodak Playsport.

The Kodak Pulse digital photo frame is equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity and a personal e-mail address that allows you to easily send pictures wirelessly to the frame from a computer, from Facebook and KODAK Gallery sites, or from any device that has email capability. The photo frame comes with 512MB of storage space, making it capable to store up to 4000 pictures.

The new Kodak Slice is a touchscreen camera that comes with powerful search engine that allows you to sort your photos based on person, place, date or occasion while giving users a one touch sharing that uploads the photo directly into Flickr, YouTube or even the Kodak Pulse digital photo frame.

The Kodak Slice with its large 3.5-inch, 16:9 LCD touchscreen with anti-reflective coating.