Couldn’t get to CES this year? No problem. Here’s a quick tour of Microsoft’s booth.

Bushnell and Acuweather have been teaming up for a bit to provide a rather cool gadget that you just keep in your home and it displays the current weather conditions as well as what is on the way. This build here won’t be out for a few more weeks. I think I might have to pick one up.

A scene from the show.

Demo of Windows 7. Some of the UI niceties are very impressive. I don’t think the Superbar, however, is quite as good as they seem to think it is. I do like the jump lists though a lot. Windows 7 is shaping up to be the best version of Windows by far.

I love living in the near future. Now that’s a soda dispenser.

A few people emailed and asked for more information on Hitachi’s super resolution. Basically, this is a feature that looks like it will become standard on Hitachi TVs starting in 2010. The effect on picture quality is tremendous. It’s really obvious on lower definition video but even HD video looks a lot better with it (especially cable broadcasts which have a lot of compression in them).

This “Ultra High” definition gives us a preview of the future. I saw two trends with TVs this year. One, everyone is now touting 240hz refresh rates for TVs. Last year it was 120hz which is a massive improvement in image quality IMO over 60hz.  The 240hz is…better but I wouldn’t pay a premium for it.

Lorex is a name I’m going to keep in mind. They have cameras with WiFi in them which you can remotely monitor things and view them on the computer.

Duracell launched this last year but more people may want to know about it. It’s basically a all-in-one battery and recharging unit. If you’re a kook like me, the solar panel it comes with is pretty compelling. It’s nice knowing that when that terrorist EMP pulse hits in 2011 that takes out the US grid for 6 weeks that I’ll still be able to play video games on my laptop.

Canon launched a new series of HD cameras at the show. The HF20 looks impressive. The only bummer is that they continue to use the AVCHD format for storing HD which makes them really a pain in the butt. How much of a pain? I used my Canon Elph to do video at the show because it saves to AVI.  Incidentally, Canon launched some new digital cameras that now save to Quicktime (.MOV) by default.

I really like the idea of electric cars.  I currently live 6 miles from work so it wouldn’t be a big deal to drive something like this for such short distances.

This is what the South Hall looks like when you walk in.

So what are some of the cool things at CES that you wouldn’t normally hear about or see unless you were here.  Well, that’s what this blog is for.

Kristen and I visited the Blackberry booth. They came up with a new Curve but it’s only on AT&T and no 3G. No Verizon yet.

LG has a watch phone that is extremely cool. I’m not sure how cool it would be to wear a phone on your hand all the time but still.  Unfortunately, it’s Europe and Asia only. 

Duracell had a bunch of very cool new technologies that are coming out later this year. They gave me a quick demo of some of them including this small solar powered recharger that supports hooking in lots of different devices.

This little USB rechargeable battery goes into the cigarette lighter of cars. It was very slick.

If I had a pool, I would want this. A floating massage chair. Mmm…

This was one of the coolest things at the show and it won’t even be out until 2010. Hitachi has a new technology that can take a SD image and makes it like an HD image.  Now, this isn’t upscaling. It has heavy duty processing in it that intelligently improves the details in the image. It was really impressive.

I also saw, but couldn’t take pictures, of a Samsung TV that could show 3D without the need for glasses. It was pretty cool but gave me a headache.

And now for the video journal of the day:

It’s no secret that I sometimes…exceed the speed limit.

My radar detector of choice is the Escort 9500i with GPS in it.  I recently replaced my Valentine V1 with it (the V1 is awesome too, but not quite as good as the new Escort).

WOW! There is so much cool stuff here I don’t even know where to begin.

CARS are CARS…

Microsoft was demonstrating its new Sync technology that integrates with MSN Direct (www.msndirect.com). The voice navigation on it is really phenomenal and Microsoft is starting to open up pieces of this technology to third parties.

A BMW representative gets a demo from Microsoft. Maybe BMW will replace their sucky iDrive thing with this.

People who are into modding their cars would have been in nirvana. We saw some seriously cool stuff where you could turn your car into the ultimate sound beast.

Alexandra and Kristen give the modded car a spin.

KIT up close. So cool. I’m not sure what the point of this exhibit was but it got me to go up there.

Assuming the subscription drive ends as it is going, what is going to happen?

This is all tentative brainstorming and will be altered based on your feedback.

I. Subscriptions:

1. Master Skins will remain at a discount.

2. There will be a lot more master skin content than there is today as inspired work that's available via MyColors will also be made available in parts as Master Skins. This process will begin sooner rather than later.

3. There will be a new WC browser that will be integrated into Impulse. This browser will only handle Stardock programs and wallpapers.

4. There will be two tiers of subscriptions.  A new $9.95 Basic subscription will give 1 year of access to unlimited downloads and no ads.  The $19.95 suscription will give users discounts on premium content and WC subscriber skins.

5. The current $29.95 subscription that people have will be transformed into a 2-year (so those who buy a subscription between now and then will really make out or people who already have one).

6. All subscriber resources will be handled through Impulse.

II. Site Design

1. The forums will be the same with just some cosmetic changes.

2. There will no longer be a gallery listing on most pages. A Gallery page will let people get to the galleries but the home page won't list a bunch of skin galleries.

3.  The home page will fbe greatly simplified and look very differnt from today (the whole site will look totally different).

4. The gallery page will only focus on Stardock relatd items and wallpaper. Other items fall into an "other" link.

5. Wallpaper moderation as we know it will likely disappear. Instead, we will likely move forward towards a moderator recommended option.

6. Galleries will default to only showing moderator recommended items or items in which at least N users have recommended.

7. The rating system as we know it will likely disappear being replaced by the recommended option. What we'll probably brand the recommend.

8. The recommend option will probably be labeled "Like it" and "Love it".  If a moderator recommends it (likes it or loves it) then it will show up by default. Users will be able to easily change their filtering.  Stars won't be displayed anymore. Just the # of "like it" and "love" by it.

9. Individual galleries won't have a column showing other galleries. A given gallery will focus just on things relevant to that gallery.

Uncle Marv, Aunt Connie, and dad opening gifts. The Xbox is playing the photo album from last year.

Silly me with Ryan, Al, my mom, Aunt Karen and Alex.

Kristen, myself, and Alexandra are here in Las Vegas to attend CES. We’ve each got a laptop and are setting up to begin uploading lots of pictures.

One of the stories form last year is how print media is dying off. I don’t think it’s going to ever completely die, nor would I want it to.

As someone who is writing this from the airplane where there is no Internet access but loaded up with plenty of magazines, I can really appreciate the benefits of online media.

First, online you can almost always comment on the article. Disagree with what I’m saying? Did I miss something? Have something to add? You can comment on this.  By contrast, print media offers no such thing. This is a major shortcoming.  For example, reading Time Magazine can be frustrating because I see so much editorializing in what is supposed to be “news”. The online version of such biased reporting would get called out.

Second, another problem with print media is the lag time. As I read the articles on Windows 7 in print magazines, a lot of it is already outdated or far too general. Do casual computer enthusiasts buy computer magazines? That would be an interesting thing to find out but based on circulation numbers, it would appear not so much.

Lastly, the format of many print magazines is incredibly inefficient compared to online magazines. It’s usually not their fault but many have not taken advantage of their print medium as well as they could have.  There are notable exceptions – Worth Playing is very awesome in its print edition. PC Gamer takes good advantage of its print edition and PC Magazine, started to make a lot better use of its medium but it appears to have been too late.

I enjoy reading media on paper. I just wish that those who ran such publications would adapt to the changing circumstances. 

Suggestions for “old” media.

1. Be more honest. If it’s hard news, just the facts please. Nothing is more annoying that reading not-so-subtle political biases that try to pretend to be objective.  Huffington Post and National Review make no bones about where they come from. By contrast, Time and Newsweek patronize us with their claims of objectivity even as they spin consistently one way.

2. Increase the quality.  If a doofus like me can crank out the same level of material as what’s in a print magazine, something has gone very wrong. And yet, often as I read these magazines, I can’t help but think that I or many other bloggers could have produced the same stuff. It’s not hard to read a Microsoft position paper or media guide and sum it up into an article.  I find myself increasingly going online if I want to get to material that is truly newsworthy.

This is an area where print game publications do a better job than the print tech publications. PC Gamer, for instance, gets a lot of news on games that I just can’t get elsewhere. By contrast, I rarely find info in print tech publications that hasn’t already been described in great detail on CNET, ZDNet, or Toms Hardware (or Neowin or Betanews for that matter).

3. Make full use of the medium.  CPU magazine (Computer Power User) is one of the few tech magazines that really seems to use its print existence to its advantage.  The litmus of a well done print publication in my opinion is if you would still want to read a 3 month old issue you got your hands on. CPU magazine meets this criteria. PC Gamer meets it as well.  Time Magazine, increasingly, does not. Newsweek doesn’t. PC World, a long-time favorite of mine, often does not. Smart Computing does not. 

I’m always surprised to see tech magazines with articles that simply show a table of hardware with brief ratings on them. Those magazines were put to bed 2 months ago. If I’m buying a computer, I’m going to go online for ratings. What I would use a print magazine for is to get more in-depth coverage produced by professional journalists.

Just my 2 cents. Comment away!

The Consumer Electronics show has become THE show to attend for techies of the industry.

This year’s show is expected to be particularly interesting. Here are some of the things I’m going to look for:

1. The High-Def wars, phase 2.  Blu-ray has beaten HD-DVD but is that the end of the story? Is streaming the future of high-def media consumption?
2. Windows 7 is coming out. What sorts of cool new tech is Microsoft and its partners have in store for us?
3. What sorts of cool new portable devices are scheduled to come out?
4. Are cars going to get anything better from a tech point of view? BMW’s iDrive is terrible.  Microsoft’s collaboration with Ford has been pretty cool, what’s the next step?
5. What sorts of green tech are coming out this year? I’m sure I’m not the only techie interested in seeing if there are cheap and easy ways to reduce energy consumption.
6. What’s the next phase of life for PCs. Are Netbooks and smart phones the future with PCs being used for increasingly niche applications or are the PC makers going to roar back with new sources of relevance?
7. Where is printer technology going? Are we still stuck with crappy injkets or are there better solutions on the horizon?
8. How is mobile tech coming along? How close are we to Internet everywhere?

Stay tuned!

The flight is about to leave.