We got to touch a Motorola Xoom, but that was about it
Tablets and hybrids aside, other technologies were redeemed for me at CES. I couldn't believe the push that 3D TV was getting at last year's show, and hoped that manufacturers wouldn't manage to sell the concept to the public by brute force. Thankfully, it appears they haven't been able to find many followers willing to sit in their living rooms wearing 3D glasses to give a sitcom more visual dimensions than the content itself (see: Two and a Half Men 3D). As a way of meeting the skeptics halfway, some companies have started to put out glasses-less 3D sets.
While I'm still not sold on the higher costs of the medium as a whole, a 3D TV that works without props is much more appealing. I have no doubt the price of these glasses-less models will put the prices of glasses-using screens to shame. But a glasses-less TV is something I could see myself buying when the costs become more reasonable a few years down the line, whereas I would rather dig through a junkyard for a working CRT before I'd pay a premium to sit in my own living room wearing "futuristic" glasses. 3D and iDevices
by Chris ForesmanTwo big trends that really stuck out to me during CES were the increasing push behind 3D and the staggering array of accessories for Apple's iDevices.
Movie studios and theaters have used 3D as a way to generate more revenue at the box office and offer an experience that's different than what most people can get at home. But now, TV and Blu-ray player manufacturers are pushing 3D tech into the living room. Sets using active, LCD shutter-type glasses have been around for a couple years, and scores of companies were showing off sets that use passive glasses or no glasses at all. Most new Blu-ray players support 3D as well.
A 3D laptop from Toshiba
3D tech is still in a relative infancy, however. It has still yet to win over a majority of consumers, and has yet to prove itself as a successful trend. But consumer electronics companies are intent to ride the 3D wave for the time being.
The other thing that really struck me is the sheer number of various iPad and iPhone accessories. In particular, there seemed to be an endless array of cases made in every color and of every material. I saw iPad cases made of carbon fiber, of various thinly-carved exotic woods, and silicone cases for iPod touches in nearly every color in the Patone swatchbook.
There were tons of licensed accessories, many featuring cartoon characters like Hello Kitty, Sesame Street, Captain America, and M&Ms. There were hundreds of speaker docks, some in the shape of animals, some in the shape of old-school audio components, some in amorphous shapes that defied description. Several companies had Bluetooth keyboards marketed specifically for the iPad, in both "full-size" and compact form. A few companies had various styli for writing and drawing on iPhones and iPads. And accessory maker Griffin teamed up with Crayola to create an iPad-specific stylus that worked exclusively with a Crayola coloring app. You know, for kids.
Even as the iOS device market has begun to mature, and alternate platforms like Android have begun to catch up in terms of unit market share, it still boggles the mind that so many companies can continue to exclusively target Apple's mobile devices.
New mobile form factors
by Ryan PaulAlthough a large chunk of the mobile industry has become fixated on that tablet craze, there are still some legitimate innovators out there aiming ahead of the curve and developing new kinds of mobile form factors and experiences. What impressed me most at CES were the unusual mobile computing devices with novel designs and capabilities.
The Motorola Atrix with its netbook dock
The most compelling example was Motorola's Atrix smartphone, which can plug into to a netbook shell or multimedia dock in order to provide a more desktop-like computing experience. The device has a whole separate software environment with GNOME and Firefox for conventional computing. The next generation of Android smartphones, with powerful multicore processors, are almost capable of handling an average user's desktop computing workload.
Although the Atrix was the most impressive smartphone that I saw at CES, there were a handful of other products that similarly blur the boundaries between device categories. Razer's Switchblade, a 7-inch Windows-based pocket computer, offers a radical new take on mobile PC gaming. Samsung also had a compelling twist on mobile computing with its sliding PC, one of the best tablet/netbook combo hardware concepts that I've ever seen.
It seems like the biggest barrier holding back more of this sort of innovation are the limitations of Microsoft's Windows operating system, which doesn't scale down well to these kinds of devices and creates an x86 dependency. If Microsoft can make its new ARM-based version of Windows into a credible mobile computing platform and deliver a fresh new user interface that is better-suited for small displays, it's possible that we could see hardware vendors start to do a lot more experimentation with unique mobile form factors and new kinds of mobile computing experiences.
BlackBerry PlayBook
We were already impressed with Research in Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook going into CES, but we fell even more in love with the tablet once we got our hands on it. At 7 inches, it’s more portable than the iPad and other 10-inch tablets, and I found it to be surprisingly fast. Clearly, RIM’s reliance on QNX’s software for the PlayBook’s OS is a good thing, as the tablet is light years beyond anything we’ve seen from the company. Not only is the PlayBook a great-looking tablet, but it also gives us hope that RIM’s phones will finally get modernized with the new QNX OS.
Microsoft Surface 2
Microsoft’s touchscreen tabletop Surface was an interesting, but unwieldy, product. Surface 2 fixes pretty much all of the first version’s issues — it no longer requires a bulky cabinet, for one — and it basically gives LCDs the power to see. Its PixelSense technology lets LCD displays recognize fingers, hands and other objects pressed directly onto the screen. And since it’s no longer bulky, Surface 2 can be wall mounted — opening up a plethora of new uses.
