My Digital Life

My CES 2008 wrap up

As the press frenzy of the International Consumer Electronics Show CES 2008 winds down, it is time to review what I saw during those few days, and write up my thoughts and opinions of my first visit. I tried to see a bit of everything and will report on more than Windows Mobile. It was quite a week, so much to see and so little time with 140,000 of my closest friends ...I was definitely on information overload but in the end I concluded that all of the technology on display was evolutionary and there was nothing revolutionary, that said there were areas of the shows that were very interesting. I have whittled the interesting technologies into the following areas:

• GPS devices and associated applications
• Touch and Gesture user interface paradigm
• HD DVD and Blu-ray
• Wireless audio and video component connectivity
• Bluetooth
• Smartphones

Read my thoughts on pocketnow here.

The week of January 14th in My Digital Life

I survived  CES 2008. Today I will finish up my recap of the show and will post it later on this week. Here are some of my take aways:

• Anything GPS is the technology of the day.
• Touch and Gesture are now the UI paradigm of choice.
• HD DVD is not dead, just wounded. We just need affordable dual players and the consumer will jump in.
• Panasonic is not giving up on Plasma.
• Wireless component connectivity is in but without standards we are looking at a compatibility mess for consumers...

I loaded Dutty's DualTouch V3 Final ROM which is just a tweak from V2, he removed some applications which I do not use. I backed up my unit with Sunnysoft's Backup Manager 4.0.0.2 and restored it without any issues other than some errant shortcuts to ROM applications which were no longer there. I used Total Commander to delete these shortcuts. I will update my application list tomorrow. The Tilt worked very well for me in Las Vegas, although the cell system was clearly overloaded, the signal would drop periodically for no reason.

Directv announced a PC Based receiver/DVR (dbstalk link), they seem to be latching onto the Windows Media Center extender technology which would allow you to share content from a single DVR. They also are rolling out the web based DVR scheduler service later this week with an official release in February (dbstalk link).

Directv's Mobile DVR Scheduler web site. It is still in beta but hopefully will be live by the end of the week.

This week: 

• Finish CES 2008 recap.
• Watch for any Apple announcements...
• Complete my review of Ilium Software's eWallet 6.
• Post more thoughts on the AT&T Tilt and how I used it on my trip.

Intel's Paul Otellini vision of mobility

Paul Otellini, Intel CEO and President presented the third CES 2008 keynote address yesterday. The core of the message is allowing the Internet to come to you, rather than you initiating requests. This of course will require more processing power and broadband everywhere, especially on mobile devices. Intel plans on delivering the technology for both. They have announced the Menlow series of chips for mobile smartphones and the Canmore series of chips for consumer electronics providing integrated connectivity. They are continuing with their efforts to get WIMAX implemented and have working networks in 70 countries. The video clip below demonstrates a working model of how they envision the Internet coming to you on a mobile device, however this particular mobile device prototype has a cord attached to two dual core machines. Intel's goal is to place that kind of processing power directly in the mobile device.

The week of January 7th in My Digital Life

I am at CES through Wednesday.  of this week.  After a day of dealing with our wonderful airline system, I felt lucky that I was only 90 minutes late into Las Vegas. As member of the press I made it in to see Bill Gates' last CES keynote. This is my second last Bill Gates keynotes (MVP Summit), I wonder how many he has done or will do before he transitions, in July of this year, from being a full time Microsoft employee to a board member. His keynote started  with a spoof video of his last day at Microsoft. Most of his keynote speeches have included a comedic spoof videos of current events at Microsoft. I wish we could purchase the DVD collection , most of the ones I have see have been very good. Sitting in the back of the room I was able to capture the spoof and am posting it below.

Bill Gates was really more a master of ceremonies during this keynote and most of the topics were discussed by Robby Bach and what his division was doing with a big emphasis on Windows Mobile.

There was acknowledgment of the iPhone, although quickly rebuffed by the comment that Windows Mobile outsells it and the Blackberry. Microsoft is  forecasting  to sell 20 million annual sales number by the end June, the end of their 2008 Fiscal Year.

The first set of products discussed were the MSN web site properties, Live Mail, Live Calendar, Live Events, and MSN Spaces and how they integrate with Windows Mobile. The demo was pretty lackluster and the only thing I learned was about the new Live Events (think Evite).

There is clearly a big move in the industry towards natural user interfaces, think touch and gestures. Bill Gates demoed the power of the surface platform, by customizing a snow board he was about to purchase. This has great promise although the surface is horizontal, Bill also demoed a wall based system using a prototype controller.

Robbie Bach announced that NBC Universal will use Microsoft technologies and specifically Silverlight to enhance the www.nbcolympics.com viewing experience of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.  He went on to discuss their connected entertainment strategy with 10 million Xbox Live users. They have now added ABC and NBC to their list of 35 networks and studios available on Xbox Live. British Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, and AT&T have reached their 1 millionth Microsoft Media Room IPTV/DVR user mark. British Telecom will start supporting the Xbox 360 as a set top box.  The  Zune which is  selling very well and the associated Zune social was demoed. The Sync in car entertainment system was demoed on stage using a new Lincoln MKX. Finally the Tell Me voice system was demoed.

All in all a pretty ho hum keynote but an affirmation that they feel they are on the right track...

There is a lot to see at CES, it is a real mob scene. It really helps to be part of the press.

This week: 

• CES 2008 coverage here on my blog and on pocketnow.com.
• My summary review of the tabletkiosk Sahara Slate PC i440D is up on pocketnow.com (link).
• Complete my review of Ilium Software's eWallet 6.
• Post more thoughts on the AT&T Tilt