CES 2009 Live Day 2 – Random Encounters

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.

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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.