CES ho hum
CES is upon us. Yeah.
I used to get excited about this show, really I did. In the 90s when it was uncool to be a gadget-loving-geek, attending CES and Comdex were as religiously awesome experiences as self-sex-education from a stash of your friend’s Dad’s hidden titty mags. I mean, really CES and Comdex were required geek pilgrimages. MP3s, ReplayTV/Tivo, Xbox, G3, Windows 95+, OLEDs, Plasma, bluetooth/80211, Nokia (insert phone version here), Aibo, TabletPC, OQO, SD cards, etc, etc, all were introduced and/or exploited at one of the two shows. The shows used to be filled with stuff that made you drop your pants and say WOW! (sorry, had to tie that sex-ed analogy back in).
Nowadays, CES is the same stuff year after year. Just bigger, faster, and more powerful than last. Nothing to get too excited about. And since gadgets have become so mainstream through the gospels of iPods and wireless phones, anything new that is worthwhile has an even steeper early-adopter price than there would be if Paris Hilton and Snoop weren’t flashing their sidekicks to the whole nation. CES, sadly, has become “Ho Hum” at best.
What to expect from CES 2005:
1) Products touted as iPod killers
2) Products touted as Tivo killers
3) Big plasma TVs
4) OLED display prototypes with promises of production in the next 2-3 years
5) MP3 players with larger drives than last year
6) Digital cameras with more megapixels
7) Bill Gates trying to save Tablet PC by calling it something different
More Swiss-army gadgets (Camera + Phone = Camera Phone)
9) Jason Calacanis and the Engadget crew posting daily to make sure we all know they are “Blogging Live from CES”
10) Lots and lots of free swag
Sans the last item of the list, there really isn’t much to get me excited about the expo. And since I’ve chosen not to attend this year (and most likely next year too), I can’t even get excited about free handouts. To be fair, there are some items that would get me excited about CES:
1) Microsoft announcing that their portable media center actually is a gaming OS too.
2) Nokia announcing NGage 2.0 (a real second generation, not any of this QD redux BS)
3) Apple announcing a portable gaming unit. Or even a true PDA. Hell, I’d take an iPod with a touch screen even.
4) Bill Gates confirming plans for a Portable Xbox
5) Sega announcing a re-entry to the hardware industry in any aspect
6) A budget TabletPC (sub $500) that doesn’t skimp on decent gaming specs
7) Sony announcing the US launch of the PSPs will use OLEDs instead of LCDs.
I know those will not be happening, aside from the fact that most would be suitable for an E3 announcement instead of CES. I live a geek pipedream. Don’t try it, or you too will venture further into the depths of emo expectectations from life.
Comments
Absolutely. Not sure if flying or taking a roadtrip, but I sure as hell will be at E3. Last E3 was all about the portables. I imagine that manufacturers notice the increasing trend in handheld popularity and will market towards that this year. I really wouldn’t be surprised to hear announcements of nextgens from Tapwave or Nokia.
And I expect huge from Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft.
btw apple just released the iPod Shuffle today (unexpected name). any takers? it looks like one of those remotes for laptops where you can control a slideshow… lol
Ya, they call it shuffle, because it is all random. Picking a song is improssible, it doesn’t ahve any advance playback features, its all random, which I’m sure Apple marketing will make that into “shuffling fun”. And only 12 hours of battery life from a flash player? Nice try Apple… I’m sure you will still sell millions of them.
yeah, i’ll stick with my ipod and buy a psp just for fun
apple, you took out the 1337ness of having an ipod… lol
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Speaking of E3 in the last paragraph.. you goin this year, Jason?
You know you want to be there when Nintendo shows off the Revolution, the first DS Option Paks, and the preliminary specs and screens of the Game Boy Plus/Next project.
And Microsoft will most definately have their Xbox 2/Xenon thing there.
Sony will also have their PS3 there, but I don’t know if anyone is REALLY hyped about that system.