Opening day of CES added another 9 miles to our pedometer, bringing our total walking mileage to the event to 26.7 miles. We can’t claim to have seen everything; in fact, given the fact we were booked in back to back meetings the entire time we were here, we were lucky if we saw even 0.1% of all that CES offered (you can see some of the many photos we took enroute to those meetings here). Still, of the things we did see, I’d award my personal “Best of CES” Awards to the following:
- Best demonstration of 3D: Sony Electronics for their live 3D broadcast of Taylor Swift. Those of us in the audience could watch her live performance in the real world and compare it with the 3D broadcast to see how lifelike it was. The pyrotechnic confetti really made the 3D pop; expect that to become a 3D cliche any time a broadcaster wants to get 3D watchers to ooh and ah.
- Best demonstration of marketing muscle: Sony Electronics for their live 3D broadcast of Taylor Swift. They flew her in to sing one song on her way to the People’s Choice Awards. Yikes.
- Most jaw-dropping technology: Sony Electronics showing their remastered videos of Jimi Hendrix in 3D. The Woodstock video was shot in 1967, and I’m pretty sure we didn’t have 3D video cameras then. Truth be told, we were lucky to have video cameras period.
- Most ambitious celebrity endorsement: Polaroid signed Lady Gaga to become their brand ambassador. ‘Nuf said.
- Best 3D picture: Panasonic’s theater demonstration. The 2008 3D Olympic coverage presented in high-definition 3D on a 152-inch plasma sent chills down my spine. It was the best illustration that good 3D will not be things coming at you, but the effect of looking through a window at what appears to be the Olympics in your own yard.
- Most lusted-after product: Panasonic’s 152-inch 4K plasma TV. Everyone who looked at it wanted it to watch the SuperBowl or World Cup on. We’ll ignore the fact that no sources exist for 4K content (that’s 4 times the resolution of 1080p high-definition).
- Best eReader: Skiff. Dmitriy Molchanov will make his own call on this, but Skiff’s bendable steel-film E Ink reader impressed me far more than I expected. Because it is the only connected reader that was conceived and backed by publishers, it is one of the few that has a clear and understandable business model behind it for that constiutency. The only problem: we have no idea when we’ll be able to get one or what price it will cost. And Apple still might eat it’s lunch with its rumored tablet.
- Best startup you may have heard of: carMD.com. CarMD’s gizmo connects to your car Data Link Connector (every car made since 1996 has one). Once there, it provides you with any diagnostic errors detected by your car’s processors. But that’s just the start: those codes are then used to tap into a database compiled by mechanics over the past 10 years of what problems cause those diagnostic codes, estimates what parts will be needed to fix it, and what a car repair shop will probably charge you to fix it. The company is small, but they’ve just started running infomercials for the device. And the return on investment is a no-brainer; one saved trip to the dealer will easily pay for the device itself.
With that, I leave the crowds to the last three days of CES as I now return to Boston and snow. Have a great show!
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