CES Sights and Sounds, Vol.3

Now that I’ve attended a dozen or so press conferences and had the opportunity to read over a number of press releases, there is definitely a CES-wide trend worth mentioning: Green. Although all of these companies are in business to make money, we’re actually talking about a different sort of green. A focus on the environment, waste recycling and efforts to build more Earth-friendly products is definitely a common message we’re hearing at this year’s CES and I think it’s great; hopefully companies will continue to enhance these efforts in the years ahead. And in honor of “going Green,” I’m proud to say this commentary was produced from 100% recycled material. OK, on with the news:

Sony

The mood at Sony’s booth was decidedly Blu this year and you could sense the widespread relief that the high def format war appears to be over. New product introductions from the electronics juggernaut included Rolly, an MP3 player in the form of a robotic egg (yes, you read that right). Those of you who have been wishing for an egg that danced to your tunes can finally rest easy. Jokes aside, Rolly is definitely unique and it presents some interesting implications for things to come. (Robotic bacon anyone?) Also of interest was MYLO – short for MY Life Online – a wireless “personal communicator” which allows for instant messaging, web browsing, emailing and gives users the ability to listen to music or view photos. MYLO will be available later this month for about $300. One final product of interest was the promise of a new sub-$200 BD-ROM drive for your computer. It’s good to know that the apparent end of the format was hasn’t halted the continuing drop in Blu-ray hardware pricing. I’ll have more to say about the Blu-ray Disc format in general in the days ahead, so keep watching this space.

MyVu

Although MyVu has been around for a while, their innovative product is definitely evolving. Built to work with portable DVD players and video iPods, MyVu’s “personal media viewer” is essentially a set of sunglasses which you wear to create a virtual television in front of your eyes. Although the “projected” screen size (for lack of a better word) is not as big I might like, the technology is undeniably cool. This year MyVu was showing off two models – Crystal and Shades. Crystal boasts improved video resolution and a funky crystalline appearance. The more interesting of the two units is Shades, a slightly larger set of glasses with a bifocal-type design. Up top is a standard pair of shades that allow you to look straight ahead and see the world around you. Once you glance down, as with a pair of bifocals, that’s where you see your image. Both models feature stereo earbuds which dangle from the side arms. Although I wouldn’t get rid of my Philips portable DVD/iPod video player just yet, this is pretty cool stuff and I’m eager to see where MyVu goes from here.

Belkin

Belkin had a number of interesting products on display but the one that most grabbed me was their new Flywire wireless HDMI solution. At their booth, Belkin had set up a Blu-ray Disc player running Pirates of the Caribbean. Ten feet away they had a flat panel HDTV displaying the image – the catch is, no wires connected the two devices. Behind the HDTV was Belkin’s Flywire receiver unit which plugged into the HDTV via HDMI. The receiver got its signal from a transmitter unit connected to the Blu-ray player. The 1080p video looked great without any apparent loss of quality and the range is said to be about 50 feet. This product should be most welcome for consumers who have their gear located on a different wall (or in a different room) from where they wish to mount their new flat panel HDTV. Pricing for the Flywire package is expected to be $500-$600 and it should become available some time this summer.

JVC

At Tuesday morning’s JVC press event, JVC had a few truly innovative products to show off. Chief among them was their new TeleDock line of LCD flat panels. In addition to offering an attractive 1080p picture and the typical TV bells and whistles, TeleDock features a well-designed, fold-down iPod dock centrally located beneath the center of the display. In addition to providing a charging station for your iPod, the TeleDock allows you to view iPod video on your TV – either full screen or using a “Mini Mode” which centers a smaller image on the screen thereby reducing the noise associated with blowing up a low-rez video bigger than it should be. Also interesting was JVC’s NX-PN7 dual-dock iPod charger/speaker system. With more and more households having multiple iPodders, this should prove to be a popular unit. JVC’s new Everio camcorders have gotten even smaller and I seriously dug their new “laser” slider control for GUI navigation – very slick. Also worth mentioning was a prototype Blu-ray Disc player, tentatively dubbed the XV-BD1; it’s scheduled to go on sale this Fall.

I leave for home Wednesday morning, but I’ll be posting additional CES news and commentary in the days ahead, so stay tuned.

What do you think about what was introduced at CES? Talk about in the E-Gear forums.