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During my brisk walk from the hotel to the Las Vegas Convention Center this morning, I had to marvel at this city of lights. Where else can you see scantily-clad cocktail waitresses, a bright orange Lamborghini parked next to a dumpster and a gorgeous, mountainous sunrise – all before breakfast? Ah, Vegas.
After a day’s worth of press conferences and exhibitor booth visits, I’ve got a few quick reports for you and more are on the way – so watch this space. Let’s get to it:
LG
LG had some attractive new LCD and plasmas on display, including their new PG60 series plasma. The PG60 sports gorgeous lines and features LG’s “invisible speaker system” which hides the “speaker actuators” within the bezel around the screen for a seamless (and quite sharp!) appearance. Also of interest was LG’s newly-announced partnership with Netflix and their plan to build a set-top box for downloading movies over the internet – finally, no more waiting for the mailman and those little red envelopes; the box is expected to arrive in the second half of this year. LG was also proud to announce their new “mph” mobile television technology which, among other things, will allow you to watch live television in your car while driving at speeds of up to 140mph. Before attempting that, you’ll probably want to make sure your car has airbags and a solid crash test rating.
Pioneer
Pioneer had some remarkable things to say about its Project Kuro – the name given not only to their best-in-class line of plasma displays, but also to their plasma design and engineering team which is hard at work on the next generation of Kuro. The big news was that Pioneer has developed a concept plasma panel where 100 percent of the “idle pixel luminance” has been eliminated. This concept Kuro promises to permanently “end the discussion on contrast ratio” – since the measurement will no longer be relevant. It’s unlikely we’ll see this new Kuro before 2009, but it should make quite a splash when it finally does arrive. Also noteworthy was another concept plasma sporting a thickness of just 9mm. As a frame of reference, the iPhone’s waistline is a comparably chunky 12mm. Since it’s not ready for sale just yet, you have some time to figure out what you’ll do with all those regained millimeters in your living room.
Toshiba
Although they had some attractive new Regza LCD offerings to show off, the topic on everyone’s mind was what Toshiba had to say about Warner’s shockingly-timed announcement to go Blu on the eve of CES. Put simply, has the Warner development relegated HD DVD to the Betamax bin? After touting strong Q4 sales of Toshiba’s HD DVD players, a visibly-upset VP of Marketing Jody Sally did say, “We’ve been declared dead before” – but a complete lack of announcements or new HD DVD product introductions contradicted her curious comment. Also, there was no Q&A session following the press conference. These events coupled with the abrupt cancellation of the HD DVD press conference made two things abundantly clear: first, Toshiba was caught completely by surprise with the timing of Warner’s announcement; secondly, based on the current state of affairs, the high definition format war is quickly coming to an end – if it hasn’t ended already.
Logitech
Most of the companies I visited yesterday had one or two things which grabbed my attention; Logitech had three. First up is the diNovo Mini, a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse combination with a sleek form factor and a convenient size; the Mini is a smaller version of Logitech’s DiNovo Edge keyboard which I featured in my DIY article on Building a Home Theater PC. Next up was their Squeezebox Duet Network Music Player – an offering made possible thanks to Logitech’s recent acquisition of Slim Devices. Combining a small receiver box with a great handheld remote, the Duet allows you to listen to your PC’s music files on your home audio system. This is possible even when your computer is off, thanks to the SqueezeNetwork service. Finally, Logitech was also showing off the latest and greatest Harmony universal remote, dubbed the Harmony One. Combining a bright, full-color touchscreen with nicely-sculpted hard buttons, the Harmony One felt just right and will undoubtedly be a popular remote in the months ahead.
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