Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Here’s a quick summary of the technology I saw as I wandered the show floor.

Central Hall 1 & 2:

• Microsoft
  • WINDOWS 7 – Demonstrated on every booth PC
    • “TOUCH”: 16 Primary demonstration stations are on 32” touch screen kiosks
    • Live demonstration is PACKED with people watching
  • MICROSOFT AUTO – Installed car systems
    • “SYNC”:  Voice response
    • “CAR DIAGNOSTICS”:  Information about systems, mileage, etc.
  • MEDIAROOM – Set Top Box operating system
    • “AT&T UVERSE”: set top boxes use Microsoft Mediaroom
    • FEATURES:
      • Peer to peer sharing between set top boxes
      • Pulls content from cloud services, like photo file shares, music stores online
  • WINDOWS LIVE – Great
    • “FRAME IT”:  A newly released Microsoft picture frame that pulls it’s photos from the Windows Live Services (Skydrive?)
    • “FACEBOOK INTEGRATION”:  Provides contact sync between Facebook & Hotmail/Windows Live Messenger; HUGE possibilities – (March 2009)
      • Provide file sharing to Facebook contacts easily
      • Map Facebook contacts faces to photos; use Windows Live Photo Gallery to keep names of people aligned with photo metadata; copies to Facebook
    • “LINKED IN INTEGRATION”:  Enables contact sync between LinkedIn.  (Made available Dec 2008)
  • HOME SERVER – New features announced
    • Easy hot pluggable expansion of hard drives; automatic volume expansion for storage
    • Macintosh backup
    • TV Manager provide hierarchical storage for Media Centers
• Motorola
  • MOTOSURF – New Windows Mobile-based phone
    • GPS, WiFi, Touchscreen
    • Pearl scroll device/trackball
    • iPhone like UI
    • Brushed steel frame
  • FEMTOCELL – Internet connected cell site
    • Microtower for cellular connectivity for “within the home”.  Good for areas without good connectivity
    • Transmits over the Internet; provides VOIP phone from the unit
    • Looks like a picture frame with touch screen capability; hangs on wall
    • Provides 5 bars at home
    • Will be available with different apps as well (??)
• Intel
  • CORE i7 – New Intel processor for PCs
    • Architecture provides 4 cores/8 hyperthreaded.  Dynamically turns on cores as necessary to save power
  • Remote PC Assist Technology
    • Enables remote control of PC over the Internet without any software running on PC; remotes into consumer PCs over the Internet – provide visibility into BIOS POST and everything
    • Enables system diagnostics remotely when OS won’t load on the machine
    • Very similar to Remote Insight Lights Out (RILO) capability on HP Enterprise Servers
  • CLASSMATE PC
    • Children’s PC now with Tablet PC technology
    • Had full “convertible touch screen” that works with small fingers.
    • Uses XP.  Pricing announced at event. 
  • Core2 Extreme Mobile
    • Provide the most extreme performance now on laptops
    • Dynamic CPU multiplier and clock speed adjustible on the fly  (Overclocking without reboot)
    • Impressive CPU power for a laptop
• Panasonic
  • 70x Zoom High Definition Camcorder
  • No OLED:  Avoiding until technology is proven.  No commerically available OLEDs yet – the researchers ran into problems
  • Will guarantee life of Plasma 25 years; does NOT have problems with life expectancy
• Casio
  • Privia Pianos… Watches… Scientific calulators…
  • EXILIM CAMERA LINE – New 30fps photo taking technology
    • Will take photos at 30fps at 5Mpxl
    • Will take phtoos at normal speeds at 9Mpxl
    • Takes SD Flash – has a big buffer installed on camera
    • 8x Optical Zoom
    • Really amazing speed – truly a technological breakthough
• Pioneer
  • As with every year, I still don’t know what these people are trying to sell.  Spent 10 minutes in booth.
• Sharp
  • 108” plasma – 8” more than last year
  • Blu-ray is there but nobody seems to care
  • Sidekick – Sharp makes the devices for us.  Very nice designs and UI
• Powermat
  • Not letting anyone see anything;  complete encased in walls
  • The founder came out to talk to me; would NOT answer the questions I had:
    • “Who are your partners?”
    • “How is this technologically different from ePlugged"/Fulton”
• Toshiba
  • TRANSFERJET technology –
    • 580Mbps wireless I/O for video or data.
    • Touch devices together to “pair” them
    • For PCs, phones, consoles, etc.
• Samsung
  • OMNIA
    • Touchscreen smartphone using WM6.1.  Very sexy.  Lots of attention.  Verizon only.
  • Realtime 3D Conversion for Xbox 360, requires 3D ready TV
    • Demonstrating Forza Motorsport in 3D using Samsung 3D ready display and special glasses
  • Lots of crap for recycleables/green computing