An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support - Fulton Sheen
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CES 2010 preview
ON THE EVE of hoped-for economic recovery at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, executives are flying in to do whatever is necessary in order to increase their stock price. But how much of what is going to be shown really will float your boat?
CES has grown in stature following the demise of Comdex years ago and as the importance of Cebit has waned in recent years. This hack has gone through the ridiculous security checks at Heathrow to see the difference in glitz, glamour and substance between last year and this at CES. While this year's CES was planned when our vocabularies had yet to be enriched with such terms as 'credit crunch' and 'recession', this year priorities have moved from bling to bang for your buck.
What can we expect from this year's cut-price CES? Well there are three major tracks. First, the hardware vendors that our readers are well versed in. Second, high-end audio gear which frankly leaves us cold. And finally, a trendy but growing green element. CES is one of the few shows that marries hardcore technology with consumer friendly gadgets and its timing means that it sets the tone for the rest of the year, at least for consumer gadgetry.
The purpose of this little piece is to find out what you're interested in hearing about from this year's CES.
Even with today's announcement of the Google phone there should be some more interesting bits of news to appear from a week in Vegas. Nvidia has mentioned that the theme of its press conference this year will be mobile devices. Of course that won't stop us asking for more production information about its Fermi GPU or whether Nick's recent analysis of renewed merger speculation has any legs. In recent weeks Chipzilla has also been in the news for its lower cost and power processors, that is, the Atom and its Core i3 and i5. So what can we expect from AMD in response? Could its recent design win with Lenovo's Edge be the start of real competition in these popular market segments? And what about Asus? Some industry pundits have been saying that netbooks have had their day and are becoming bloated and expensive, yet the EeePC is the Taiwanese company's most consumer facing product. Are Asus and others sticking with their netbook ideologies or have they already been rendered obsolete by the growing number of email and web-capable mobile smartphones?
Those are just the starting points for speculations about this year's CES. There are a lots of companies that will show us interesting new technologies and come tomorrow the fun will begin. In the meantime, please let us know what you want to hear about. We'll find out for you, because it's not really true that what plays in Vegas stays in Vegas. µ
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of DUKE NUKEM
(please cover)
hope ces havs big hunkin desktop mainboards smoking xeon baby
show me your slots
who let fhe voles out?
"It is all a matter of support".
Yes, and that's why I have to keep Windows around. I play more than just WoW, and there are other apps that *could* be compiled for ARM, they *aren't* compiled for ARM. QEMU is an x86 emulator for ARM, but Windows support is still in alpha.
Again, one size doesn't fit all (if you'll pardon the pun). I already have 20 hours of battery life with a Dell Axim x51v that can do what a smartbook can do. I want another device that isn't as heavy as my M1710, but can do more than the PDA and phone already can.
I understand perfectly. I understand that what is adequate for you isn't adequate for me and other people like me.
It's not a Linux issue - it is, as you say, a support issue.
ARM's will always have four times or more the battery life of x86's. That netbook with 9 hours battery would last days on an ARM processor. That's architecture characterystic. Linux is the mobile way to the future because MS is just not able to build a non x86 modern OS. What Alex seems not to understand is that WoW or any other game must simply be recompiled (by the maker), or emulated. WoW, btw, run on Linux x86 for ages now. A good x86 emulator (since it is the best emulated processor out there) would run it on ARM, I suppose. Quake 3 is an example of that. ARM Linux runs Q3 natively just as well as x86. It is all a matter of support. Iphone is a ARM machine with tons of nice apps and games. As soon as ARM machines with 20+ hours of continuous use battery life emerge, support is going to shift.
I would like to hear more Nikon Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras. Thank You, Art
What do you think about their revolutionary battery which is in their first product- a flashlight with a 20+ year shelf life?
@ Ms. Moorehead -
That would be a fantastic idea if everyone wanted to use their ultraportable for the same exact thing. We don't. See, they are diminutive PCs. You may want your diminutive PC for strictly office work, and since anything can do that, price and battery life are key to you.
What I want out of *my* diminutive PC is something light to travel with that does a bit more. When the day is done, my diminutive PC has to be capable of firing up a bit of WoW, Runes of Magic, or whatever else I might have that is able to run.
Your diminutive PC wouldn't work for me. Thank heaven for choice.
The same thing I wanted during the holidays - a Congo-based 11.6/12.1 that doesn't cost over $450. The thinkpad x100e looks tasty, but I want to see MSI's. I just can't do the whole CULV (good cpu/horrible graphics) or Ion (good graphics/horrible cpu) compromise.
Bring them on at CES!
@Amanda Moorehead
When netbooks were first introduced they ran nothing but linux.
When consumers responded by saying they wanted windows on their netbooks vendors responded by releasing them with windows installed.
I'm no particular fan of Windows, but your blinkered view of the operating system market leads me immediately to discount anything you say because of your skewed perspective.
XP works very well on my Netbook and I am getting about 9 hours from my battery; the other benefit is that it interoperates well with my other windows computers and therefore meets my and most other peoples needs pretty well.
The netbooks only became bloated, overloaded and slow after Microsoft put it's bloated Windows OS onto them.
The smartest way to fix that is to ditch Microsoft Windows, ditch Intel, and go with a Linux Smartbook running an ARM processor. Some of these are achieving 10 hours + battery usage. Great for travelling.