CES is Engadget's biggest event of the year, but for the most part we don't have any requirements on what editors should bring other than "a laptop" and "a camera." That means there's usually quite an array of devices and tools on hand -- and every year we try some new things that make an immediate impression. We threw out some basic gear statistics in our annual
CES wrap-up post, but we also wanted to highlight some super-useful new tools we brought to Vegas with us this year. Some of it is state-of-the-art expensive, some of it is brain-dead simple, but all of it helped us rock out our biggest CES ever. Read on!
HyperMac batteries
There's nothing complicated about
HyperMac batteries in the slightest -- they're really big batteries that serve as an external power source for your laptop and have a USB port for charging other devices -- but we're totally addicted to them now. We used a variety of sizes from the baby 60Wh to the monster 222Wh (which was seriously huge) and they all did exactly what they promised, allowing us to race from live event to live event without have to worry about power or slowing down our workflow to swap batteries -- we had a big box full of extra MacBook Pro batteries that we never touched thanks to our HyperMacs. Sure, they're big and heavy and make airport screeners look at you sideways, but we're never doing a tradeshow without
external battery packs again, simple as that.
Some posts powered by HyperMacs:
Live from All Things D at CES 2010
Live from Paul Otellini's Intel CES keynote
Live from Palm's CES press event
Live from Steve Ballmer's CES 2010 keynote
Live from Sony's CES press event
Elgato Turbo.264 HD cards
Doing video in the field is always tough, especially when you have to encode on battery power and upload using convention-choked 3G networks. That's where the
Turbo.264 HD came in -- it's a little USB H.264 encoder that enabled us to compress our video to much more manageable file sizes at lightning-quick speeds, while still preserving video quality. Our only complaint is that Elgato is needlessly stingy with the software -- a full version isn't available for download on their site, and once you do get it, you need to enter a lengthy serial number. That made it hard to share the hardware amongst the team, and it struck us as an utterly pointless hassle, since the software doesn't function without the USB stick plugged in. Kind of hard to pirate that!
Some videos encoded by Turbo.264 HD cards:
RED Scarlet and Bomb EVF surprise hands-on!
Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus first hands-on (video)!
Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid hands-on and impressions
Vuzix Wrap 920AR face-on: reality just got weird
Canon EOS 7D
Speaking of video, our producer Chad Mumm and our editor Michael Slavens were on the scene with two fully kitted-out Canon 7D rigs to shoot segments throughout CES. We won't get into all the details here -- you can read
Chad's thoughts on using the 7D for video in his impressions from November -- but it's safe to say that the 7D was a big part of our video efforts this year.
Some videos shot on the Canon EOS 7D:
The Engadget Interview: Erick Tseng, Senior Product Manager of Android
Qualcomm Mirasol display video hands-on in glorious 1080p
Parrot AR.Drone hands-on: a quadricopter for the rest of us
Zyxio's 'sensawaft' tech lets you control a cursor with your breath, you lazy jerk
MSI dualscreen e-reader hands-on (update: video!)
Plastic Logic QUE proReader in-depth video hands-on
Blio e-reader software hands-on (Update: video!)
Nikon D3S
We had digital cameras of all shapes and sizes with us at CES -- most of our editors carried a DSLR and a secondary camera to shoot video. We'd say the Nikon D90 is far and away the most popular DSLR on staff, but there's a fair number of Canons as well. We also had a new toy on hand: our shiny new
Nikon D3S review unit, along with the new 24-70 f/2.8 wide angle zoom for walking around and our usual 70-200 f/2.8 VR zoom for liveblogs. Shooting products on a tradeshow floor with lighting conditions that range from bad to worse is basically a camera torture test, and the D3S came through like a champ -- we set the auto-ISO control to max out at about 10,000 (yes, 10,000) and simply went about our business. In English? We were able to take beautiful pictures in the dark. Just look at how
bright this shot of the Boxee Box is, and then look at where it's sitting and how much
light there is in the video -- yet all we did was turn it around and snap our shot. Oh, and those pics of the Turbo.264 HD and the HyperMac up there? That's ISO 12,800, with no visible noise. Insane, right? That's not to say the D3S isn't a bear of a camera -- it certainly takes some time to understand it, and getting it to shoot video in manual mode requires some unintuitive menu settings -- but once you get comfortable, there's very little you can't do. We have tons more to say, but we'll save it for the full review, which will be coming soon.
Oh, and we had to take this Nikon family photo while we had the chance, obviously. D5000, D90, D700, D3S -- don't they look happy together?
Some photos taken with the Nikon D3S:
Dell Mini 3 lightning hands-on
Dell slate (secret) hands-on
Lenovo Skylight hands-on and impressions
Sprint Overdrive 4G mobile hotspot unboxing and hands-on
RED Scarlet and Bomb EVF surprise hands-on!
ASUS announces U series Bamboo Collection laptops, gives little detail
Live from Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo's CES 2010 keynote
Live from Palm's CES 2010 press event
Clear WiMAX / Sprint Overdrive / EV-DO
We've been using Sprint and Verizon EV-DO forever, but this year we dove into the 4G game and rented Clear WiMAX sticks for the entire team -- and about halfway through the show we were given a
Sprint Overdrive 3G / 4G mobile hotspot for review that immediately went into heavy use. WiMAX was pretty reliable when we had a signal, but that's the rub: although Vegas is covered, we had problems finding a signal deep indoors and on the upper floors of our hotel. When we did connect we were able to pull down about 4Mbps peak and upload about 2Mbps peak -- not anything like the theoretical max for the tech or even close to the theoretical max for HSDPA, but a nice real-world jump over EV-DO. That said, no one felt comfortable relying on WiMAX alone -- we all carried backup Sprint EV-DO sticks, a few of us had MiFis, and Josh is still looking for his Verizon card. As for the Overdrive, it's really quite nice, but we wish it would jump up to 4G seamlessly when possible -- we're still playing with it, though, and we'll have a full review of it soon.
Some posts submitted over WiMAX:
Live from Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo's CES 2010 keynote (Chris and Nilay both connected to an Overdrive)
Live from Paul Otellini's Intel CES keynote
Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus first hands-on!
Dell Mini 3 lightning hands-on
Dell slate (secret) hands-on
Spare phones that aren't on AT&T / Nexus One
Another city packed with iPhone-laden convention-goers, another fail for AT&T. Seriously, what else do we have to say? We couldn't even send a text message on the busiest days of CES, let alone make a call or use data, and the only solution for getting anything done using an iPhone was to switch off 3G and take your chances with EDGE. Pretty sad, especially considering Clear had set up its own tower on the show floor just to offer better service and Verizon straight-up told
The Washington Post that
adding capacity was a "simple concept." We have no idea how AT&T boned this yet again, but we do know that editors with Droids, Pres, and BlackBerrys not on Ma Bell were the only ones who could be reliably reached -- and Ross Miller spent the entire week doing his data tasks on a Nexus One connected to T-Mobile and loving life. Oh, and when the NFL playoffs came around, we watched the Packers blow that huge comeback on iPhone SlingPlayer... connected via WiFi to Sprint 3G using the Overdrive. That was deeply sad for a variety of reasons. Get it together, AT&T.
Obviously we had a lot more gear than that on-hand, but that's the new stuff we're really into -- and we're always trying to improve our workflows and get the news to you faster, so let us know if you have any suggestions, won't you?
posted January 12th 2010 11:00AM
Looking at all those Macs, I can see the problem with the 'journalists' of engadget...
@Rem DX
it explains everything
@Rem DX
LMAO.
@(Unverified) Its a known fact that Engadget has an Apple bias..
@Rem DX And on top of that, it seems they segregate. All the "Mac People" are on one side of the table, with all the Windows users on the other. Can't we all just get along?!
@Rem DX
I was about to say "Cue 150+ posts doing nothing but flaming Engadget for having Apple products in their photo", but it looks like you guys got started without me. Carry on.
@Rem DX
I think that's an accurate representation of the population according to computing statistics. Apple has the >$1000 computer market dominated, as well as the independent 21-35 year old market. Why does it matter? Every news site has its own bent. Find one you like and stick to it, or read many different websites like I do to get the full scoop. It's your choice, so complaining is reflective only of you, your character and the general quality choices you've made. What else do you whine about?
@flextopia
That looks like a BlacBook, first one on the right, so not so much.
@Rem DX But if they had a bunch of XPS, Vaio's or Acers that somehow would make them more credible? Then people would complain they were bought out by Dell so all of their Dell coverage must be bias towards them!!
@Rem DX
I don't want to get into a discussion about the bias (can't deny it, but it's less apparent these days), but gotta say wouldn't having a mac make it easier to run OSX, Windows and Linux completely legally and thus make their lives easier?
@DirtyVegas
I just had to get my ribbing in.
I once decided to go with the hype and buy some Apple products only to be utterly let down.
They're good products for sure, just not the omega-level products their fans(cult members?) make them out to be.
@DizWhiz
Don't mind these bloody idiots.
@Rem DX Agreed definitely a clear insight into why Engadget is always singing the praises of overpriced fruit themed electronics which sucker people into buying inferior hardware at robber baron prices.
Can't wait to see their 'review' of the Apple tablet
@ipxnsv
I think you need to go back to the dictionary and look up the word "fact". How many Apple related stories did Engadget run at CES? Like two? Out of how many hundreds of other stories?
You people are idiots. Seriously.
@Rem DX
The irony is that the fans aren't making them out to be anything. If you thought they were more than they are, that's your fault isn't it? Apple doesn't advertise them as more than they are; people who use them don't say they're more than they are.
I mean did you go to Apple's site and look up specs? I'm having a hard time understanding how you could be let down by anything you researched beforehand.
Blaming Apple fans is completely stupid. Blaming Apple is completely stupid. If you were let down, that's either user error or it's lack of research on your part.
@Rem DX
I was going to say the same...
@Jack
You are the worst troll I've seen on this site. So full of anger and so full of blind affection to Apple
@Rem DX There are at least three PCs in that top pic, if not more. Look harder!
@Nilay Patel
You really need to lighten up Nilay...
@Rem DX
Why don't you enlighten me? If you went with the "hype" and got let down, fill me in on the details. I promise you I can show you what you did wrong. And yes, it was you. Not all the hype-generating Apple fanboys who somehow put a gun to your head and forced you to buy a computer you knew nothing about and couldn't operate if your life depended on it.
@Jack Yep engadget totally ignored the Apple booth at CES. ;)
@Alan Strangis
Right, because there was no possible other Apple news they could have reported on. If they were as biased as the short bus commenters here seem to think they are, they would have skipped CES altogether and would have just written Apple rumor stories all week instead. Right? Because they're so biased towards Apple?
I reiterate, you people are idiots.
@Alan Strangis
I somehow missed that Apple Keynote at CES you Moron.
@Jack
The only idiot here is you.How can you be so stupid.
@Jack Yeah, because Apple was at CES. Sigh...
@saposmak @kris120890
Here's a hint: Go up a few posts and read what I said there. Then tell me how Engadget is so biased towards Apple when they spent all that time at CES writing stories about everything other than Apple. Your explanation should be hilarious.
@Rem DX - I'm anything but a Mac fanboy, but I think Engadget has actually mellowed a little bit more now that Apple has become increasingly mainstream/establishment (although I still fully expect the usual slobbering with each almost-quarterly Apple 'event.') Put it in this context though, it could be the other tech site. At least Weblogs has a dedicated Apple channel. Giz has become almost unreadable unless you wake each morning to bow before a statue of Steve Jobs.
@Rem DX The sad part about all of you idiots and your constant bullshit is these guys in that picture have most likely used EVERY SINGLE WORTH WHILE LAPTOP available. Remember? They are tech reviewers.
So one would think that given their ability to choose anything in the world as their personal laptop with a huge amount of knowledge to judge by, their choice of apple would make sense. IF you try or get direct experience with just about every kind of tech available and the majority of them choose apple, that has to tell you something doesnt it? Maybe they are good computers, that are built well and have great battery life and performance with software that actually makes your life easier..... What a weird sentiment.
Of course all your mini 4chan daycare rebuttals will be pointless parroted drivel arguments about them being payed by apple, blah blah blah whatever.
@Rem DX If you have such a problem, why keep reading the site you fucking idiot? Why? Answer me this? Are you on some kind of fucking crusade to save the tech world from Apple? If so you have only every other tech blog on the planet to save. You look at any keynote or conference and 90% of the journalists are using macbooks, even at the MS ones.
Did you think for a second that your pathetic computer knowledge and experience and your dumb ass uninformed opinions are completely incorrect and full of straw man bullshit?
@(Unverified)
Look at all the anger over products you don't own any stock in...You go, internet badass, you go!
@DirtyVegas
I agree, as is I own no Apple products, nor do I intend to buy any (they're good products and i've played around with my friends', but I've found other things that work just fine for me) but it makes sense that most if not all the guys at engadget have macs, just because they could run any OS legally. Hell if I worked at engadget, I'd probably have a mac running multiple operating systems. But I don't, so Windows is the way for me.
@Rem DX I must say when you put all the mac users in one space, the def. look pretty lame.
Its like 5 dudes at the same company driving an Element or something.
I like my style too!
@Rem DX
Ok, I'm actually rolling my eyes at both sides.
#1 Nilay had stated that they used those particular machines so they can run all three OSs legally.
#2 Engadget, for annoying habits from people that should know better, is MUCH BETTER than where they were several years ago when their RSS feed was 6 Apple-related stories to like 3 others, or when their site became an unreadable infomercial for Apple Co. for about a week after every Apple event.
You will not find a better tech blog out there that has this level of freeflow between writers and commentators. Gizmowhore would have you booted for daring to question a writer on what they wrote. Slashdot is a relic full of open source Nazis that think their mod points are like some comic book superpower.
That being said...
#3 The people who are pointing out bias are the ones most responsible for Engadget becoming much more level and professional. That feedback is not flamming as much as it seemed to have been very educational to the people here as standards have gone up.
These people provide a valuable check to what sometimes is a mindless post, dripping with real bias and ignorance from the writer.
Writers that WANT to do better and better serve their readers appreciate the feedback. Hacks and hucksters that want their ass covered look for sympathy posts.
#4 This is not some Wordpress blog. These guys are sourced by mainstream publications and outlets, and they are owned by AOL. This isnt some hobby, and they cant just expect people not to call them out if they think something is foul.
@James Sonne could you give me some tech sites that are good please. much appreciated.
@Rem DX Macs are for people who who need to look cos natrualy they don't. Just look at the geezer on the right lol geeze!!!
@LAY Very true on your second point. This site has gotten a lot better in regards to content. Gizmodo is ridiculous. Gawker needs to start their own Apple blog and transfer the entire Giz staff over there and hire some new kids.
@LAY
You seem to be unclear on a few things. Let me help you out.
1. This is a BLOG. Therefore they are allowed to have as much bias as they want. Deal with it or GTFO.
2. You are not singlehandedly saving Engadget with your idiotic anti-Apple comments. And no, I'm not talking about your comments in this thread, I'm talking about your past post history. You have said some of the dumbest things I've ever read in the Engadget comments, and that is no small task.
3. You think it's improved right now because there is no Apple news right now. Let's tune in on Jan. 27th to see if Engadget is going to stay away from doing Apple stories or not. You're going to go right back to complaining that Engadget is a big commercial for Apple, despite the fact that Apple news is what brings Engadget BUSINESS. You might as well ask them to stop making money.
4. Engadget is a tech blog and they cover just about everything that's worth anything in the tech world. That INCLUDES Apple. If you don't like it, too bad, GTFO. If you think their coverage of Apple makes them biased, you're stupid. That's all there is to it.
5. If you don't like the way this blog works, GTFO. Nothing is perfect, and it's pretty clear that in order to not have the "biased" label applied to them, Engadget would have to completely stop writing about Apple entirely. Because of a bunch of whiny braindead Apple-hating pricks in the peanut gallery. Do you really think Engadget cares about you, when clearly the majority of the readers like the Apple stories?
You think they don't run the metrics to see what people are reading? Do you think that if people were not interested in Apple stories, that they would keep doing Apple-related articles? Here's a quarter, buy a fucking clue.
@LAY
You don't exaggerate when you say Gizmodo would ban someone for saying things like have been said in this thread. I've been banned for implying that they biased before.
@ipxnsv It's a known fact that Engadget readers are a bunch of whiners.
@Jack
Just please dont respond to my post.
I'm really not up to debating iNutjobs with emotional issues.
@DirtyVegas
Totally agree with your perspective on this. I'm sure if Engadget was a gaming news/ review site most of the writers would have PC's.
@Rem DX
Looks like about 50% Macs, which is fairly reasonable for techies these days, when given a choice. Most IT departments don't want to offer a choice because it's more work, and they don't get the headcount to match the increased workload.
What a bunch of illiterate morons, Apple is eating them up inside.
@Rem DX
That's actually a silly comment. Most JOURNALISTS and media people use Macs. I have a cousin who works for CBS and one day we took a tour of the news production offices in NYC.
Know what? I'd say about 60-70% of all computers that I saw people using had the glowing Apple logo.
Other groups that are partial to Macs: musicians, music studio engineers and DJs.
@LAY
You could always save yourself the trouble and stop saying stupid things. Note that I don't feel that your original comment in this thread was particularly stupid, although parts of it definitely were ("unreadable infomercial for Apple", "dripping with bias"), but the fact that you seem to be positioning yourself as the savior of fair reporting on Engadget really is dumb beyond belief.
So how about it, you gonna be here on the 27th when Engadget will be posting Apple stories up the wazoo? You gonna stick to your theory that Engadget has become less biased because of your efforts and keep your mouth shut in the comments? Or are you going to do what you normally do, namely whine and cry and bitch and moan that Engadget is biased towards Apple and is paid off by Apple and doesn't report on anything else and waah waah waah fucking WAAAAAAAH.
I'm putting money on the latter, who's in?
@Rem DX
Maybe the handy external battery is a good reason to chose mac.
@Rem DX
No i see some windows back there.
@Rem DX - Did engadget get some kind of press-kit bulk purchase discount on Macs? xD
@flextopia It also interesting that all the mac guys dress the same, same haircuts, same posture, etc...
Where as the PC side, it's all about diversity... And it looks like they're doing the typing.
Lastly, "Ross spent the entire week doing his data tasks on a Nexus One connected to T-Mobile and loving life" is proof positive that though AT&T, VZW, Sprint are the big dogs, T-mobile can still serve up a can of whoop azz.
@Jack
That's because Apple don't show up at CES.