Live from Netgear's CES press conference
We're here live at Netgear's CES press conference in beautiful and delightful Las Vegas, stay tuned for a blow by blow account of all the router-fied goodness coming our way in the new year.
8:47AM PT - We're sitting down. It's awesome.
8:52AM PT - The vibe in the room is thick. There's an overwhelming feeling of pure love here.
9:01AM PT - The intro begins -- they're claiming we'll be glued to our seats for a solid 45 mins. Patrick Lo, the founder of the company is on the stage, letting us know the company's mission in the world -- high speed broadband for everyone, cheaply. He says they're the most "global" company in home networking.
9:03AM PT - Netgear is the number one brand in Europe, and inching towards number on in the US. Patrick says in 2007 the company introduced 47 new products -- almost one for every working week in the year. Now he's touting Netgear's history of embracing "green" products and packaging.
9:06AM PT - He says this CES will be an all time high -- 18 new products featured. He's also explaining the CES innovation awards they've been given. Now he's discussing the company's 2008 mission -- the "all-access home."
9:08AM PT - He's going to focus on three new technologies today -- we're on the edge of our collective seats. Patrick says that the company's new antenna technology will produce higher bandwidth, and longer ranges for WiFi, including products that allow HD over wireless. Also, Netgear is introducing new NAS which will be used for media server and backup duties.
9:10AM PT - Vivek Pathela takes the stage. He's talking about the challenges of the all-access home concept. Big-upping the Rangemax line now. He's going through common network issues -- lack of bandwidth, compatibility, etc.
9:13AM PT - New technologies: Metamaterial antennas -- employing them in all new wireless products. "Push n Connect," a simplified WiFi security protocol. Whoa -- a new RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N Router! 8 Metamaterial antennas are built in, it has concurrent dual-band 5 GHz / 2.4 Ghz, and uses the new security protocol.
9:18AM PT - Now he's demoing the lit up dome on the top of the router. If you hold it down, it goes into security mode -- all you have to do is hold it, and then other products can connect to it -- so it has to be physically accessed.
He just announced the HD/Gaming 5GHz Wireless-N Networking Kit. You can stream lag-free games and HD via the router, which has 6 Metamaterial antennas, and the "less congested" 5GHz band.
9:18AM PT - The third product... the ReadyNAS Duo! Heyo! People are cheering, we're not kidding. The two-bay drive uses X-RAID technology.
9:24AM PT - The drive is Mac and PC compatible -- offers remote access via the internet, and is "ready to use out of the box" -- not sure how that's different from a regular hard drive or NAS. Now he's saying you can use it to save your pictures in the event of a fire. Nice.
He's demoing a "home setup" now.
9:27AM PT - He's showing how all of the new product integrate with the company's Digital Entertainer HD. Streaming HD video to an HDTV right now. Now he's added Halo 3 to the network being streamed to a separate TV. Now, while all this is going on, some live BitTorrent downloads heading to the NAS.
Now he's pulling a drive out of the ReadyNAS, to show how it won't fail if you lose one drive. It's all very Drobo. He's claiming no glitches will occur in our stream here.
Go figure -- no glitch! This guy is pulling some Ballmer-style screaming. Things are getting interactive with the crowd here.
9:32AM PT - Patrick is back for the recap. He's wrapping it up with a feel good message about connecting the home. Question and answer time! Of note -- Patrick is being hammered by a man asking if the Digital Entertainer outsold Apple TV -- he wouldn't say. He really got needled! That's all, folks.
