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Future Arcam Blu-ray player spotted at CES
Arcam may not be at the top of your list of must-have brands, but it's about to join the flourishing Blu-ray player market in the near future, regardless. Sadly, the only details about the deck you see above -- which was seen sporting a high-end-signifying FMJ-xxx logo at CES -- are that it's likely to be staggeringly expensive and it should ship next month. 'Til then, it looks like you'll be testing your patience.
Aiptek PocketCinema V10 hands-on
This is it! We just received video of the only pico projector endorsed by Russell Crowe (if by "endorsed" you mean "absolutely not endorsed," and by "Russell Crowe" you mean "the poor target of our Photoshoppery"). For a handheld VGA projector, the thing seems to handle itself pretty well. It's small and simple to use, but then again it doesn't really seem all that bright (something you might notice if you ever need it to, we don't know, "project" something). This bad boy has 1GB internal memory, an SD slot, and miniUSB, which should handle most of your I/O needs. Be sure to check out the explosive videos -- generously provided by Engadget Spanish -- after the break.
Motorola's CES 2009 booth tour
HelloMoto indeed, we came expecting that we'd likely have to give Motorola a pass, but were kinda chuffed to actually love what they've got going on. We were absolutely wowed by the stainless and svelte Aura, and just couldn't keep our hands-off it. Also on hand were the SURF A3100 and the green-and-made-from-recycled-stuff W233 Renew, with the A3100 being the cooler of those two offerings. A decent showing from a company that really needs it right now, here's hoping we catch more from them at Mobile World Congress next month.%Gallery-41712%
Sony shows off flexible OLED Walkman concepts on video
Looks like Sony Insider caught some footage of those flexible OLED Walkmans in action during a CES promo video hidden away in the booth. Looks like a pretty sweet riff on the Cover Flow-esque interface that's due to arrive on the NWZ-X1000, but there's not much else to go on -- let's hope Sony's spending more time getting the X1000 ready to leave that impenetrable glass housing than it is mocking up videos of fantasy tech. Video after the break!
Video: Yahoo's new widgets in action
The theme of CES 2009 for the HD industry was the mass adoption of Yahoo Widgets. Never before have we seen so many manufacturers adopt the same technology, and now that we've had a chance to play, we understand why. For the first time ever we've experienced interactive internet TV in a way that is actually useful. Sure you could get the weather or a stock quote on your TiVo for years, but it's always been like six clicks away. And now since everyone decided to use Yahoo's widgets, no matter what kind of TV you have, you'll have the same access to the same great widgets. And best of all they'll be available at the touch of a button. So if you aren't sold on the idea yet, spend a few minutes watching and then tell us it isn't cool.
Blaupunkt shows off miRoamer-powered internet car radios
We'll be honest: apart from the ridiculous custom cars and the Viliv S7, we pretty much avoided the car audio-oriented North Hall at CES this year -- which means we sadly didn't get any facetime with Blaupunkt's miRoamer-powered TravelPilot New Jersey 600i internet car stereo. (Apparently double-DIN is big in the Jerz.) The prototype head unit connects to a cellphone over Bluetooth to access the internet, and uses the miRoamer service to stream "tens of thousands" of stations on the service -- which the company estimates will consume about 2GB of data a month, so you'd better hope your data plan doesn't cap you off or charge you for overages. The radio is expected to arrive in the second half of the year for $399, which isn't bad, but doesn't do much good for the squares like us who never swap out their car stereos -- which is probably why miRoamer is targeting 2010 for placement in OEM head units. One more pic of the single-DIN sized "Hamburg" model after the break.
More details on D-Link's upcoming 7-inch SideStage USB monitor
We swung by D-Link's booth at CES to check out its upcoming SideStage USB-powered monitor, hoping to see the thing in action and get some more details ahead of its release. What we found was quite familiar looking, to say the least. D-Link was disappointingly just demoing a Nanovision, but was quick to point out this would not be the product destined for a full US release sometime this summer. That new display will still be produced by Nanovision, but will be modified to better suit our market, graced with a different logo, and cheaper, too. No firm price yet, but the company is targeting sub-$100, which sounds good to us.
Compulab unveils the exeda Android / WinMo handheld
We were really hoping to see some wild Android devices at CES, and while we did see one or two interesting applications, we sadly missed Compulab's crazy exeda. Ostensibly designed for the enterprise market, the squared-off handheld features a 3.5-inch sun-readable VGA touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard, and a capacitive touchpad that acts as a mouse. Like other recent Asian Android handsets we've seen, the exeda can also boot Windows Mobile 6.1 on its 520MHz Marvell CPU and 128MB of RAM, and the radio setup is similarly flexible -- resellers can pick from quadband GSM / GPRS, CDMA, and 3G UMTS. Craziest of all? The exeda has a 10/100Base-T Ethernet port in addition to WiFi. Yeah, we want one. No details on pricing, but hopefully we'll find out more when it hits in March.[Thanks, James R.]
Shuttle's X50 all-in-one desktop pulls up alongside the Eee Top
While the Eee Top may get a lot of zombie-hand loving, it's not the only game in town when it comes to cheapo all-in-one PCs. Shuttle announced its X50 desktop at CES as well, a system with more than just a few similarities to the competition, namely its CPU, base RAM, display size and resolution, chipset, GPU, and OS. In case you don't know those by heart: 1.6GHz Intel Atom 330, 1GB of RAM, 15.6-inch,1366 x 768 resistive touchscreen display, 945GC mainboard, GMA 950 graphics, and Windows XP. The real difference is the hard drive -- the Eee Top sports a 160GB, the X50 just 80GB -- and the price point, with the Shuttle clocking in at $499 ($100 cheaper). Our take? We're starting to see the emergence of what amounts to the netbook desktop -- a one piece, low power system meant for the kids' room, the kitchen, or grandma's rest home suite. The Shuttle wins in the looks department, but don't make any fast decisions -- come its March launch, you'll be seeing plenty of these.[Via Fudzilla]
Flexicord cables get bent... and stay that way
Ever have a cable you wanted to strangle? Well you're not alone, apparently. A company called E-Filliate issued a new series of USB, HDMI, Cat5, S-Video, and composite cables called Flexicord at CES this year which will bend -- and stay -- in any position you please, thus eliminating that frustration you must feel every time you plug in your camera or hook up your high fidelity sound system. The cables act like pipe cleaner or Gumby, so you can twist and shape them as you please, though apparently Pokey had to be killed and dissected so the technology could be obtained. Enjoy your new cable, murderers.[Via Everything USB]
CES 2009: all the stuff (and more)
Although CES 2009 was undoubtedly smaller and perhaps a little more subdued than last year's HDTV-dominated extravaganza, the products we did see were a lot more interesting -- and of course, Palm stole the show with its blockbuster Pre announcement. We've rounded up the highlights below, make sure you didn't miss anything!Palm Pre news:Palm's app store christened App Catalog, games not a priorityPalm Pre Touchstone eyes-onPalm Pre / webOS launch roundupComputing:VAIO P, now with more Windows 7Video: Intel's convertible Classmate PC hands-onVideo: ASUS AIRO laptop with amazing sliding keyboardVAIO P in-depth impressionsDell Mini 10 hands-onSuperSpeed USB 3.0 in action Dell Studio XPS 13 and 16 hands-onWhite Dell Adamo pictures leak outDell Adamo hands-on! (Update: now with video!)HP dv2 and dv3 hands-onHP Firebird with Voodoo DNA hands-onMicrosoft announces availability of Windows 7 Beta and Windows LiveASUS' Eee Keyboard revealed
NVIDIA Ion platform gets demonstrated at CES
We've been hearing an awful lot about NVIDIA's Ion platform, but up until now, we haven't seen an awful lot. HotHardware and PC Perspective were both able to swing by NVIDIA's booth at CES and get an up close look at the diminutive system. On hand was a half-liter PC that utilized a 1.6GHz Atom 330 CPU and NVIDIA's GeForce 9400M GPU, and it was reportedly being used to push some pretty stellar video on the monitors behind it. Have a look past the break for a couple demonstration vids -- if this is the kind of graphical prowess we can expect from nettops of tomorrow, you can color us interested.Read - HotHardwareRead - PC Perspective
Eyes-on with Hitachi Super Resolution TV
While unpacking we found this clip (after the break) and these images of Hitachi's latest entry into the Super Resolution arena and figured you might want a look at this attempt to make all things SD into high definition. At least so far, Toshiba has not impressed many with its approach, we'll see if Hitachi has different luck.%Gallery-41955%
DC Universe Online video walkthrough shows new things aplenty
There's been a lot information coming out of CES 2009 concerning DC Universe Online, but it's all been text up until recently. Gametrailers has a three part video walkthrough that details things like character creation philosophy, combat, movement powers and even a fight alongside Superman himself. If that's not putting your tights in a tizzy, we're not really sure what will. From the looks of things, DC Universe Online is certainly making good progress. We've been seeing the new player models for a couple of days now, but this is the first time in a while that we've seen any movement/attack animations. The newly added acrobatics travel power reminds us a lot of super leaping in City of Heroes, only with the added benefit of air-dashing, wall-grabbing and double-jumping. We're also digging the death penalty, or lackthereof, and how players can rally back from a knockdown if allies are nearby. Did you enjoy this? We've donned our capes and tights to explore SOE's DC Universe Online in-depth. Come explore more of Metropolis and Gotham with your friends at Massively!
Crapgadget Crapdown, CES: the best of the worst
We didn't notice nearly as much crap at CES 2009 as we did last year, but what we did see was pretty stunning in its mediocrity -- and then there was the amazing Dragon gamepad, which in our opinion was single best product of the show. Pick your favorite of the contenders below, then hit your local dollar store to see 'em in person.%Gallery-42120%The nominees:Crapgadget CES, round 1: Elvis Presley Plug 'n SingCrapgadget CES, round 2: Stereo Bluetooth SunglassesCrapgadget CES, round 3: The iCapCrapgadget CES, round 4: kinetic energy chargerAwesomegadget CES: Dragon Fire BreatherCrapgadget CES, round 6: New Generation Video Game SystemCrapgadget CES, round 7: the furry phoneCrapgadget CES, round 8: Remote Control CoolerCrapgadget CES, round 9: pimped Segway KIRFCoby's MP836 hands-on%Poll-24983%
Samsung Q1EX tablet shows itself, gets detailed
This unassuming little tablet somehow managed to slip under our radar at CES, but the folks at UMPC Portal did thankfully manage to snap a few pics of it, and dig up a few details. Dubbed the Q1EX, this followup / compliment to Samsung's Q1 series of UMPCs ditches the usual QWERTY keypad in favor of a full-on 7-inch touchscreen, and gets backed up by a VIA Nano processor, along with built-in Bluetooth, GPS, and WiMAX, among other standard tablet PC features. Unfortunately, there's no word on a price or release date just yet, but if Samsung's past track record with the Q1 is any indication, you can expect to see a whole slew of different incarnations before all is said and done.
Olidata Conte ultraportable makes its shiny debut
It doesn't look like this one was actually on display at CES, but Italy's Olidata does seem to have taken the opportunity to announce its shiny new Conte ultraportable, which takes square aim at the growing ranks of 13.3-inch ultra-thin laptops out there. From the looks of it, this one will be available in two different versions: one with a 16:10, 1280x800 display, and one with a 16:9, 1366x768 display, each of which will come equipped with a small form factor Core 2 Duo processor, optional built-in 3G or WiMAX, and a promised battery life of more than four hours (or seven with an extended battery). The 16:10 model will also add a few bonuses like Intel Turbo Memory, a fingerprint reader, a backlit keyboard, and 3GB of RAM as standard. Sadly, there's no indication of a release' round these parts just yet, but both models will supposedly be hitting Europe in May for "less than €1,000" (or somewhere under $1,300).[Thanks, Faber]
Light Blue Optics showcases holographic laser projection technology at CES
Light Blue Optics may not be as familiar a name as say, Optoma or Texas Instruments, but it's bringing an equally interesting approach to pico projection at CES. Showcased in Vegas last week was the outfit's holographic laser projection technology, which is reportedly brighter and smaller than existing alternatives. The demo system will also check in with double the brightness and at half the volume as its previous setups, and it's looking to wow with a conceptual rig that features a "table-down mode that allows the user to control the projector simply by touching the projected image." Now, if only these guys could push resolution to 720p+, we'd really consider ourselves fans.
Two delicious DC Universe Online 'preview doughnuts'
We've found two freshly baked DC Universe Online informo-doughnuts for your consumption. Now, while the Crispy Gamer doughnut is a bit smaller, it's also lightly crisped with a pinch of humor and will leave you surprisingly satisfied by the end of your meal. Way to live up to the name, crispy! On the other hand, IGN's doughnut is much bigger overall and even has a few new pieces of information regarding character creation and progression baked right into its creamy center. However, you'll have to chew your way through the slightly stale exterior in order to get to that warm, gooey information.Which doughnut should an adventurous reader pick? If you're like us, just eat both! Don't worry about the dizziness and urge to punch your stomach repeatedly aftewards -- that's completely natural. Did you enjoy this? We've donned our capes and tights to explore SOE's DC Universe Online in-depth. Come explore more of Metropolis and Gotham with your friends at Massively!
iCEphone makes trip to CES, remains unwieldy
So, there's good news and bad news. Being that we enjoy handing out the former first, we'll point out the fact that the Windows Mobile-powered iCEphone made the trip to Vegas in order to be showcased at CES. The bad? There's still no pricing nor US availability to take into consideration. Granted, the phone is designed to be used primarily during emergencies, but that doesn't make patience any easier to come by.[Via OnlyGizmos]
