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Working Hard at CES

I have to admit, working with Motorola does have its perks. Last night Carson Palmer made a surprise appearance at Motorola’s evening reception. We’re best buds now! I think I got a better deal than Dave. :)

As for the rest of CES, it seems oddly subdued this year. Not that there haven’t been important announcements, but a lot of the good stuff seems to be happening behind closed doors. That, plus a lot of focus is now shifting over to Macworld and the newly announced iPhone.

A few highlights from walking the CES landscape yesterday:

Ecosol PowerStick P1

Despite the huge displays by a lot of big companies, some of the best things can be found in inconspicuous nooks and crannies. Here’s the Innovation award-winner Ecosol PowerStick P1. The company’s not even at the show, but the product was displayed in a case with a tiny placard. The PowerStick powers up via USB and then charges all your CE devices via various adapters. I could have used one of these yesterday, particularly for my Sony Cyber-shot.

Yahoo “Booth”

I really liked Yahoo’s tent set up across from the central hall of the convention center. Good move on Yahoo’s part because once you’re in, there are no distractions from other companies waiting tantalizingly just across the hall. Yahoo also had some knowledgeable folks on hand. The company has an electronic program guide in the works with social networking features wrapped in. The woman demonstrating it actually referenced the opportunity to avoid dealing with middleware. Clearly an interactive-TV veteran.

Picture of the Hour: Pimp My Ride

Dave and Mari watch wheel well TV.

Showstoppers

The Showstoppers event was held last night (Wynn), where a variety of (mostly) smaller companies set up shop. Not much caught my eye, though I ran into the Engadget, Gizmodo, and CrunchGear teams. (That’s Peter Rojas above, with Randall Bennett handling film duties on the right.) The food wasn’t as good as Digital Experience the … Read more

CableCARD on PC

I got to touch this ATI box which provides add-on CableCARD functionality, presumably for Vista PCs. Unfortunately, there was no one around to speak with about it… Which is probably OK, since the majority of folks I’ve had questions for have been unable to address the more technical stuff. (Frustrating!) The device is about the … Read more

Netgear Blogger In Residence, Day 1

Bloggin’ CES I’m here. It’s big. NETGEAR’s New Goods Skype, store, serve. Partying With Willie G. Drinks are served. Vista too.

Picture of the Hour: Hope Springs Eternal

Hands On With PalmOS Slingplayer and Slingcatcher

Last night at the Digital Experience sideshow over at Caesars (featuring piles o’ crab cakes and lobster spring rolls), I spent a few minutes with the Sling folks and touched some of the new stuff. The PalmOS player seems entirely functional (we connected to a Slingbox broadcasting from the Golden Gate Bridge?!), though the skin/GUI isn’t complete. I also got a closer look at the SlingCatcher. The flat white piece in the third photo is the optional hard drive accessory that the Catcher will sit on (it looks like they’ll connect via USB).

I have a thorough briefing planned this AM by the Sling folks, though they slipped and let me in on to two pretty interesting announcements coming: one today, one tomorrow. I’ll share more when I get a bit more info and clearance to post.