Sorry. I’m too tired to write up a great post about my time at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Suffice to say I walked more than I have in a long time looking for cool products to share, but I really wasn’t able to come up with much. I plan to write about a few tomorrow, but for now here are some quick post-trade-show-floor thoughts.
- Like a guy from Olympus (seriously) told me while in line for lunch at the snack bar, if you’re not selling a cell phone, camera or an MP3 player then you need to reevaluate (Olympus is coming out with an MP3 player – the m:robe which looks just as boring as all the other iPod “killers”). Case in point: Oregon Scientific (the people are really known for telling you what the temperature is outside) are now making a Barbie digital camera. Huh?
- Last year it was all about high definition TV, and this year it's the norm. Staring at plasma TVs pumping HDTV signals all day makes my 32 inch RCA at home look kind of sad. But a lot more affordable, that's for sure.
- There were celebrities at CES. I saw came close to many but didn’t speak to any of them. I saw Ted Nugent (the Nuge), Conan O’Brien, Steven Tyler, and Tom Arnold. I was right next to Conan while checking out a pimped out Cooper Mini but didn’t talk to him, which I regretted later. He is going to be the host of the Tonight Show eventually – which is Smithsonian famous and pretty cool – but I feel weird in these situations and I usually just pretend the celebrity I’m standing next to is just some normal seven foot tall red head that I see on TV all the time.
- Tivo is in serious trouble. But the new DVR DirecTV will be coming out with later this year actually looks pretty cool.
The place couldn’t have been more devoid of children. Hundreds of thousands of attendees and not a single kid. Then at one point I’m walking past a booth and I see a crib, pram and changing table (see picture). Sweet! Someone pimped out a crib with built-in DVD and a booming sub-woofer? No. It’s just a marketing gimmick. (Hitachi disk drives are small like a baby. Duh.)- Every single electronics company you can possibly think of makes an MP3 player. And all of them aren't as good as the iPod. No matter how much Creative wants you to disagree.
- Don’t even THINK about bringing your stroller or the CES police will beat you down. I have no idea why.
