Editors note: Hello dear readers, did you know that we had a representative at the Consumer Electronics Show 2011 in Las Vegas? His name is Kevin Hidalgo but unfortunately, PTB does not belong to the media bigwigs so he was only able to gain access during the weekend hence, the lack of live blogging. Anyway, what he have here is a recount of his first CES experience. Read on what it’s like to experience the biggest annual consumer electronics show.
Greetings to you fellow Filipino tech junkies, I go by the name of Kevin Hidalgo, just your average PTB reader coming from Los Angeles, California. Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show or CES held annually at Las Vegas, Nevada with a little help from Calvin. I’m here to share with you my first trip to the CES and the advancement in technology showcased at the convention.
The very first thing that caught my attention upon arrival to Las Vegas was the sheer number of advertisements and signs regarding CES, such as the shuttle services from airports, hotels and drop-off points. It seems the CES is such a huge show that it literally affects the businesses around the Las Vegas Convention Center, the venue of this event. Just to give you an idea of how influential CES is to Las Vegas, consider this, I was able to book a room back in September for my trip to CES which was in January. That room cost $89 USD per night but when I inquired about the current rates as of the weekend, the same room shot up to $599 USD because most hotels were fully booked.
Upon my arrival at CES the long lines of attendees greeted me, luckily my press pass meant I had to go to a shorter but more rigorous registration process. Once I got my badge and ID, I proceeded to Intel’s booth, which demonstrated their new method of manufacturing 32nm processors and also their upcoming 2nd generation desktop processors.
Dolby demonstrated enhanced audio decoding and surround sound technology we’ll soon find on upcoming video games.
A few booths later and Motorola, flocked with attendees, was introducing their new Atrix smartphone which is the first smartphone to be powered by a dual core processor. The GUI of the Atrix is very responsive and direct, I found it quite easy to navigate around different applications and features.
After strolling around, I found myself in front of Sharp’s booth. Being that I used to own one of the rarer red Sharp 902SHs back in 2004, I was curious about what Sharp had to offer. After checking out a few of their LED TV displays, the “œGalapagos” demo caught my attention and right there was Sharp’s line of mobile phones, tablets and E-readers powered by Android.
The Galapagos phone was very interesting due to the fact that it was a 3D phone. The screen on the 003SH Galapagos has stereoscopic 3D technology and is able to display 2D pictures in 3D without the need of 3D glasses. The phone it self was very sexy and light, the display takes up most of the front and the GUI was very innovative although a bit confusing, but not annoying though. The only shortcoming I see was that the phone is currently only being offered in Japan by Softbank telecom and as I know from experience, Softbank locked phones are very difficult if not impossible to unlock.
Due to time constraint, I was unable to see a few of the other exhibits although I stopped by the big company booths. Sony had a very large exhibit. Quite a lot of their products we’re on the showroom floor including their Studio-Spec HD broadcasting cameras and a display of the Green Hornet car.
But on the corner of their exhibit floor, people were gathering inside looking into a small dark room that housed what I thought was Sony’s most innovative product, a small, 24.5″ OLED 3D HDTV that’s 3D glass-free, that’s right, no 3D glasses required. Even though in such a small display, you could definitely notice that the picture is much clearer and had way better depth perception than most TVs on the market. The demo played scenes of a cartoon where balls are thrown and it convincingly looked like the ball has left the screen. This is something I would definitely wait for in the future as the technology develops and is applied to larger sized OLED TVs.
Overall my first CES was short lived but was definitely worth it. There is a good chance that I will be able to attend this event again next year. Experience from this CES gave me an idea on how to prepare for next years CES. I’ll definitely have a broader and more thorough coverage the second time around. Enjoy the few photos I was able to take and I’ll see you all next January. Happy New Year!