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View Full Version : My CES Experience: Part 3 - The Final Chapter


Mike Temporale
01-29-2008, 05:30 PM
<p>To start off my next day at CES I was scheduled to meet with UTStarcom. I made my way through the show floor and found their booth, but was disappointed to hear that UTStarcom won't be making any product announcements at the show this year. Instead they wanted to tell me about all of their success stories from last year - argh. In the end I did manage to get a little information out of the person I was talking with. She told me that UTStarcom will be releasing a entry level Windows Mobile device at some point this year. Can't you just feel the thrill and excitement building? Heh, you heard it here first! <br /><br />I made my way to the Jawbone booth in the parking lot where you could exchange your current headset for a Jawbone. I happily tossed my Motorola headset into their bin and they paired a Jawbone with my BlackJack. At first I found the headset to be awkward to get on and harder to get it to stay put. Perhaps I have Dumbo ears or something. But I couldn't get it to fit right. I spent the remainder of the show and trip home testing it out. It wasn't until a week later at the NRF trade show in New York when I was talking to a person by the name of <a href="http://www.nextretailgroup.com/page2.html" target="_blank">Daniel Hopping</a>. I noticed Daniel was using the Jawbone, so I asked how he liked it. Typically, people love it or they hate it. So far, I was leaning to the hate it because I couldn't get it to fit right - which means it's not going to work right. Daniel loved it and he explained that it took a little while before he did. You see, he had to bend the arm a little so that it would hold correctly on his ear. Ah-ha! That's what I was missing. A little tweak of the ear brace bar and everything is peachy. Now I can easily say it's the best darn headset I've ever used. Just make sure you give it a good try before you make your decission. The Jawbone has to fit correctly on your ear and the little white nib has to rest on your ...jawbone - hence the name. This helps the headset determine when you speak and when to mute/un-mute the microphone as well as when to invoke it's noise cancelling technology. Give the <a href="http://software.smartphonethoughts.com/productAccessories.asp?id=10911" target="_blank">Jawbone</a> some time, it's well worth it. :-) Oh, and thanks Daniel for the tip! <br /><br />Next up was the <a href="http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2008/01/tablet-pc-umpc.html" target="_blank">Tablet PC Meetup</a> put on by the guys from JKonTheRun. Another great event with lots of cool tablets to look at. I had a great talk with the HP rep about their hot new consumer line of Tablets as well as their existing enterprise line of Tablets. I really like the <a href="http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2008/01/ces-live--the-s.html" target="_blank">HP 2710p tablet</a> - this thing is super thin and yet it's packed with features - including a business card scanner. This is on my short list to replace my, still pretty new, Fujitsu T4215 Tablet. :-)<div style="page-break-after: always;"><span style="display: none;">&nbsp;</span></div><br />From Back to the convention center for Microsoft's Pavilion Party. Select members of the press were invited to hang out in the Microsoft Pavilion and check out all the latest and greatest Microsoft products while enjoying a few drinks and a couple appetizers too. I got a good look at some of the cool Media Center extenders that are planned for release soon. As well, I came across this really cool Denon receiver that will actually pull music from your network. The AVR-4308C is not just compatible with Vista, but it can also browse your network and play music from your shared folders. You know, a couple years ago, a single network jack behind my entertainment unit was more than enough. Now I have a Slingbox, a Media Center, a Xbox 360, and soon my receiver will need a jack as well. </p><p><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/spt/auto/1201571957.usr3.jpg" /><br /><br />I also took note of this slick Lenovo executive laptop that is fitted with a leather outer shell. Now, I know the computer world is moving towards customization, but leather wrapped? On a laptop? Come on. </p><p><img border="1" alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/spt/auto/1201571996.usr3.jpg" /><br /><br />Off to dinner with <a href="http://www.symantec.com" target="_blank">Symantec</a> and <a href="http://www.hp.com" target="_blank">HP</a>. I had a great time talking with Symantec and even pressed them on why they've wasted time and energy on a Windows Mobile client and do they really expect any of us to install and use it? The answer is really very simple. They had to create the mobile client to satisfy industry analysts and investors that want them to be there. The threat level is next to nothing and they know it. However, now that they have a client, they can quickly and easily react to any threats that might pop up in the Windows Mobile world. <br /><br />My last CES press meeting was with <a href="http://www.imate.com" target="_blank">i-mate</a>. Does anyone remember them? It's been a while since we've seen any smartphone releases from i-mate and the Ultimate series has been &quot;coming soon&quot; for almost a year now. My meeting was scheduled and re-scheduled a total of 4 times. When the dust finally settled, things turned out much better than I had expected. So what's i-mate been up to? Well, they've been working hard to make sure that the latest crop of phones are more stable than the first batch of devices produced after the HTC split. The devices should start hitting the street anytime now and they will be getting the Windows 6.1 upgrade when that's released later this year. Two of the Ultimate devices will have a XDA out allowing you to connect your device to a projector or LCD. In fact, the slide show that i-mate was doing for me was driven from an Ultimate series device. That's a huge benefit for anyone that does a lot of travel and presentations. No longer will you need to take your laptop along for the ride. Further, i-mate hinted that they are working on a foldable keyboard screen combo that will allow you to easily work on your device without actually hauling a laptop around. At first I thought this was a Folio wanna be, but there's no OS, processor, hard drive, or memory included. So that means it's more of a <a href="http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/showthread.php?t=31968" target="_blank">RedFly</a> like device. The main difference here is the price. RedFly is priced around the $499 range and i-mate is planning on offering theirs for around $199. When you think of price, RedFly is pretty expensive for a travel keyboard/monitor. But i-mate's is much nicer and easier to handle - cost wise. I pushed a little more into their efforts on the digital picture frame market and the subscription service that's required. To my surprise, they have dropped the subscription service all together. I never liked the idea of having to pay a monthly fee just to send pictures to my own digital frame. So I'm really impressed with the changes i-mate has made in the last 8 to 10 months and I'm looking forward to what they do next. <br /><br />So ends my first ever CES journey. It was a great show - nothing revolutionary by any means, but still a great chance to meet up with various companies and build valuable relationships. I will be back next year and I'm looking forward to a bigger and better show. <br /></p>