Stopping the show at CES
Connecting state and local government leaders
Working my way around the Consumer Electronics Show, I was impressed with a lot of what I saw.
At the CES Showstoppers event in Las Vegas last night, consumer electronics purveyors supped, schmoozed and shared their technology wares with the tech press. Working my way around the room, I was impressed with a lot of what I saw.
There were several products that help users better organize their social network data. One of the more intriguing members of this group was Juice Wireless, which lets you upload photos from your mobile phone directly to your Facebook and Flickr accounts.
It seemed like the vendors were especially conscious of price. A lot of the products I looked at sold for less than $300.
One item I can’t believe I missed is the new free online version of Intuit’s Quicken. Hello? Was there so much bad financial news hogging the airwaves in October that I missed this? The Quicken representatives said that 27 states have mandated legislation that requires financial education for high school and college students, so the company decided to make their flagship personal finance software free to everybody. Check www.quickenonline.intuit.com for download how-tos.
I also noticed what I began to call “the iPodization of everything.” A lot of devices adopted that sleek, silvery Apple look and listed data in what looked suspiciously like iTunes Playlists.
Other notable products included:
- Hewlett Packard’s laptop PC that looked like the marble in the lobby of the Palazzo Hotel, the HP dv2, which will be available in April. Less than one inch thick, it’s designed for people who need a laptop with solid functionality that’s also easy to carry anywhere, HP representatives said. HP is also offering the first touch-enabled tablet notebook PC, the TouchSmart Tx2, which is available now.
- TrendNet’s wireless security video camera that doesn’t need to be monitored by a PC or laptop.
- Kingston’s Data Traveler Black Box storage device now comes in a 32-gigabyte version for $1,000. The one I reviewed in July was 8 gigs.
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