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01.13.09 Cool Gadgets From CES 2009  By Dave Taylor
Day Two of the huge Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, and we decided to check out the Central and North halls of the unimaginably massive Las Vegas Convention Center. The Central Hall seemed to be dominated by large tech companies, notably Microsoft, Intel, Motorola, and the like, along with a sprinkling of accessory manufacturers dwelling on the periphery. The North Hall was in-car audio and mobile audio and devices, which was less well attended and, to my interests, less interesting. More amazing cars and lots of "booth babes" who were dressed exactly as they'd been for the almost cliché mechanic's calendars they'd posed for in the first place. And lots of guys eager to pose for photos with 'em, arm firmly in place around their barely clad waists. We took a break, then went to the Las Vegas Hilton's own convention area for the International Gateway, which was exclusively representing companies in China and Hong Kong. Lots and lots of tiny booths with an amazing array of gadgets, gizmos and gewgaws, and every company hoping to find someone to distribute their products in the United States. This makes it a bit frustrating when you see something cool and realize that it might never be for sale through Best Buy, Wal-Mart or even Amazon.com, but it's fascinating to think that two shy Chinese women who are hiding out in their tiny booth might well representing a two-thousand person strong manufacturing powerhouse in a far-flung province of China. Anyway, on with the photos! 
A typical scene of chaos at the more popular area of the Consumer Electronics Show 2009, this shows you a portion of the huge Microsoft booth space, with Motorola's familiar "M" logo and a portion of its booth on the left. Behind Motorola was Intel, so the triumvirate was well represented in this area of the show. The most interesting thing that Microsoft was showing off? Windows 7. There were a lot of people from Microsoft demonstrating the Zune, but not many attendees were stopping to see what was going on. Notice that the attendees are predominantly male here at CES too. That's probably true of the demographic of consumer electronics buyers anyway, but still, is there even one woman in this picture? This is a simple idea and I hope that they can get some traction in corporate America: it's a button that you push when you're walking away from your computer that puts it instantly into sleep mode, which saves about 80% of the electricity that it'd otherwise be using with a screensaver, etc.  They were one of many companies offering simple and effective green solutions to help us all use less power with all our gadgets and gizmos, and it's an important step for all of us to consider. The Ecobutton guys also pointed out that compared to running a computer 24×7 for a year, simply pushing the button to have it instantly go to sleep for 10 hours/night would save you over $100 in electricity costs. Continue reading this article. About the Author: Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980 and is internationally known as an expert on both business and technology issues. Holder of an MSEd and MBA, author of twenty books and founder of four startups, he also runs a strategic marketing company and consults with firms seeking the best approach to working with weblogs and social networks. Dave is an award-winning speaker and frequent guest on radio and podcast programs. AskDaveTaylor.com http://www.intuitive.com/blog/ | ||||||||
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