CES 2008 Day 1 Roundup

The Consumer Electronic Show 2008 is open! More than 140,000 attendees from 140 countries are expected to attend this year. Over 2,700 exhibitors will show their latest technologies over more than 1.7 million net square feet of exhibit space.

Here's a roundup of the things that got my attention on Day 1:

iriver

I have to say that iriver surprised me with their whole new lineup of products. They presented very slick products with different functionality.

UNIT 2 - This is an all-in-one multimedia home networking device with a 7" touch screen. It has a great sleek and minimalist design. The device includes: audio, video, FM tuner, DVD player, Divx player, CD player, VOIP phone, VOIP video phone, SMS/MMS, Web browsing and Web mail. It has a 30GB HDD and 2GB NANDFLASH drive and also SD card reader and USB to expand storage. Built-in WiFi to stream media from your computer and more. No information as to when they will release this device.

 

MPLAYER SEASON II - This is a Disney branded MP3 player. It is very unique as it looks like a Mickey Mouse silhouette. It is very easy to operate and I'm sure will sell very well for kids especially in the Disney parks. 2 models available with either 1 GB or 2 GB of NAND Flash memory.

 

 

APLAYER - This is slick ultra high-end MP3 player with FM tuner. It looks like a USB dongle so you just plug it to the PC to synchronize and thin as a credit card. It has a sophisticated metal finish and comes in either 1, 2, 4 or 8 GB of NAND Flash memory.

They presented many more devices like MP4 players, E-dictionaries, PMPs and navigation devices.

 

Neonode

The Swedish Neonode cellular phone is finally coming to the USA. You can think of this cellular phone as a "Nano iPhone". It is an extremely small phone with a touch screen (Neno user interface) that allows you to drag your finger over the screen to control the different functions. It is a GSM Quadband phone with a 2" LCD screen, 3.2 Megapixel fixed focus camera and Bluetooth. It is not official yet, but the presenter in the booth told me that they'll probably start selling the phone through T-Mobile and also unlocked through different retailers. You can watch the full Neonode demo video.

 

Plasma / LCDs

All major manufactures presented large high definitions plasma and LCD screens going all the way to 150" (Panasonic). The quality of  display is getting more and more real and in some booths where they are showing a real video input of a vase with flowers it is amazing to see that the picture on TV is better than the real thing . All the future displays focus on the quality of picture but more importantly the thickness of the TV. Companies  like Sharp and Pioneer presented displays that are only 23 millimeters thick!! They look amazing with a contrast of 100,000:1!

Samsung

Samsung had a big display area with everything they make, but what caught my eye was the second Bang & Olufsen cellular phone they developed. This cellular phone is a very slick design and a track wheel that feels similar to an iPod. It comes with a paired slick headset and will cost you "only" $1,600.