One of the premiere events at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is Digital Experience. Taking place the night before CES officially opens, Digital Experience gives interested parties the opportunity to preview what they’ll see on the trade show floor in the days that follow.
Just as I went gadget hunting at last year’s event, I moseyed my way over to Mirage Grand Ballroom to check out the shiny new toys the companies had to offer. Here are a few of the highlights.
Poynt Local Search for BlackBerry
Instead of fumbling your way through random Google results, you can download the free Poynt application for your BlackBerry smartphone. This is meant to be an all-in-one tool that will help you find just about anything you’d need locally.
Looking for a good sushi restaurant in the area? Load Poynt on your phone, search for sushi, and it’ll bring up the ones closest to you, including reviews and the ability to make reservations through OpenTable.
In addition to restaurants, Poynt can be used to search for other things too, like movie showtimes, ratings, and theatres. From there, you can hop over to driving directions or even watch the movie trailer without leaving Poynt.
GoPro Hero HD Mountable Sports Cam
Wanna go extreme? Love nothing more than ripping down a race track or trying to catch the wave on your surfboard? Then you may be interested in the GoPro Hero HD, available as a helmet cam, motorsports cam, or even a surfboard mount. Yes, it has a waterproof case.
The camera itself doesn’t look terribly exciting, but it is capable of shooting in full 720p at 30 frames per second. If you prefer, there is also a mode for 1280 x 960, which is the 4:3 take on high-definition. The downside is that there is no preview LCD, so it could be a little hard to frame things properly.
Here’s a guy wearing no fewer than four of these cameras on various locations on his body. Want different angles, you got it. The helmet cam can offer a fun first-person perspective, but the surfboard mount (which can then face the surfer) is pretty gnarly too, even if it’s basically some 3M sticky tape. Memory comes by way of SDHC cards.
And the quality? Well, see for yourself. It’s arguably even better than the Flip Video UltraHD, wouldn’t you say?
TomTom Car Kit for iPhone
Many people are saying that the era of the standalone GPS navigation unit is on the way out, since you could totally use GPS on a smartphone instead. So, where does this leave traditional GPS companies?
Rather than sit idly by, TomTom is taking an active approach with its Car Kit for iPhone. This is essentially comprised of two parts. The first part gets you to download the TomTom app for the iPhone.
The second part is the TomTom hardware. The car mount actually contains an enhanced GPS receiver. This way, even if you lose your cellular signal, you should still be able to pick up a GPS signal with the TomTom attachment. The mount doubles as a hands-free calling device too.
HP Smartbook with Snapdragon and Android
Want a name? It doesn’t really have one yet, because this is just a proof of concept from HP. While the new HP product may look like just another netbook, it comes with at least three very special differences.
First, it uses Google Android as its operating system. This is much more akin to what you would get on a smartphone rather than with a regular netbook. Second, it has a touchscreen display, which is an absolute must for the Android OS.
And the third difference? The HP netbook (or is it smartbook) gets powered by the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. This peppy chip may have been conceived for smartphones, but it finds a very happy home here. The HP rep says that you shouldn’t expect it to do any heavy lifting, but this device is great for people who “live on the web.”
Samsung IceTouch YP-H1 Personal Media Player
We like touchscreens, but one of its inherent problems is that your finger obscures the display. Samsung has aimed to overcome this issue with the IceTouch YP-H1 media player.
It makes use of a transparent AMOLED touchscreen display. Measuring two-inches and offering full color, the screen can be manipulated from the front or the back. With the latter, your finger will thus no longer obscure the display.
There’s also 5.1 sound enhancement technology, DVD-quality video playback, FM radio, and mass storage capabilities. I just hope that the UI and responsiveness are better than previous Samsung MP3 players.
It’s a Jungle Out There
There may have been a safari theme going on at Digital Experience, but this is just the tip of the CES iceberg. Expect to see a lot more coverage of the show here on Futurelooks, as well as through our YouTube channel. There’s always more to see.
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CES 2010 – Futurelooks at the Digital Experience Photo Gallery
