I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I have a thing for little gadgets and other things that allow me to maintain my mobile lifestyle. As a freelance writer, I can work from just about anywhere with a solid Internet connection. However, I do require the right tools for the trade. What was being shown off at CES for this purpose?
Luxa2 Stands Get Colorful, Bigger
Late last year, we took a look at the Luxa2 H1-Touch cell phone holder. This is a premium product with a couple of Swarovski crystals in it. Well, the Thermaltake sub-brand is expanding.
You can now find the Luxa2 H1-Touch is a huge range of colors, including red, blue, yellow, and green. I’m still a fan of the regular old silver metal, but if you prefer a bigger dash of personality, you’ve got it. Also visible in the shot above is the H1-Touch on steroids. That larger unit is designed to work with the Amazon Kindle, but it could prove to be popular when Apple reveals its iSlate tablet later this month.
Lenovo Skylight Smartbook with Snapdragon
It may not be completely fair to refer to the Lenovo Skylight as a netbook, since it’s a different kind of beast. One of the newer terms being thrown around is the smartbook, because this family of devices fits somewhere between the smartphone and the netbook.
The Lenovo Skylight is remarkably thin and lightweight, yet it felt very solid in my hands. The construction is quite good. Some of its key features include that increasingly hot 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a crisp 10.1-inch screen, Wi-Fi, 3G, and a chiclet-style keyboard.
By the sounds of things, we should expect the Lenovo Skylight to arrive in April with a full retail price of $500. AT&T could be picking it up as well, offering a subsidized price if you sign up for a 3G data plan.
Sony Bloggie MH5-PM5 Pocket Camcorder
Do you like pocket camcorders like the Flip Video UltraHD? If you’re not as interested in a waterproof camcorder, then you may want to shift your focus over to the Sony Bloggie.
The focus for this product is quite clear: Sony is targeting the rapidly expanding blogging and social networking communities. Also known as the Sony MH5-PM5, this pocket camcorder features a rotating lens, integrated USB connector, direct uploads to YouTube, and full HD video capabilities.
These are all well and good, but you may be more interested in the Sony MH5-PM5K Bloggie kit. This is the same physical unit as the PM5, but the kit tosses in a couple of extras. You get a 4GB memory card and a special 360-degree lens adapter.
What you do is point the lens on the camera straight up into the air, clip on the adapter, and shoot a 360-degree video. It’s like the ultimate in panoramic videography.
iLuv Tatz Premium Headphones Arrive
Most of the headphones from iLuv have traditionally been on the more budget-minded end of the scale, but that is changing with the unveiling of the new Tatz line of high end headphones and earphones.
They’re not afraid to be quite bold with the designs either. The Tatz THP902 shown above come from the Impressionz series, featuring a loud red and blue color scheme. They’re said to offer “freakish powerful sound” for $89.99.
For the girls in the audience, they have the THO901 Tatz headphone option from the Broken Heartz series. Like the Impressionz version, you get nice foam padding for the earpieces and powerful speaker drives for the serious sound you desire. It’s ten bucks less at $79.99.
Technocel Ear Vibe Vibrating Stereo Headset
Maybe you’re not a fan of the larger DJ style cans, but you still want some extra thump to rattle your brain. If that’s the case, then Technocel might be the way to go.
The company is perhaps best known for its PowerPak portable battery and home charger combo, but this Technocel Ear Vibe stereo headset is quite notable too. They may look like any other set of earphones, but the key difference is that the earpieces “literally vibrate when your tunes hit the low frequency bass.”
This is meant to give you a subwoofer like experience in your ears. It’s also a full headset with an in-line microphone, so you can use it to take calls on your music phone too. The Ear Vibe will sell for $29.99 when it ships on January 15.
Mileage Tracker Tracks Your Mileage
For all the business folk in the audience, the device from Mileage Tracker could make your monthly expense reports a little easier. As its name implies, it will track the mileage you use while on business trips around town. This way, you can know exactly how far you traveled and, thus, how much your company owes you for said mileage.
The $189 device is about the size of a portable hard drive or a PSP, and it tracks each of your trips using GPS technology. These trips can be paused and all of the data is automatically exported as a detailed Excel spreadsheet.
Choiix Air-Through Stash Gets Upgrades
The original Choiix Air-Through Stash offered an interesting concept, embedding a place for a 2.5-inch hard drive into a laptop cooler. It was a good idea, but it was not without its shortcomings.
The people at Choiix must have read my review, because they tackled the exact pitfalls of the original for its upcoming successor.
They didn’t have the new version on display, but I was told that the plastic construction was ditched in favor of aluminum and the hard drive slot would now be on the side rather than the bottom. The hard drive will also be hot-swappable.
Swapper 1.2.3. Makes Portable Hard Drives Easier
While you could certainly invest in a portable hard drive that already comes with an enclosure, many people still prefer to use their own drives in their own enclosures. For those folks, Choiix has the Swapper 1.2.3.
Compatible with 2.5″ hard drives and SSDs up to 500GB, the enclosure is designed to allow for quick swapping of the drive contained within. You’ll notice that there are no screws, since you open up the case by removing the little rubber pieces instead.
Totally Adjustable Cooling for All Your Hot Spots
Not all notebooks are built the same way, so not all notebook coolers are going to be equally effective on all of these different laptops. I like the adjustable fan locations offered by the Vizo Ninja HS, but even that design was limiting.
Choiix goes further with its latest notebook cooler. Featuring a brushed aluminum design, you’ll notice that the main portion has a honeycomb-like configuration. That’s there not only to help dissipate heat, but the two provided fans can be mounted just about anywhere.
They can be all on one side, in a perfect line with one another, or completely off-kilter. It’s completely up to you. There’s also that raised portion in the back to provide a more ergonomic typing angle.
The stand seems to be carrying Cooler Master branding, but I anticipate that the final product will more likely be introduced as part of the Choiix line instead.
Always More to See
Be sure to stay tuned to Futurelooks and our YouTube channel (even Twitter) for continuing coverage of CES 2010.
Love This Article? Hate This Article? Tell Us In The Forums!
CES 2010 – The Latest From LUXA2, Lenovo, SONY, iLuv, Technocel, Mileage Tracker & CHOIIX – Photo Gallery
