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CES Diary: Day 2
Gulf News reporter Scott Shuey roams around the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas to bring you the latest story.
- By Scott Shuey, Chief Reporter
- Published: 00:09 January 9, 2008
- The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is attended by thousands of people
- Image Credit: Reuters
Gulf News reporter Scott Shuey roams around the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas to bring you the latest story.
International? Not always.
Even though this is the International CES, it is clear that some companies focus just on the US market.
Panasonic on Monday announced the "two-way" television.
The concept is simple: integrate the cable/satellite box directly into the television, which reduces the need for an extra remote and cuts down on the number of cables littering the floor.
Don't expect this to be rolled out anytime soon outside of the United States. Panasonic is working with Comcast, one of the largest providers of Internet services in the US, and has not announced to plans to introduce the integrated TV anywhere but in the US. Too bad.
The death of DRM
SanDisk president and CEO Eli Harari said on Monday during a major press conference that he thinks Digital Rights Management (DRM), which is used to help protect against music piracy, is going to be abandoned. While he said that SanDisk, which is one of the world's largest producers of flash memory and flash drives "would help provide the infrastructure" for DRM if requested, he said music industry would likely move away from the tactic.
Don't tease me, bro
At this year's International CES, there is a series of keynotes speeches, including such big names as Bill Gates, Panasonic and Intel.
Intel was expected to be one of the more interesting keynotes, with many thinking that CEO Paul Otellini would talk about Intel's strategy for developing future processors.
No such luck. Instead, the majority of the keynote highlighted wireless handheld technology, which looked wonderful. The problem? Most of the technology hasn't even been developed yet, which means no one has any idea when, or even if, what they were showcasing will be available. Some call this blueskying, but it seemed more like teasing the audience - not in a nice way.
Bring back Slash
The worst part of Intel CEO Paul Otellini's keynote on Monday was when Silicon Valley-based rocker Steven Harwell from the band Smashmouth joined him onstage for the presentation. Then, using a combination of Web 2.0, server technology and motion tracking software, the two managed to produce the worst-looking music video seen since the '80s. At least Slash of Guns and Roses guitarist knew to just shut up and play.
That's it?
Anyone who has ever traveled down Shaikh Zayed Road in Dubai has seen the Panasonic advertisement for the 103-inch flat panel television. On Monday, Panasonic's Toshihiro Sakamoto announced that 3,000 of the monster screens were sold globally last year.
Call my cynical, but that's it? All the hype and advertisement was so that Panasonic could sell 3,000 television sets?
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