THE International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which began on Thursday in Las Vegas, offers a veritable feast of “convergence” gadgets with electronic majors showcasing their latest products — from tablet PCs to sexier televisions to smartphones to some hot chips!
While the four-day conference brought to the fore the raging tablet war — with new players trying hard to replicate Apple’s huge success —several consumer giants announced new smartphones and TVs that are far more internet-connected and slimmer.
Notable new announcements are Asus’ new Eee Pad and Eee Slate tablet range, LG’s ‘Smart’ devices, Intel’s new range of Core processors, Motorola’s Atrix smart phone and new TVs from companies such as Samsung, Sony and Panasonic.
Asus’ new devices employ a variety of form factors, different screen sizes and run either Android or Windows 7 operating system. The Eee Pad Memo is a 7-inch tablet running Android 3.0 and the Eee Pad Slider a 10.1-inch tablet with a powerful Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, discrete graphics and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
The Eee Pad Transformer is a 10.1-inch tablet that can transform into a Netbookstyle device with a full-sized keyboard. Like the Eee Pad Slider, it is powered by the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. The Eee Slate EP121 from Asus, with a 12-inch screen, runs Windows 7 on Intel’s dual core Core i5 processor. The devices will be available in 2011.
LG, the South Korean conglomerate, has come out with three broad categories of products from its new smart range: Internetconnected smart TVs, even more powerful smartphones and a new line-up of “Smart” home appliances.
LG launches Optimus 2x
ITS smart TV offers a host of multimedia content, built-in internet browser, social networking and many more apps, all controlled with a motionsensing remote control. LG also announced an upgrade box that can add its “Smart” technology to any TV equipped with an HDMI port. The Optimus 2x is the new smart phone from LG, powered by a dual core 1 Ghz processor; it can handle playback and output of smooth 1080p full HD video.
The “Smart” appliance range includes an oven that can download new recipes from the internet and washing machines that can download wash cycles and refrigerators which announce expiry of food items.
Netgear has announced the launch of new wireless products and routers specifically catered to multimedia streaming, home media servers and compact devices to help extend home wireless range. On its part, Samsung has displayed its prowess in the TV space by showcasing Series 7 and 8 TVs with ultra-thin bezels, an ultrathin Blu-Ray player with a 3 second boot time and the Galaxy Player — an Androidpowered competitor to Apple’s iPod Touch.
Meanwhile, Motorola has announced its latest smartphone, the Atrix. Not only does the Atrix have powerful hardware (with a dual core processor, 1GB RAM), but it also works with a unique laptop dock, effectively converting the phone into a PC.
Intel’s new processor platform, based on 32nm manufacturing technology, integrates either a dual or quad core CPU with a discrete graphics engine on the same chip. Intel claims significant performance benefits (up to a 69% improvement in certain cases) with multimedia consumption and creation, even when compared to the currently available Core processor range. The processor is built to handle complex tasks such as media transcoding, gaming and 3D rendering, without the need of an additional discrete graphics card.
The final highlight of the pre-CES activities was Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s keynote address, showcasing new features of Xbox Live, Windows Phone 7, enhancements for Microsoft Kinect, some innovative new Windows PCs from various partners such as HP and Asus and Microsoft’s own new Surface technology which responds to natural hand gestures and real world objects.
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