Posted on 01/11/2011 1:55:53 AM PST by Las Vegas Dave
Washington, D.C. (January 10, 2011) -- The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show is over but the marketing messages will live on in TV campaigns, billboards, Internet message boards, smartphone texts, you name it. CE companies are just getting started in their efforts to persuade you that you can't live without their new wares.
During the show, the products getting the most attention, at least in the consumer electronics category, were tablets (read: iPad imitators); 'Smart TVs,' which enable users to surf the Net and watch videos instantly; new (and maybe improved) 3D TVs; and the usual array of novelty items such as that iPhone app that allows you to take your blood pressure and email the results to your doctor.
However, from this writer's humble perspective, the 2011 CES Show lacked the excitement and surprise that you normally expect from the annual gadgetfest. There wasn't that one new, can't-live-without-it innovation introduced or even a startling breakthrough in an existing product. The show really was about warming up leftovers (Smart TVs, 3D TVs, etc) in the hopes they'll look more appetizing in 2011.
Considering that most consumers are still recession-weary, perhaps that's a good thing. Rather than try to push a new product category -- as TV makers unwisely did at the 2010 show with the 3D TV -- it appears that CE companies wanted to give consumers a chance to take a second look at their existing products.
That said, TVPredictions.com has assembled links to 16 CES stories we published during the week so you can take your second look, or perhaps even a third:
(Note: Below story links can be found at "http://www.tvpredictions.com/cesreview011011.htm" - LVD )
CES: Vizio: New Specs to Clear Up 3D
TV Tech at CES: 10 Burning Questions
HBO Launches 3D HD VOD Service
CES: Vizio to Unveil Cinema-Wide HDTVs
CES: ESPN 3D Goes 24 Hours In February
CES: Why 3D TV Is Doomed (Again)
CES: Sony to Sell SI Swimsuit Video In 3D
CES: VUDU to Offer 3D Movies
CES: 3 Hollywood Directors: Blu-ray Is Best
CES: Penthouse to Launch 3D Channel
CES: Blu-ray Now In 27.5M U.S. Homes
CES: Why Is Vudu Adding 3D Movies? Guess.
CES Press Releases:
CES: Sony Unveils 27 New Bravia HDTVs
CES: 6 Star Wars Films Go Blu In September
CES: Dish Adds Live TV to Android Tablets
CES: LG Adds Net-Enabled Blu-ray Players
Please add me to this list.
3D flopped? No surprise.
Wow, the CES....
It brings back old memories from when I was with the exhibitors, but that was almost 40 years ago when CB radio was the hottest thing going, hahaha
No PCs or Cellphones in those days.
I sometimes think we would be much better off if life could be as it was then....
No internet or cellphones.
This years show was a yawner alright.
I sometimes think we would be much better off if life could be as it was then....
No internet or cellphones.
I think I know what you mean, a simpler time, but going backwards never helped.
I’m not sure I would put 3D and tablets on the same level of the internet and cell phones, which literally provide me with work.
...and yes I agree with the author, the show was lackluster.
overwhelmingly Asian.
Disturbingly crowded, with much bumping, banging, and one way traffic without any rules of the road inside the various venues.
I still learned a lot. It is usually an educational experience, at least for me.
“I’m not sure I would put 3D and tablets on the same level of the internet and cell phones, which literally provide me with work.”
I operated a small rural mobile phone system, prior to Cellular.
Fortunately, it was a very small part of my radio communications business.
I did become a BellSouth agent when Cellular got into the rural areas.
Yes, we can never go back, but I often wish we had never come here.
Now really, what would we do without our dose of FR, a little bit of sugar makes the medicine so sweet.
“Now really, what would we do without our dose of FR”
Yes, I am on my 13th FReeper year.
I admit, I am an FR addict.
wita
Since Apr 25, 1998
AlexW
Since Jun 22 1998
Less than two months apart.
Care to share your present location. You wanderer.
I’m enroute back from CES. In UT headed for SD
Indeed. I have zero interest in 3D TV (or movies). What I would like is a REAL "universal remote". None of the candidates I've found come close to working "universally". I'm getting my home theater system up and running, and I now have FIVE remotes to screw with. The TV, the cable box, the Media PC, the sound system, and the HD-DVD player (though that last will eventually go away).
This year they opened Sunday to consumers in general, if you bought a 25 dollar thingy on one of the previous days. I forget what the thingy was called, a voucher or some such.
Now I remember sort of, with the 25 dollars you declared yourself an electronics nut job.
“Care to share your present location. You wanderer.”
Well, I started traveling in 1999, off and on in central Europe, then from 2005, full time in Slovakia, then in Jan.
2009, I moved to the Philippines, where I plan to stay.
Born and spent my first 55 years in west Tennessee.
Thanks.
I had one of the Logitech Harmony line, and I found it to be none of those things.
Well, inexpensive, maybe, but the newest tech from them is anything BUT inexpensive.
About all you could easily program it to do was turn things on and off, change channels, and adjust the volume. Any deeper control and I had to go back to the original "device-specific" remotes. Eventually I decided it just wasn't worth the trouble, and it now sits down in my garage with the rest of the "has-been" hardware.
What I'd really like to find is a USB IR Emitter that would plug into a rear USB port in my Acer netbook computer or ASUS tablet netbook. Right now, I've got the Acer controlling the Media PC with "LogMeIn" ovr my house wireless network. I also have one of the IPazzport RF "keyboard/touchpad" gizmos, which works REALLY nicely to run the Media PC as a PC.
But of course, that leaves the other four devices.
I get truly P.O.'d with the manufacturers. My Panasonic Viera TV will connect to my wireless network...but ONLY if you use the very large Panasonic USB wireless dongle. No way to use other much smaller USB dongles.
Same for sound. If you connect to anything OTHER than a Panasonic "Home Theater" unit, the HDMI sound output is downgraded to stereo only. I wish I had found out about those limitations before buying. Most reviews are pretty much worthless. They say what the mfg. wants said, and little else.
I had the same experience with the Logitech Harmony. Mine would constantly “forget” devices and they would not operate. I would download the command set to it again, set it up again, and it would operate for a while before it would “forget” a different device. I gave up and now operate the TV, cable, AV receiver, BluRay, Tivo, and Oppo HDMI Switch remotes individually. Major PITA. The worst part is when somebody else in the house fat-fingers a remote and I have to go into full diagnosis mode to figure out what the whole system is doing, which component is acting up, and how to fix it. One fat-finger can take 30 minutes to undo. Yet, we still put up with all this for the great picture and sound. Maybe in 10 years the mfgrs will focus on usability instead of useless “features” like 3D and sort all this nonsense out.
Have any of you every heard of a Curtis Mathes TV? I’m trying really hard to support OUR economy and buy American made products. I heard that this is an American based company.
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