RobbieTheGeek.Com

Ok after all the MacWorld news I find it hard to get back to the CES news LOL.There were a few things (technologies) that weren't really shown in force. Smartphones other then the Palm Treo 700w. This was a very exciting announcement for a few reasons:1.) An upgraded version of the Treo 650, a rather nice Palm phone/PDA2.) The Treo 700w is available from Verizon Wireless and supports Verizon's high-speed EVDO (maybe rebranded VZAccess) wi-fi network. This is very cool because it is basically unlimited wireless broadband for $60 per month.3.) Last but not least the Treo 700w is a Palm device running Windows Mobile. This is a nice meshing of technologies. Palm has always made very solid, stable PDAs & smartphones but boring and slightly outdated OSes for these great devices. Windows Media is an over-the-top all encompassing Microsoft OS for handheld PCs. And this is one of the few PDA/phones that received any web coverage in relation to iCES.Almost no new news in the next generation gaming consoles, except a few tidbits during Bill Gates' keynote about Xbox 360 and it pushing forward HDTV adoption rates.Sony's PS3 news was completely nonexistent. Sony's big announcement was their E-Book Reader. This is very exciting to this geek because I am always looking to read some technical manuals and this is a great way for me to do it. The reader itself has a fantastic electronic paper screen that is easy on the eyes with very clear text. The specs announced are 80-85 e-books (with support for PDFs) and 7500 page turns worth of battery life per charge. The reason that this device's battery life is rated in page turns has to do with the way electronic paper works. The product only uses power when updating the electronic paper and it locks on until the next page turn.Nintendo Revolution news was even more scarce then PS3 news.Lots of folks also are attacking the portable media player market. The greatest threat to the iPod with video & the PSPs current stranglehold on this market is the Creative Vision:M. The size is a little thicker and less sleek then both the PSP and iPod but with a solid 2.5" crystal clear screen. Battery life is noted at 6 hours of video and 12-14 hours of music playback. Sony & Apple should be just a little scared of this tiny dynamo, it won best-in-show for all of iCES 2006.Everyone seems to be taking aim at Apple, and finally starting to realize that there are things that should be learned from them. Last weeks keynotes show this explicitely from Google, to Microsoft to Yahoo all targeting all of the markets that Apples dominates. Microsoft launching Urge with MTV and the reemergence of Sony's Connect music service. Google's announcement of taking Google Video from beta to a pay service and partnering with CBS for their primetime line-up and their proprietary video player. As you can see, lots of companies are trying to enter the music / video download service marketplace. I really think that right now a lot of companies would like to get a piece of the pay-per-download content service pie. Is it too little too late? We will see...I am going to leave the CES world until January '07 hopefully everyone can substantiate their companies' claims.technorati tags: CES, smartphone, Gadgets