At CES I stopped by the Sony booth to check out their Media Center display. They had a Sony XL100 on display (though they were also referring to it as the XL2?). What I gathered:
CNET, Best of CES 2006
Top awards went to the Creative Zen Vision:M.
iPod killer? With a brighter screen, better battery life, and more features, the Creative Zen Vision:M certainly has the goods to give the iPod a run for its money. In addition to a voice recorder and an FM tuner, the $330, 30GB Zen Vision:M supports a wide range of video formats, works with a growing number of online stores, and is compatible with subscription services. Cementing it as our Best in Show pick is its winning design; any product that cares to take on the stylish iPod must be able to turn heads. Though it’s thicker than the iPod, the Vision:M boasts a sturdy, comfortable feel, a rainbow of color choices, and glossy good looks.
I played with one and if someone wants to build an iPod killer the first thing they need to compete on is size. Unless it’s the same size or smaller it doesn’t matter about anything else.
However, I do agree with them on the Sanyo Xacti HD1 Camcorder. I’m definitely considering ordering one before my end of season ski trip because once you have an HDTV at home all you want to show on it is HD content.
Wow. CES06 was crazy. It’s going to take me some time to digest everything and get posts out. I know some other bloggers found time while down there but I barely had time to eat and sleep never mind blog.
For me the highlight was getting to meet all of you and show you Vista. Especially Thomas, Ed, Ian, and the Niveus crew. But a big thanks to all who stopped by the booth and introduced themselves. The next highlight would have been working on the floor and talking about Media Center.
My lowlight was of course the long transportation lines, but also, the show itself. I did not find walking the floor very useful. First the show is huge. There’s no way you’re going to see everything and what you want to see is spread over two convention centers and two hotels. Secondly, some of the companies I wanted to see didn’t have booths or only superficial ones. Thirdly, booths I wanted to spend more time at had marketing people doing booth duy and were unable to provide any information about the product other than their 30 second spiel (I’m proud to say that our booth had at least 50% core technical people who actually work on the products doing booth duty). Fourthly, it’s impossible to discern any sort of trends across companies, there’s just too many. However, it is possible to see what is important for one company (for instance, VIIV for Intel, Vista for Microsoft,…).
Conclusion? I’ll probably go back, but I’m in no rush to. And if I was to attend my priority would be booth duty (to meet readers, introduce MCE to newbies, and answer questions of owners) and attending the company party (it was too much fun). I’d rather read about what’s on the floor from Engadget than try and see anything myself. (Check out this short video, it’ll give you everything you need in a minute and a half :) )
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