CES 2010 preview: Unveiled, surveiled and eclipsed
This year's Consumer Electronics Show is upon us, with over 100,000 tech-heads descending on Las Vegas to drink, gamble and occasionally stumble aroun
The show’s doors don’t officially open until Thursday, but last night saw the CES Unveiled preview event, which included an 82in 3DTV from Mitsibishi. Mitsi’s DLP set sadly won’t be landing in the UK. But with ESPN’s announcement that it will be broadcasting the world Cup in 3D, expect to see all the main TV manufacturers unveiling their own 3D sets over the coming week.
In fact, Sky has rather pre-empted them by announcing that its own 3D channel will be compatible with ‘3D-ready’ sets from LG, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony. As I mentioned in a previous post, that means that Sky 3D will be compatible with both polarising and active shutter systems.
French wireless specialist Parrot used Unveiled to show off its stealthy AR.Drone, a tiny surveillance helicopter controlled over Wi-Fi by an iPhone. The Parrot AR.Drone beams footage from its built-in camera to the iPhone, allowing you to spy on anyone in a 60m range. Anyone who doesn’t notice a small helicopter zig-zagging in front of them as you struggle with Wi-Fi interference, that is.
Meanwhile Google stole attention away from CES by finally launching the much-hyped Nexus One. The phone – manufactured by HTC and running a tweaked version of the Android 2.1 operating system – is the first product Google has ever sold to consumers. With a 3.7in screen and 1GHz processor, it’s certainly rival to Motorola’s Milestone. But with few significant software improvements, it’s still not quite an iPhone killer.
But CES won’t be upstaged – at least not if the rumours are to be believed. And the hottest rumour is that Microsoft will launch it’s own tablet computer tomorrow – we’re hoping that the rumoured launch will be the ultracool Courier tablet that was previewed, in concept form, last year. The machine, built by HP, could arrive ahead of Apple’s rumoured entry into the tablet market, which is expected to be announced in late January and released in March.
And finally – today’s most wanted is the: Asus NX90Jq, an anti-netbook designed by B&O’s chief designer, with a massive 18.4in display and dual touchpads on either side of the keyboard to allow for DJ-type controls, apparently. It sounds insane, but it looks divine. You can read more about the Asus NX90Jq over in news.
Follow the Stuff CES team on Twitter:
Stuff.tv editor Simon Osborne-Walker
Other CES stuff:
Watch our CES 2010 preview video
Read about the B&O-designed, dual-trackpad (!) Asus laptop
Hands on with Skype on TV and the Alex eReader
Paddy’s CES predictions: 3DTV, eBooks and tablets
Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief 
