CES: Day 1 Adventures..
And I haven't even got to see stuff yet
Monday, January 8, 2007 by Frogboy | Discussion: CES 2007
Ah Las Vegas. Land of gambling and honeymoons. At least, the latter I assume is what explains the noise coming from the room next door (or there's a lot of torture going on).
I got my CES pass without a problem. I am a rare breed. I'm a software developer, Microsoft MVP, Featured Community Leader and a journalist all at the same time. Having gone to these shows now as a software developer and a member of the press now, I can honestly say -- better to be press. Lots of free goodies.
The Verizon 3G wireless card that I bring with me has continued to save the day. You'd think that hotels would have nailed wireless access but you'd be wrong. Even in Las Vegas I'm surprised at how difficult it is to find a reliable hotspot. And when you do, it's $10 for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, the Verizon card has been acting like a champ.
There's been a lot of cool stuff shown to us and I havne't even gotten to the show floor.
A few highlights:
- Yahoo was showing off their next-generation instant messenger client. If it ends up half as good as the demo, I'm switching to that. Made explicitly for Windows Vista, it's slick, it's got great UI, it's powerful, and it looks clean. In other words, quite unlike most IM clients.
- A big trend at the show is making Windows Vista much easier to deal with hardware. Microsoft really does seem to have a nice combination with the Xbox360 and Media Center.
- I'm half tempted to get an Xbox 360 just to get to high-def content.
- You already read about Windows Ultimate so I won't go more into detail here.
- ATI showed off a really cool cable card HDTV tuner for Windows Media Center. Look up OCUR on Google to learn more on it.
- And Buffalo showed off a DUAL N wireless router. Fast enough to stream HDTV content.
Hopefully today I'll get to actually go to the show. I'm in meetings until nearly 3pm PST.
More to come...
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Reply #1 Monday, January 8, 2007 6:41 PM