With an equal emphasis on consumers, electronics and show, CES 2011 wrapped up last week. Here’s a look at a few stories I found interesting as well as the top takes from my friends on the CES 2011 Sears Blue Blogger Crew. Thanks to Sears Electronics for providing transportation and a Sony Bloggie camera to each blogger. What CES stories grabbed you?
Best of CES 2011 Coverage and Launches
By creating a tech enthusiast membership category, the Consumer Electronics Association, opened up the doors to individuals. If you can answer the question: “Are you a first in line, giddy-like-a-school-girl, pre-pre-pre-early-adopter?” with yes – and pay $49 per year, you’re in.
Joining the CEA Innovation Movement is free. According to the site, the Innovation Movement is a coalition of Americans who believe innovation is the key to reviving the global economy and creating new American jobs. We believe that Congress and the private sector need to work together to support policies that stimulate America’s innovation economy and promote entrepreneurship.
“Innovation took center stage and wowed the world last week with more than 140,000 innovators participating in the world’s largest tech gathering.” Gary Shapiro, President and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association in Huffington Post
Business Week found the 2011 show to be The Most Innovation-Filled CES in Years “The technology at the Consumer Electronics Show was more diverse, more connected, and in some cases just plain weirder than ever.”
For Digital Publishers and Device Manufacturers, CES 2011 Was All About the Deal “CES made it obvious just how blurry the lines are getting between hardware, software and content companies. Many hardware companies are now also software companies and work directly with content providers in order to offer the widest range of content to their customers. The reverse is also true as media companies now build software and applications for their content and work with hardware manufacturers.” Source: publishingperspectives.com
CES: Optimism back as economic worries fade : “It was crowded at CES this year, but that’s really a good thing: instead of worrying about their budgets, attendees were free to concentrate on the products.” Source: cnet.com
With a plethora of tablet introductions, Wired call it with:Wired CES Coverage: Tablet Wave Means Few Will Succeed, Many Will Fail “Everyone and their grandmother will be coming out with a tablet in 2011, and there may have been 80 of them debuting at CES.”
Tablets, Dual-Core Phones and 3-D Cameras: 2011’s Hottest Gadget Trends Source: Wired.com
CES Booth Tours Engadget “CES: part tech fest, part carnival, and all fun. Sadly we couldn’t bring you everything we saw in the booths as they’re so full and have become so immense that we’d need the entire week to take it all in” Source: engagdet.com
Sears Blue Blogger Crew 2011 CES Picks
Andru Edwards, Gear Live CES 2011 Coverage
“Fresh out of CES 2011, Samsung has announced their new SH100 point and shoot camera. What’s so special about this one? Well, the main advantage here is the built-in Wi-Fi with DLNA support. This allows you to send images and videos to friends and web services (Facebook, YouTube, Picasa, Photobucket) directly from the camera itself without having to sync to a computer first.”
Kris Cain, Little Tech Girl CES 2011 Coverage
“The best announcement from Samsung (for me) was that of the new Series 7 Slide PC (or Tablet). It has a slick slide out keyboard.”
Jenna Hatfield, StopDropandBlog.com CES 2011 Coverage
“The [Samsung NX11] lens(es) has(have) a button called the i-function button. When you press the button, you can turn the lens-turned-knob to change settings like ISO, White Balance. shutter speed and aperture. That puts a photographer’s main functions in an easy to reach and manage place, as opposed to embedded in different menus on various DSLRs. Even more spectacular with this function is that as you turn the lens, it shows the changes on the live preview screen so that you can see how the change in setting will affect your picture.”
Kelly Clay, LockerGnome.com 2011 CES Coverage
“Panasonic’s new tablet is designed to connect social consumers to their home entertainment, and is designed for consumers who need a portable device that can connect to a Panasonic television. The tablet would allow consumer to switch media between the tablet and television with literally a flick of the hand, as well as share and communicate using the Android platform, while using WiFi. Panasonic showed off 10?, 7? and 4? models at CES.”
Kelly also picked up this NBC Universal and Brave Media social media intitative announcement.
“NBC Universal, the official broadcast partner of CES, is part of the first wave of announcements of new social media initiatives with the introduction of Bravo Media’s new Twitter account, @bravotv, on January 7th during CES. As @bravotv will allow fans to interact with Bravo personalities, they will also be able to interact with Bravo using the new Bravo iPad app, which will also be introduced during CES.”
Social Media, Apps and Photo Editing on 3D TVs
Thanks to Sony for the interview about how apps, the internet and social media are transforming the TV viewer experience. To be fair, other manufacturers – like Panasonic – will offer similar systems that consolidate the user experience by integrating hardware platforms, software systems and applications.
Want to see more? Check out 2011 CES Photo Album by Barbara Rozgonyi
Your Turn: How do you categorize your interest in technology?
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