CES 2009 - HDTVs

Normally we are use to see something like a 150-inch, OLED, super HDTV. This year it was scaled back, mainly due to the economy. Why should manufacturers build these super high-end TVs that won't ever make it to market? Pennies are tight now, and companies are spending them more wisely.

This year we saw TV going a new direction. We are one year closer to OLED TVs, though still a few years away from one the general public can afford. We did see some exciting new technologies for interaction. We have TVs that will support Netflix, and Samsung, Sony, and Vizio added support for Yahoo Gadgets.

This should finally bring interaction to TV. I think that it will be interesting. I'm not sure if this will be a great feature, but at least it will make TV a less passive medium. 

A feature that has come and gone and missed the boat by an hour is 3D TV. Unfortunately it looks like some companies might be trying to promote it again. We are still years away from seeing these prototypes on the market; we don't even have any standards for the technology. If the U.S. is struggling with the digital transition, how the heck are we going to handle a 3D transition? Do we really need to watch Jeopardy in 3D?

Digital Imaging

There are always cameras on display with some kind of new technology or bigger mega pixels or better zoom functions. Sony added a feature that puzzled me as to why it hasn't been added into a camera before: Wi-Fi. Sony finally added Wi-Fi to a camera, and it looks like it will become very popular. The Cyber-Shot DSC-G3 uses Wi-Fi to upload pictures to many different sites, such as YouTube, Picasa, Shutterfly and Photobucket.

It used to take days to get pictures developed, and then people had to come over to your house to share them, or you had to take them with you. Now with this camera, you can share pictures almost instantly. All you need is a wireless access point with access to the Internet. The rest of the camera is pretty standard: a 10 mega pixel sensor, a 4x optical zoom, and face detection. The camera should retail for $500 and should be hitting stores soon if it's not already in them.

The other interesting camera that was unveiled was from Casio. This camera has some interesting features besides the typical camera specs. The EX-FS10 has some quick shutter speeds to its name. It can do 30 FPS burst mode for taking pictures, which will let typical consumers have the ability to take some great in-action pictures. The camera also offers a 1000FPS movie mode for very slow motion. This will fill a small market need, as it offers the fast action modes of DSLRs at a consumer price and size.

We all thought Polaroid was dead and gone. When was the last time you used a Polaroid camera for those instant pictures? It's probably been years, and Polaroid has been hurting because of it. The old technology is all but dead now, but have no fear you gadget lovers. Polaroid has announced the PoGo camera.

I'd refer to it as the Polaroid camera of the twenty-first century. This new camera isn't the sleekest or slimmest camera around, and doesn't have an amazing number of mega pixels or even an optical zoom at all. What this camera does have is a familiar feature: instant prints. Instead of the image being put onto those Polaroid shots, it is stored in the memory, just like any other digital camera.

What makes this camera different is the fact that it has a mini-printer built in. You hit the print button on the camera and slide in the paper, and out comes the picture. Polaroid has once again gotten instant pictures back into the market again. Now the question is, will anyone actually buy this thing? 

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