Ahhh, That time ‘o year again….I’m humming an Andy William’s Christmas song. In a few hours I’ll be heading over to the largest trade show in the world. For a tech geek, this is like Toys-R-Us mixed in with a Willy Wonka factory on Christmas Eve.
CES 2012…the Consumer Electronics Show is about to open, and this year is going to be a GREAT conference. Just about every square foot of convention space in Las Vegas is booked, the economy is improving, electronics sales are up, and this year…..there are going to be some AMAZING products on display.
There will be plenty of surprises, but here is what I already know about and plan on seeing over the next few days. Please note….there are godzillions of products being shown….below is what I am interested in seeing, It is not a definitive list of all showstopper breakthroughs:
The “iLounge”…and area of the show set aside for Apple accessories has grown to 85,000 square feet this year.
LG is going to have a BIG show for two reasons.
LG #1) an 84″ 3D display which they are calling “UHD” or Ultra High Definition. We have been calling displays with this resolution “4K” (it is 4 times the resolution of today’s best HD TV’s) up until now. I think I like “Ultra High Definition” better. At any rate, a TV this size and with this pixel density is going to look like a window on your wall. I’ve seen ‘em before….but this one is going to be different. It isn’t a concept. We will likely see this one for sale some time in 2012.
LG#2) OLED…Organic Light Emitting Diode. In the past, I’ve seen 20″ Sony OLED displays that cost $20,000….yes….$1,000 per inch. Apparently LG is figuring out how to make it big and how to make it affordable. OLED is the Shangri-La of display technology. The 20″ Sony models are used by “colorists” in the movie industry….OLED is the best it can be. Reference. Perfect blacks, accurate & stable colors, etc. Ohhh and the other benefits…ultra low energy consumption and ultra thin. What LG is supposed to have on display is a 55″ OLED TV, that is 4mm thin. Read that again….4 MILLIMETERS thin. This one isn’t a concept either…it will make it to consumers in 2012. Guessing $8,000 later this year….and half that within 3 years.
Digital Health Fitness – 170 different exhibitors will be at the trade show. This sector really should be getting more creative with the explosive growth in Wii Fit and Kinect Sports. I hope they have something interesting.
“Ultrabooks” Apparently this will be the theme of the show. Getting rammed down our throat like 3D the last two years. Here is what happened. Apple Macbook Air laptop computers are cool and selling really, really well. Windows needs one. Intel decided to call them “Ultrabooks.” As a really happy mac user, I don’t care much about these, but I do want to learn more about them. Specifically, do they offer anything more than the Macbook Air? Or are they playing catchup ala Android tablets chasing an ever improving iPad.
Peachtree Audio will be releasing a new “DAC” or Digital to Analog Converter that I’m really interested in seeing. This product called the “Grand Integrated” may be the audiophile’s dream solution for stereo listening. Computer audio usually gets lumped in with poor speakers, lossy mp3 recordings, etc… But there is another side to it. Ultra high bitrate, lossless recordings can be bought on sites like HDTracks.com (I have quite a few) and computers are powerful enough to decode them. Couple a computer with a really good DAC & reference headphones or Amp / Speakers and you have an audiophile dream system.
Whoops..time is rolling…better go shave and get cleaned up for Show Time!! Time to hum a few bars of “It’s the most wonderful time of the year….” in the shower.