CES 2003: Picks and Pans

CES Picks and Pans: Heady Stuff

I'll take that call after all: When you're listening to your favorite tunes, there's nothing worse than having to rip off your headphones when you suddenly realize your cell phone is ringing. Enter the $30 Skullcandy Portable Link, a set of headphones with two plugs: one for your music player (or other audio device) and the other for most major brand cell phones (a model for desktop phones costs another $10). When your phone rings, you hear it over your music. And with your phone on auto-answer, you simply start talking--the caller won't hear your music. --Tracey Capen and Frank Thorsberg

Noisebuster: Tired of turning up the volume on your headphones to hear music over the hum of an airplane engine or the dull roar of a noisy office? Don't crank it up: Cancel it out. Sennheiser's $149 PXC 250 headphones use mini-microphones and NoiseGuard technology to cancel annoying low-end noises. I tried the headphones--shipping in February--on the show floor and was amazed at how well they erased the chatter of my fellow attendees. Similar products cost twice the price. --Tom Mainelli

Headset hoopla: Many contraptions on the show floor hung on heads--and in ears. Examples are Logitech's $25 Internet Chat Headset with various color plates and behind-the-head band; Jabra's $40 ProBoom--an earpiece for cell phones that you can attach to your ear using an ear wrap or put in your ear using Jabra's EarGel covers; and UmeVoice's TheBoom, an earboom that deflects background noise so that only your voice gets center stage when you're chatting on your cell phone. --Aoife McEvoy

Yet another cool set of headphones: I've wanted a surround-sound system for a long time, but I don't want lots of speakers everywhere. Dolby Laboratories claims its Dolby Headphone technology plays surround sound on a standard set of headphones. The frightening thing is, it seems to work: On demos of both hardware and software products using the technology, you could hear the Orcs marching behind you on the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers trailer. --Richard Baguley

Gadgets a Go-Go

A PDA that knows where it's at: I hate getting lost and I love music. Garmin's Palm OS 5-based IQue 3600 PDA with built-in GPS and MP3 capabilities is a nearly perfect travel tool for me. Garmin's software provides maps that show your location, plus voice directions to get you where you're going. --Tracey Capen

Sweatin' with your PDA: The only kind of run some of us want to take is all downhill. With the new Star Trac Pro Elite Treadmill, you can program just the workout you want on your Palm OS-based PDA, then beam the program onto a treadmill using infrared waves. Once you're done, the treadmill beams a record--how far you ran, calories you burned--back to your PDA. No word on what you do once your Clie smells like your gym socks. --Ed Albro

User-friendly digital photo frame: The MemoryFrame MF570 digital photo display from Pacific Digital runs a slide show of up to 55 photos in a 5.6-inch active matrix TFT LCD inside a 5-by-7-inch frame. Best, you load photos to the frame via a USB cable--no memory cards and no subscription services to get photos off a Web site. You can load it with pictures and give it to grandma and granddad. --Ramon G. McLeod

Bite-size video: The Panasonic SV-AV30 is a palm-size wonder that snaps photos, records video, records audio, and plays both audio and video. Due in April, the $399 unit has a 64MB SD memory card, a 2-inch LCD capable of 15 frames per second (a bit slow for video), and a docking station to transfer video from a VCR. I'm guessing you can't fit many Buffy episodes on 64MB, but I'll make do! --Tom Mainelli

Teeny-weeny audio players: Sonicblue showed prototypes of two super-small hard disk portable audio players. The smallest--the $299 "Slate"--measures 3.2 inches by 2.4 inches and barely half an inch thick, yet houses a 1.5GB hard drive. Even cooler: a model code-named Pearl that, while thicker, has a nifty curved design, a 1.8-by-1-inch LCD, USB 2.0, and a five-way joystick to navigate menu options. It's expected to ship next fall for $399. --Melissa Perenson

Tiny rules: Everywhere are music and photography devices based on USB storage devices. Cases in point: Portable Audio and Portable Photo Keyrings from Philips; USB storage-based cameras from Argus; and the ThumbDrive products, a camera and MP3 player, from Trek. --Anne B. McDonald

Let's get flexible: Speaking of USB storage devices, am I the only one who dislikes that they stick out so rigidly from the USB port on a laptop? That's why I love the FlexUSB from Ideative. Just plug your USB 1.1 or 2.0 storage thingy or cable into the connector, and you can rotate them up, down, and all around--in short, out of the way. --Anne B. McDonald

Sticky solution: It's not a magnet, not an adhesive. No tape anywhere. But the $7 Jelly Sticky Pad from American Covers is definitely a gripping idea. It looks like a miniature mouse pad, but is meant to hold a cell phone or sunglasses to your car's dashboard. It conforms to the dashboard's contours--no bolts, screws, or tape to hold it in place. It's washable, removable, and reusable, and it doesn't leave any sticky goo behind when you peel it off. --Frank Thorsberg

Hassle-free scratch protection for CDs and DVDs: D_Skin is like plastic armor for your CDs and DVDs--and you don't have to take it off when you pop them in the PC or player. The transparent polycarbonate shield keeps your optical media scratch- and dust-proof. The covers snap on with a patented "lip lock" seal and stay in place while the disc is in use. The company says the covers are so thin (.005 inches) that data can easily be read right through them without any skips or distortion. --Frank Thorsberg

For absent-minded possessors: The ISpot transmitter from Digital Innovations provides 12 programmable buttons you can set to represent items in your home or office. Press the button, and you'll hear a beep on the corresponding item's fob--which acts as a keychain or attaches to a device using double-faced tape. The unit runs on two AAA batteries and has about a 30-foot range. --Melissa Perenson