CES 2006: Picks and Pans

Where can you find Justin Timberlake mixing with Bill Gates, and Snoop Dogg crossing paths with Donny Osmond? Why, it must be the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Consumer gadgets may still be the focus of this behemoth show, but technology companies of all makes and models--including Intel, Google, and Microsoft--are joining in the fun. They weren't the only ones: a team of PC World editors flocked to the show. Here's their take on the highlights and lowlights of CES 2006.

Entertainment Products Take Center Stage

Let the Music Play: Saitek's new A-250 is a $129 wireless 2.1 speaker system that is intended to play music stored on the hard drive of your desktop PC or laptop. Although it might look a lot like a fancy boom box, it actually uses Class One Bluetooth technology that can wirelessly pick up a stream of music from up to 100 feet away and through walls. --Ramon G. McLeod

Radio Days: I have and love an XM Radio. But I'm still amazed at the degree to which satellite radio, from both XM and Sirius, was one of the driving technologies at the show. There were a slew of new products built around these services (including sleek portables that made my XM MyFi, which I bought just a year ago, look like an oversized antique). --Harry McCracken

See Your DVDs in HD: Well before the first Blu-ray Disc players come out, Toshiba's hot Qosmio notebook will debut with a built-in player using the rival HD-DVD format. This is the first laptop that will play HD-DVD discs and, even better, lets you use that box to play hi-def discs on your TV. Jack this baby via HDMI into a receiver and it'll support 1080p resolution. In effect, you can use this notebook as a high-end HD-DVD player. It will be available in March 2006, months before the first Blu-Ray boxes are due out. --Ramon G. McLeod

A Remote That Offers Real Control: Logitech's Harmony 890 Universal Remote is the company's first to use RF technology that allows owners to control consumer electronics located in other rooms and floors. It's a beauty of a device and intended for folks with home theater equipment and distributed sound systems who may not have direct line of sight to their gear. The product is about to ship priced at $399. --Ramon G. McLeod

Best Reason to Go Portable: I'm not a huge fan of portable video devices, but Samsung's new YM-P1 handheld DVR is a genuinely intriguing product. I love the fact that you can record TV directly to the unit's 20GB hard drive for later viewing on the unit's 4-inch screen or play back your shows to the TV. It'll come out in February and cost about $400. --Ramon G. McLeod

A Flashier Flash Player: SanDisk's 6GB flash player impressed not just because of its roomy capacity (for a flash drive)--it also boasts head-turning aesthetics and features, including video support. --Melissa J. Perenson

Just for Fun

For Big Kids Everywhere: I was a huge fan of Legos as a kid and the company's next-generation Lego Mindstorms NXT robotics invention system will give me an excuse to prove my Lego chops all over again. Because the system's light, touch, and sound sensors have been improved and an ultrasonic sensor introduced to detect movement, you can now build your own walking robot. Step-by-step instructions for 18 robots will be provided when the kit launches for $250 in August. --Danny Allen

Lost But Not Forgotten: With fingertip-sized tags and a handheld tracker, the $100 loc8tor lets you find those keys or wallets you're always misplacing. I took it for a test run in a crowded CES showroom, and didn't have much trouble homing in on a tag by turning in a circle and then walking in the direction of the strongest signal. The $170 model also has an alert mode that tells you when a particular tag goes more than a certain distance from the handheld. This could be a nice way to keep tabs on my escape-artist dog. Available soon. --Erik Larkin

Ooh, I Wanna Try It: Perfect for avoiding deadlines--the $80 BladeRunner II radio-controlled helicopter. Also ideal for scaring the heck out of the dog. Watch a video of the helicopter almost bouncing off the head of a dopey PC World Contributing Editor. --Steve Bass

Hey, It's More Fun Than Working: Here's yet another digital distraction to help you avoid deadlines. First, you use the radio controller to move around the Vex Robotic robots and scoop up the racquetballs. Then you pop them into the bin and maybe you'll win something. Don't forget to occasionally look around to make sure your boss isn't watching. Check out the video to see how they work! --Steve Bass

Scene and Heard

Digital Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: As if the gadgets and gizmos weren't enough eye candy, an impressive celebrity corps flitted around the various booths and events at the show. Sightings included NFL football greats at Samsung's booth (I personally saw Boomer Esiason); DaVinci Code star Tom Hanks, director Ron Howard, and producer Brian Grazer at Sony Chairman Sir Howard Stringer's keynote; Tom Cruise and Ellen DeGeneres at Yahoo CEO Terry Semel's speech; Justin Timberlake joining Bill Gates on stage during the Microsoft exec's keynote; and Robin Williams at Google co-founder Larry Page's talk. Next year I'll have to bring my autograph book. --Yardena Arar

Oddest Couple: Among the musicians who appeared at XM Radio's booth were Snoop Dogg and, an hour later, Donny Osmond. Wonder if they met--and if so, what they spoke about? --Harry McCracken

Most Useful Freebie: Vastercable decided to forego the typical big bowl of chocolates at its booth and instead fill it with Velcro cable wraps. The booth was mobbed. --Steve Bass

Checkmate!: I can't imagine a less inviting place to sit down to a game of chess than on the floor of a mobbed, noisy show like CES. But Russian chess grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk appeared at one booth to promote an electronic chess game that bears her name (and speaks in her voice), and at least one attendee sat down to face off against her. --Harry McCracken

Smartest Way to Save: Bring your notebook and headset, pay the hotel's $10 daily Internet access fee, and make all your calls using Skype. One marketing guy from Dolby saved $40 on a call to his wife in Australia. --Steve Bass

XXX Marks the Spot: As usual, Vegas was hosting both the workaday types attending CES and the rather different conventioneers attending an event for the "adult entertainment" industry. At times, especially at the Sands Expo Center (which hosted CES on one floor and the adult conference on the other), it felt a little as if you were attending the latter show whether you wanted to or not. (And one limo driver complained to me that adult entertainers were coming outside and slowing down traffic outside the Sands.) --Harry McCracken

A Show We Won't Be Staffing: Networking and convergence took on a whole new meaning this week at the Sands Convention Center, a secondary CES venue, because this year the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo took place in the same building. It probably explains why so many male editors, analysts, ad reps, and marketers had a lot of "last minute" vendor meetings at the Sands. --Ramon G. McLeod

Free Ride: One of the better freebies at CES this year was a free ride on the Monorail linking the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Strip. The ride was courtesy of Sprint and was given to anyone with a cell phone that supported text messaging. By either sending a text message to a special number or dialing a toll-free number (both helpfully displayed on signs outside the Convention Center station), you got back a text message with a code that you then showed to attendants who gave out free one-way tickets. It was by far the fastest way to get to a hotel near a station. --Yardena Arar

Road Rage: As a CES neophyte, I was well warned to expect long taxi queues and to allow plenty of time to get to vendor briefings. However, nothing prepared me for the chaos that ensued on the roads. A combination of this year's CES apparently being bigger than last year, other expos running simultaneously, and the great weather bringing out slow-moving tourists had a few of my taxi drivers pulling their hair out while we were stuck in gridlock on the strip. Points to Vegas for building pedestrian overpasses, though. --Danny Allen