CES Roundup: Notes, Part One

Another year, another Consumer Electronics Show. We've spent the last week in Vegas, and though we didn't get a chance to try the new Verizon iPhone, we did mix and mingle among the gear and gadgets (and celebrities, for one of our writers) that are likely to play an important part in our 2011 coverage and beyond.

This was a big year for the show- 140,000+ people and 2,700 exhibitors, not to mention approximately 80 new tablets. There were celebrities as well- check out one writer's experience with 50 Cent, and we can't forget to mention Lady Gaga and her demonstration of some new gear from Polaroid, where she is now "Creative Director".

Our adventure began with pre-show events like CES Unveiled and the excellent Pepcom Digital Experience, and on through some press conferences both mediocre (Casio) and weirdly excellent (Intel, which featured Gabe Newell from Valve announcing the Portal 2 release date and showing off a demo).

Everyone asks what we saw, and the answer is: little that was jawdropping, but plenty to whet our appetites. Yes, there were plenty of 3D TV sets, including some that don't require you to wear glasses. But there was also an interesting trend of some exotic materials making their way into products, from the aforementioned 50 Cent and his Sleek Audio line to The House of Marley's upcoming set of audio gear. We were initially skeptical about the latter- rasta and iPod docks seem like a bit of an odd combination, kind of like KISS and Dr. Pepper... which just goes to show how much we know. Anyway, the House of Marley equipment is said to be built from FSC-certified wood as well as recycled aluminum and plastic and we readily admit to enjoying the Marley family jam sessions. Now, maybe they need to look into buying a domain- make sure you include "The" before House of Marley, or you'll end up at a very cute pug clothing storefront (as of press time).

Even robots made an appearance, though mostly in a disappointing fashion. For instance, when we think of DreamBots, we definitely don't imagine a small, whirring $69 thing rolling around our back like the WheeMe, a pseudo-massager that was hard to put in place.

Overall, we can't wait for some of the gizmos to make their way to our offices- tablets like the Motorola Xoom and the latest from Archos, the Nike+ SportWatch GPS made in conjunction with TomTom, 3TB internal drives from Hitachi, a bunch of interesting stuff that has little to do with music from Ion Audio. Make sure to stay tuned for our other post-CES posts!