Special CES edition! Well, another year at CES was somewhat dissapointing. My expectation was that there would be lots of hungry electronics firms with dazzling new products that they had bet their company (or their reputation, or their departament) on. After the failure of the Audrey, 3Com's attempt to create a netpliance that would go in the kitchen to promote the now much maligned digital lifestyle, it seems that the VP's of product development have put the kabash on anything too "bleeding edge". There were of course, the compulsory robots that seem to continue to be more of a novelty than a useful consumer item. Somehow the promise of the Jetson's never has seemed to materialize. The more affluent and productive we are as a society, the less free time we seem to have to...well....shop? play games? But I digress... As always, there was a plethora of automotive applications . The movies of the year this year seemed to be Shrek in all of the HDTV booths and in the cars. Last year it was Chicken Run. Both great films IMHO, but I have four kids, so my opinion is slanted on the "G" side this decade (and last). This BMW 745i had a Lexicon audio system that was, to use an overused word, awseome. Of course they did not have an "Interstate 5 at 75 mph" simulation running so it sounded as good as it will ever sound. Sort of how your car stereo always sounds the best while you are sitting in your parked car. There were other consumer oriented products too. The Barbie computer appears to be a too-little-too-late attempt of the PC industry to segment the machine to the hightly sought after "youth" market. There was a boys version too. My three year old uses one of our PCs with ease; switching CDs, answering the myriad of MS questions correctly, etc. She goes from Blues' clues to Pooh to Daisy Duck without skipping a beat. i.e. I don't see what attraction the barbie computer would have to her, so I dont' get it. She understands that it's the game that matters - provided the machine is up to par - and the rest is not as important. One booth that always seemed to have a crowd around it was the Taser weapon booth. This was hilarious. Not only were there lots of peole there, but all the floor staff seemed to be armed with these taser guns too. I never thought of the Taser as a "consumer" product before this show, but rather a backup to the police night stick for criminals using PCP or other nefarious strength-inducing chemicals. I guess consumers are a big adressable market compared to the police. Readers of the spassmeister blog will remember me gloating over my timex internet watch. Well, upon visiting the garmin booth I saw this years model - the internet watch that interfaces with the GPS meter strapped to your arm so you can know the speed and position of your jog. This is too much. Not even I will strap on a GPS receiver to my arm for that purpose. I don't run that far! I was really hoping to be dazzeled by wireless applications. I went on the opening day to the wireless gaming forum. There, the CEO of JamDat Mitch Lasky showed me a new game that Verizon will be rolling this year. . This bowling game is one of about 50 that will be running on the Verizon network using QUALCOMM's BREW initiative. You will need a new service, and a new handset to access this color content. It appears that the supposition of last year will, taken as a lesson learned from both my visit to Japan two years ago (hosted by imode/docomo) and, among other sources, Michael Lewis's book - Next - that the kids games/commtools will drive the adoption of higher end wireless apps faster than enterprises will. I ask you, who drove color to the computer screen that you are using now faster - games of spreadshseets? do you even rember when ALL - I mean ALL screens were the IBM PC monochrome green??? how about command line interfaces...but I digress...anyhow, and speaking of black and white, the Danger device has always impressed me...it has it all - IM capabiltiy, images, HTML browsing, email, it's a phone - it's small/cool - better than a TREO...the b/w screen should make the battery last longer. Only issue with it for carriers is that they want, in classic dot-com style - to own more than their fare share of the value chain. Here's a great device that requries HTML translation from a central server in a hosted ASP mode that basically cuts the carrier out of the value proposition - except to, you know, DRIVE MINUTES. After years of being told that unless they act fast they will become a "dumb pipe", carriers are now being told - "hey - you are a dumb pipe pal - so you better be filled as much as possible and I'll take care of that for you". I'm sure the carriers are resisting that part of the value. As an aside, if you have never been to the the Venitian hotel in Las Vegas, do make it a point to walk through it sometime.It's rather impressive, in a LV gawdy sort of way. I'm amazed that people actually wait in line to ride on the gondola that goes past all of the shops on that level. In a normal mall that would really double as daycare. Saying goodnight from another year in CES in Vegas....