As a musician and recording engineer, I am always excited to see what sort of audio technology will be introduced at CES.  New headphones?  For sure.  New MP3 Players?  Of course.  Wireless speakers? Without a doubt.  Ridiculous looking egg chair with 5 speakers around your head and a 10-inch sub under your ass?  Definitely…….. wait… WHAT?!

Acousticom introduced the Sound Egg at CES this year, and if you haven’t caught on by now, it’s a retro-looking egg chair (think Mork & Mindy) with 5.1 surround-sound.  The inside is lined with acoustic foam, keeping most of the sound inside the egg (supposedly), and it works with almost any stereo or gaming system.

I’m sure this thing sounds pretty good, but what you gain in audio quality, you will most definitely be giving up in self-respect.  Overall the design is just a little too… geeky, for me.  But if you enjoy sitting alone, in the dark, listening to your Clay Aiken records all night… then yeah, this thing is definitely for you.  And it’s only $1450.00!

All that being said… Acousticom, please send me one and I’ll do a proper review upon its arrival. Thanks!

And this here is my last post and video about CES 2010.  The video isn’t informative really.  It’s just some of the sights and sounds that we saw when we had time to casually walk the show floor. Enjoy.

Now that CES is done with, it’s time to setup for GDC.

One of the biggest surprises from CES 2010 came from the Lenovo Booth. We had some time to sit down and chat with Lenovo and go over their new product line. The ThinkPads are receiving a bit of a redesign while still staying true to the original. It was very interesting to see a ThinkPad in a color other then it’s classic matte black. During this we were all unprepared for the Notebook that awaited us. There sitting in the corner of the booth surrounded by a bunch of people rested the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Notebook. So what sets the Notebook apart from the rest. The Concept of the Notebook is that you can remove the screen from the Notebook and it become a Tablet. Though the Tablet does have limited computing power it’s still an amazing concept.

Check out the Video Above of the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Notebook

With CES behind us now it’s time to remember some of the cooler things we saw at the Convention. AMD was certainly one of the companies that had a lot to show. What was  especially neat was the new graphic card technology. Most companies were sporting the 3D. While I’m quite enamored with 3D I’m not necessarily sold on it. AMD had it’s 3D demos but it also had something I was far more interested in. It was the ability to stretch the visuals on games to a much wider view. We got to see a demo with Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X and it’s looked great.

Check out the Video above for our hands on time with Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.

 

During CES, Andrew and I actually had some time to walk the show floor between our appointments.  I say “actually” because scheduling appointments within 30 to 45 minutes of each other was a bad idea and one of the lessons I have learned from the event.  While on the show floor, we saw these cute USB drives.  They were so cute that we were actually sucked into the booth and took pictures of FruitShop’s products.

Unlike most plastic USB drives where the animal or character’s head has to be stretched to consolidate for the USB port, these USB drives use silicone.

More info and products at FruitShop

Update: Fixed the link

Lasonic is bringing back the old school flavor of music tech.  Bringing it all the way back to when walking or rollerskating around with a boom box tape player on top of one of your shoulders was considered cool.  If you have $179 to spend before going down the boardwalk, I suggest getting one of these first.

 

More info at Lasonic

Once our second day of CES appointments and browsing has completed we made our way to the Atomic Testing Museum for the It Won’t Stay in Vegas party. I really enjoy geek type parties.  If you have never been to a geek party, imagine a party with free beer, free food, free WiFi, video games, internet celebrities, and a remote controlled flying saucer by Parrot as the main event.

We all had a fun time meeting new people and talking to bloggers like us but sadly we had to leave the event early.  Due to Andrew and James’ legs and feet begging them to go back to the hotel and rest. I still had a good amount of energy, but I didn’t want to be mean, so we left. But not before I got to interview a couple of interesting people.  Watch the videos below to see who we met.

Big thanks to the Parnassus group for allowing us to drink your food, eat your alcohol, and meet other people that have done the same.

Thanks to the following people we met at the party for letting us quickly interview you:

• iJustine – Web | Twitter
• Daynah – Web | Twitter
• Michael Paige – Web
• Ellen Rowan – Web | Twitter
• Simon Sage – Web | Twitter

Videos of the interviews past the break

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I remember hearing about Splitfish a while back when they introduced the Frag FX. Essentially combining both Analog and Mouse control to the PS3. It seemed it was geared more towards the FPS Crowd. Flash forward and it’s CES 2010. I got to meet up with Jason Johnson of Splitfish and get a demo of both the SFX Dual Frag Pro and the Dual SFX Evolution. The Demo was presented by Dennis zDD Dozier #1 Global Ranked PS3 C.O.D. Pro-Gamer. After the Demo I got some hands on time with the SFX Dual Frag Pro and got to play some Modern Warefare 2. The Controller was simply amazing, the controls felt really accurate while still keeping that analog console feel.

Video Demo of Dual SFX Evolution after the Break

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If you were to have a tag cloud over the Las Vegas Convention Center, the word that would be in the biggest font possible would be “3D.” Every major brand name was showing off what they can do with 3D technology. But what those major companies forgot to do was think about style and function. This is where the company from my hometown, San Diego, gets two things right.

Instead of making people where dorky looking 3D glasses, Gunnar Optiks has shown off stylish 3D glasses. Glasses that you wouldn’t mind being caught wearing outside. The other thing they have done right is making prescription 3D glasses. Instead of putting 3D glasses over your existing prescription glasses, why not just use one pair of glasses. It just makes sense.

Yes, I know I’ve been sounding and looking like a fanboy ever since I got my pair of Gunnar Optiks glasses. Especially since it was the only glasses I used all week long while at CES. But, there is a reason for that. I don’t get dry eyes or headaches in front of the computer screen anymore. Again, don’t believe me? Try them for yourself.

Andrew, James and I did a lot over the week in Las Vegas for CES.  This is our special Pixelated Podcast recapping everything that happened in the city of Sin. And believe me, there was a lot that happened. Thanks again to all the companies at CES that let us play with their wonderful tech toys and to our live audience from last night’s live recording.

Play the Podcast Below | Download the MP3 | Subscribe via iTunes | RSS feed

UStream Recorded Video: