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!

Straight from CES 2010, you can see the launch video for X-Box Game Room. I don’t know about you all, but I’m pretty ready to get back to my gaming roots through Game Room. I’ve been waiting for this for quite a while, actually. And guess what kids! No more having to go to airport-smelling, dirty, dank old arcade rooms seeping with an aura of despair to play your favorite classic titles! Now, you can play straight from your comfy gaming chair in your very own living room and not be hassled by Randall — the jaded community college student — to stop “hanging around looking troublesome.”

Now, if only there were some way to get Big Daddy to square off against Dig Dug. That I’d pay to see.

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.

 

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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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:

I had an opportunity to interview Jeff Ravencraft, President of the USB Implementers Forum, about the USB 3.0 “Super Speed” standard. For those who do not know how the USB Implementers Forum works, they do not manufacture the devices. What they DO is “facilitate the development of high-quality compatible USB peripherals (devices), and promote the benefits of USB and the quality of products that have passed compliance testing.” In simpler terms, they make sure that any product with the official USB logo is prime quality.

The new USB 3.0 standard is, as mentioned, ten times faster than the current USB 2.0. In addition, it provides that speed at 1/3 the power consumption due to a rethinking of the polling architecture. That is to say, the polling architecture is out, and a new interrupt based architecture is in. While previous version relied on the host mass broadcasting data to all USB devices, leaving the device to filter out all the noise, the new scheme uses direct communication with the device needed.

Powering devices and charging via USB got a boost as well. New USB 3.0 drives can spin up off the USB power alone, without the aid of an additional power cable. That cable delivers full duplex data transfer as well (compared to the half duplex of USB 2.0) with a boost to 9 cables total over the previous 4.

To accomplish this radical rethinking, everything has been updated, including the devices, hosts and cables. Everything is still, to some degree, backward compatible with USB 2.0 hardware. The ports on USB 3.0 devices will accept the USB 2.0 cords and will fall back to the USB 2.0 architecture and speeds. In action you can see improved data transfer (see video below) and even the ability to stream uncompressed HD video from the camera to the screen, and then to an external USB 3.0 hard drive with no lag what-so-ever.

Now the wait for these devices is…. wait, they are already here! HP, Asus, and Western Digital has all gotten a few certified devices off the assembly line and ready to go. There are 6 months of devices backlogged for approval by the USB Implementers Forum, and we will begin to see this new format take off.

Video of Super Speed USB 3.0 comparison after the break…

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While in Vegas for CES, Andrew, James and I put in 1 dollar into the penny slot machines.  We challenged each other who could stay on the longest.  Little did we know that penny slots still meant 25 cents each spin. James lasted the longest and won.  But in the end, we all lost and cashed out our “winnings.”

When we left our hotel room, we left our vouchers on the desk for the maids.