There were a lot of things happening at CES last month in Las Vegas, including Delphi’s introduction of the all new Premium Sound System designed to work with multiple radio receivers. This means that consumer can listen to their favorite radio stations through any XM satellite receiver in their homes, vehicles, or even in the great outdoors.

Not only does the Premium Sound System have great functionality with multiple receivers, it utilizes all the latest technologies. This includes advanced acoustics, precise speakers, digital processing, advanced amplification, and a state of the art power supply. What does all that stuff do? It provides a crystal clear full natural sound, even at low volume levels thanks to Delphi’s bass enhancer. You probably won’t be able to find this kind of performance elsewhere in a unit of this size.

The Premium Sound System is compact and very user friendly, none of the hassle of trying to figure out how it works or any nonsense like that. It provides portability with an integrated XM antenna and handle. All you have to do is dock an XM receiver and you have the music or radio show you want. You can even listen using headphones if you want to. The Premium Sound System can also be connected to a different device, such as an MP3 player.

Massimo Baldini, Delphi’s global satellite radio business line manager said that: “The Delphi Premium Sound System offers the ultimate in flexibility for consumers who own different to XM receivers…Delphi has a rich heritage of innovation in radios, which started with the first in-dash, factory-installed radio in 1936, and continues today with several industry leading firsts in satellite radio technology, enabling us to produce a portable sound system of the highest quality.”

The new Delphi system is priced at $179 and will be available later this Spring.

Pandora announced earlier this month at the 40th CES in Las Vegas that Pandora Networks and D-Link will begin selling D-Link hardware combined with Pandora’s hosted communication solutions, particularly the Worksmart UCX (Unified Communications Exchange.) This delivers a complete VoIP communications service that compiles everything, voice, video, messaging, conferencing, and collaboration services. Worksmart has been reviewed by many people and has accrued consumer approval and technical praise. Since it’s release in 2005, UCX has received TMC Labs product of the year award, and in 2006 won the Internet Telephony Excellence Award. These awards come partly because UCX provides everything needed at a fraction of the cost of other solutions on the market today.

Pandora co-founder and current CEO Walter Snell loves the new collaboration between Pandora and D-Link. He said: “The combination of Worksmart and D-Link hardware delivers a total communications package for SOHO and SMB customers that can be up and running in a matter of minutes. Worksmart is not just another VoIP service, but a complete communications offering that also provides messaging, conferencing, on-line web meetings, and much more, D-Link is a perfect partner for us since they provide all of the hardware our customers need including IP phones, Wi-Fi phones, switches, and VoIP-enabled routers.”

There are several pre-prepared packages available, each designed for a particular environment. Included are IP phones, switches, routers, and VoIP acceleration hardware that will provide a high quality connection. It’s simple, it’s won some awards, it’s easy to set up, and it’s customized to fit into your environment. Doesn’t sound like a bad deal.

Earlier this January at CES Las Vegas, JBL announced the release of the all new ES series loudspeakers. Combining upgraded performance and a uniquely elegant design, the ES Series loudspeakers use technologies employed in the company’s professional recording studio monitors to deliver exceptional sound quality. These loudmouths will be available in a variety of attractive finishes to complement any home entertainment system and décor.

The JBL ES Series includes a wall-mount/bookshelf monitor (ES10); two compact bookshelf loudspeakers (ES20, ES30); two floor standing tower speakers (ES80, ES90); a center channel loudspeaker (ES25C); and two powered sub woofers (ES150P and ES250P). Suggested retail prices for ES Series loudspeakers range from $349 per pair to $1,098 per pair and will be available in Spring 2007.

To achieve their outstanding performance, ES Series loudspeakers put to use a number of advanced JBL technologies, including an ultrahigh-frequency transducer. This provides extended frequency response to 40kHz, a titanium-laminate tweeter that delivers exceptional resolution, and JBL’s proprietary PolyPlas™ polymer-coated-cellulose-fiber woofers. The ES Series models offer a multitude of installation options, such as wall-mounting, to fit into any home entertainment system without a huge hassle.

These bad boys not only sound great, but look great too and will be available in several different color options. Chose from black with a platinum center section; beech with a charcoal center; and cherry, also with a charcoal center. With tapered enclosures, a unified center section, and a front baffle that curves into the top surface, these loudspeakers will have any entertainment system looking great.

Quartics, Inc., the premier provider of video processing solutions showed off JumpTV this month at CES in Las Vegas. Consumers can now receive international television over the Internet and display it onto their preferred choice of displays. Now, with Quartics PC2TV™ technology, consumers will be able to view Internet-based content, such as JumpTV, on their own TVs, projectors and monitors without the hassle of extra wires.

Safi Qureshey, chairman and CEO of Quartics, said “With Quartics’ solution, consumers are not limited to watching TV content from other countries on their PC, they can experience it on their own TV or projector and at high quality. With PC2TV, consumers can access content wherever they are, without having to deal with video drivers or wires.”

The PC2TV chip is a comprehensive media processing system that fits into a hardware adapter and plugs into the video input line of a television, monitor, or projector. All you have to do is plug a hardware adapter into the video input line, and within a matter of seconds the PC is able to project video and audio to the screen of choice. This is the only solution on the market that offers this degree of elegance or ease-of-use in liberating PC-resident content. For the first time ever, consumers and sports fans can get any TV show or sports game via the web and watch it on their TV or projector, not their computer monitor.

Other solutions such as MSN-TV and the Apple iTV are limited in the types of media supported. MSN-TV only operates with Windows Media-compatible files. Apple iTV only works with iTunes media. Quartics has developed proprietary technology that allows a consumer to pull content stored in all popular media formats and play it on their preferred screen to overcome these limitations. No more downloading new players. No more wrestling with transcoding content to compatible formats. Quartics’ solutions support all the popular codec standards such as MPEG2, WM9, JPG, and REAL. For more info on this new product visit www.quartics.com.

Adesso showcased their new line of CyberPad Digital Notepads along with the all new widescreen Graphics Tablet earlier this month at CES Las Vegas. Though paper notbooks and notepads are still preferred over laptops and PDAs by certain people, the CyberPad combines ease of use and comfort along with the benefits of PC connectivity to lure those people away from their paper based notepads. This digital notepad is ideal for computer artists, graphic designers, photo editors, office and CAD/CAM applications because once it is connected to a PC, it becomes a fully functional PC tablet. Other future applications include Internet whiteboard graphics, signature verification for e-commerce along with handwriting/text conversion. CyberPad includes 32MB of memory, an A-Z directory with 99 pages available in each. This is further expandable with an integrated SD slot. It connects via USB and runs on four AAA batteries which provide 120 hours of use. This product will be available in February 2007.

The razor thin CyberTablet Z12 was also shown at CES. It has a 10″x6.25″ widescreen display and is ideal for drawing, hand writing, and editing. The Z12 is an ideal companion for mobile and business professionals. It features 16 pre-programmed keys designed for automated tasks. The tablet provides high resolution, supporting 4048 lines per inch and it’s wireless pen supports 1024 gradations of pressure sensitivity for accurate design, drawing, and writing. It is compatible with all popular graphics and image software including Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, CorelDraw, and AutoCAD. Another cool feature is that the Z12 can be used in Office 2007. handwrite directly in all applications including Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and Outlook email. The CyberTablet will also be available in February 2007

Samsung released a brand new line of powerful, sleek, and stylish cameras at the Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas earlier this month. Each camera is designed with the consumer in mind, packing a powerful punch in a compact and easy to use design. The new cameras displayed at CES included the pocket sized L73, S850, and S1050. Each point and shoot camera has it’s own special features that makes it unique.

the L73 is ideal for photographers that want something small and easy to carry, but doesn’t sacrifice any quality because of it’s compactness. This bad boy boasts a 7 mega pixel image sensor and a precision 3x optical zoom lens and has features that you would normally find in a camera that costs twice as much. Samsung’s ASR image stabilization system helps to reduce image blur and camera shakiness when it’s hard to keep your arm still. With shutter speeds that reach up to an effective 1/2000 sec, users will be able to take advantage of the L73’s high resolution in any situation. Whether it be capturing the sunset or getting a shot of a fast paced sports game, you can do it with this camera. the L73 also includes the Wise Shot, which automatically takes two consecutive pictures, one with ASR stabilization and one with the flash. After you’ve taken the shot you can choose which one you like best.

At just $249.99, the S850 is a great camera that provides all the features you want at a very reasonable price. It even includes a 10 second voice memo so you can add an audible comment to any picture you want. There are also several special effects that can be enabled. Photo Frame allows users to chose one of several frames to border an image. Highlight will sharpen the foreground while softening the backround, and the Screen Split option can combine multiple images into a single file. the S850 also has the ASR stabilization feature, and a shutter speed of 1/2000 sec. This camera also has the ability to resize, cut, and rotate images within the camera itself. This way you don’t have to load them onto your computer first.

The flag ship of the S series, the S1050, comes with a premium quality 10.1 mega-pixel image sensor coupled with a super-sharp 5x optical zoom lens. This combines Samsung’s trademark ease of use with all the advanced hardware that photographers demand. Some of the settings include the dedicated Effect button, which lets users quickly access a host of powerful in camera image effects, including sepia-tone, black-and-white and RGB color effects. View all your pictures as a slide show if you want to on the 3.0″ LCD screen. The S1050 can be powered by an optional high-energy rechargeable Ni-MH battery, or the everywhere-available AA battery.

All of these beauties include a USB 2.0 cable, camera cradle, and CD-ROM containing Samsung’s Digimax Master software (compatible with Windows 98/2000/ME/XP and Macintosh OS X 9.2 through 10.4.) This will get even beginning photographers up and shooting right out of the box. These will be available later this spring with prices ranging from $249.99 to $349.99 MSRP.

This year at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), it was the coming out party for Wireless USB. Not too many products were retail shelf products, but there was an abundance of prototypes, many that were very appealing. Alereon demonstrated two digital cameras transferring pictures from one to the other and vice versa, all using wireless USB technology. Now that in itself is awesome, being able to send pics from one camera to the other without wires is cool. But this will also work with cell phones, which is even more compelling. All those teenage girls who can’t stop text messaging will love this. Alereon also demonstrated printing photos from a Kodak camera on a Kodak printer, also using the Wireless USB technology. It’s extraordinarily fast, and you don’t have the messy wires to deal with. They also demonstrated the ability to transfer pictures onto an HDTV.

This new WUSB technology is an awesome feature that provides very fast performance and keeps your desk nice and neat at the same time, free of all those annoying cables. This was demonstrated by Toshiba. They used a high data rate version of Wireless USB and a 5:1 compression to connect a laptop to a wireless-enabled docking station. This in turn drives the LCD monitor. According to representatives, using this technology you can have your laptop 18” to 30” away from your monitor with yup, you guessed it, no wires. Alereon demonstrated a similar mechanism using a chip from DisplayLink of the UK. It’s a PC driver that transmits in a compressed fashion display data over WUSB. At the other end the chip decompresses the data and drove it to an LCD monitor. Using this method, you could be on your couch with your laptop looking at photos, watching music or youTube videos, all on your LCD screen! All without the hassle of wires. Very cool.

In the automotive world, Intel and DaimlerChrysler demonstrated the connection between a mobile PC and a monitor in the headrest of a car, using controller chips from Intel and WUSB chips from Alereon. This can also be used for video iPods and other MP3 players. Life without wires. Sounds good to me.

I’m sure that most of you reading this article at one point or another have had your cell phone battery run out on you right when you need to make that important call. Or had your notebook go clunk on you just as you receive that important email. Well, if you want to prevent that sort of thing from happening again, check out iGo powerXtender, another item on the very long list of new gadgets and gizmos displayed at CES last week.

iGo is a power solution that provides up to 10 hours of mobile phone power, 20 hours of portable gaming time, and up to 28 hours of juice for your MP3. All from 2 AA batteries, which are included! Wow, you don’t usually see that everyday. Available for purchase separately are the power technology tips. Use iGo to charge to power you iPod for a little while, then swap out the tip to add some juice to your cell phone.

iGo is pretty iCool, it works not only with mobile phones, but with Bluetooth headsets, smartphones and PDAs, digital cameras, gaming devices, and MP3 players. Once you have one, you’ll never have to replace the unit itself, just change the batteries. With dimensions at 3.6×1.9x.89 in., iGo is perfect for travelers and people on the go. Consumer and vendor Allen J Hobbs of Georgia said that: “Because of the flexibility of iGo, its the only power solution I recommend to my customers for wireless phones, computers, and other portable electronics - not to mention I use it myself.”

Also shown at CES was the iGo everywhere85. This sleek little guy is designed with notebooks in mind. It’s combination AC ad DC adapter plugs into any standard wall, auto, and/or airplane outlet. The everywhere 85 also comes with the iGo dual power accessory so you can charge your phone or MP3 player and your computer simultaneously. This one is also very small at just 4.83 inches long and .96 inches thick. If you need portable juice, then you should think about taking iGo wherever uGo.

Last week at the 40th annual CES, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Kevin Martin joined Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) president and CEO Gary Shapiro to discuss some of the newest, hottest issues facing the 21st century tech world. Categories included the digital television transition, cable compatibility, net neutrality and other issues critical to the consumer electronics industry. Along with this, Mr. Martin stated that he is very proud of consumer and their the increased use of broadband during his term as head honcho.

“The goal is that everyone has access to broadband,” said Martin. “It impacts the way that we get entertainment, seek healthcare and receive education. Trying to put in place a regulatory environment that allows operators to invest in broadband technology is critical for consumers to be able to take advantage of the technologies we see on the show floor.”

A panel of experts was also founded to discuss the new barriers to integrating consumer electronics with vehicles. This panel was moderated by Chris Cook of AAMP of America. The roadblocks discussed were supply and consumer demand of products, the different standards held in the electronics and automotive industries, and the ups and downs of product cycles within the industries themselves. This panel went into the meeting facing these barriers and came out with some interesting ideas on how to help integrate these two fields. First they talked about better integration of CE into automobiles, and then articulated that they must focus on four key factors: the convergence of car and home, consumer content, ease of use for consumer, and convenience to drivers. The panel obviously thought they had the right thing going on because afterwards, Stephen Witt, vice president, Brand Marketing, Alpine Electronics said that: “Never before have the points of view of these two industries been as similar as they are today.” Read the rest of this entry »