Mordaunt-Short has a huge and very successful portfolio of home entertainment products. Well, get ready to add another one to that list. Alumni, the little speaker with a big voice, is the newest product unveiled for the first time last week at CES in Las Vegas. This line of speaker makes use of Mordaunt-Short’s best, including CPC (Continuous Profile Cone) bass drivers. Also, each speaker is designed to integrate with the next for outstanding sound. Alumni is compact, stylish, and provides high quality sound for a reasonable price.

These bad boys have an upgraded crossover and updated polypropylene capacitors which reduce distortion while improving overall sound and clarity. Alumni is also unique because of it’s interesting design. It’s curved shape provides a clean, rich, and more realistic sound while preventing the buildup of standing sound waves.

Alumni will not only enhance the sound of your favorite movies and music, it’ll keep your living room looking great. It comes in a great piano black and white high gloss finish, complete with satin finish. This baby can be yours for about $999.99
Mordaunt-Short also produces the Alumni 9 digital subwoofer. This speaker packs a punch with 120 watts of power from a surprisingly compact cabinet. In fact, it’s so small it will easily blend into any room. Alumni 9 subwoofers produce a clean reproduction of low and high frequencies. Both are great additions to any home entertainment system.

Moon Valley Software has introduced FixDat, a new wireless communication device at the International Consumer Electronics Tradeshow (CES) on January 8th. FixDat is a wireless diagnostic tool that can be used to send and even reset the diagnostic codes of your vehicle. Connect using a wide range of devices, including your cell phone, PDA, laptop, or even Personal Computer. The product is set to hit the shelves by storm this spring with a price tag of around $150. Compare that to other cabled diagnostic devices that are much more expensive, and work with a narrower range of vehicles. This unit is compatible with 1996 and beyond passenger vehicles and light trucks, semi’s not included (sorry guys.) Whether you have a Ford, Chevy, Dodge, or Toyota, you’ll be able to use FixDat with any of them.

The CEO of Moon Valley Software, Mr. Peter Ryan, is enthusiastic about the new product. He said: “We’re very excited…Linking wirelessly to an onboard computer system with my cell phone is hot. The possibilities are endless.”

Hot huh? Well, it’ll get even hotter this summer because there are more products that will be added to the Dat family later this year. TripDat will wirelessly provide bookkeeping software, data logging and porting. Not only this, it serves as a hub for linking stereos, Global Positioning Systems, cellular phones, and other Bluetooth devices. Rental car companies, CheckDis out. FleetDat is a commercial product that will allow for communication over long distances, such as fleet management and other car rental applications. All wirelessly. Dat’s cool!

When I checked in to CES yesterday, I couldn’t believe my eyes. They were scanning my card through a reader attached to a Handspring PDA. A black and white model, even!

When I was at one of the manufacturers I was interviewing, I asked for details on the legacy hardware use. I was told that all the vendors are forced to rent them at a couple of hundred dollars a day and they have to pay for the data at the end of the show! Now I did see other booths with the more modern readers, so when the word “forced” was used, I suspect that’s if you don’t bring your own fancy new bling version. Still, funny to see Handspring living after all these years of being absorbed by Palm, Inc. Grand.

Again, when SvenOnTech is on the job, what ever happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas very long. Point in case, Kiss co-founder Gene Simmons walking the Central Hall checking out all the stuff he could afford. And I mean all.

So here I am walking through the hall and this guy with cameras in front of him is in ahead of me. Sure, I’ll tag along with him since he’s clearing the path. Why not? It’s tough walking all these miles of halls with the tons of people here. When I catch up to this guy and walk to his left, I take a peak at him and I don’t recognize him. ‘Who is this guy and what’s the big deal?’ I’m asking myself as I cruise on with him. Finally, I hear someone yell, “You rock, Gene!” I look again and yes the light bulb comes on, Gene Simmons. It’s hard to recognize the guy without make up.

So I tag along for awhile and share some camera time with him (hopefully ). We come to a split and he makes a right while I go left. I see him down the way when I pop out next to LG’s 102″ plasma TV. I figure, ‘Ahh, I should probably get a picture,’ and I walk back to LG’s booth front desk. When I got there, he was talking to the lady at the booth and the guy next to her. Not able to hear much of what he’s saying, I get closer. I then hear him tell the guy, “If you want to kiss her, you’ve got to look straight in here eyes,” as he points his two fingers in a V shape and directs them to her eyes. With that, he stares into her gaze and leans her back as if to kiss her. She giggles like a high school girl about to be kissed by Bobby the quarterback for the first time. Simmons then stops, reels back up and turns to the guy and says, “That’s how you do it,” to a chorus of laughter. Only in Vegas, right?

You’ll never know what you’ll see in Vegas. But untrue to the cities slogan, we won’t let this stay here (even though we now look back at this and think maybe that was the better idea) and we bring to you the Sansa mascot for your enjoyment. Watch him dance it up for all y’all and note his hand signals when we ask him to bust a real move and do some head spinning like the guys did for us at the JBL booth at Macworld. I tell you Sansa, how rude!

CES has got it all and like any year since car audio has come to Vegas to take over CES’ North Hall, the industry wants to be heard with a bang, or in this case, a boom. With one manufacturer showing of sub-woofers that way over 300 pounds and vibrate the cloths on your body with each pump of Vanallia Ice (just kidding,) one has to wonder, who buys this stuff other than rappers? Looking at the over-the-top displays and sound equipment and asking the reps what the cost of all this stuff is makes you just smile and walk on. Too much, man, just too much.

It is nice to see that Batman had a bumpin’ system though the Monkies was just all engine. The endless display of various models from Porsche is very delicious and thankful the audio upgrades tasteful. The Turbo was gorgeous to admire. Mmm.

Don’t worry about if CES steals attendance from Macworld this year due to both happening on the same week or not. Nah, let’s get down to the true meat of the two competing shows and vote whom really is hot or not.

You select which picture, representing CES or Macworld, is truly hot…or not. Waste tons of time just clicking on the pictures as you would on that other site that started this crazy, and sometimes cruel, voting pattern of pure opinion. Will the ultra-cool consumer geeks be hot or will it be the uber-hip different thinking bunch? Your opinion can be the deciding factor!

Thanks Matthew for the tip!

Monday is the day it all starts in Vegas and we’ve got lots of stuff to tell you. We’ll have a good slew of postings to start off the week with and have more for you when we touch down at Vegas Wednesday. So stay tuned and you’ll be kept up to date with stuff we know you won’t fine on other sites.

Nearly 1,000 technology companies from the Western region of the United States will showcase their latest consumer electronics products at the 2007 International CES®, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow, January 8-11 in Las Vegas, Nevada. These exhibiting companies represent more than 30 consumer technology categories, including accessories, broadband, digital imaging, electronic gaming, high-performance audio, home theater, mobile electronics, robotics, VoIP and wireless communications.

The 2007 International CES promises to be the largest and most successful in the show’s 40-year history, with 2,700 exhibitors debuting the latest innovations in consumer technology to an expected 140,000 industry buyers, distributors, engineers, installers, financial analysts, top-level executives, media and industry professionals.

“Fujitsu has supported CES for many years and it has become an important venue to help us introduce new products and meet with business leaders from around the world,” said Joel Hagberg, vice president, marketing and business development, Fujitsu Computer Products of America Inc. “This year we are excited to showcase leading-edge technology that will promote biometric security, high-performance storage, 10Gb Ethernet switching, Internet acceleration and high-security data disposal. An important part of the consumer electronics industry involves securing, moving, storing and eliminating data and we are excited to discuss how our technology can serve this market.”

CES continues to educate attendees on the latest developments and trends in the consumer electronics industry. The 2007 International CES will house 280 conference sessions featuring more than 860 of the industry’s leading speakers, helping attendees discover the newest trends, strategies and profit opportunities in the consumer technology industry. Conference tracks begin Saturday, January 6, 2007 and focus on key industry segments such as digital imaging, emerging electronics, gaming, mobile electronics, high-performance audio and home theater. Read the rest of this entry »

When CES announced its dates early last year, many wondered if it would hurt Macworld’s attendance. While Macworld is one of the largest trades shows in California and San Francisco’s largest show of the year, things aren’t what they used to be. Since 2003, the seemingly peek of the trade show with 90,473 people at Moscone that year, the show just doesn’t seem to be as large as it once was. In fact, the once used North Hall has simply been empty the last two years. While there has been a slight increase in attendance the last two years, will the momentum be able to withstand the ultra-popular Vegas-based CES show?

This isn’t the first time CES overlapped a Macworld date. In 2002, CES found itself smack dab in the middle of Macworld week as well. The result? Macworld attendance fell by 5.5 percent. With this years lack of any real juicy rumors with any real merit behind them for Apple’s side, it’s most likely a repeat of 2002 will happen at the 2007 Macworld Conference and Expo. In ‘02, iBook upgrade chatter and iMac G3 towers ruled the rumor mill and when the dust settled, iPhoto’s introduction, and iBook and iMac updates weren’t enough to bring out the people. This years rumors? iPhone and for the millionth time this year, the full-screen iPod. Neither will be enticing enough to draw geeks away from Vegas.

With HD, cell phones, Bluetooth, GPS, plasma, and even with its disappointments, the PS3, to be gawked at, CES just has a higher draw. Every year it gets larger and grander while Macworld shrinks and shrivels. You can bet IDG will be reporting a lower turn out this year no matter what happens at Stevenotes. Sure, the die hards will do both, as this reporter will, but most will have an either or choice and to Apple’s dismay, it’ll be its show that will lose out like it did five year before.