Best of CES

Every year since 1967 the Consumer Electronics Show has been held displaying the most advanced gadgets of the time. CES has been a showcase for some of the biggest inventions in technology from the VCR in 1970 to the Xbox in 2001. This year wasn’t any different and had plenty to showcase.

A Green TV?

For those of you in the green revolution the high-definition TV for you is here. However even if you really don’t care about your carbon footprint Sony’s 42 inch Eco TV will help reduce your power bills. This TV consumes all of 75 watts well delivering nice high-definition video. By comparison the average high-def TV takes up 250-300 watts so for those who don’t really want to do the math Sony’s Eco TV would save you 40-60$ per year. This will be available in March for around 1399$.

Big Boy Legos

The product that most created the biggest buzz in this year’s CES was the Bug Lab. It’s simply a minicomputer which you can snap multiple extensions including a digital or LCD screen. Then you can either program your own software to run your gadget or download software others have written at the Bug Lab site. Currently the four extensions are a digital camera, a LCD screen, a GPS receiver, and a motion detector. The possibilities are almost endless! However it is going to cost you $550 if you want Bug Lab and that’s only if you order before March 17.

Remind me why I need this?

Every year at CES there are products that look and sound awesome, until you stop and think “Where am I going to use this”. Here are some of the best examples.

Really secure data that’s what you’ll get if you buy the SentrySafe Backup Drive. This is simply an external hard drive to back up files onto. The interesting about this hard drive is that it can take 1550 degrees of heat (Fahrenheit) for thirty minutes and can be submerged underwater for 24 hours. So unless you plan on either cooking or swimming with your backup files you have to ask your self “Why do I need this?” In case you do want to cook your hard drive it will cost you 260$ for 80 Gigabytes.

iShoes, no it’s not Apple’s latest breakthrough but rather a 12 pound pair of shoes that you can ride at 13.5 miles per hour. The batteries inside last 3 hours before you have to recharge. I thought these were pretty cool until I realized that they cost 600$. There was a reason the automobile was invented.

Bill Gates

Another piece of big news at this year’s CES was that Bill Gates is retiring from day to day duties as Microsoft. After the announcement he showed just how much power he has by presenting a skit with Jay Z, Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Jon Stewart, Bono, Steven Spielberg, and George Clooney. I don’t think I’m the only one that thinks that’s incredible.