Roving Reporter Russ Ain’s Take on the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show

Before we begin with the neat gadgets and gizmo’s at this year’s show, I must say that I now have a new love for Mercedes-Benz. As with last year’s CES, Mercedes was the automotive sponsor. However, they added an itty-bitty feature to their normal ritual of a booth showcasing their new models; they called it a “Tech Drive”. It allowed any guest of the show to take a Benz out for a spin. When I was first told about this, I figured I’d probably have to wait three hours just to drive a lame (for a Benz) $30K C-class sedan for a whole 3 seconds. Boy, was I wrong! Not only were the lines relatively short (20 minutes max), but you even had a choice of driving a ML500 (SUV), CL500, S600, S430, CLK430 Cabriolet, SLK320, CLK320, E430, C230 hatchback, C240 or C240 Wagon. How do you like them apples, Ms. Stein?
Needless to say, I spent a bit of time in this area. I drove the $120K S600, which was the smoothest, quietest car I’d ever been in, let alone driven.




I also took the SLK320 for a spin, which thankfully had the top down since it was about 60 degrees out. This was also a joy to drive and I wanted to take it home with me. Too bad it sells for close to $50,000!




Finally, I drove the C240 which was incredibly boring, compared to the other two so I won’t waste your time discussing it.




Moving onto the actual show floor. I have to be honest here; there wasn’t anything new like there was the prior year. Sure, satellite radio, Dataplay and DLP technology all had a huge presence but they did last year as well. I assume that companies (or VC’s) aren’t risking quite so much with new technologies as they once were. Nevertheless, I did see a number of products that look to be quite cool.

First, Panasonic won the award for “Largest CES booth” again. I didn’t have a measuring tape, but it must have been 10,000 square feet. They had all their new stuff including a (literally) untouchable black Bentley Azure convertible and orange Lamborghini Diablo, courtesy of Mr. Wyclef Jean and Mr. Busta Rhymes, respectively. Thus, Panasonic tied for the “Best Demonstration Car of CES 2002” with Monster Cable’s twin Ferrari 360 Modena’s (one was a Spyder).


Oh yeah, Panasonic had an interesting open demonstration, where about 200 audience members watched as 7 fiddlers were brought out as background music to the lovely demo lady, who explained Panasonic’s upcoming lineup including the IMT-2000 cell phone (which can transfer data, show pictures and play video all on the phone’s screen), 40” and 45” projection TV’s that are only 16” deep, and a DVD-recorder that utilizes a feature called Time Slip, which lets the user watch the beginning of a DVD while recording the end. That may come in handy for something like “Basic Instinct”, which has only one good scene and little else worth watching.

Sony did not have a booth for its home products, which I was surprised about. They did have one for their Xplod car line and Memory Stick products. Some of the upcoming Xplod stuff looks really slick. They’re releasing a DVD/CD 10-disc changer, a single DIN head unit that has a Memory Stick reader and a 32,000-color TFT screen to display pictures in either a slideshow or panoramic view. They will also be releasing CD changers that can read MP3’s directly off the CD, which equates to 160 songs per disc.


In the Memory Stick “Pavilion”, I spent some time with an Aibo, which is a neat toy but not worth the $1500 asking price. I’d rather buy a real dog (or three) for that kind of cash. Even though I’ll have to deal with the howling and accidents (although I’m convinced they should be called “purposes” since they only seem to happen when the dog is angry at his/her owner) at least you get something that’ll keep the toes warm in the winter.

Kenwood also displayed some interesting car products. There will be three new MP3-CD head units next year with prices from $300-$350 for the base model and up to $480-$600 for the top unit that has an Organic display. They must have read my Z919 review because they got rid of the “nojoy-stick” and put the track controls on the left side, where they should be.


Kenwood’s also releasing a Music Keg, which has nothing to do with beer but has everything to do with a 10 gigabyte hard drive that can be loaded with MP3’s and goes in the trunk. Just read the “10 gig” as “driving from Manhattan to LA to a Yankee game and back to Silicon Valley before repeating a song”. Not too shabby! And no you don’t need to bring your laptop out to the car; the unit comes with a docking station that can transfer the files from your desktop to the “Keg” via USB. The price is a bit steep (approx. $900) but 170 hours is a lot of music.



As in previous years, MP3 products were very popular and it seems like more and more companies are releasing products that handle this popular music format. Archos, whose 6 gig Jukebox sold extremely well last year, will be releasing the Jukebox Multimedia. This can hold 10 gigabytes but also has an expansion port which can accommodate a: 1) Memory card (SmartMedia or CompactFlash), 2) Digital Camera/Camcorder (1.3 megapixel with a 4x digital zoom), or 3) Video Recorder (record/playback TV in MPEG 4). Sound good? The suggested price isn’t too bad either; $350 for the Jukebox and $60-$99 for the expansion modules. It can also record/encode MP3 files on the fly and supports both Firewire and USB 2.0 for speedy transfers.



The original MP3 guys, Sonicblue, are coming out with the Rio Riot, which is their interpretation of a jukebox. It holds 20 gigs and has a very nice LCD screen. It also comes with a built-in FM tuner and they say the rechargeable batteries will last over 10 hours. However, its MSRP is $400, which is $100 more than the 20 gig Creative and Archos Jukebox, so it’s a bit pricey. Hopefully, the end result will be a superior product and will be worth the extra cash.



Another company who is releasing some interesting MP3 products is Now Evolution. If you remember, I mentioned their name last year because they had an MP3 player that was entirely built into the headphones. Their new products capitalize on this model as well as try something a bit different. Their new set of MP3 headphones have 128 MB of memory, which is a good two hours of music. It will run $190, which is quite reasonable for a 128 MB player that is the epitome of convenience.



Another product is a plain-jane 64MB player. I asked their rep what the big deal was and he said, “Absolutely nothing…except for the $99 MSRP!” Sweet! Another value priced player is a regular 128 MB regular player at $169.



Their flagship product is a bit special because it doesn’t use flash memory or a hard drive; it uses last year’s highly touted Dataplay disks. To reiterate, they are 250MB-500MB write-once disks that will retail for $5-$10 (approx.) It not only reads these disks but can create them as well! This player is about the size of a normal MP3 device and will go for $369, which isn’t half bad considering what it can do. Overall, this is a company to keep your eye on.



Finally, e.Digital showed off their Treo 10, which is a 10 gig hard drive based player whose claim to fame is a good price ($250) and a small size (4.6”H x 3”W x 0.8”D). Ahhh...too many choices!!! I want them all!!! (Sorry, I didn’t take my medicine today…)



Some new forms of glasses will soon be on the market. However, these glasses work a bit differently to those you find at LensCrafters. The first is the Olympus Eye-Trek, which are goggles that are said to “simulate a 52” or 62” widescreen TV”. Whether this is actually true or not is anyone’s guess, but the end result is quite good. I tried a set of and played some “Crazy Taxi”. It was fun to be able to look all around the room and still only see the screen. The picture was fairly sharp and bright but it might get difficult to tolerate for long periods of time. There are 4 available models. One solely for Playstation 2 ($400), the 52” TV multipurpose model ($470), the 62” TV model ($670), and the top-end model that also accepts a PC monitor ($1070). Interesting concept, but I think I’ll wait for the price to drop…a lot.



PC peripherals were also scattered about the show. The P5 Glove from Essential Reality seemed like a rehash of the original Nintendo’s Power Glove controller. This one is mostly geared towards the PC and tracks movements via a separate screen that you place in front of the monitor. I tried a simple 1st-person shooter and it worked rather well. They market it to be used for industrial design and Web browsing in addition to gaming. I don’t know about the first two, but the gaming aspect should work well, as long as you aren’t playing anything too complex. The glove will also work with any game console that has a USB port, such as the Xbox or PS2.



Another interesting gaming toy is the Nostromo n50 SpeedPad by Belkin. This is a mouse-sized device that has two rows of five keyboard keys. It’s supposed to be used with the left hand while the mouse is held in the right. I played some Unreal Tournament with it and it was nice to have so few keys to deal with. The rep said that the unit could be used for almost any game that requires the combo of a keyboard/mouse. At a killer price of $30, I’d be very willing to guinea pig that theory.


So there you have it. The rundown of the Beststuff (pun very much intended) I saw at CES 2002. Hopefully, what I perused at the show will impress the public eye as much as it impressed me. And, if not, there’s always next year’s show to look forward to! (OK, everyone, let’s hear those groans…)

By Russ Ain