The future’s here

A multi-touch-touchscreen tablet ultra- mobile computer that can metamorphose into a regular, full-function laptop? A bendable e-book reader that’s made of stainless-steel foil? A phone with a voice-enabled keyboard that inputs text messages and e-mails even as you speak? An ultra-slow mo camera that captures an incredible 1,000 frames per second? A 10-watt LED light bulb that also squawks as a wireless audio speaker?

Gee-whiz products with punch, panache and piquant pull! Scoured the labyrinthine show floors of the greatest gadgets and gear circus on Earth, the Computer Electronics Show — with over 20,000 product types from more than 2,500 companies — that is held annually in Las Vegas, here’s our pick of the peepshow pile.

Google Nexus One
Price: $530

Hamlet once famously said: “There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy”. So a smartphone from a company that’s synonymous with the Internet search engine business shouldn’t really be a surprise. But this HTC manufactured quad-band 3G Google phone has made the world sit up. Boasting a snappy 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB Flash/ROM with a 4GB microSD card (expandable to 32GB), it flaunts a large 3.7-in touchscreen display with 480x800 pixels. The 5-megapixel camera with LED flash will keep most smiling. An accelerometer, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor are in place as is a substantial 1,400 mAh battery.

Nexus runs the latest version of the much vaunted Google Android OS — an operating system on which hinge a lot of expectations. The phone comes with a re-jigged user interface and supports 3D interfaces. Enhanced voice command capabilities for all applications allow you to talk the phone into performing. A voice-enabled keyboard lets you speak a text message, chat message, or even complete an e-mail!

Peregrine Gaming Glove
Price: $130

Joystick jerks and jousts may soon be passé if Peregrine strikes the right chord. Don this raiment of Spiderman-like sci-fi chic and it will allow you to issue commands by merely touching your gloved fingers to your thumb tip. As a PC input device it packs in a pretty punch with as many as 30 user programmable shortcut buttons located at key-touch points along each finger of the glove.

“Activator Pads” reside on the thumb tip, the middle of the thumb, and the palm. Contact between these and one of the touch-points on the finger can trigger one or a series of commands — for example, strafing the enemy from your A-10 Warthog Thunderbolt Ground Attack Aircraft. Don’t harrumph if you’re not of the gamesome ilk. Separate programmable macros can work with your video-editing software or Photoshop if serious work is what you want instead. All in a snap, eh!

HP Mini 5102
Price: $400

The world’s first touch-enabled netbook, the Mini 5102 netbook comes with a 10.1-in screen that supports multi-touch two-finger input. Based on Intel’s latest power-stingy Atom N450 processors, the 1.2 kilo aluminium-bodied netbook offers 10 hours of uptime on battery, wireless connectivity through Wi-Fi and mobile 3G broadband. The processor includes integrated graphics capabilities and can playback 720p resolution video. An optional Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator chip can further enhance video to 1080p high-definition quality.

While HP isn’t squawking about any special touch-based applications on this netbook yet, the touchscreen eases pinch-flick-scroll manipulation of visual applications and does boast features like facial recognition to automate tasks like user log-in via its integrated webcam.

Klipsch LightSpeaker
Price: $600

Have you ever, in your wildest dreams, imagined that you could use a standard light bulb socket to place and power a speaker? Don’t grunt, it doesn’t mean Shaan or Shankar or Sukhvinder will be serenading you in darkness either: The speaker is also a 10-watt LED light bulb — and rated to illuminate your life for 15 years! Klipsch’s wireless speaker and LED lights combo and uses a wireless base station transmitter to stream music to each unit that can be up to 50 feet away.

The system can be expanded to up to eight LightSpeakers which can be placed in different rooms. A remote or the base transmitter controls all system functions of this look-ma-no-wires space-saving sound solution. No home theatre this, but an enlightening experience nonetheless...

Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid
Price: To be announced

A cynosure for all eyes at this year’s show, the U1 Hybrid is a pretty amazing contraption. It comprises a removable multi-touch screen, slate tablet ultra-mobile computer which can dock right into a notebook to metamorphose into a regular, full-function laptop. All this in about 3 seconds flat!

A traditional configuration of the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid unit revolves around an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 3G connectivity and a 128GB solid state drive running Windows 7 with a resistive, 11.6-in, multi-touch, HD LED display. In tablet mode, a Snapdragon processor takes charge with Lenovo’s customised Skylight as its operating system and an accelerometer to manage landscape and portrait viewing preferences. With only pre-production models demoed at CES, the Hybrid (left) is still some months away from the shopfloor. Innovation rules!

Casio Exilim EX-FH100
Price: $349

Casio’s hottest digital camera squeezes in a 10.1-megapixel wide-angle 24mm 10X optical zoom lens into it compact body. However, that’s not what raises the mercury. Its ability to snap up to 40 pictures per second in still image mode while at the same time also giving you an incredible 1000 frames per second (thats super-slow motion to capture movement which is far too fast for the human eye to catch) video when required is what does that!

And hey, we’re talking amateur photography and a value price point here, not something from a professional shutterbug’s armoury. Other highlights of the camera include high-resolution HD movie function, high-speed lighting, image stabilisation, HDMI output and a built-in stereo microphone.

Skiff Reader
Price: To be announced

When it comes to e-book readers, almost everyone has heard of the industry leader, the Amazon Kindle. There have also been similar offerings from others like the Sony Reader and the Barnes & Noble Nook. At CES, the most impressive electronic reading device was the Skiff Reader from Hearst. Launched in cahoots with Sprint (for 3G connectivity), the Skiff is a large (11.5-in) touchscreen e-reader with a high-res (1200 x 1600 pixel) display that is just about a quarter-inch thick. And this makes it the thinnest e-reader alive.

Not just that. It’s also the first consumer product to feature LG’s “metal foil” technology that is based on a thin, flexible sheet of stainless-steel foil. This makes the Skiff far less fragile than other glass-fronted electronic screens. Also, being larger gives it the wherewithal to reproduce and format magazines and newspapers layouts much better than the more diminutive screens.

iType Ion iPhone keyboard
Price: To be announced

It’s hard not to fall in love with the iPhone. Yet, a lot of people — especially of the touch-typing genus — also love to hate its flat-faced, onscreen, virtual keyboard. Launched at CES 2010, the ION iPhone keyboard is a full size QWERTY keyboard accessory intended to mitigate these typing woes on what is popularly also known as the GodPhone. With a horizontal flat-dock to ensconce the iPhone atop the keyboard, the ION iType is ideal for busy travellers and bloggers on the go etc., who want to use a more spacious keyboard with their iPhones for text-intensive tasks like note-taking, e-mailing, and texting. The ION also recharges the phone while it is docked. One obvious downside: the prone placement of phone could make its screen a mite tougher to read.

Playseat Evolution SV-W
Price: $499

Videogaming pros rate Playseats racing simulation cockpits among the best in the business. To up the ante and make the pacy simulation even more realistic and immersive, now Playseats’ latest offering, it’s the Evolution SV-W Formula 1 racing seat makes you feel the sound in your very bones. Literally. By embedding a subwoofer underneath the seat as well as in the headrest speakers, the company is attempting to bring racing sim drivers a taste of some of the auditory thrills that Formula 1 car drivers experience on the track.

Other enhancements in the new gaming seat include a gearshift holder and a screen-mounting kit. To make it usable by anyone of eight years or more, the foldable seat has an adjustable steel frame that can be adapted to suit the height, length and “depth” of individual players and steering wheels. The contraption is compatible with a wide range of digital driving wheels, including ones with force feedback. Apart from a PC, it can be hooked to all kinds of gaming consoles, including the PS3, PS2, Xbox and Xbox 360, and Wii.

Pioneer AVIC-X920BT
Price: $1,200

With touch interfaces invading every form of gadgetry from cellphones to PCs, how could car accessories ever miss out on being part of the finger-driven action? Pioneer AVIC-X920BT is an in-dashboard GPS navigation and music console with a 6.1-in WVGA display. A slick interface allows you to scroll through menu items by swiping your phalanges across the one-touch sensitive colour display. To top this, voice technology makes several functions operational without even touching the screen. The unit uses proprietary MusicSphere technology to organise your music libraries according to mood.

Incumbent are support for microSD memory cards, iPod input, DVD playback, and car reversing camera video. Bluetooth and satellite radio compatibility are also in-built. Further, an ECO Driving feature in the X920BT can assess your driving habits — that is, factors like speed and acceleration — and tell you how “green” your driving is.


The Personal Telegraph