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CES 2008: CES - It's a Wrap

Well, another CES has come and gone and I'm still recovering. The early numbers show the attendance was down from about 150,000 last year to about 140,000 this year. Really? I didn't notice, the show seemed more crowded and bigger than ever, covering over 8 football fields! There was so much to see and no matter how long you're there, it's still tough to see and touch everything. There really wasn't much this year that stood out and grabbed me. Yes, I laughed at Bill Gates final Keynote address, drooled over Panasonic's 150" Plasma TV that would require a crane to lift it into place, Kid Rock and the new Corvette ZR1, Comcast's new FREE VOD website Fancast, XStreamHD, Logitech's SqueezeBox Duet...actually, there was some cool stuff to see this year.

Here's some more great CES 2008 Wrap Ups:

About.com
Best of CES 2008

CNET CES 2008 Wrap Up
Home Audio Wrap Up
Home Video Wrap Up
HDTV Wrap Up
Computers Wrap Up
Emerging Technologies Wrap Up
Car Tech Wrap Up
Portable Wrap Up
Cell Phone & Smart Phone Wrap Up

DigitalCameraReview.com
CES 2008 Wrap-Up

Earth2Tech
CES Green Gadget Wrap Up

Engadget
CES 2008: Everything you must see
The Best of Crapgadget

Engadget HD
CES 2008: The Best and worst of HD
CES 2008: The Best of Set Top Boxes
CES 2008: The Best of LCD TV HDTVs
CES 2008: The Best of Plasma HDTVs
CES 2008: The Best of Blu-ray Players

GearLog
Best of CES 2008

Gizmodo
Best of CES 2008

Mahalo
Everything CES 2008
CES 2008 Videos

PC Magazine
Best of CES 2008

popgadget
CES - It's a wrap

Tech Digest
CES 2008: The 50 Hottest Products

CES 2008: CNET's Best of CES Awards

CNET has posted it's annual Best of CES Award winners. The winners range from a green eco friendly TV to DIY gadgets. Check it out...

Over 10,000 CNET members also voted on the People's Voice Award winners in each CE category.

You can also watch a video of the awards here.

How-To Video: WiFi sat dish, pudding cup capacitor and more... AmateurLogic.TV

"The Active Cantenna is Back! But this time we've added a DirecTV Satellite Dish to see what wifi improvements, if any, it makes. Jim finishes the Pudding Cup Capacitor in this episode.

DIY: Build a $300 HDTV Media Extender

ZDNet Blogs has an excellent DIY post on Building an HDTV Media Extender for only $300! Worth looking at no matter what your budget is.

HDTVs are getting cheaper especially when you're talking about older close out models that they're becoming very common in the home. Personal video storage on a home network is also getting very popular but getting that video to the HDTV isn't easy without paying for an expensive and extremely limited function HD media extender appliance. But with a little spare time and some cheap commodity PC hardware you can build a superior HDTV media extender that can easily be upgraded to a full fledged media center machine for $300.

[via Build Your Own PVR]

How-To: Run Your Own Network Cabling

This is a great and not to difficult How-To/DIY, especially if you need to run some network cabling in your home or office. Check out engadget's tutorial.

Sprint, Linksys Team To Offer EVDO Broadband Router

Sprint will start selling a Linksys router during the second half of this year which can turn any Sprint EV-DO card connection into an 802.11g local-area network, according to business marketing program manager Larry Sherrard. The router, which doesn't yet have a model number, will cost "slightly under $200" and won't require any changes in subscribers' service plans, which currently cost $59.99/month for unlimited high-speed access, or $79.99/month for people without a Sprint voice phone.

Several manufacturers, most notably Kyocera, have put EV-DO to Wi-Fi routers on the market. But up until now, those products were shunned by the biggest wireless carriers in the US, who frowned on people sharing out EV-DO connections. Sprint will be selling their Linksys router both online and through retail stores, Sherrard said.

[via PCMag.com]

Technorati Tags: home networking, linksys, router, sprint, ev-do

New Product: ESCIENT® FireBall DVDM-552

INDIANAPOLIS, IN, March 30, 2006– Escient, the pioneer in digital media management, has begun shipping its flagship Media Management System, the FireBall DVDM-552 (SRP:$5,999), as well as its performance-extending companion, the FireBall MP-200 Digital Media Player (SRP:$999). In combination, these two products offer an unprecedented solution for convenient multi-room entertainment networking, providing users with a host of advanced features and capabilities with easy access to vast DVD and music collections.

A New Era in Multi-Room Entertainment
The FireBall DVDM-552 is the industry’s first-ever 2,000-DVD library manager, offering a variety of never-before-available multiple room capabilities. Using Escient’s award-winning on-screen interface, users can browse and play huge DVD and music collections in five connected mega-disc changers, in addition to over 8,000 CDs stored on its 500GB internal hard drive.

When used with the MP-200, the FireBall DVDM-552 lets users literally watch any movie or listen to any song in their collection from a second room of their home. Music stored on the DVDM-552 hard drive can also be streamed and played in multiple rooms in the home simultaneously via multiple connected MP-200s or by using DLNA/UPnP compatible digital media adapters. In addition to being able to watch two different DVD movies in different rooms when connected to the MP-200, the DVDM-552 even lets viewers enjoy the same movie simultaneously in separate rooms.


For added flexibility, a web server built into the DVDM-552 allows users to browse, manage, and play their movies and music from any standard web browser, and integrated file-sharing features lets users transfer, backup, and play music files between the DVDM-552 and a PC or Mac. The DVDM-552 features a built-in CD-RW Player/Recorder for playing CDs, ripping CDs to the internal hard drive, and for creating custom mix CDs. It also plays MP3 and WMA Internet Radio stations.

All DVDs and CDs controlled by the DVDM-552 are automatically identified by the Escient MovieDB™ and the Gracenote™ CDDB disc recognition services via the user’s Internet connection. The metadata and cover art for each disc are automatically downloaded and stored on the DVDM-552. A built-in parental control feature allows parents to determine which movies can be displayed and played through the on-screen Movies Guide. Full press release

[via engadget]

Technorati Tags: home networking, media center pc, escient

Home Networking: New Product - Threshold Home Server

Home-networking technology leaps forward

By combining a number of new technologies into
an single networking appliance and then adding patented methods that make for extremely easy setup and operation, startup Threshold Corp. (Petaluma, CA) believes it has come up with the elusive successful home networking solution.

The Home Server seeks to bring ease of setup to a new level. For example, to add the wireless camera to the network you take the camera out of the box and, without installing batteries, place it on the proprietary "Blue Spot"
on top of the server. Using a magnetic coupling, it recognizes the device and what type of service it requires, assigns it an address, and adds it to the network.

The Threshold Home Server Model 1 is expected to be available in October for around $300.

Technorati Tags: home networking, threshold home server

D-Link Introduced DSM-520 Wireless HD Media Player

D-Link has launched the latest addition to its MediaLounge series of wireless media players adding HD in the new DSM-520.

The DSM-520 Wireless HD Media Player supports your favorite  media formats, including high-definition video in either Windows Media Video 9 or MPEG-4 format. Enjoy video with resolutions of up to 1080i from your high-definition television for the best picture quality.

For compatible television systems, the DSM-520 features a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) connection. HDMI offers a pure digital connection for both audio and video. Other video connectors include component, S-video, and composite output, ensuring compatibility with virtually all televisions. The DSM-520 also supports coax and optical digital audio output.

[via Engadget]

Wirelessly link your PC to your Stereo and TVs

So, you have all this hot content sitting on your PC but those dinky little speakers you have attached to your desktop aren't exactly giving the music its proper due, and your minuscule 17"  LCD Monitor is far from being the right way of watching the awesome streaming content off the Internet. Well, AVM has developed the RadioFRITZ! and VideoFRITZ!, designed to wirelessly connect your stereo and TV to your PC.

You can quickly and easily stream all the digital content from your PC utilizing your WLAN connection, sending it to your high-end audio equipment and huge plasma TV. There's support for many outputs and codecs – including H.264 – so pretty well anything your computer is capable of playing can be played on a bigger screen and through bigger speakers. The Universal Plug & Play standard (UPnP-AV) certainly makes things easy too.

Not only can you take your existing content, but by utilizing the FRITZ!Box, you can even display (and listen to) Internet content as well, in addition to USB memory sticks and other storage devices.

Pricing and availability has not yet been announced.

[via MobileMag]