CES 2010: What Did It Mean?

There’s no doubt that this year’s CES 2010 was much more interesting and “fun” than last year’s CES (obviously due to the economy tanking and tech companies realizing people aren’t interested in non-essential items, although that can be argued) :)

This year brings the promise of not only new smart phones that finally rival the iPhone 3GS but also new eReaders that rival the Amazon Kindle and new 3D HDTV technology that rivals the Hollywood film-making industry. Yes, it’s all true: this year, there are so many more gadgets for you, your PC and your life that it makes any PC geek happy.

Microsoft’s keynote, which I guest appeared on a livestream by Cali Lewis’ Geekbrief.tv, didn’t give us the much rumored Courier (Microsoft’s tablet) but it did shows us a new kind of PC that a lot of us are hungry for: it’s not a netbook, it’s a Slate. Microsoft showed off their prototype HP Slate. According to TechSpot, “The Slate will run Windows 7, and reportedly sports a multitouch display, an accelerometer, and speculation suggests that it’s powered by an x86-based processor. The prototype shown during Microsoft’s keynote was running the PC Kindle app, hinting that the Slate may try to take a bite out of the e-reader market.”

The most interesting of Microsoft’s keynote was Project Natal which is Microsoft’s motion-controlled gaming peripheral that will be coming out in the holiday season of 2010.

Besides Microsoft, eReaders dominated CES 2010. I covered two of them which hold much promise to the Kindle: the Skiff and the Que. Both have 3G wireless connection, both are gorgeously designed, both have touchscreens yet neither have the content system that Amazon has, but that doesn’t mean they won’t.

Last but not least, for us PC lovers, there are going to more and more netbooks, desktops with more power and processing and Windows 7 will continue to take a stronghold on the PC market. This will be a good year, I believe, for us tech and PC lovers.