Robust Rollout of New Products Set for CES 2011

As usual, the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show (Jan. 6-9, 2011, in Las Vegas) promises to be loaded with interesting and innovative new products-mostly for consumers, of course.

There will be a modest amount of enterprise-type IT also on display, although such products won't be in the spotlight. Still, enterprises must be aware of CES because so many devices that started out being aimed strictly at consumers have made their way into business duty, largely because: a) they are now capable of handling heavier workloads, b) they are much more reliable, and c) they are often more fun to use.

Naturally, we're talking about devices such as Cisco's Flip video cameras, Apple's iPhones and iPads (which are particularly in demand by companies now), Samsung Android Galaxy tablets, Iomega and Seagate high-capacity pocket storage devices-the list is long.

New tablet PCs from a number of companies, wholesale improvements in 3D television and video, vastly upgraded touch-screen technology and a ton of new automotive IT options are among the innovations that will get a lot of attention from conference attendees.

Here, in short form and random order, are several of the new items CES-goers will see in Las Vegas.

Hewlett-Packard will be showing a set of new laptop and desktop PCs along with some impressive new touch-screen technology that nobody else has. eWEEK will publish all the details right before the show opens.

iPONT (startup): People will be able watch 3D TV without glasses and from a 120-degree viewing angle at the iPONT International booth (#25304/25305 in South Hall 2, Home Theater Section). The Hungary-based creator of glasses-free 3D technology will showcase its technology for all four days of the show.

Ford Motor Co., certainly one of the most advanced carmakers in the world for integrating IT into its vehicles, is announcing SYNC Destinations, a free smartphone app for users of SYNC TDI (Traffic, Directions, and Information) that will give them mobile access to search and save destinations to retrieve once in their car. Drivers can use their smartphones with SYNC Destinations to plan ahead, send destination locations to their car, and thus know what's happening on the road ahead before they even get behind the wheel. Of course, Ford will show a lot of other new features.

Mitsubishi (Booth 9021) will introduce a new 3D home theater projector.

Samsung will unveil its answer to Apple's iPod Touch at the show. The Galaxy Player will feature a 4-inch LCD display, a 1GHz processor, WiFi connectivity and a front-facing camera that could be used for video conferencing.

Diskeeper will be announcing the availability of ExpressCache, a performance technology designed to speed up PC boot times by as much as 10 times and application load/start times by as much as two times.

Blackfire Research (Booth 25306) will demonstrate an audio system that plays music from PCs, Macs, tablets and smartphones wirelessly. It offers universal play from most music services (iTunes, WMP, Rhapsody, Pandora, Spotify, etc.) in what it describes as "better-than-SD-quality" sound. It also contains a rack full of high-end components and a network processor in each speaker and needs no wires, docks, adapters or central components. It doesn't even need connecting wires between the speakers themselves.

Cisco Systems will be demonstrating its new Cius Tablet PC.

Personal Communications Devices (South Hall, Booth 30306) will be showing a series of 4G LTE devices and officially launching Bigstream, a portable device that enables users to stream audio and video content from an iPad, iPhone or iPod to a TV. Supported applications include Netflix, YouTube, Keynote (for business presentations) and all native Apple applications.

Fitness Technologies, which makes waterproof audio products, will demonstrate what it claims is the world's smallest waterproof MP3 player, the UWaterG2, at Booth 3130. The micro-sized UWaterG2 MP3 player (0.4 by 1.25 by 1.75 inches) comes with 2GB, 4GB or 8GB of memory, and is certified to work as deep as 10 feet (3 meters) underwater.

Yahoo will detail its new Connected TV Store for iPhone apps, which will launch in March 2011. Among the first featured apps will be Virtual Nerd, which offers video-based, interactive math and science tutorials for students in grades 7-12. Families will now be able to get access to this service right from their TV.

Technicolor will demonstrate a new Android OS Media Tablet designed to manage all digital home entertainment.

USB-IF will show a spate of new SuperSpeed USB devices.

The CES Robotics TechZone will showcase cutting-edge robotics, with daily demonstrations and booth presentations.