By Carolyn Slater

Digital Dialogue welcomes guest blogger David Fleck, the creative genius behind the “Innovation Revolution” T-shirt design with which he won the Threadless Loves Innovation design contest. Part of David’s prize was a trip to the 2010 International CES in Las Vegas. David is an architecture student and hails from Edinburgh, on the east coast of Scotland. You can see more of his designs on Threadless.com.

   By David Fleck

As I forced myself out of bed at 3.30 a.m. on January 6^th and looked out of the window to see the streets outside even deeper in snow, I questioned what I had let myself in for. Just a month earlier, I had been up late working on a piece of imminent coursework when I checked my emails and one popped up from Threadless the subject bar reading “Congratulations, your…”.

My mind flicked around what it could possibly be referring to as the email loaded (it’s not that my brain is unbelievably fast, our internet is painfully slow at times) and just as it opened I remembered the design that I had submitted to the innovation competition –just 5 minutes before the deadline – and then resigned to the vaults of relegated illustrations.

It took me a good day or so to take it in, my t-shirt design had ended up winning me an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas, courtesy of the lovely people at the Innovation Movement at CEA. And there I was waiting in the snow waiting for my taxi to come skidding along the road to take me to the airport and away to sunny Las Vegas. I decided to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride, which I ended up doing very successfully.

Never having been to America before, I was told by most folk at not to judge it against what I saw in Vegas, although I admit I loved the gawdiness and noise in a short four-day dose. I stayed in what is probably the nicest hotel I will ever stay in, and spent many wondrous hours roaming around the hotel, the streets, casinos, and of course the CES show floor. It is almost fitting that all these unbelievable technologies be exhibited in such an unreal city.

I have to admit that since I’m not part of the consumer electronics industry a lot of what was going on at CES was way over my head, but as an (shamefully) avid consumer of electronics my head was on a swivel trying to take it all in! I’m sure there were many more impressive things to the knowing eye, but I gawked at the 3D TVs and the 6.9mm thick TV in particular. It’s so exciting to see we are still pushing boundaries.

Stretching technology and materials to their limit is amazing and experimenting and discovering new things is exhilarating. I was also impressed by innovations in eco-friendly technology and that is why for me some of the most exciting things at CES were the interlocking recycled plastic bottles that can form load bearing walls, or the super thin insulation from Panasonic. Having better cameras or thinner TVs is cool, but innovations in green technology can change potentially billions of lives for the better.

My smorgasbord of experiences was incredible, from seeing the bright lights of Vegas to the innovations of tomorrow. Many thanks to CEA for such a great time.

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By Colleen Lerro

With the New Year always comes the New Year’s resolutions to get into better shape and live a healthier lifestyle. More often than not, it’s too easy to fall back into your old routine though. Why not let some cool gadgets help you out? I know I couldn’t survive a run without my mp3 player in my ears or a flat screen in front of the treadmill.

Nike Plus has been around for awhile now and is a great way to track your runs, measure progress and even adds a great social networking component to provide you with that extra motivation. At the 2010 CES, Samsung debuted the new MyFit wellness promoting mp3 player. It lets you check your stress level, body fat, calorie intake and exercise effectiveness. There’s even a smoking cessation tool for those trying to quit.

My biggest pet peeve when working out is dealing with earbuds that won’t stay in my ears. Check out this list of headphone suggestions depending on whether you exercise indoors or out. You can also go with great add-ons from companies like Acoustibuds and Comply that simply slip onto your existing buds creating a better sound and fit.

There are numerous apps for smartphones to help keep you on track. One of my favorites is Lose It, which lets you set goals and track all the calories you take in and burn throughout the day.

Electronics designed for home exercise are even finding their way into the doctor’s office. The Wii Balance Board for Wii Fit is a cost-effective tool for doctors to use to measure a patient’s ability to balance and stand up straight.

Do you have big plans for staying fit and eating healthier this year? What gadgets help get you through your workouts?

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By Jim Barry, CEA’s Digital Answer Man

For me there was a “Back To The Future” subtext to this year’s CES. Part of the feeling was the tremendous buzz surrounding all things TV — especially super thin models, 3D, mobile DTV, FloTV, and a variety of TV/Internet convergence applications. Another part was the enormous array of cutting-edge technologies that seem ready to take off in the coming year and decade. From smartphone apps, to touch screens, to “no-touch” controls, to connected electronic vehicles and houses, this CES was awash in technologies that will change our lives as dramatically as those introduced 30 years ago have today.

TV was also at the head of the class at my first CES in January of 1979, but the buzz then was about new devices to hook up to the TV including video cassette recorders, laser disc players and other disc players that have long since come (if they made it to market at all) and gone.

At the last CES of the ‘70s you may have found some revolutionary big-screen rear projection sets from Advent, Kloss Video, Mitsubishi, Quasar and others, along with demonstrations of how satellites would soon bring programs from anywhere in the world into homes across America. And the projection sets really were “big-screen” since a 26-inch screen (often in a humongous piece of furniture!) was about as big as it got back then for CRTs . Flat panels? I don’t think so. Not for another 15 years or more.

Beta and VHS were fighting tooth-and-nail to be the dominant format for home video recording, and the major TV makers — RCA & Zenith –who dominated the market with nearly 50 percent market share combined –had chosen sides and squared off. We know how that turned out.

It’s going to be fun to see how the technologies and products introduced this year fare in the coming years.

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By Guest Blogger, Joseph Cerquone, Director of Public Relations for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)

Talk with Patricia Moisan about the impact of technology on kids, and she replies, “It’s created a whole new ballgame.”

Moisan, an audiologist with Clark County Schools in Las Vegas, is serving as an on-site hearing expert at the 2010 International CES for the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA).

The “game” Moisan references is one largely of concern about the noise-induced hearing loss that can stem from the misuse of personal audio technology-listening at excessive volume levels for very long periods again and again.

CEA and ASHA have partnered to educate the public about the risks, something that Moisan says is badly needed, given the rise in hearing loss that she sees among the young every day in her work.

“All of this new techology is great,” Moisan says from ASHA’s booth at CES. “Unfortunately, there are lots of kids who don’t know how to use it properly. At the same time, many parents don’t know about the long term effects of misusing things like personal audio technology.”

Moisan says that the proliferation of technology has shifted the role of audiologists from being diagnosticians to “hearing conservationists.” It’s a tough role, she says, because hearing loss is what she terms an insidious “silent disability.”

“Noise-induced hearing loss can be hard for parents to detect and appreciate because it isn’t visible, Moisan says. “Nonetheless, it can have a profound and costly impact on a person’s educational and social development.”  Moisan adds that even though hearing screenings are conducted in Clark County schools, the nature of the screenings are such that kids with hearing loss can go undetected.

CEA has been a strong supporter of ASHA’s Listen To Your Buds campaign, which educates the very young about hearing protection. CEA and ASHA also have partnered to produce the Listening For A Lifetime brochure for CEA members which gives consumers protection guidance.

Moisan salutes these steps and she has her own for kids and parents.

“I encourage kids to set volume levels at three and to reduce the amount of time that they listen,” she explains. “Some are listening for hours at very high volumes. That isn’t good.” She also urges parents to monitor their kids’ usage and to set good examples.

“If you’re the parent and you’re going to blast the TV, chances are that your child is going to blast their form of entertainment,” she says.

Joseph Cerquone and Annette Gorey, of ASHA in their Booth at CES.

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By Guest Blogger Brent Butterworth, Contributing Technical Editor, Sound + Vision Magazine

Websites and cable TV channels are packed with news from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But with thousands of exhibitors spread out through several convention halls and hotels, there are always lots of stories that go overlooked. Here are four we found especially exciting:

Energy-saving innovations: The electronics industry has come up with some entirely new products that help save energy without sacrificing convenience. One of our favorite examples is the Klipsch LightSpeaker (www.klipsch.com). The LightSpeaker combines a 2.5-inch speaker with a powerful LED lamp. It fits in a standard recessing lighting fixture, and it installs just like an ordinary light bulb. A wireless transmitter sends sound from an MP3 player, a TV, etc., to the speakers, and a remote dims the light and controls the sound. Klipsch says the LightSpeaker’s efficient LED consumes only 10 watts but puts out the same light as a 65-watt incandescent bulb. A package with two LightSpeakers, a transmitter, and a remote costs $599.

Another great green product is the Regen ReNew Audio Dock (www.regenliving.com). The dock has a solar panel/battery pack that you can hang in a window to change. Place the charged panel in the dock, insert an iPhone or iPod, and you can listen to music for up to 60 hours on a single charge. A backup power supply assures the ReNew will never fall silent. The solar panel/battery pack costs $199 and the Audio Dock costs $249.

Skype on your TV: Lots of people now sit in front of their computers when they want to make video phone calls through Skype. Now LG (www.lge.com) and Panasonic (www.panasonic.com) make it possible to see and hear distant family and friends from the comfort of your couch. Both companies will soon offer Internet-enabled TVs with Skype built in. Using Skype through these TVs should be super-simple. As with many new laptops, the TVs feature a built-in camera and microphone. And you’ll enjoy a much bigger picture than you’re probably getting on your computer monitor or laptop.

Ciao, CDs: More and more consumers are using less and less “physical media” (i.e., CDs and DVDs). Instead, they’re streaming their audio and video entertainment from the Internet, through home networks, or from iPods and smartphones. Many new products at CES were designed specifically to suit these trends—they don’t even have CD slots. One that caught our eyes was the Pure Sensia (www.pure.com), a desktop audio/video system that looks almost like a big Easter egg. Each end of the Sensia has a speaker, and touchscreen fills the middle. The $349 Sensia plays any of thousands of Internet radio stations, and also streams content from computers and hard drives that are connected to your home network. The only concession to old-fashioned media is the built-in FM tuner.

Alpine (www.alpine.com) and Sony (www.sony.com) took the bold step of launching new auto sound head units that have no CD capability. You get your music from a docked iPhone or iPod, or from the units’ AM/FM tuners.

Pencil-thin TV: TVs are rightly getting lots of attention at this year’s CES, but our favorite new models—the Samsung 9000 series—got a little lost in all the hubbub about 3-D and Internet connectivity. According to Samsung (www.samsung.com), the 9000 series TVs measure only 0.3 inches thick, which is about the same thickness as a pencil. An ingenious stand (which doubles as a wall mount) provides all the connections. Not only is this slim, silvery set incredibly sexy, it also includes a touchscreen remote control/video screen that lets you keep tabs on the ball game while you’re watching the latest DVD. The sets are 3-D capable, so when the new 3-D Blu-ray Disc players come out later this year, you’ll be ready.

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By Colleen Lerro

3D TV and tablet computers are all the talk at CES this year, but accessory products are getting a lot of buzz this year too. The crowds are crazy here, but I was able to take a quick spin through the show floor before it got too busy and found several accessories that really caught my eye, or in the first case, my ears.

I stopped by Monster’s booth and demoed the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones. Being accustomed to the ear buds that came with my mp3 player, I was blown away. This was by far the best sound I’ve ever heard. I also loved the Beats Solo and Lady Gaga’s Heartbeats introduced at this year’s show.

I don’t know about you, but I have a bad habit of setting my phone down and walking away without it. I definitely need a Zomm. It’s the world’s first wireless leash for mobile phones. If you stray too far from your phone it alerts you, but that’s not all it does. It has a panic button you can set off an alarm with if you feel you’re in trouble, and if you keep holding the button it will dial the local 911 assistance for you. On top of that, if my phone is ringing in my purse but I can’t get to it, I can press a button and tell the person calling to hold on while I’m finding my phone.

Next I swung by Powermat to tell them how much I love my portable Powermat I got for Christmas this year. Wireless charging is definitely going to be the wave of the future. A case that fits my smart phone lets me just set the phone down on the mat to charge it up and a cube with interchangeable tips lets me plug into just about any other device I have. Sometimes I’ll be charging my iPhone, Blackberry and digital camera on the mat all at once.

This fall I got to try out UltraLast’s Sol Charger and thought it was a great, green and innovative way to charge your gadgets. New at CES this year they announced the Green Lunar Charger. It’s got a unique look and doubles as a nightlight. The green LED light illuminates and pulses while batteries are charging, and ejects the batteries for easy removal when pushed down.

I could go on and on about all the great gadgets here, but I’ll leave you with these. Tell me about your favorite accessories.

Popularity: unranked [?]

By Colleen Lerro

I had such a blast checking out Last Gadget Standing at last year’s CES, that I made sure to put it on my calendar again for this year. Presented by NetShelter Technology Media and hosted by Robin Raskin, veteran tech journalist and founder of Living in Digital Times, this high-energy, interactive SuperSession where 10 finalists show off their products to fight for the Last Gadget Standing title.

All 10 have a four-minute chance to present their case for why the audience should vote for them. See all top 10 products. The products are read off at the end, and the winner is determined by the loudest applause. Applause meters throughout the room measure for the loudest decibel levels.

Being a runner, I loved the Haier Ibiza Trainer. For just $60 it combines a music player, pedometer, heart rate monitor, stopwatch and calorie counter into a single device that’s small enough to clip on to your clothing. The Intel Reader is a handheld device that snaps a picture of printed text and reads it back to you. This has big implications for assisting sight-impaired readers.

Motorola Droid entertained the crowd with a light saber fight for over a Droid and SHOWWX Laser Pico Projector brought out their best Dr. Evil impersonator to present the product.

The D-link Boxee Box took home the prize. The Boxee D-link box is a one-stop shop for internet content on your TV. Boxee has been riding a wave of success since being named the winner of CEA’s 2008 iStage contest.

Popularity: unranked [?]

  By Carolyn Slater

I’m back at the NBCU Blogger Lounge at the International CES thanks to a kind invite from my gracious NBCU hosts Jon Accarrino  @accarrino and Gia Pace @gpace. It’s a year later, ‘though it seems like a blink of an eye, but much has changed. CES is aglow with new products, new technologies and a new energy that only comes from an industry that is beginning to pull ahead after a trying economic year.  I’ve been to several CES’s before but trust me, this one is special.

One big change I’ve observed in particular is that social media is not new anymore and we now pretty much take it for granted that people are blogging, tweeting, and facebooking that they are at CES and what they’re seeing,  who they’re meeting and, as my colleague Lindsay (@LGatCEA) would say “what they are geeking out over”.

 Rick and Lindsay, my entourage at the NBCU Lounge

As I sit here trying to blot out the many distractions and focus my tired mind, Lindsay is tweeting and taking photographs and Rick (@rkowalski7)  is doubtless using his latest smartphone to check in with Foursquare and CES’s new Follow Me app.

CEA, the organization that produces the International CES achieved another CES first last night by hosting their very first official CES Tweet up.  We had a great time and it was so nice to put faces to the @ names and Tweeter icons – trust me not everyone looks exactly like their avatars! After the tweet up my colleagues and I enjoyed a casual dinner and reflected on how much fun we had at the tweet up and how well everyone mixed, networked and just hung out together.  Sometimes business networking events can be formal and awkward but apparently these folks put the “social” into social media.

It’s day three of the show and I hope you’re either here on-site or  enjoying vicariously from  the buzz about it via conventional media (NBCU, of course) or from your universe of twitter followers and bloggers. I also hope that, like me, you someday get to meet them in person.

Photos courtesy of Lindsay Goodman.

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By Guest Blogger Michael K. Powell, Co-Chair, Broadband for America

There is a sense of expectation and a level of excitement leading up to this year’s International CES which I believe has not been seen in a long time. The reason is simple−with the growing availability of broadband, more and more devices in the home can be brought online and their value enhanced. The hot tickets at this year’s show range from Internet-enabled televisions, to broadband-powered mobile HDTV devices, to ebook readers, to DVD players that stream content from the Internet.  Regardless of tough economic times, technology continues its relentless march forward.

This all highlights the continuing importance of getting high-speed, advanced broadband to everyone and every living room. Increasingly, if a consumer electronic device we use to entertain, inform or educate is not broadband-enabled, it’s second-rate. We should want everyone to have the opportunity to benefit from these innovations.

As an honorary co-chair of Broadband for America (BfA) http://www.broadbandforamerica.com/, I believe it is critical to draw attention to the need to bring high-speed Internet to every American so they can all have the same access to the products on display at CES. We believe it is critical government and the private sector work together, because in today’s economy, having access to broadband Internet is synonymous with growing our economy.

BfA represents a historic coming together of Internet service providers (ISPs), backbone providers, content providers, consumer groups, commercial groups, end-user organizations, and associations, all sharing the view that America should make broadband access to the Internet available to everyone.

Since its earliest days the Internet has provided entrepreneurs with a critical innovation platform. With the ubiquity of broadband within the past decade, new devices have led to new apps. New apps have led to new companies. New companies have led to new jobs. The Consumer Electronics Association’s hallmark CES is a peek into the future.  The CES speaks to the consumer technology industry, but in reality, communicates so much more.

Broadband for America (BfA) is a growing coalition of over 120 members ranging from independent consumer advocacy groups, to content and application providers, to the companies which build and maintain the Internet.  The complete BfA membership list is available at: http://www.broadbandforamerica.com/about/members

To learn more about the Honorable Michael K. Powell.

Popularity: unranked [?]

By Colleen Lerro

Not too many years ago we were only shooting in film. We had to wait until we dropped rolls of film off at the drug store to get them developed before we could see what we captured. That seems like such a distant memory now. Digital imaging has evolved so quickly and so much over the last few years, it’s really exciting to think about the endless possibilities that still lie ahead.

I sat in on a CES session yesterday called Beyond Point and Shoot: A Glimpse Into the Future of Digital Imaging. Katie Boehret of the Wall Street Journal moderated the session and panelists included representatives from SanDisk, Eye-Fi, Digital Benchmarks and Nikon.

What do you shoot your memories on? A DSLR, a point-and-shoot, or maybe your cell phone? The panelists agreed that all would continue to have a place. Imaging will never be one size fits all. The right device will depend on the end product you’re looking for. I have to agree as I take a ton of photos, but frequently rotate between my Canon XSi Rebel, Samsung Dualview point-and-shoot and my iPhone depending on the situation.

All agreed that wireless will be integral to the future of imaging. Not having to take the extra step of hooking the camera up to the computer to transfer my images sounds great to me. I also like the new tech we’re seeing in products like Kodak’s Slice, which lets you tag pictures on your camera for automatic uploading to email or Facebook once you transfer the images to your computer.

Video is here to stay, and the panelists noted that HD video showing up in $200 point-and-shoots is a big indicator of the level of convergence in tech today. Even as different methods of sharing photos and digital photo frames gain popularity, they still see prints having a place especially with the emergence of products like photobooks. Right now consumers want lots of features such as better zoom and touch screen, along with easy-to-use intuitive cameras that give them great pictures. Let me know what features matter most to you.

Things got interesting when they started talking about future possibilities. They noted the challenges of storing and archiving massive amount of digital photos. Then it got technical as they talked about the image sensor, which is currently flat, possibly becoming curved in the future. It could lead to endless design and shape possibilities for future cameras. Sounds like fun! What devices do you think we’ll be using in a decade for imaging?

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