A new Hewlett-Packard tablet computer, a BlackBerry projector and the motion-controlled Xbox Natal were just some of the products announced on the second day of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The new announcements come as thousands of attendees, along with dozens of electronics manufacturers, converge on the city to promote some of the most anticipated products of the year for the tech industry.
The biggest event of the day was Microsoft’s press conference, in which it announced two major products – a tablet computer from Hewlett Packard and a release date for the motion-controlled Xbox Natal technology.
Chief executive Steve Ballmer announced the tablet device, saying it was a gadget “that’s almost as portable as a phone and that’s as powerful as a PC running Windows 7”.
“I’m running Kindle software for the PC on it, it lets me flip through the book using touch, I can experience the book in full colour, I can buy and download more content from Amazon with this application.”
The device itself is about as large as an A4 piece of paper, with a silver edging. While Ballmer didn’t show much of the device apart from the Kindle software, it is suspected HP is saving many of the details until its release in the middle of the year.
Ballmer also announced Microsoft’s Bing would be the default search engine, with MSN to be set as the default home page. However, the device left the technology world wanting more, with both Microsoft and HP shares falling yesterday on Wall Street.
While the computers feature touchscreens and relatively fast processors, analysts noted there was nothing new in the hardware that had not been pioneered by earlier tablets. Many commented the disappointing outcome left room for Apple to excite the market with an expected release of its own device later this month.
The lack of an announcement regarding Windows 7 Mobile also left attendees disappointed.
But the next announcement from Microsoft entertainment and devices division president Robbie Bach was the highlight of the day, when he said the Xbox Natal software would be released in time for the 2010 Christmas season.
The technology was actually announced last year at the E3 conference, but no details on its release have been given until now. The gadget, which connects to a normal Xbox 360 console, allows users to control games with full body movement.
This differs from the motion controls featured on the Nintendo Wii console, which require movements from physical controllers in order to register in-game activity.
But while Bach also announced a number of new titles coming to the Xbox, he would not divulge much on the development process for the Natal.
Another product gaining a lot of attention was the BlackBerry Presenter, a gadget which connects to a handset in order to project PowerPoint presentations onto a flat surface.
“BlackBerry Presenter equips mobile professionals with a simple, secure and convenient way to deliver presentations directly from their BlackBerry smartphone, giving them the freedom to leave their laptops behind,” RIM vice president of product management Glenn Laxdal said in a statement.
Users simply hook up their device to the projector, which has both VGA and S-Video outputs, with support for resolutions of 640×480, 800×600 or 1024×768.
Andre Iannuzzi, head of marketing at Hisense Australia, says the mood at the conference is an exciting one, with many companies eager to release new products compared to last year’s low-key event.
“I think generally the new technology is making things exciting. 3D is obviously the big winner, and there’s a lot of new hardware, and we are joining that by releasing 3D technology in the second half of the year in Australia.”
“The biggest thing is the speed at which the content for these devices is flowing through. A lot of the talk before the conference was about that it might take a while for 3D content and what not, but now there’s so much technology out there people are taking advantage of it.”
Iannuzzi also says consumers should be eager to adopt new 3D technology, saying it isn’t just for movies but for day-to-day viewing.
“When you haven’t seen it, I understand that, but when you see it in person it’s something you can quickly grasp and gives you a lot more depth and realism. A lot of that commentary was the same for HD, and then you see people watching the news in HD now… so 3D is just adding an extra layer of depth.”
The CES has also been an exciting time for the handset market, with Palm announcing two updated versions of its WebOS phones, the Palm Pre Plus and the Pixi Plus.
While these handsets are already available on the market, these two updates will now feature updated user interfaces, more internal memory, Wi-Fi capability, customisable back covers and video capture support.
Meanwhile, other manufacturers such as Samsung, LG and Toshiba are busy giving demonstrations of their new 3D television sets, while companies including Plastic Logic and Hearst & Sprint are debuting new eReader gadgets.
The CES will continue over the next few days.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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