TechSpy at CES 2011

Hey everyone, We are back from CES and with lots of great pics and memories from The Consumer Electronics Show. First off let me apologize for the lack of coverage during the show...But the "Syko needs a new Laptop fund" came up a bit short. So thus the reason for the post-mortem coverage...If you were following us on Twitter (like you should have been), though, you got CES coverage as it happened.

CES Day 1 really boiled down to trying to take in the massive scale of the convention itself and get our bearings. This was no small task considering the sheer scope of CES. The show floor covers 3 massive buildings 2 of which are split level, compound this with hotels in the area also offering booths and it is the equivalent of trying to take in all of Disneyland in a few hours.

Day 1 we took a straight shot to some of the bigger tech such as Glasses free 3D TV's and Tablets. While companies like Toshiba and LG were offering up Glasses free TV tech it was actually a smaller company offering up the most amazing display without glasses.

http://www.ipont3d.com/ (iPont) Had a beautiful display that offered a depth effect that the other display's seem to lack, while there was a noticeable blur during motion it was far less blurry overall than the Toshiba or LG display's. Still, this technology is far from offering the depth that can be produced by current 3D Glasses technology. Also noticeable is the inability to produce that coming out of the screen effect the glasses are capable of.

An interesting and unexpected product really caught my eye (literally) in the Toshiba booth, though, a laptop with facial recognition technology that switched between 2D and 3D modes on the fly while tracking your eyes to optimize the effect. This little beauty was by far the shining jewel of this technology, which after seeing I understand exactly why cnet awarded it a "Best of CES" award. The horrible motion blur present on even the best glasses free display didn't seem to be as big a problem on the laptop.

I spoke with the Toshiba Rep and asked if it had to do with the smaller screen size or the tech driving the 3D effect itself...He responded by saying "I am not sure, but you are not the first person to mention this." Which I took as either this laptop was so new to the company, that he truly wasn't sure or it was an agreement that this was better tech than their TV's and a dodge of telling me that. Either way, I am very interested in seeing this develop and possibly even being integrated into the TV's in the future if it is indeed the tracking software that made the effect so much better.

Another Toshiba rep also mentioned that they are trying to get the glasses free TV's to market in 2012. In my opinion, they have quite a ways to go and I would be shocked if they had a market ready TV in that time frame.

As for the slates, tablets and phones...They had a very large presence at the show but nothing truly stood out above the rest. Some great tech I would love to have, but nothing incredibly over-the-top that made me think..."I need this NOW!!" Which is ironic coming from a guy currently without a laptop.

Day 2 had us scrambling to cover some of the more massive booths set up by Samsung, Sony, Panasonic and Microsoft to name a few. By far Samsung and Sony were the big players this year as their booths should have offered a shuttle service with a tour guide...Big would be the understatement of the year for these two.

As only Sony can do they had all bases covered. From MP3 to Imaging/Photos to Phones they had it all. Nothing was more clear then their dedication to 3D Technology; as soon as you hit the floor you had some lovely ladies handing you a pair of Real 3D style glasses with no explanation as to what they are for...Which you could quickly answer yourself as you looked up and noticed the Football Field sized display that they were pimping 3D out on.

Sony had perhaps the greatest TV design I have ever seen on display as well. Simply called "Monolithic Design" it was exactly that, straight out of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey - this thing was simply stunning. Sony described the concept behind the design as "On\Off presence" Meaning that the TV should look incredible even when you are not watching it. While On you get a great Sony TV picture. While off you feel the dynamic, elegant presence of a form that stands quiet and calm.

Samsung's focus was a bit more clear. TV's and even more to the point, wafer thin LED TV's. As soon as you moved into Samsung territory you were greeted by a paper thin 75" LED 3D TV that was simply stunning. If you has opulence, then you will have this TV. Truly the things dreams are made of. The rest of the Samsung booth followed suit. TV's, TV's and more TV's.

Samsung also offered up some interesting display tech like and interactive white board which operate like a computer/giant note pad. It was really well implemented. Another beauty was the Nexus S phone running Gingerbread. It is currently available, but still great fun to play with.

Panasonic also was not shy about bombarding your eye space with more displays than humans are meant to look at. After following a few Panasonic signs around a corner you were greeted with a massive multi-display 3D symphony on a insane scale. Honestly, I am shocked this display didn't cause any photosensitive epilepsy episodes.

The 100 or so 3D TV's were all displaying images set to music that changed and were orchestrated like a symphony. It was a jaw dropping display sans glasses. Standing in front of it with the 3D glasses on would shake a man's soul to the core...and make you hate your old stupid TV at home.

DTS also debuted "Neo:X", their new 11.1 surround technology. Aimed at the home theater market this new way to experience cinema, music or gaming creates a semi-spherical sound field using an 11.1 speaker configuration adding height/wide speakers to create a natural, immersive, spacious and lifelike 3D surround sound. DTS was demoing the new technology and it falls into the "must experience" to fully understand how impressive the sound was, really feels like you are dropped into the middle of what is on the screen with a natural and impressive sound. DTS expects to ship in the second quarter of this year.

Ending Day 2 was a personal highlight, a run in with Tech journalist, podcaster, broadcaster and Chief TWiT Leo Laporte. Ever the consummate professional, He was every bit as cool and gracious as you would expect, even stopping in between filming for ABC and broadcasting on TWiT to take some photo's with me and snoop_dizzle.

Day 3 saw us wandering off the beaten path and checking out some of the hotel booths at the Venetian. The booths consisted of mainly High End Audio equipment including THIEL, Vento, EMM Labs and McIntosh. As well as some impressive ASUS gear.

Not really too much to report on the high end audio front other than, wow these sound amazing and you need to hear it for yourself to understand the amazing sound quality that was on display all over the venue.

ASUS had some great PC tech on display as well as some award winning products like their Eee Slate EP121, RT-N66U Router and CROSSHAIR IV EXTREME Motherboard.

Another great ASUS Motherboard featured the ability to control every Board setting via Mobile phone (iOS, WP7 and Android all supported) was shown off and a great feature for the enthusiast.

(Day 4) Today, comprised of merely a run through of anything we wanted to take another look at or get all touchy feely' with...Then it was time to leave the bright lights of Sin City and return home.

If you guys have any questions or comments about our time at the show please let us know in the comment section.