Digital Experience is one of the most popular preview events at the Consumer Electronics Show, because it gives media people (like myself) the ability to get a sneak peek at a wide range of products that may not have been released into the market yet. CES 2008 is taking place this week in Las Vegas, infiltrating such places as the Las Vegas Convention Centre and the Wynn Hotel, but it was over at Caesar’s Palace that journalists and bloggers gathered for Digital Experience, soaking in as much of CES as they could in about a three-hour span.
Naturally, it is impossible to cover everything that every company had on display at the fun-filled adventure, but we did manage to come across some rather notable highlights in between the free food and open bar. Here a few products that caught our eye.
iRobot Looj Automatic Gutter Cleaner
I realize that the Looj from iRobot is not the most typical of products that you’ll find on the CES trade show floor, but it is for exactly this reason that the automatic gutter cleaner grabbed our attention. The Looj was designed by the same people that brought us the Roomba automated vacuum cleaner.
You may have heard about the Roomba. The round device is able to roam around just about any room, sucking up the dirt, dust, and crumbs that you left behind, automatically surveying the entire surface area for whatever tidbits you happened to leave behind. The Roomba certainly made vacuum cleaning a heck of a lot more convenient.
The iRobot Looj follows in the same kind of philosophy, except it is geared toward gutter cleaning. Looking like a green tank from hell, this device comes with a pair of tank-like treads on either side, and then on the front, you get a spinning device with a powerful brush and a foam flicker. Better still, it comes with a wireless remote that doubles as a removable handle! The Looj is waterproof in up to one foot of water and it cleans an 80-foot section of gutter in 10 minutes.
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SwissGear Notebook Cooler with Arms and Fan
Keeping your laptop nice and cool can be quite a bit of a challenge, but it gets even harder to accomplish when you start looking at the bigger units in the market, especially those 19-inch behemoths that can’t seem to fit on any stand on the market. Fear not, monster notebook owners, because SwissGear has come to the rescue with a notebook cooler that spreads its wings into the upper echelons of laptop size.
The GA-6216 and the GA-6298 Notebook Coolers from SwissGear — the only difference between the two is that the latter comes with a USB hub, whereas the former lacks this functionality — have these funky arms that jut out the sides, effectively letting you expand into the larger end of laptops. There are two active fans in the center of the device, feeding cool air into the bottom of your portable computer.
When not in use, these extendable arms can retract into the glossy red body, making the SwissGear Notebook Cooler reasonably portable for anyone who happens to be on the road (say, at a trade show in Las Vegas or something). At the top of the laptop cooler is the pop-up USB hub that you’ll find on the SwissGear GA-6298.
In terms of pricing, the base SwissGear GA-6216 Notebook Cooler with Arms & Fan retails for $34.99, whereas the GA-6298 goes for a penny shy of $50. A variation is also available in pink for the ladies.
XtremeMac Luna X2 iPod Speaker Dock Alarm Clock
I’m generally been pleased with the XtremeMac line of iPod accessories, but the first Luna speaker dock didn’t fare so well in our first review. I guess the folks at XtremeMac were listening, because the company representative said that they’ve implemented all sorts of upgrades and updates into its aptly-named successor, the XtremeMac Luna X2.
You get basic stuff like a wireless remote, iPod speaker dock, and monochrome display on the front, but they’re quick to point out that this device is more than “just an alarm clock”; it is also a “high-performance room audio system designed to provide you with the perfect sleeping and waking environments.” Other notables include two full-range precious speakers, full iPod connectivity, AM/FM radio, and an auxiliary line-in jack.
Alienware Ultra-Wide Curve Display
Even though Alienware is technically owned by Dell these days, the firm is still keeping with its hardcore gaming roots, providing the most enthusiastic of computer game players with the absolute best equipment imaginable. One of the more impressive products at CES 2008’s Digital Experience had to be the formidable Alienware Curve Display, which you could say is two 19-inch LCDs shoved next to one another.
As its preliminary name implies, the Curve Display has a definite curvature to it. The idea is that the gamer (or photo editor, as the case may be), is full ensconced in their virtual environment. If you’re interested in resolution, you’ll be happy to hear that this technology fully supports a full 2800 x 900 resolution, which is pretty much like putting two 1440 x 900 resolution displays next to one another.
The technology behind this glorious display is DLP projection, but it has also been paired with LED lighting to give you a brighter screen and an overall more enjoyable experience. The good news is that this gaming-centric monitor should be available on the market in the second half of this year, but Alienware has yet to come up with any sort of pricing. Let’s just say that if you have to ask about price, you probably don’t want this monitor.
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iLuv il255 Hybrid iPod/DVD Player
Doesn’t it suck when you can’t decide between watching a newly downloaded video on your Apple iPod and that hot new DVD that you scored at the local video store? No longer do you need to decide between the two competing formats, because both can be enjoyed on your increasingly expensive home theatre system, thanks to the iLuv il255.
On one side of things, you’ve got a standard iPod dock that’s been integrated right into the unit, working perfectly fine with everything from the iPod touch to the 3rd-generation iPod nano. It’ll also work with the iPod Classic and iPod Video (30GB, 60GB, 80GB). To make matters more interesting, the on-screen display is meant to mimic the iPod navigation menu.
On the other side of things is a standard DVD player that’ll take care of multiple subtitles, angles, and audio functions. While it has no trouble with VCD and MP3 CDs, the sad thing is that the iLuv il255 5.1 channel slim desktop iPod/DVD player has absolutely no love for DivX-encoded video files. Darn.
The initial version can go no higher than composite, but an HDMI-equipped edition is being planned for April 2008.
Just the Tip of the CES Iceberg
The Consumer Electronics Show has seen the official debut of all sorts of innovative products and I fully expect this year’s show to be no exception. Digital Experience at Caesar’s Palace provided me with just a glimpse into what to expect at the rest of the exhibition and we can only imagine with the big dogs have in store of us. We’ll find out soon enough, as we trek up and down the Las Vegas strip this week for CES 2008.
For more pictures and products from this event, check out the Futurelooks CES 2008 PEPCOM Digital Experience Photogallery.
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