CES: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

CES
coverage is coming to close here at Gameriot and thus it is time for my overall
thoughts on the show and the “Slapnuts’ Best of CES Awards”.Hey if CNet can do It so can I.

So
let us start off with the good.Best in
show was like picking the least fat girl in a bar to take home.Overall the innovation at the show was
average at best.Where are the years
gone by of revolutionary products?Rockstar
and I have both discussed this and it seems like the show is becoming more
about companies tooting each other’s horns and patting on the back instead of
innovation and new concepts.With that
being said my award for best in show goes to Sony’s OLED display.OLEDs have been seen before but now with Sony
fully behind them and others surely on the way hopefully this technology
becomes mainstream and affordable soon here.
Watching their 27” OLED was incredible.
It actually looks better than your own vision, quite astonishing.

We
had other cool things at the show like the 150” plasma TV (like anyone we know
will ever own this), the rise of solid state hard drives, and Invisible Shield's
coming out party to the public (they make scratch proof iPod millimeter thick
skins, I have had one for over a year now).

The
bad, well I already started this rant.
The lack of innovation was the main issue I had.Intel had their Wimax technology out there at
the show but everyone kind of muttered a big “eh”.Where are the new CPU’s like their upcoming
Yorkfields?I saw more of them at other
vendor’s private shows than I did at Intel’s booth.

And
to top all this off I saw enough cell phone and iPod covers to give the entire
readership of Gameriot 5 each.It was
absurd.This crap doesn’t belong at CES
in these hole in the wall booths with various knock offs of other products.E is for Electronic, not plastic **** to wrap
your toys in.When I go to the auto show
in Detroit there aren’t displays full of car covers and sun shades.So why does this crap make it into CES?

And
last but surely not least the ugly.And
taking the crown this year is Las Vegas itself.
From absurd prices ($5 hot dogs, $3 water on the show floor, to jacked
up hotel rates just to stick convention goers), to long ass waits everywhere
(getting cabs, at the airport, food lines, etc), to the event being so spread
out it takes a concentrated effort to travel around town to get at all of
it.There have been rumblings that CES
has considered a move, rumors of maybe Chicago or Orlando.As much “fun” as Vegas can be I would be
happy with either one of those new choices.
Somewhere there is bound to be an infrastructure that can handle this
show and not cost everyone a fortune.

I
would like to thank you all who have tuned in for our CES coverage here at
Gameriot, and encourage you to check out some of my other coverage at
FPSLabs.

Tags:

CES, CES 2008

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