First of all, Happy New Year!
The unexpectedly cold end to 2009 has turned into an unexpectedly snowy start to 2010. But there’s one place it definitely isn’t snowing: the CES 2010! This consumer-electronics trade fair takes place in sunny Las Vegas in January every year, giving technology buffs from all over the northern hemisphere a great excuse to jet off and escape the sub-zero mayhem back home – including Televisions.com’s editor-in-chief, Florian Friedrich.
Philips' PVD-900 is a portable TV with multimedia capabilities.
It’s still two days before the show kicks off, but the announcements have started pouring in. Philips, for example, is taking the opportunity to showcase a number of its products, some of which are actually already available. Included is the PVD900, for example, a portable LCD TV with an integrated DVB-T tuner and multimedia capabilities. They’ve also got two portable DVD players, the PET749 and PD703, which, again, have built-in DVB-T tuners.
Samsung has announced that it plans to use RealD’s 3D technology in its 3D TVs; this follows similar announcements last month by Sony and JVC and raises hopes for a standardised 3D TV format. No doubt Samsung will put some of this gadgetry on show at its trade-fair booth in the coming days. As you’ve undoubtedly heard, 3D looks set to dominate the show’s headlines this year. For example, US-based semiconductor manufacturer Sigma Designs says it plans to demonstrate a range of 3D graphics technologies at its stand in the Las Vegas Hilton.
Skype's familiar software will soon be available on your TV.
But there are other things going down in the desert this year: We’ve also heard from video-calling service Skype that its technology will soon appear in LG and Panasonic HDTVs – and will support 720p video, no less! This is exciting news, and you can be sure the demonstrations of the technology will also attract a great deal of attention at the CES.
All in all, it looks set to be an interesting year, and organisers will probably be hoping that the hype surrounding 3D technology will bump up attendance figures – last year’s show saw a 22 percent reduction in visitors since 2008.