From a palm-size DJ studio to a monitor that lets mute people make telephone calls, hot gadgets headed for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) floor had early debuts on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
While the world’s premier gizmo extravaganza doesn’t officially get under way until Thursday, reporters got glimpses at CES innovations during an Unveiled event in a Las Vegas conference center.<\/p>\n
Taiwan-based MSI showed off a unique "hybrid" netbook that combines solid state and conventional disk drives in a power-sipping, tough, mini-laptop designed for simple computer tasks and getting on the Internet.<\/p>\n
Netbook offerings are expected to be among major themes at this year’s CES, which runs through Sunday.<\/p>\n
"It’s unbelievably light," MSI spokesman Mark Olson said as he balanced a hybrid netbook on his palm.<\/p>\n
"It’s a great computer for a student to take notes or to take on a business trip. It’s all about affordability and light weight."<\/p>\n
The MSI U115 netbook weighs 2.6 pounds and will sell for $500 or less, according to Olson.<\/p>\n
Near the MSI display, Sweden-based Tonium showed off a sleek black Pacemaker device that is essential a handheld music DJ studio.<\/p>\n
"We put everything a DJ works with into this," Tonium supply chain head Richard Hernemyr said as he cradled a Pacemaker in one hand. "You can play with music, work as a DJ, or just share with friends."<\/p>\n
A circular touchpad lets users mix tunes with simple finger strokes and software in the device automatically synchs beats of songs being blended or manipulated.<\/p>\n
"You really don’t have to know how to beat-match," Hernemyr said. "It does it for you."<\/p>\n
Pacemakers will be priced at $550 when they become available here in March or April, according to Tonium.<\/p>\n
LG Electronics proudly displayed a wireless 55-inch LHX flat-screen television that US marketing head Marc Sorkin says combines all of the South Korean company’s best technology.<\/p>\n
The high-definition LCD television, still in development, gets content beamed to it from a small box that can be hidden out of sight. The LHX should be less than an inch thick when the final design is produced, Sorkin said.<\/p>\n
"This may be the thinnest LCD television on the market when it comes out," Sorkin said. "We are trying to achieve this piece of art that really blends on a wall."<\/p>\n
The LHX should be in production in 2010, according to LG USA.<\/p>\n
A pair of US companies at Unveiled has devices to enable people relying on sign language to communicate with those that rely on spoken words.<\/p>\n
A picture-frame size VPad equipped with a computer screen and a Web camera streams video of a person speaking in sign language to interpreters who then act as translators during telephone calls.<\/p>\n
"I’m deaf," Viable’s Glenn Lockhart signed while explaining how VPad’s work. "If I want to call my grandmother, she is 88 years old, we can’t talk on the phone. With this, I can chat with her."<\/p>\n
VPad’s are priced at $699 and the translation service is free.<\/p>\n
Krown Manufacturing has built a device people can use for face-to-face translation from sign language to spoken words.<\/p>\n
Users type sentences using a touch-screen keyboard on the handheld device about the size of an iPhone and it is instantly depicted in sign language on a video screen.<\/p>\n
The device currently has a vocabulary of 3,500 words with more to come.<\/p>\n
"This can help bridge the communications gap," said Karen Stearns of Krown.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, TriSpecs showed of sunglasses with built-in ear buds and Bluetooth circuitry to relay music or conversations wirelessly from MP3 players or mobile telephones to wearers.<\/p>\n
Ian Chisholm of Interactive Toy Concepts sported camouflage fatigues as he took aim at a flying toy duck with a plastic gun that fires signal beams.<\/p>\n
"You hit is once; you hit it twice," Chisholm said. "The third time you hit it, it is going to fall from the sky."<\/p>\n
In a sign that CES is continuing an Earth friendly green theme that took root last year, top-ranked innovations include environmentally-sensitive "EnviroMax" batteries from Fuji.<\/p>\n
The alkaline batteries, slated to hit the market in April, are made of recyclable materials and contain no cadmium or mercury.<\/p>\n
"People threw away 10 billion batteries last year," said Jeff Kreidenweis, a Fuji spokesman. "If we have to do it let’s get the right stuff in the landfills out there."<\/p>\n
Undaunted by global economic turmoil, some 2,700 makers of televisions, computers, mobile telephones, chips and other technological wares will tout their latest innovations at the 2009 International CES from January 8-11.<\/p>\n
Added to the mix will be studios that make films, television shows, and music delivered digitally to devices increasingly tied to the Internet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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