CES 2006: our top ten gadgets

So the delegates have gone home, the halls are emptying and yes, Gates (and Elvis) have left the building. The gadget fest that was CES 2006 is now history. Yet before we bury it for good here's our list of the ten best gadgets to emerge at the show (in no particular order).

CES 2006: Speck's iPod goodies

Remember Speck Products - the company behind the iGuy that cute little iPod holder? Well turns out the company has shed loads of iPod related stuff from see though plastic case to audio cables. The big story at CES is the forthcoming launch of the Mobile 3in1 an in car unit accompaniment for your fave Apple player. The device, which is designed to work with the nano, features an FM transmitter so you can hear the tunes on your car radio while powering it via a lead to your car's battery. There are no details on price yet.

The company also has the Mobile Tune a $59.99 transmitter for the iPod which is a great deal more stylish than most of its rivals. Both models apparently pause and power down the iPod when you pull the keys from your car and apparently recharge the iPod at twice the speed of other systems. They will be arriving in the UK soon too as Speck says that FM transmitters of this type will soon be legal here. Interesting.

CES 2006: ThunderEyes MP3 shades

Top tip for next year, absolutely everyone will be touting shades with built in techy features. And I'll bet a lot will look like the ThunderEyes. The vanilla version of the shades, which features a built in MP3 player has been on sale for a few months now. At CES though the company unveiled the latest update which also includes Bluetooth for hooking up to your phone. We couldn't find out where it offers wireless streaming of music from a mobile, but for the moment we are presuming it doesn't. The shades sports between 128Mb and One Gigabyte of flash memory, features an integrated mic and voice recorder and apparently deliver up to eight hours of playing time. No indication of price yet.

CES 2006: Philips portable DVD player

Most supposedly portable DVD players are quite bulky beasts that aren't great for carrying around for long periods of time. However, Philips has come up with a new lightweight design. Essentially the PET320 looks like a traditional portable CD player, but with a 3.5inch 320 x 240 pixel screen built into the disc cover.

Expected to cost $129 in the US (UK prices to be decided), it comes with built-in stereo speakers and a composite video input. It also offers up to 2.5 hours playback with rechargeable battery. Philips also showed a 10inch portable DVD player at CES in Las Vegas. The PET1002 offers DivX, MPEG4 playback and boasts five hour battery life. It will retail in the US for $399. Philips

CES 2006: Solio goes pink

Here's one that's sure to get those Shiny Shiny laydeez excited: a pink Solio. Originally only available in white, the Solio now comes in two different finishes of the girl-friendly colour. As you may remember, the iSolio is an environmentally-friendly gadget that uses solar power to keep your iPod charged up (it recently scooped second place for Hippy Shopper's Green Gadget of the year award ). At CES iSolio also showed special jackets made out of inner tube tyres found from landfill sites.  Solio

CES 2006: Elesken foldable display

British smart fabric firm Eleksen are an interesting company (and not just because they gave us a free bag with built in iPod controls for visiting their stand at CES in Las Vegas, one of the better freebies at the show). Eagle-eyed readers may remember they produced the controls for the O'Neill solar bag which we featured on sister site Hippy Shopper recently. Now they've come up with a foldable Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard which you can use with your smart phone/PDA.

CES 2006: Golf Launchpad for PS2

Practise your golf swing at home without endangering the lives of any family members or pets. A golf simulation game, Launchpad is now available for the PS2 as well as the PC, priced 149 pounds. It's compatible with a number of golfing games including Tiger Woods Golf, Microsoft Links and Sony HotShots Golf 4. It works by using a series of eight opti cal sensors on the supplied green and you can use it conjunction with any of your golf clubs

CES 2006: Dell Ultrasharp 30" Widescreen monitor

Announced alongside the XPS 600 Renegade über-PC is this: the Dell 3007WFP, which threatens to do the same for monitors as the Renegade is meant to do for gaming. Admittedly this kind of hardware is probably going to be found in 3D graphics design studios rather than sitting on the average computer user's desktop, but it is still pretty exciting. It is capable of resolutions up to 2560 x 1600, though for that you'll a special kind of graphics card that supports WQXGA, and despite its immense size still offers a none too shabby 700:1 contrast ratio and 11ms response time. Amazingly this beauty is already up on the Dell website to buy, albeit for the princely sum of $2,199.

via I4U

CES 2006: Thompson gyration Media Center remote

Having used a Gyration mouse with a Media Center PC recently, I can vouch for the fact that they're a pretty neat innovation. This Windows-licensed remote control is therefore another step in the right direction if it can offer the decent mouse pointer precision of Gyration technology and the easy functionality of Windows Media Center controls all on the same device. Details are a little bit scarce but what we know is that it has a range of 100 feet, can be programmed to control other home appliances using infrared and will cost around $149 when it launches in April.

via Gizmodo

More CES Media Center news
Dell's 20 inch notebook
Intel announces deal with Google

CES 2006: AEGIA PhysX card is back

Mid-way through 2005, these PhysX cards seemed set to be the next big thing in PC gaming. Then, perhaps in part due to their association with the woeful Bet On Soldier title, they seemed to just drop off the map. Now they're back and still touting the same graphical performance leap as before and with the possibility of actually going on sale in the near future. For a quick recap, the AEGIA PhysX card takes over the complicated physics processing normally handled by your CPU and GPU, basically freeing up the two to give you not only an improved frame rate in games, but also dramatically enhanced physical events that greatly improves realism. They should be on sale sometime in the first quarter of this year.

via The Inquirer

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