2010 CES

IoSafe goes extreme with disaster-proof hard drive

LAS VEGAS--What are the odds that you pour red wine on your laptop causing it to lose data? Quite likely; I've seen it happen. Now, what are the odds that your hard drive gets run over by a 35,000-pound excavator after it has endured heat of thousands of degrees for about 10 minutes and then been hosed down by cold water? Very unlikely, really.

However, that's exactly how far ioSafe, the company that makes disaster-proof storage devices, was willing to go to show how its new Solo SSD external hard drive can withstand even the most destructive … Read more

Closer look at the Casio Brigade

Even though we first heard of the Casio Brigade at CTIA Fall 2009, we didn't get a chance to take a look at it until CES 2010. The Brigade is Casio's first foray into messaging phones, and like its other G'zOne handsets, the Brigade is military-certified to be resistant to shock, water, fog, dust, and more.

The Brigade is a hefty device that measures 4.44 inches tall by 2.21 inches wide by 0.97 inches thick and weighs 5.49 ounces. It's clad in a very thick rubber material, which adds to its durability. … Read more

Beats Solo by Dr. Dre go RED

Never accuse headphone and cable manufacturer Monster of being subtle, because you'd be proven wrong in a hasty fashion. True to form, the company trotted out both Lady Gaga and Dr. Dre on the show floor at CES this year. The shock popper and rap mogul were there to introduce the latest addition to the Beats by Dr. Dre line, a special edition pair of the Beats Solo HD.

Monster and the musicians have teamed up with RED, a business model designed to help the Global Fund, which is best known for its efforts to fight AIDS in Africa. … Read more

Gracenote enhances music search for Mitsubishi

LAS VEGAS--A 2011 Mitsubishi Outlander anchored one corner of Gracenote's booth at CES, serving to demonstrate the car's new Fuse media gateway. Similar to Ford's Sync, Fuse lets users hook up an MP3 player or USB drive and ask the car to play music by saying an artist or album name. Unlike Sync, which is based on Microsoft's automotive platform, Fuse comes from Johnson Controls, giving automakers another option when offering this type of voice command capability.

Gracenote's part in this system is its phonetic database of artists and albums, which makes the voice recognition … Read more

LG's global smartphones make a showing

LAS VEGAS--LG doesn't have much of a smartphone presence here in the U.S., but it does have quite a number of them in Europe and Asia. Here at CES 2010, we finally gotten the chance to take a closer look at these unattainable devices. We've compiled a photo gallery showcasing the two Android smartphones (the LG GW620 and the LG GT540), and two Windows Mobile ones (LG GW550 and the LG GM750).

Though we didn't have a chance to get a hands-on with the recently announced LG GW990, we did get a shot of it behind … Read more

Westinghouse debuts new HDTV lineup

LAS VEGAS-So apparently there's this new technology called LED? Has anyone heard of this? Doesn't really matter. The LED train is moving and moving fast. You're either on it or under it. At least that's what a PR rep said to to me today and I'm inclined to believe him.

Westinghouse's newest display lineup consists eight models ranging from 24-inch to 55-inch screen sizes. According to the company, each is about one-inch thick at the TV's visible edges. Also, the acrylic neck of each model's stand is illuminated with an understated red … Read more

Samsung TicToc offers tunes for tweens

I have to hand it to Samsung this year, because it really is throwing out some unique (if a little wacky) MP3 players. First, it showed off a MyFit MP3 player that includes metal skin probes to measure your body fat. Then there's the Ice Touch, with its transparent touch screen OLED display. And finally, the TicToc, an MP3 player for children that looks like a miniature lipstick tube designed by a team of fairy princesses.

Samsung is tight-lipped on price and availability, but we do know that the TicToc will come in 2GB and 4GB capacities, and in … Read more

Decipher your car's idiot light with CarMD

LAS VEGAS--A new version of the CarMD device and service was released here at CES. Like RepairPal and DriverSide, CarMD now has a database of common repairs for most modern (post-1996) cars, including price ranges and do-it-yourself instructions for some of them.

What makes CarMD different is its hardware: There's a probe that attaches to your car's diagnostic port (it's probably under the dash). The probe reads data from your car's computer. It will display simple info on its LEDs and LCD screen, and if you connect it your computer (via USB) it can tell you … Read more

A squeezable concept mouse called Suma

LAS VEGAS--The Cambridge Consultants booth at CES showcased several concept designs by the company. One that caught our attention was the Suma platform, a squeezable interface technology that promises to offer users a more interactive way to talk to computers.

As shown in the picture above, the Suma platform acts like a layer of skin that can detect different points of pressure in a 3D environment. This information is then translated into usable information by the computer software.

Cambridge Consultants believes the technology can be used in various industries, from medical and industrial to arts and music. The company demonstrated … Read more

Dialed In Podcast 109: Live from CES 2010

We're all back together again as one big, happy cell phone family here in Las Vegas to cover CES 2010. There have been a few mobile announcements at the show, but the most talked about handset launched right before we got here. Yes, we're talking about the Nexus One. We dive into the Google phone as well as dish the details on the latest CES launches, including the Palm Pre Plus, LG Lotus Elite, and Motorola Backflip, all on this week's episode of Dialed In, Las Vegas edition.

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