What mattered most on CES Day 2
On the second official day of the Consumer Electronics Show, the stream of new product announcements hasn't quit. Here's the stuff we saw today that we think is worth knowing about.
LAS VEGAS--On the second official day of the Consumer Electronics Show, the stream of new product announcements has slowed, but it certainly hasn't stopped. The day also brought further details about some of the products we were introduced to earlier in the show. Here's the stuff we saw today that we think is worth knowing about.
First things first. Today we announced the finalists for the Best of CES Awards. Each one of these products is stellar and has impressed us by pushing their respective product categories forward. They're all worth reading about, so check them out. Then go vote for your favorite in our People's Voice Award. Get your vote in by 10:55 a.m. PT. We'll be announcing the winners at 11 a.m. on the CNET stage.
One of those nominees was the Fujifilm X Pro 1 point-and-shoot camera. It is potentially the most expensive mirrorless camera on the market, but CNET camera reviewer Lori Grunin says the X-Pro 1 backs up the high price with a promising new sensor and sleek design.
In a panel discussion yesterday, Amazon VP Bill Carr announced that the company had struck a deal to distribute UltraViolet films for a Hollywood studio, but that studio went unnamed. UltraViolet is the name of the five major film studios' effort to promote their vision of digital lockers and create the next-generation home-entertainment format. Today, we learned that filmmaker will be Warner Bros. The partnership is significant because when studios began releasing movies for UltraViolet last fall, there wasn't a single major Web retailer onboard. Having a behemoth like Amazon behind it could help get the format a foothold in the market.
TV time
Comcast today launched a free service for subscribers who want to watch live TV on their iPads. AnyPlay will let Comcast subscribers to both its TV and Internet services watch any channel or program already available through their regular TV lineup. The service will also allow a customer to watch a live show on their iPad while another family member watches something else on TV. It started off with a limited release. It's currently only available in Denver and Nashville, and it only works with iPads. However, Comcast says it soon will expand it to more cities and more devices--starting with the Motorola Xoom.
All the small things
Intel yesterday publicly laid out the plans for getting its chips into smartphones and tablets. Today we got a closer look at this technology in action. The chipmaker is already showing off its next-generation tablet technology for Windows 8 running on the Clover Trail Atom chip, which is due out in the second half of this year.
Sony tipped its hand as to the designs it has in the hopper. Contributing writer Christopher MacManus spotted a few prototype Vaio computers from Sony that had him drooling. One was a tablet with a separate keyboard, and the other was a hybrid tablet/notebook.
Today we got our hands on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Cell phone reviewer Jessica Dolcourt found that the Sprint version of the Galaxy Nexus has some advantages over its Verizon counterpart.
