CES 2007's biggest vaporware
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>> Hi, I'm Molly Wood from CNET.com. The Consumer Electronic Show is just around the corner, CES 2008. Every year we get a sneak peak there, the hottest, most awesome [inaudible] gadgets on earth. And every year, a handful or more of those gadgets never actually make it to the stores. So, in preparation for CES 2008 I'm taking a look back at a few of the biggest vaporware disappointments from 2007. First stop, SlingCatcher. It was gonna be awesome. A set top box that will let you send your web content to a TV screen and stream content around your house. Like SlingBox in reverse, or like Apple TV if that was cool. They said.
This is the SlingCathcher should be available sometime in mid-2007, $200 and this is always from Sling, no subscription fees.
And yet, no sign of it. Maybe it's related to that mystery hard drive.
One intriguing feature here is that the SlingCatcher has an optional hard drive. That's this unit right here on the bottom, which you can see will be detachable. Now, Sling hasn't told me exactly what the plan is for this external hard drive, but they say, they are talking to some media companies and internet video companies about possibly someway some way to capture some content and keep it with you or take it with you when you're traveling.
Okay, next vaporware, one of our best of CES awards winners the Dash Express GPS. Remember this? It was that like internet connected GPS device that will talk to other Dash device on the road and give you real-time traffic information and Yahoo logo for points of interest. They said.
Now, this device should be available across the United States around Labor Day. It will cost $600 to $800 and all of those internet connected features come as part of a subscriptions service. And that will bring you another $13 to $15.
Next stop, another one of our best of CES winners, Powercast technology. Remember this crazy sounding stuff that harvest RF energy and uses it for wireless power? Awesome, right? Now they didn't promise us a release date or anything, but their CEO has talked about delivering millions of devices by 2008. And the only product I can find is this Christmas tree. Where is my drawer-full of wirelessly charging gadgets. And finally, in this one actually bum me out the most, Philips Wireless HDMI. I mean wireless HDMI over RF to replace one clunky cable at a time. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up though because it was pretty clear they had a long way to go. But still they said.
>> This is still a prototype product, so as you can see this is what Philips still has to shrink into this little receiver right here before August. They say it's gonna be $299 and even though it's only meant to replace one cable you can have multiple of these wireless HDMIs in your home for different TVs.
>> Okay you know what Philips, I have got my credit card ready, you just go ahead and get that one out the door, okay. Now, this is all a very good lesson for this year's CES, that seems too awesome to be true, it probably isn't coming out anytime soon. For CNET.com, I'm Molly Wood and hey, I'll see you in Vegas.
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