CES scrapbook: Sights, sounds and general craziness
CES isn't just about shiny new gadgets. There's also the queues, the sore feet, the celebrity sightings and the straightout craziness
This is how CES began, with a queue for the pre-show press event. And this is only half the queue -- it wrapped round a corner and went on as far again in the other direction.
Here's mobile phone reviewer Andrew Lim trying to record a video about Fastap with a Cher lookalike draped around his shoulders.
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As well as televisions in elephants and baseballs, HANNspree was displaying this 42-inch plasma in a firetruck. It isn't a stock product, but might be available on special order.
As the Crave team queues for a humble taxi, other CES attendees climb into Jabra's stretch Hummer. They won't get to the show any time soon, though -- the roads leading to the Las Vegas Convention Center look more like car parks.
Our US colleagues Molly Wood, Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt record the Buzz Out Loud podcast from the CNET.com stage.
Here's the crème of the tech press, sitting on the floor in a corridor to eat lunch because there's no space left in the press room. It's a glamorous job...
Elvis is alive and well and working for Lexar, posing for photographs to demonstrate the performance of Lexar memory cards.
Darth Vader drops by the Nikko stand to check out its new projector...
...which looks like R2-D2 and comes with a remote control shaped like the Millennium Falcon. Unlike the film version, Nikko's R2-D2 can't project in 3D, but it does have a built-in DVD player and an iPod dock. And it's "the new force in home electronics".
Here's a man in a glass box demonstrating products on the Belkin stand, with a fish in a fishbowl to keep him company. Oh, the irony.
Qualcomm's stand featured a pit full of gravel and a load of retro technology -- because mobile phones have made standalone cameras, music players and computers obsolete. Allegedly.
Life's a beach at the Panasonic stand, with fake-tanned models on display for anyone who wanted to test the cameras and camcorders.
The Brother stand offered 'Creative Sewing Solutions', because machine embroidery is a big hit with the geek crowd.
Input/output specialist Iogear gets a special mention for having the lime-greenest stand.
And the Vonage girls get points for the most orange outfits -- and also for being all over the show, promoting free Internet calls.
Speaking of girls, the Adult Entertainment Expo takes place at the same time as CES, in an adjacent hall -- so you can start the day looking for Blu-ray Discs and end up with a blue movie.
Please tell us it's time to go home, before we start wearing cowboy boots and committing crimes against fashion. -ML