Hasta La Gadget!

LAS VEGAS — When will ugly power cables become a relic of the past? Not today, but a company at Consumer Electronics Show this week demonstrated some major progress toward achieving the dream of wireless power.

Powermat’s wireless power system, which goes by the same name as the company, isn’t exactly wireless. More precisely, the mat has a single power cord to connect to an outlet, and by placing gadgets on the mat, you can charge them — regardless of their voltage. We won’t be tossing our cables in the recycling bin any time soon, but Powermat’s offering is still very impressive nonetheless.

In this episode of Gadget Lab video, I speak with Powermat president Ron Ferber, who provides an in-depth explanation of how his company’s technology works. (Spoiler: No, it’s not magic, but it sure looks like it.)

For more video from Wired.com, go to www.wired.com/video. For more up-to-the-minute news from the floor of CES 2009, visit www.wired.com/ces.

Video: Producer – Annaliza Savage. Camera – John Ross. Editor – Michael Lennon / Wired.com

I think Chinese companies may have officially jumped the shark, regarding Wiimote adapters. Swords, OK. Tennis Rackets, sure. Hey, I can even get behind Wiimote crossbows. But a company called Top-Union, based inf Shenzhen, has gone a bit too far.

On display in the CES International Hall were these two items, which appear to be Wiimote maracas and a Wiimote soprano sax. The latter has apparently been released in eager anticipation of the as-yet-unconfirmed Nintendo Wii Kenny G game.

The kids are gonna go nuts over that one.

SIM2 never fails to stun, and it’s proving yet again that it couldn’t care less about the global economic situation (or that it just aims at a class of people that are simply unaffected) with the Grand Cinema HT5000E. Said device was actually outed yesterday courtesy of an HDGiants pair-up, but today we’re being gifted with the official details. The three-chip DLP beamer includes a trio of 0.95-inch DarkChip4 DMDs, a 1,920 x 1,080 native resolution, six lens options, Ethernet jack for remote control and world-class color uniformity / edge-to-edge focus capabilities. Yeah, it’ll cost you more than most vehicles and even some diminutive homes at $57,995, but at least the white glove delivery service is included. A true bargain, let us tell you. Full release is after the break.

Continue reading SIM2 aims high with $58,000 Grand Cinema HT5000E DLP projector

Filed under: CES, HDTV, Home Entertainment

SIM2 aims high with $58,000 Grand Cinema HT5000E DLP projector originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey, cube dwellers — call your manager over and give him / her a look at this, because starting today, conference calling will never be the same. From what we can tell, this is the world’s first Atom-powered telephone, and also the first telephone we’ve seen in years that we would joyously park in our own living rooms. OpenPeak’s ProFrame is an all-in-one conglomerate that handles VoIP calling and offers up a 7-inch touchscreen panel and “an intuitive navigation menu for easy access to contacts, instant messaging, voicemail, calendar, call logs, memos, news, stocks, weather, and many other useful services.” Sure, this critter was totally designed with the hospitality industry in mind, but don’t tell us this couldn’t be molded into a wicked widgets portal for the home.

Filed under: CES, Misc. Gadgets

OpenPeak intros Atom-powered ProFrame VoIP phone originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LAS VEGAS — Samsung’s booth at CES 2009 is huge. So huge that, when I turned up early to take a look at the new cameras, I still ended up 10 minutes late for my appointment. But there are some advantages to being a company that makes, well, everything. For instance, it means that the company can stuff 64 whole gigabytes of solid state storage into one of its camcorders. That’s enough to record 12 hours of HD video (although you’ll need to take three spare batteries to do it).

This seems to be a trend at CES this year — Canon, too has a Hi-Def, high-capacity camcorder in the 32GB HF S10, and camcorders in general are making a comeback against the video-capable digicam. Why? I asked a Samsung representative and he’s convinced that rising camcorder sales are being driven by the adoption of hi-definition TVs. You have that big, beautiful display and your old standard def cam just wont cut it.

So how is the HMX-H106? It has a touch screen to control it although
thankfully there is still a real red button to record. The camera will
also shoot 4.7 megapixel still and even has a built in flash.

Specs aside, the thing that is really getting people excited is the
hand-grip (seen below). It swivels. This means that you can shoot
normally, with the strap comfortably caressing your hand, but then the
whole assembly, strap and all, can be twisted.

This means you can change your grip without removing the strap from
your hand. It sounds simple, and it is. The Samsung guy at the stand
even said that it "probably only took around five minutes of R&D
time". But, apparently, people love it. It’s like Photobooth on the
Mac. It’s easy and junky but it has sold many a computer.

Price? Take a guess. Samsung, like everyone else, is waiting until
these ship to see if the economy has recovered enough to allow them to
overcharge. In fact price is generally the most noticeable thing at CES
this year. Nobody is wiling to commit to pricing gear that might not be
in stores for another six months.

Press release [Samsung]

See Also:

• Canon Shows 32GB Hi-Def Camcorder
• Samsung Packs 64GB SSD into Sleek Cylindrical Camcorder