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Rory Cellan-Jones

Last Gadget Standing

  • Rory Cellan-Jones
  • 12 Jan 09, 10:56 GMT

Every year the Consumer Electronics Show ends with an event called Last Gadget Standing. For a show where global manufacturers spend vast sums on elaborate displays, this event is a curiously homespun, even amateur affair - a bit like a talent show at your local pub. But for me it's one of the best ways of working out where technology is heading.

Last Gadget StandingThe idea is that ten gadgets and their makers battle it out on stage in front of an excited audience. There are two winners, chosen by public acclamation (there's a high-tech clapometer in the hall) and by an online vote.

So here's a run-down of this year's finalists, with my personal take on them.

MSI Wind Netbook

First up, one of the many netbooks on display in Las Vegas this year. This one has a 10" screen but its USP is that it has a hybrid storage solution - part hard disk, part solid state drive. Its makers claim that gives it extraordinary battery life - up to 20 hours. Workmanlike, but dull.

Bug Labs Bug

Not satisfied with the gadgets that Apple or Sony are pushing your way? The idea of the Bug is that you can make your own. You start with the bug base which is a tiny Linux computer - then you can snap on a whole range of modules, including a camera, a keyboard, a motion detector, a 3g module and a tiny projector. So the presenter plugged together a device which would detect someone coming into your room, take a picture, email it, and project it on to the wall. Smart stuff.

Eye-Fi Video Card

Last year's winners of this event, with a wifi SD card that sends photos direct from your camera to the web. This year they returned with a product that does the same thing for video - and there were whoops in the hall as they brought a Johnny Cash lookalike on stage and beamed video of him direct to the web as he sang. But when I asked afterwards how long it would take to upload video, they admitted it could be hours on the kind of network most of us use. So why wouldn't you just transfer the video to your computer?

WowWee Joe Bot

The latest toy robot from this CES regular, Joe Bot responds to voice commands. He is also an example of why presenters should not work with children, animals - or robots. After first responding well to the command "dance for these good people, Joe", he then turned truculent and refused to cooperate. Having seen last year's WowWee robot on sale at less than half-price in a Las Vegas shop, I fear for Joe's future.

Motorola Zine ZN5

A cameraphone which boasts that it's a camera which happens to have a phone attached. The Brummie presenter from Motorola did a great job of selling it and the pictures did look very good but guys, in the end it's just another cameraphone.

T-Mobile Android G1

You may just have heard of this one - the first mobile phone to use Google's open source Android platform. The presenter did a good job, showing off the way the GI used Google's Streetview to navigate him around Las Vegas. But hey - we know about the G1 - where's the G2?

EmWave Personal Stress Reliever

From the wacky end of the gadget spectrum, this device is supposed to deal with all your stress - from putting the household budget on red at the casino, to trying to hit a deadline when you're eight hours behind London. As far as I understood the presenters, you put your thumb on it, which gives you a heart-rate variability readout, then you manage your breathing to synchronise it with your heart-rate. Confused? I was.

ClickFree USB Cable

This again left me somewhat confused. It's a USB device you plug in to your computer to make backup much simpler and less error-prone. But you still need an external drive for the data. Maybe it's me but I don't quite get it.

Flip Mino Video HD

The latest version of the tiny video camera with the big red button. Perfect for those who can't be bothered to fiddle with settings, but just want to shoot video on the spur of the moment. Rather more expensive, though, than some rivals unveiled at CES. And I'm not convinced that HD is what we want from budget camcorders.

LiveScribe Pulse

After seeing a fellow journalist using this computer-in-a-pen at the show, I was already impressed, and the presenters here showed it off really well. So you're at a press conference or lecture. You take notes with the pen, which also records audio, on special paper with microdots built in. If your shorthand, like mine, is non-existent, you'll look back at your notes and puzzle to understand them. But tap on any word you've written down, and your recording will replay at the exact same point in the lecture. Clever, really clever.

So take your pick. I was most impressed by Bug Labs Bug and by the LiveScribe Pen but, like the judges on Strictly Come Dancing, I was out of tune with the public. The online audience voted for the Emware stress reliever, while the hooters and the hollerers in the hall chose the Eye-Fi video card. As an American politician said after being voted out, "the people have spoken, the bastards."

Maggie Shiels

Free swag and break dancing at CES

  • Maggie Shiels
  • 12 Jan 09, 09:51 GMT

Regulars attending CES, the world's biggest consumer electronics show said that in order to survive the whole week of events, you had to pace yourself.

Naturally loose clothing (this comment is not at all influenced by the fact the Adult Entertainment Expo was in town at the same time as CES), comfortable shoes and plenty of water were a must for wandering the three different halls housing 2,700 exhibits.

matt_segway203.jpgBut if you were really smart like Matt, you would have brought your own personal Segway to help transport you up and down the 1.7m net square feet that the expo took up.

Matt admitted it was a boon because of a slightly dicky back, but also said it was a great conversation starter.

"While it's handy to get around, I am amazed at the number of people who have stopped me to talk about it. It's been an interesting way to make friends," he told me.

While CES was all about the world of electronics and plugging a product, entertainment was not very far away.

Hey - it is Vegas, after all - and everyone likes to put on a show. Even if you have to make it yourself.

Over at the HP stand, that was just what was expected.

Conference-goers were required to become movie makers and were given the chance to create five frames of a stop motion movie by moving the little stick man.

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The event was a partnership between HP and MTV's Engine Room series, where 16 kids from around the world live in a New York loft and showcase their creativity.

"We wanted to show off the creative side of HP and kind of get people to roll up their sleeves and get dirty with it," said Pete Conolly.

Those looking for a more energetic way to express themselves were given inspiration over at the Avid stage.

There Mark and Brett from the Rock Steady Crew, which was at the forefront of hip hop, were helping sell DJ products by gettin' down with some heavy moves.

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Alas, no takers from the CES crowd.

If you were looking for some light relief, every other exhibitor seemed to be staging some kind of Ultimate Rock Band/Guitar Hero event or mock "Jeopardy!" show - much, I am sure, to the horror of the real presenter Alex Trebek who was at the Sony booth.

In one version of the primetime quiz, the contestants were dressed up as Harry Potter, Amy Winehouse and, er, I haven't a clue.

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The focus was ridicule and fun at the same time. The hit question of the day seemed to be what would the competitors say to hostess Natasha to chat her up.

One guy had to go ask his friend in the audience... and readers, I cannot repeat his line because I think you would be offended by it. Needless to say, it was pretty base and involved bodily functions passing as humour.

Meanwhile the Harry Potter guy, who looked like he'd magicked himself out of school, was still more risqué with his one-liner concerning his magic wand. Again, I will leave it all to your own imagination.

One of the more enthusiastic crowds I stumbled across was hanging out to see "Fatal1ity", a twelve-time world champion in five different games.

Johnathan Wendel was there to sell his own line of products from headsets to mouse mats. But he was also there to show how great a master of the shoot-'em-up gaming world he is.

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Anyone who scored just one frag (or kill) against Fatal1ty (or Johnathan) won a bunch of expensive gaming software.

But even when he played with a handicap, like having his computer screen covered up save for a 3x3inch cut-out or having one hand behind his back, Johnathan's opponents never knew what hit them.

First up for humiliation were Anesh and Rod who were beaten into negative territory, and that set the mood for the session.

Not one person got a kill against Fatal1ty who was hyped as one of the big celebrities of CES, along with a host of sports stars, Tom Hanks, Usher, Stevie Wonder and Will.I.am. Exalted company indeed.

Of course there was the obligatory massage to be had to help winkle out the knots and stresses of jostling with an estimated 150,000 people, or being humiliated at the hands of Fatal1ty.

Free booze and food were par for the course, as well as a load of useless free swag.

I blagged a plastic easter egg with putty inside it; Rory got a USB drive and my editor Mark takes top place with a pair of white socks that you can stick together so that you don't lose them in the wash!

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