This month's feature: Mobile Electronics

INTERNATIONAL CES 2005

The consumer electronics show in Las Vegas is the place to see it all, before it hits the stores. This year was no exception and the trends in cool gear for your digital life have never been better. The explosion in High Definition TV, super big and super cheap Plasma, LCD and DLP televisions, mobile phones that would make James Bond a little jealous! Also, in-car entertainment and information systems that will rival your home and the hot new "PEAs;" Personal Entertainment Appliances. It was all on display to the hundreds of thousands of show attendees that packed the Las Vegas Convention Center. The new digital lifestyle has started a revolution in the way we live and this is just the beginning, the future is going to get crazy, fast.

The talk of the show was, no surprise, digital television. With all the major companies ramping up production to meet the insatiable demand for Plasma, LCD and DLP units. The trend this year was big, and we do mean BIG and cheap. With 40+" plasma units falling in price, it's hard to justify not snapping up a sexy flat panel for your crib. Image quality continues to get better and the new units have life-spans that meet or exceed CRT monitors. Plasma seems to still be the technology of choice for many consumers and there were no shortage of hot displays in every price range. LCD is gaining quickly; the new displays have razor sharp HD imaging with a price tag that continues to fall to meet the demand. DLP defiantly has some advantages with unbelievable contrast and saturation, DLP has a strong place in the home theater market. As for HD content there is a war brewing between the two HD disk formats. In one camp the HD DVD crowd takes our trusted friend the DVD into HD battle with Blue Ray, a new multi-layer blue laser disk with mind-boggling storage capacity. Not since the BETA vs. VHS war has a format battle had so much riding on the winner. Time and consumer taste will determine the winner, but we love them both. Reasonably priced HD camcorders and HD ready home computer systems bring the world of HD movie making closer into reach of mere mortals, the era of pure digital HD home movies is close at hand.

The cell phone is a staple of modern life, and the new technologies making their way into our pockets will change your perception of what a cell phone is. Web browsing, e-mail and messaging are soon to be standard on all phones. Entertainment, with music, games, movies (we were fascinated watching Spider Man 2, full length on a hot new Sony) and live TV sent directly to your next generation cell, you will wonder why you spent hours playing that damn snake game. Location-based services on GPS enabled phones promies a new way to keep up with what’s going on, wherever you may find yourself, and the nasty probability of annoying ad messages designed to drive you to the store your walking past at the time. The line between computer, phone and entertainment device continues to blur.

The hours we spend in our cars will be filled with entertainment and information choices that may be better than what you have in your home. Satellite, WiFi and digital broadcast television promises to bring hundreds of programming options on demand. With names like Direct TV, Sirius and Delphi in the mix you can bet that the price to play will come down fast and the quality and selection will be red-hot. Perhaps the biggest news and hottest trend in mobile electronics, is not even a mobile electronics product, the iPod, with its millions of near fanatic users, has every mobile electronics manufacturer racing to build new ways to integrate Apples musical wonder into our car systems. With more new applications than choices at the Rio buffet, look for direct iPod control on new head units, sleek docking stations and even units that allow for iPod control from factory systems. Of course amps and speakers ranging from the sublime electrostatic surround speakers from Critical Mass, to the ridiculous (in a good way) 300+ pound skull crushing Jackhammer sub from MTX, and every size, price and flavor in between. There were hot new lines from names you may not expect, West Coast Customs, of "Pimp My Ride" fame teamed up with Orion to launch their own hot new line of amps and speakers. DUB Magazine has taken the small line of speakers they had with Audiobahn and expanded it into a full line called DUB Mag, with all the style and performance you would expect from the ballers at DUB. In keeping tradition the floor of the mobile electronics hall was packed with hot cars in every flavor. Exotic rides from Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Porca (including a sicker than sick GT2) sat with fully decked imports, hot-rods, trucks and SUVs. Spectacular installs with video, audio, info systems, navigation and even water falls were around every corner. The satellite radio battle heated up as Sirius and XM went head-to-head in a mad dash to see who can spend astronomical amounts of cash to bring on board the biggest names in talk, music, sports and entertainment. If you still don’t have satellite radio you are missing a whole new world of listening, and with the introduction of personal units from booth camps, like the must have XM2GO MyFi unit from Delphi, there is no-where you can’t enjoy it. Companies seemed to pull back from the model scene this year but there was no shortage of eye-candy on the show floor, maybe the model trend is coming to a close, we certainly hope not.

The product category that is most likely going to change the way we get our entertainment is the PEA. Right now there are digital media players with over 80 hours of video capability. Add in music and games, then add in GPS and messaging and you have something that could replace the head unit as the heart of your mobile entertainment system. The first generation of these PEAs are hitting the stores now, but the real excitement will come as their features are combined with next generation cell phone capability in the near future. We want our GPS-Phone-PDA-Game-Music-Movie-Message-DVR sitting warm in our pocket now, but we’ll all have to wait. At lest till CES 2006, where the future of consumer electronics is on display.

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