Boing Boing Gadgets at CES: Day 1 Report

DAILY CES COVERAGE: http://gadgets.boingboing.net.

Greetings from the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Lost Wages, Nevada! Xeni here with the Boing Boing Gadgets fellas -- Beschizza, Brownlee, and Johnson, and Boing Boing's video production team. We're traveling the floor with the BBG 3, surveilling all they review, and we'll be filing daily video reports from the expo floor. Here is the first, embedded above.

Highlights from this episode:
* So you've probably heard there's an "Official Blog of CES," right? So, screw those guys, we're more awesome. In this episode, Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (the group that puts on CES) dubs Joel Johnson the Official King of CES, then bows down to him and touches Joel's invizibul robe.

* Rob Beschizza shows us what he likes about the new netbooks from Asus, namely the screens you can swivel around to use as touch-sensitive tablets (disclaimer: Asus is sponsoring BB Video's presence at CES, but not BB Gadgets. Rob actually didn't know anything about it at the time, so this isn't paid placement or editorial whoring).

* Joel grills the everliving crap out of the poor guy tasked with representing Sharper Image here. Joel was a big fan of the early incarnation of the mega-gadgets chain store, but believes they went to hell before they were recently bought out and resurrected. Joel's advice to the new guy: don't speak to us in marketingese, please, and stop making crappy products.

* Joel talks with the guys at WowWee about a Spyball for children -- baby's first panopticon! $150 device, shaped like a play ball, includes cameras to spy on other playmates. WTF.

* Xeni snuggles with robotic stuffed animals from WowWee that respond to human touch with emotive facial expressions, grunts, growls, and body movements. Verdict: cute, also creepy, definitely from the Uncanny Valley.

* Beschizza and Joel perform the first of what will likely be many schwag booze taste tests. Today: whiskey from the hosted bar, plus tiny energy drinks some wireless networking company was giving out. Mix them together, and you get what Joel describes as "there's nothing not awful about this it's just plain bad."

Next episode: we are accosted in the dark of night, on the streets of Vegas, by inebriated Canadian chemical engineers dressed as Yeti Furries.

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Sponsor shout-out: Boing Boing Video coverage of CES 2009 is sponsored by WEPC.com, in partnership with Intel and Asus. WePC.com is intended to be a site where users come together to "share ideas, images and inspiration about the ideal PC." Participants' designs, feature ideas and community feedback will be evaluated by ASUS and "could influence the blueprint for an actual notebook PC built by ASUS with Intel inside."

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• boing
• CES
• Joel
• Johnson
• Xeni
• Jardin
• tech
• news
• CES09
• consumer
• electronics
• show
• las
• vegas
• Rob
• Beschizza
• john
• Brownlee
• boingboing
• Boing
• Gadgets
• sharper
• image
• robot
• surveillance
• laptops
• microsoft
• apple
• computers
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• mobile
• technology

[hottapper]

As objective as fox news (we distort/you comply)

[LilPaperNub]

copy and paste

2. send this to 2 other videos.

3. hold your breath for 10 seconds

4. press refresh twice

3. LOOK AT YOUR BACKGROUND IT WILL BE FREAKY

[tommy407]

what did he say about spying on little girls? terrible reporter. bad joke. stop trying so hard

[chikifree]

HAHAHA IPOD DOCK..

[Chick6517]

OOoooOO lala that was a good one... haha i almost fell off my chair from luaghing haha ... ahhhh im still luaghing at that one tooo FUNNY [=

[fenixssanai27]

Samsung & LG from South Korea FTW!

[CeBePuH]

Who are these annoying individuals in the clip?

How does crap like that get promoted?

Questions, questions...

[Exestenz]

god i love technology.

[China461082431]

OK。。。

[BinkieMcFartnuggets]

If you don't know what the CES convention is it's a Consumer Electronics Show and there's two floors, the first floor all electronics: TVs, VCRs... Second floor: ALL PORN! First floor, not so many people... Second floor, PACKED! And it was awesome they even had this woman who was signing 8x10 glossy photographs, close ups, of her anus...