We’re at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this coming week and arrived in time for CES Unveiled – a first look for the media and analysts on Saturday evening at what may be the hot products.

The stars were out in force – almost - with Little Richard and Cher look-alikes putting in an appearance. Elvis was also in the house, but only as WowWee’s robotic bust of the King.

Hold the microphone remote-control up to his face and he sings a selection of classics from Hound Dog to Love Me Tender. WowWee says Elvis will be available later this year for $350 with a cartridge containing eight of his greatest hits and monologues costing $30.

Robots appear to be a theme this year. A possible threat to the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner may have emerged with the Ubot from Microrobot. It both vacuums and mops and can move by reading invisible bar codes impregnated on hard floors (click any of these images for more detail).

Making it easier for consumers to move around their pictures, music and videos is also occupying the thoughts of many manufacturers. The V-Mate from Sandisk connects up to TV and video sources such as DVD players and enables recording directly onto standard flash memory cards. They can then be inserted into devices such as notebook PCs, mobile phones and PlayStationPortables for watching on the go. The V-Mate is available now at a recommended retail price of $130.

More multimedia uses are being found for Bluetooth wireless. Parrot is freeing all those digital photos trapped on your cell phone with its Bluetooth-enabled photo frame. Up to 500 images can be beamed onto its seven-inch display and made into slide shows. The frame, with natural wood or leather finishes, will be available in the second quarter for $249.

A game controller like nothing we’ve ever seen before was on display from Novint Falcon. The way you move it and the force feedback gives a 3-D-like feel to games - making players feel more inside them. Half Life had been adapted for a demo but the company needs the cooperation of video game developers and publishers to insert code into future games to enable the device.

Finally, if you want to stand out from the crowd now that everyone has a flat-panel TV, we can recommend this set from Hannspree.  This fire truck with a 42-inch screen is a grown-up’s version of the 10-inch one currently sold in its store. While not designed to set the world on fire, it certainly rang our bell.

Chris Nuttall, Las Vegas

January 6th, 2007 in Uncategorised | Permalink