CES 2007: Dear Diary…Hump Day Part One
- January 19th, 2007
- 2 Comments
The box pictured above is the new offering from RCA that just connects to your TV and the Internet through built-in Ethernet or wirelessly with an optional adapter. Once connected (and for a small $9.99/month charge) you get access to the “Free For All” content package, which is quite a lot, and there’s also premium content that’ll cost you more, such as movie downloads. The RCA box does have an 80GB hard drive in it for storing content to view whenever you want, too.
Next up is a booth tour of Philips. I’ll keep this short.
Don’t want Ambilight or an LCD and want something bigger than 52 inches? Go with the Philips 63-inch Plasma.
. They’ve switched to using LEDs for the light source. Brighter, more consistent and longer lasting light. And as you can see, the LCDs have good viewing angles.
<p>
<img src=)
The subwoofer.
Two new wireless Internet-streaming audio systems: The WACS3500 ($399) and the WAS5000 ($499). They’re not on the company’s consumer site yet, since they aren’t expected till later this year, but you can get more details on them at the press site.
It’s now 11 a.m. and a quick meeting with Fujifilm that is showcasing the 8-MegaPixel FinePix F40fd (pictured) with Fujifilm’s Face Detection Technology, and the 8-MegaPixel FinePix A800 and 6-MegaPixel A610. This was the first time I saw the face detection in action and, well, it works. The camera is able to pick out faces and lets you zero in on whichever you want. Great for group events where you don’t want to focus on the whole group. Weddings, birthday parties, etc.
However, the feature that really caught me was this: The FinePix F40fd, A800 and A610 will feature an xD-Picture Card/SD Media Card compatible slot. So while they haven’t abandoned xD, they’ve at least realized people might want to be able to use a single SD card for multiple purposes. Or if you upgrade to a new Fuji camera, you don’t have to immediately ditch the SD card from your old shooter.
Gary Aknos (Who am I?)
1 year ago
Just an FYI… I just called AT&T to get set up on the service since they are offering the box for free ($200 value) only to find out that you CAN NOT get HD programming through the HomeZone box. In essence, to use HomeZone through my primary TV (which is HD) I would only get the programming in standard broadcast, not in HD. I suspected that the customer service rep was an idiot (since you can clearly see an HDMI output on the box) so she escalated the call to a Dish rep who confirmed that you cannot get HD programming through the HomeZone box. To get HD programming, you need a separate box that is NOT part of Homezone.
In my opinion, the system is a half-baked until they can integrate HD and Homezone in the same unit.
Josh Goldman (Who am I?)
1 year ago
Wow, thanks for the info Gary. That’s crazy that they want you to get a separate box.