Big crowds—and big talk about new gadgets—are back at the Consumer Electronics Show, after two years in which the recession put a damper on the Las Vegas event, which runs Thursday through Sunday.
WSJ Personal Technology columnists Walt Mossberg and Katie Boehret discuss the big themes of this year's Consumer Electronics Show and offer some tips for getting through the event.
Companies are using relentless improvements in semiconductors and other components to make many of their gadgets smarter, sleeker and smaller. Unless the gadgets are TV sets. Then better means "bigger"—more than 7½ feet, in the case of the 92-inch 3-D TV that a unit of Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Corp. is showing off this week.
But for all their hyperbole about tablet PCs and smart phones, most of the products on display this year are refinements of existing ideas, rather than trendsetters that break new ground. Sometimes the main innovation is the price, as in the case of Vizio Inc.'s plan to sell a small 3-D TV for less than $300—a category where offerings routinely start at more than $1,000. Here's a sampling of the latest fare:
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Sony HDR-TD10
Sony HDR-TD10
What it is: A hand-held 3-D camcorder
Price: About $1,500
Available: April 2011
It's the Noah's ark of consumer video cameras—there's two of everything. All of the camcorder's main components come in pairs: two lenses, two image sensors, two image processors.
That means video shot on this camera can be viewed in high-definition on 3-D displays with the use of glasses. But if your home TV isn't a 3-D display, the same video also will play in high-definition 2-D, on a conventional HD television set. The camcorder's 3.5-inch display can play back the 3-D video without the need for special glasses. It boasts 64 GB of memory.
Sony Corp. says the HDR-TD10 is the first "double full HD" consumer camcorder. But you may feel you've seen it before: Like its 3-D camcorder cousins for professionals, it bears a striking resemblance to the Pixar character Wall-E.
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Withings Smart Baby Monitor
Withings Smart Baby Monitor
What it is: A baby monitor for the Internet age
Price: $200 to $300
Availability: Late March
Baby monitors aren't new, but Withings, a Paris-based start-up, hopes this gadget represents a major leap for parents who want to keep tabs on a sleeping baby from a distance.
Darkness isn't a problem. Parents clip the extra wide-angle lens camera with night-vision capability onto the edge of the crib. The camera captures video that can be streamed to anApple iPhone, computer, television or any screen with an Internet connection.
More than just a webcam, the foldable device has sensors that monitor audio levels, humidity and temperature in the baby's room. Baby getting fidgety? There's a microphone and a speaker so parents can sing the baby back to sleep with a remote lullaby. Good luck with that.
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nPower Peg
nPower Peg
What it is: A backup charger that stores energy you create
Price: $159
Availability: On sale
A cottage industry of backup battery chargers has sprung up to prevent that helpless feeling of watching your phone's power wither away with no electric outlet in sight. Tremont Electric Inc.'s nPower Peg uses a different kind of power source: you.
This battery device stores kinetic energy that you create by moving around. In an ideal scenario, you'd plug the nPower Peg into the wall to charge fully, and the battery would continue to be "topped up" through the day from your motion.
Results vary depending on how vigorously a person moves. The company says one minute of walking can produce enough energy for an equivalent amount of play time from a portable audio player.
There's one drawback, though: The nPower Peg looks a bit like the Shake Weight, the dumbbell-like toning device widely advertised, and parodied, on TV.
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Mitsubishi 92-Inch 3-D TV
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Vizio Theater 3D
Mitsubishi 92-Inch 3-D TV and Vizio Theater 3D
What They Are: From Mitsubishi, 3-D meets big-screen TV. From Vizio, 3-D on a budget.
Prices: The Mitsubishi is expected to cost from $5,000 to $6,000. The Vizio is expected to start at under $300 for a 22-inch model
Availability: Mitsubishi's is available only in the U.S. starting this summer. The Vizio date hasn't been announced.
Makers of 3-D TVs at last year's Consumer Electronics Show insisted that 3-D was going to be huge. Mitsubishi Digital Electronics has taken the prediction literally. The full 1080i HD, 2-D-to-3-D TV measures in at an eye-popping 92 inches—more than 7-and-1/2 feet.
It's the latest and largest introduction in Mitsubishi's fourth generation of rear-projection Digital Light Processing 3-D TVs, which start at 60 inches. The 92-incher is meant to replicate a 3-D experience in a theater, Mitsubishi says.
You won't be able to scrimp on eyewear with the Mitsubishi set. It doesn't work with "passive" 3-D glasses, cardboard dual-tones or cheap plastic 3-D glasses. And it doesn't come with the more costly active-shutter variety it requires. Mitsubishi sells a retail starter pack with the TV for $399 that includes two pairs of the active-shutter 3-D glasses and an adapter for converting different 3-D content formats.
CES: How a 92-Inch 3-D TV Measures Up
3:00Mitsubishi Electronics is introducing a 92-inch television set to its line of HD 3-D TVs. WSJ's Lauren Goode takes a look at the big-screen TV at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
As for the Vizio, it's part of a new lineup of 3-D televisions that will start at less than $300 for the smallest 22-inch model. Following the industry's splashy unveiling of 3-D televisions last year, companies like Sony Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. have also been making significant price cuts to try to boost sales.
The Irvine, Calif., company has larger 3-D TVs, too, including a 65-inch model that is available now. Vizio Inc. says they use a new technology that will show flicker-free images that are brighter than those of many other TVs on the market. Vizio's 3-D glass, which can be used in movie theaters, also are a deal—two for $44.99, or one for $29.99. Soon to come: designer 3-D glasses from companies like Oakley Inc.
Wave Xtion
What it is: A way to browse the Web on your TV screen
Price: $199
Availability: Late January
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WaveWave Xtion
Controller-free playing of Xbox games came to living rooms with Microsoft's Kinect controller. Asustek Computer Inc., a PC maker, and an Israeli startup, PrimeSense Ltd., have joined forces to do the same with Web browsing and other applications for PCs.
Wave Xtion consists of one box connected to the television and another to a PC. The system wirelessly displays the screen of the PC on the TV screen. A Kinect-like sensor in the television box tracks the gestures of people in front of the TV, enabling Web surfing and online videogame playing with just hand motions. The resemblance to Kinect is no coincidence: PrimeSense is behind some of the technology used in the Microsoft device.
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Nike+ SportWatch GPS
Nike+ SportWatch GPS
What it is: Stylish data device for runners
Price: $199 to $249
Availability: April 1
Many runners are fanatical about tracking their accomplishments. Shoe giant Nike Inc. tapped into their needs in 2006, with a shoe sensor that beamed running data to users' iPods and let them post times on a Nike website. It later added an iPhone app. Now the Oregon-based athletics company is launching a compact wristwatch version.
The new gadget uses GPS technology to monitor runners' locations and help map routes. The watch also sends reminders when users haven't run in awhile and gives "attaboy" motivational messages when they are hitting the pavement.
Nike hopes the device's sleek styling will appeal to an audience that cares more about how they look than having an infinite number of buttons and readouts. "These kinds of devices tend to get really geeky," says Stefan Olander, Nike's vice president for digital sport.
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Liquid Image Summit Series HD
Liquid Image Summit Series HD
What it is: Snowboarding goggles meet an HD camcorder
Price: Suggested retail price $400
Availability: Oct. 2011
The Liquid Image Xtreme Sport camera goggles give new meaning to the expression, "What you see is what you get."
Embedded with a high-definition video camera near the forehead, Liquid Image Xtreme Co.'s eyewear allows skiers and snowboarders to capture the images they see—regardless of whether they are tearing up a double-black diamond or tumbling like a runaway snowball.
Once the user pushes a button to start recording, a light blinks inside the mask to show that the images are being captured onto a Micro SD card in the eyewear's frame.
pipSqueak
What it does: Pager meets smart phone
Price: About $60
Availability: Summer
The pager may have been relegated to the trash bin over a decade ago, but pipSqueak wants to bring it back as an extension of the smart phone.
digits: What to Expect from Microsoft at CES
8:24Nick Wingfield is live at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to preview Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote speech later today and tell us what we might expect from him and Microsoft as the software giant tries to play catch-up in mobile.
Seeker Technology Inc. is planning to offer a portable little square that's worn on the hip and pairs with a cellphone using Bluetooth. The device lights up, vibrates or makes noise when a call comes in, alerting the user even when the phone is in another room, stuffed into a coat pocket or anywhere that's up to about 30 feet away. And if users walk out of Bluetooth range, pipSqueak sends a "Lost Phone" alert, potentially reminding people they left their phone behind.
The New York company's device can also send callers directly to voicemail, or extend rings a little longer in order to give users more time to find their phone.
—Nick Wingfield, Ian Sherr, Yukari Iwatani Kane and Lauren Goode contributed to this article.Write to Daisuke Wakabayashi at Daisuke.Wakabayashi@wsj.com and Don Clark atdon.clark@wsj.com
