CES 2009 was somewhat disappointing…

As my first Consumer Electronics Show, I was truly stoked that I could be laying my hands on some never before seen technology, cool gadgetry, and some truly innovative solutions.  

Unfortunately, there were no new truly innovative solutions presented, no new cool gadgetry, and the not one really new technology in sight.

Admittedly, I only got a chance to visit the Las Vegas Convention Center (proper), and not the Sands/Venetian Convention Center, but still.   Not much of anything that was truly awe-inspiring.  Very disappointing.

The number of visitors attending the show was down dramatically for this year, due almost certainly to the downturn in the economy.  Some exhibit booths were vacant, which to me indicated that quite a few companies went out-of-business between when they leased their booth and the actual show.   Very sad indeed.

Don’t get me wrong.  There was an awful lot of cool stuff, but not much was truly new.  The best stuff was available at CntrStg, a unique event for Bloggers that I participated in this year.

More on this in the coming days…

Got the GPS Tuner booth up & working!

Today I got to meet the new CEO and Sales Director for GPS Tuner, Tamas Frigyes and Marta Hunics dr while setting-up the new GPS Tuner booth at CES 2009.   I also got to meet my long time friend Gabor Tarnok, whom I have known for more than three years now.

Truly a great day!

 

GPSTuner_Team

Tamas Frigyes (CEO), David Matson (Tech Support), Marta Hunics dr (Sales Director), and Gabor Tarnok (Founder and CTO).

CntrStg is looking like an incredible event!

cntrstg-logoA couple of years ago, several Bloggers (Eric Hicks, Johan van Mierlo, Mike Temporale, and Stephen Hughes) went through a dozen nightmare situations trying to attend interview appointments with big vendors like Palm during CES 2007.  Quite frequently, the vendor was late or was a “no-show”. 

They decided that there “had to be a better way” to do this and spare themselves the disappointment and wasted time and energy.

This year, this same group of Bloggers got together and held their very first CntrStg event, where the vendors would come to the Bloggers, and it looks like it is going to be an extremely successful event indeed!

The new CntrStg Schedule

It looks like it is going to be a wonderful CntrStg based on the schedule below:

Wednesday
4:00pm – Doors Open / Welcome Event – CntrStg Welcome Party and Keynote Live Stream
2:00am – Closing

Thursday – Mobile PC Day
8:00am Opening
9:00am Tablet Kiosk
11:00am Eye-Fi
1:00pm Boston Power
3:00pm HP: HP and MTV Engine Room
4:00pm HP: Fireside Chat with Fred Bullock
5:00pm AMD: Nigel Dessau
2:00am Closing

Friday – Home Electronics Day
8:00am Opening
10:00am Adapt: Jack Hampson
1:00pm American Airlines
2:00pm HP: Notebook Teardown
3:00pm HP: The promise of Digital Entertainment
4:00pm HP: Touch the Future
5:00pm – 6:30pm Community: Digital Lifestyle
2:00am Closing

Saturday – Mobile Phone / Handheld Day
8:00am Opening
10:00am HTC: Eric Lin
11:00am Microsoft: Windows Mobile
12:00pm – 1:00pm Lunch provided by ProClip
1:00pm Sling Media
2:00pm Ace
3:00pm – 6:00pm Community: Tablet PC Meetup
2:00am Closing

Sunday
8:00am Opening
12:00pm Closing

 

I look forward to meeting a lot of friends at CntrStg!

Sacramento Metro Airport WiFi

saclogo It didn’t take more than 15 minutes to get through the security checkpoint in the airport, so now I have an hour an a half to kill.  Having a million things to do online, I decided to take advantage of the Sacramento Metro Airport “Free Wi-Fi”, available in the food court area.  

I have a VPN tunnel connection so that I can browse the Internet securely, but I can’t quite see all the other users of this Free WiFi being aware of the inherent dangers of  Public WiFi Hotspots. 

It’s really hard to recognize a hacker, sometimes they can look very professional in a suit and tie, so you can never be sure who is who.   As I type this, I see six suits typing at their keyboards.   Walking over to pickup my order, I observed at least one conducting what appeared to be personal banking on his laptop.   I certainly hope that he practices safe computing by using a VPN tunnel.   That’s just not a good idea at Public WiFi Hotspots. 

I guess that it’s time for me to dust-off my 4 part series on Security in a Mobile world…

Heading out to CES 2009!

CESWednesday morning I’ll be getting ready and heading out the door to catch my flight to Las Vegas Nevada where the Consumer Electronics Show is being held again this year.

I’ll be hitting all of the best exhibits and checking out the newest gear.  I’ll also be helping out my friend Gabor with his product GPS Tuner, and another friend Johan with his new Bloggers-only event called CntrStg (short for “Center Stage"). 

An extremely important factor will be the fact that I will finally be able to meet a whole bunch of people that I have know for a very long time but never had the chance to meet in person!

And among them will be my very good friend Jack Cook, whom I owe a tasty steak dinner for all of his wonderful help and patient mentoring…

I’m so excited!   More posts to come in the next few days as the show moves along.