CES 2012 got over this Friday. I didn’t follow it super-closely but here is some of the stuff I liked:
The Lenovo Yoga: I am really looking forward to convertible tablets running Windows 8 and the Yoga is a great design with a hinge which allows you to rotate the screen 360 degrees . I would probably prefer a smaller size (11 inches) and Wacom pen support but this is close to my dream tablet.
Galaxy Note on AT&T: I actually own the Note and it is without exaggeration the greatest gadget I have ever owned; the 5.3 inch screen and S-pen transform the smartphone experience. It’s soon getting an official release on AT&T.
55 inch OLED TV’s from Samsungand LG: Televisions worthy of the 21st century. Prices to match of course but they will come down in the next few years.
I can predict exactly when the prices will come down to make these cool televisions affordable and cheap with even more bells and whistles!
This will happen one day after I buy one.*
(*I was the guy who paid about $1,700 for a 42" plasma flat screen - you know, the exact same one you can buy now for about $400 everywhere.)
What is so special about the Galaxy Note? Seems to me to be taking a step backwards with the stylus, those things are history. Especially when the screen is so large that you really shouldn’t need something so precise unless your fingers are absolutely huge. Even the video didn’t show us why the stylus was so special.
The size I could complain about too but a larger screen does have its advantages, so I’m still just wondering what the big deal is.
The stylus/pen isn’t used to control the UI, the Note works fine with your fingers like any capacitive touchscreen. What makes the pen great is the other stuff: jotting down quick notes, drawing, annotating screenshots/photos etc.
The software integrates the pen quite well. For example if you press the button and long-press the pen on the screen, the Note takes a screenshot and seamlessly takes you into editing mode where you can annotate anything you want. This is a really powerful feature because it means you can quickly annotate pretty much anything on the web, in the real world (through photos), or on your device. There are some great drawing apps like Omnisketch which work well with the pen ; I just wish I had the drawing skills to use them properly.
The Note is also a fantastic gaming device. I have been somewhat skeptical of phone gaming because the touch controls just don’t work well with small screens when half the screen is obscured by your finger. The Note’s 5.3 inch screen is much better. In fact I was just playing Sentinel ( a tower defense game) which looks great and plays beautifully on the Note.
NFC (Near field communication) is like bluetooth but as I understand, it’s more seamless, e.g. you can tap two NFC enabled phones to establish a connection. It’s pretty niche now but could explode in the next year or two.
Another very cool gadget is the MakerBot Replicator : a 3D printer which costs $1800 for the basic model. While that is too much for me, it’s great to see a 3-D printer at the price of a high-end PC. Another product I could see myself buying in a few years.
I didn’t get to see much of the show, but toured the Sony booth extensively. There were a couple of things I liked (prototype 55" crystal LED TV had an amazing picture, glasses-free 3D VAIO All-in-One computer, XPERIA Ion phone) but I was most intrigued by the VAIO Slate (concept).
It’s shaped like a tablet, but it’s made of a special material. When you stand the Slate up on its side, the back morphs to form a base so it can stand on its own without a dock. It was very Jetsons meets Star Trek. Here’s a link describing it better: Sony WH-1000XM3 successor revealed in leaked photos — watch out, Bose | Laptop Mag
