Marketing Technology 5

5 CES Products That Caught My Eye

MT5 – #21

Stories this week: This week I’m bypassing a lot of good news (Google+ into SERP for example) to focus on 5 CES products that caught my eye.

Hot topics from this years CES in Las Vegas:

• Kinect for windows – Microsoft announced a February release of Kinect for Windows. No clear direction on how you might be “Minority Reporting” your spreadsheets.
• Window Phones – Everyone seems to like the interface yet no one seems to use the phone
• Microsoft Metro Interface – this is the new user interface. It is planned for use in Windows 8 and Xbox
• TVs – big assed TVs. TVs that do more stuff. I’m not a home theater guy so I didn’t pay a lot of attention to this.
• Ultrabooks – they’re like a Macbook, except not quite.

On To The Goods…

My eyes bled from looking at photo after photo of big TVs, laptops and phones. HOWEVER, here are some of the cool things from CES.

Turn your camera into a wireless network

1. FlashAir – Turn Your Camera Into A Wireless Network

[link] The FlashAir SD card includes a mobile hotspot making it easy to get photos off your camera and onto your phone or laptop.

My Take: I’m dying for this product. My DSLR takes such better pictures than my phone, especially at night, but to share them I need to lug around a laptop. The link has a video to see this in action.

2. Onlive Desktop – Use Microsoft Office On Your iPad

[link] Onlive Desktop brings you Microsoft Office to your iPad for free.

My Take: I haven’t tried it yet (waiting for a beta license) but early reports are mixed.  Some say it works great. However, Walt Mossberg points out problems: You need a physical keyboard, the virtual keyboard doesn’t work, as a cloud service, you need network connectivity, and last, it doesn’t interact with other apps on your iPad so you can’t open attachments from email in Onlive Desktop.

Nokia Lumia 900

3. Windows Phones Make A Splash

[link] The Nokia Lumia 900 was generally perceived as the best of the Windows phone.

My Take: The Windows Phone user interface seems very intuitive and the 4G LTE network is a plus. However reports are expressing worries about battery life, photo quality and other features.

4. A Smarter Way To Lose Weight (or at least track your progress)

[link] Using the Fitbit Aria you can track your weight and also your body fat % and body mass index. You can send the data wirelessly to a secure website. Then track your progress, earn badges and share your progress.

My Take: Ever try to lose weight by exercise and feel frustrated that your weight is not going down? It may be that, although your weight is constant, your body fat is actually decreasing. For many, body fat is a better metric than body weight. Because of this, people will by the Fitbit Aria. Add on the easy tracking features and gamification and you have a winning product.

5. CES Wootable Awards

Okay, not a product, but I just love Woot’s offbeat sense of humor and there are some awesomely awful products in the video.