CES: Palm and the Treo 700w
The Palm booth was packed with people. There were many affiliate companies demonstrating their products and the Palm people were showing off the new Treo 700w. It is the first Palm handheld that runs Windows Mobile instead of the Palm OS. There were so many people milling around that we didn’t get a chance to play with one. Microsoft had two Treo 700w PDAs at a kiosk at their booth, but both of them had dead batteries (unlikely since they were plugged in) or hard crashed.
Compared to the Treo 650, which is a Palm-based OS, they were very similar in size and design. I really have loved the design of the 650, so I’m glad they didn’t sacrifice that. It looks like a well-designed machine.
My only problem is the operating system. I have a lot of programs that are made for the Palm OS. It is such an ideal programming platform that there are literally thousands of programs that have been created for the Palm OS. All of those programs would become obsolete with the Windows Mobile edition of the Treo 700.
The Treo 700w has some great software built into the device, including the Microsoft Office Mobile Suite with Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It even has a few games: Bubble Breaker, Solitaire and Cubis. I have all of those games for my Palm, but what Windows Mobile does not have is what is going to keep me on the Palm OS.
As soon as they come up with a Weight Watchers Points Tracker for Windows Mobile, then I will think about switching over. Until then, there is no hope for a change from me, no matter how shiny and pretty the Treo 700w is.
By the time we got to the Master Bathroom, the “What Happens When The Power Goes Out†guy had moved ahead of us and taken the demonstrator in the Master Bath hostage. We heard the whole story about how that man lived in an area with spotty power coverage and how all of this technology is a waste when we can’t reliably supply electricity to the remote areas of the United States.
Out on the porch, there was a network camera, so from the Life|Touch Screen, we could check to see who was at the door. The $15 spyhole has been replaced with $8000 of machinery. Of course, you can also check who’s at the door from the bedroom, so that’s what’s so cool about that. You can also open and close the blinds and curtains, choose music from your MP3 collection, show television shows that your system has recorded for you, and adjust the temperature of the house. The Life|Touch Screens aren’t just little LCD screens on your wall that connect to a Windows Media Center PC, they are a Windows Media Center PC themselves. 
There were touchless faucets that turned on automatically. We happened to be touring with a man who kept asking, “What happens if the power goes out?†about EVERY product that was being demonstrated. He lived in an area that experienced brownouts and blackouts on a regular basis, so all of this “House of the Future… er… Today†stuff seemed unwise to him. The people manning the house were from Intel, so they couldn’t tell us what would happen if the power went out and you wanted to turn on the water. They couldn’t even tell us if the water would start running if the power went out.
There was no one in this area to tell us what to look at. There was a washer and dryer there from GE and some other equipment. The only thing we noticed that we thought was cool was the 
They showcased the HP printer, the computer, the Pocket PC, a camera with Instant Share, and a laptop sporting the new Intel Centrino Duo chip. I was pretty impressed with the laptop. The demonstrator was from Intel and he had many windows running and there seemed to be no slowdown. He said that this new chip has true multitasking and is more energy efficient, so your battery lasts longer. I would have regretting buying my laptop right before CES if I hadn’t used it so much on that trip. 
I remember nothing from this zone. There was no one there to demonstrate anything and I don’t even remember seeing anything. I suspect it was another Life|Touch Screen, because the house was full of them, but then again, it could have been anything. The picture of the sign is the only clue we have.
What you see here is a prototype computer made by Intel to show the capabilities of their new VIIV chip. It is a tiny, but powerful computer that can be controlled with a remote control. They are hoping companies will make these sorts of computers to control houses (such as the electronic window shades, lighting and other functions around the NextGen House). Essentially, it doesn’t exist, but it could if companies would just make it. It was really the only thing in the house that wasn’t available for purchase today. 
This entertainment PC from Hewlett Packard was also a prototype that should be coming soon. It could mostly be run with only the remote control. It had a removeable hard drive (see on the right). This unit was running the New Media Center for Windows Vista, so it was a little different than the Windows Media Center PCs that we had seen running things in the house before.
We saw this color laser printer at the Epson booth. It was the last day of the convention and we were tired, but the lady at the Epson booth was eager to show us all of its capabilities. The printer was very reasonably priced at $799, but I wanted to know the cost of maintenance. She had all the information for us:
Casio was showing off their digital pianos and had musicians playing throughout the duration of the show, demonstrating their pianos and attracting attention. Privia was the line of pianos that had just been released. We played with them and the keys felt weighted like a real piano. It was so noisy on the convention floor, however, it was really hard to tell how it sounded. I couldn’t even tell if it was louder if I hit the key firmly because of all the ambient noise. A convention isn’t really the best spot to test music equipment. I liked the feel of the keys, though. It reminded me of playing a real piano.