CES: NextGen Home – Zones 12-16
This section of The NextGen Home Experience featured products from the following companies: Hewlett Packard, Klipsch Speakers, Vantage Lighting, Lafayette Window Shades, Intel VIIV and Centrino Duo Chips and Windows Media Center.
In reality, these two sections of the NextGen Home Experience really became “The Hewlett Packard Show.†That’s just fine with me. My home computer is an HP. I took it out of the box, loaded up my documents and started working. It was that easy, so I’m kind of a fan-girl.
Zone 12 & 13 – The Home Office
When we walked into the home office area, the HP printer was spewing out the “family†photos that the demonstrator in the living room had sent in our presentation. It was the most beautiful family you’ve ever seen and every photo was a masterpiece. I imagined what normal family photos usually look like and realized that if people bought this, they might be trying to buy that perfect family instead of an HP printer connected to an HP Media Center computer.
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.
Zone 14 – Mystery Zone
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.
Zone 15 & 16 – Master Bedroom
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.
The hard drive was a hot swappable (you don’t have to turn off the computer to take it out) 300 gig USB hard drive. The demonstrator said he owned a system like this in his home and he had brought his own hard drive to this show. It had all of his movies on it, so he could watch whichever movie in his collection.
The demonstrator’s most quotable phrase was, “It brings the computer out of the office and into the living room.†He failed to notice the irony that we were supposed to be in the Master Bedroom.
