Dudette's Adventure at the Consumer Electronics Show
(Jan. 14, 1997) Here I am, back from the bright lights of Las Vegas and the Consumer Electronics Show, with tired dogs from the concrete floor but dazzled eyes. It wasn't just the lights -- this CES was an exciting show!
First, WebTV (of course). VIDEO! I SAW IT! IT LOOKS GORGEOUS! Not little grainy things like you see on your friend's PC, but really nice, at least as good (to my eyes) as on a VCR. About 45 seconds of full-screen video fit into the 2 MB of RAM in the WebTV (and that takes about 6 minutes to completely download), but don't worry -- we're not going to use it to make movies. For those, you can always just hit the TV button on your remote. But it will be wonderful when a little video is really needed in a page. And I wouldn't be surprised if WebTV figures out a way to stream it so that it plays while it's downloading.
Other WebTV upgrade news -- we've been told that the printer is coming this spring! Nothing's been officially announced, but we had it from a WebTV company source. Exciting, huh! I can hardly wait to print out all those wonderful messages you folks have been sending me!
Other TV Web Browsers -- They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well, I hope the WebTV people are flattered, because every TV manufacturer at the show is planning to put Web-browsing capability into some of their TV models -- with the exception of Sony and Magnavox, of course, since they already have WebTV. Sanyo and Hitachi are using the "OnTV" service from ViewCall, Mitsubishi is licensing (and making the chipset for) Diba, Pioneer was looking at ViewCall but hadn't made up its mind, RCA is developing an NC (network computer, a Java box) as a settop box. Zenith also hadn't made up its mind but had a functional surfing box to show; Toshiba is doing something, but they weren't yet showing it publicly. Panasonic, too. Samsung is launching their Web-surfing TV in Korea as early as next month, and will also do one ("but different," said a Samsung representative) in the US. Even Curtis Mathes (remember them?) had a Web-surfing TV. Microsoft was there also, with Windows CE (for consumer electronics), and talking about, but not showing, their concept of PC/TV. Folks, we WebTV surfers are the vanguard of the revolution!
The Web on your Phone?? Even the phoneset manufacturers are getting into act, mostly with the Diba chipset. We saw a Panasonic phone that displayed email messages on a small screen on its top, and also heard about (but couldn't find) Web-browsing phones. Now I can see why we want to see the Web on our TV, but on the phone?
DVD Players. This was the other exciting thing at the show -- the long-awaited Digital Video Disc that's the size of a CD and plays beautiful digital movies. Toshiba is the front-runner on this one, but the players were in booths all over the show. You'll still need your VCR if you want to record, of course, but the quality of the DVDs for pre-recorded movies is much superior, and they're small and easy to handle, too. This one will be a winner!
CES runs for four days, but it's so big that I would have had to jog past every booth just to see them all. (I also had to get back here so I could answer all my mail from my WebTV friends.) So that's the highlights. What do you think? I'm excited -- with all the TV Web-surfing methods coming, pretty soon the Web designers will have to start producing more TV-friendly sites.
Your friend and CES reporter....
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