2007 CES: Early Glance at Las Vegas’ Gadget Goodies

I’ve been lusting after a non-existent, ultra-mobile, full featured OS computer / PDA-killer for some time. I am happy to report that manufacturers are starting to pay more attention to this ignored niche and subsequently more products are now being released that could be targeted at filling that void. Case in point is the OQO Model 02. It sports a 800×480 5-inch LCD display and will run a full-blown install of Windows XP (I’m guessing Vista support can’t be far behind). via [gadgetOrama]

Hewlett-Packard sets sites on iMac market with the launch of the sleek and stylish, Vista-ready TouchSmart PC. There really isn’t much not to like about this unit. A 19-inch touch-screen display, slot-loading DVD burner, one-touch access to all of your various digital media, remote control and a PVR (personal video recorder) are all part of this impressive all-in-one PC package. Scheduled to go on sale the day Vista hits the street. via [sparkd]

A moniker that reads ‘World’s Largest TV’ is just begging to be obsolete the moment it hits the presses or the blogosphere, but it is a title the Sharp Aquos brand can add to it’s list of bragging points until another manufacturer pisses further. Panasonic’s 103-inch plasma must now take a backseat to Sharp’s new behemoth. What makes this LCD offering particularly impressive is how its contrast ratio (at this big size) compares favourably against some of the best plasmas. Contrast ratio has been a bit of an achilles heal for the upscaling and upsizing of LCD displays, but the Aquos 108-incher may very well be setting a new bar for LCD picture quality. via [gizmodo]

As we suspected Samsung has indeed launched the much-rumored YP-K3 / iPod Nano killer. In addition to the YP-K3, Samsung also launched a portable personal media player (PMP) with a 1.8-inch screen and with playback support for the whole gamut of digital media filetypes with a 20GB storage capacity. via [gizmowatch]

Poor Sony. You gotta feel a little bad for them at this point. On the one hand, I applaud them for ‘attempting’ to be more design-centric, but on the other, they deserve a good spanking for being so obviously obssessed with Apple that they are willing to copy design themes that Apple created and subsequently left behind years ago. Sony’s hockey puck PC is so reminiscent of Apple’s lampshade iMac and hockey puck mouse that we’d basically call it deja vu. The wireless keyboard does look pretty nifty though. The VGX-TP1 is expected to hit store shelves sometime in March.via [Guardian]

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