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Wednesday, March 5, 2008

CEA Gadget Guy shows off the latest and trendiest gizmos

By Steve Pounds | Wednesday, March 5, 2008, 05:04 PM

It’s always fun to peek into Jim Barry’s bag of electronic goodies.

The Gadget Guy for the Consumer Electronics Association tours the country with the latest gee-whiz devices from high-tech companies, and he didn’t disappoint today.

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Of the bunch in his bag, my personal tastes drifted toward the Sandisk’s TakeTV. Very utilitarian. And cool.

It’s an all-in-one device with a USB drive to download movies and videos from your computer. You then plug the USB into a thin movie-ticket shaped device with cables that attach to the TV, allowing you to watch downloaded programming while sitting on the couch rather than the swivel chair in front of the PC. There’s a remote control too.

At $99 or $149, depending on the storage capacity, it’s a great entertainment concept.

Another device that plays to the PC-to-TV technology trend is Vuzix’s iWear VR520, a video gadget that looks like eyeglasses on steriods and is equipped with earbuds attached to the temples.

It allows the user to play movies or video from an MP3 player, such as an iPod, but view them on tiny screens that appear much bigger to the eye. The dual screens simulate viewing on a 60-inch TV from 9 feet away. Price: $320.

Since I mentioned the iPod, let me talk about another product, yet another alternative to Apple’s popular video and music player. Microsoft has taken a run at Apple with its Zune, achieving marginal success.

For its part, Sony has taken one of its longstanding brands into the MP3 battle with its Walkman MP3 Player. The thin steel-gray case and horizontal video screen give it a stylish form factor that you’d expect from Sony. And its 8 gigabytes of storage and $240 price make it competitive. I’ve seen them cheaper online.

A few questions: Does it really bring anything new the MP3? Will anybody give it a try? Or will they just walk right back into the Apple Store and replace their old iPod with one of the new ones released late last year?

Some of the new devices are getting mileage out of the trend toward digital mobility. Cobra offers a handheld GPS unit called the NAV ONE 5000 but its schtick is its large touchscreen for people who struggle with getting directions on their tiny cell-phone screens.

It has enough storage for programming up to 600 brands, such as McDonalds or Starbucks. It already has “points of interest” programmed in, and gives voice directions.

The Cobra GPS device is pricey at $500 but another GPS gizmo, a keychain by Deluo, costs less than $100. It captures GPS signals and transmits to your cell phone or PDA through Bluetooth technology, so you don’t have to pay the cell-carrier’s monthly fee for a GPS service.

The Gadget Guy also pulled a DTV converter box from his bag. These boxes are the devices required to watch television after Feb. 17 next year if you watch programming from the air waves, and not cable- or satellite-TV. That is, you’re using a rooftop antenna or rabbit ears to capture the signals.

This one from Zenith (the DTT900) cost $60. It’s about the size of box of thin cigars. It has input/output plugs in the back to attach to the TV and the antenna. There are about 40 such models on the market.

But the important message is that THE BOXES ARE IN STORES RIGHT NOW. And the government will give you two free coupons worth $40 each to defray the cost.

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