CES 2011 Wrap-Up

I was lucky enough to attend CES 2011 this year in Las Vegas, Nevada. I got the chance to see numerous amounts of gadgets from all perspectives including getting one on one demos with some of the latest gadgets soon to come in the year 2011. Although I felt overwhelmed with the amount of 3D Televisions and tablets, I witnessed . It was overall a great experience; I also was able to meet lots of well-rounded individuals. 

Day 1 started with keynotes from Verizon CEO, Ivan Seidenberg introducing Verizon’s new LTE network which could be the new home of the iPhone later this month. CEA President and CEO, Gary Shapiro also gave a speech addressing the current state of the CE (Consumer Electronics) Industry. Later on Audi AG Chairman of the Board of Management, Rupert Stadler, gave a speech on leadership and Samsung President, Boo-Keun Yoon demonstrated the new portfolio of Samsung.  I also got hands-on with various companies. 

Day 2 was filled with a slew of keynotes during the morning; including various CEOs. I got a lecture on the newly announced Yahoo Connected TV; similar but not better than the Google TV. Yahoo Connected TV has one special feature that Google TV doesn’t it allows you to interact with your television with quizzes about the segment your currently watching; don’t it would be a use of most consumers. I also got hands-on with one of the very few 4G MiFi’s, Clear Spot 4G, only $45 dollars a month for service including unlimited data; a good deal. Also you have two options; first option you can either purchase (for $199) or lease (for $6/month) device and pay the monthly plan for $45/month or the second option you can receive the device for free of charge and pay your monthly fee of $45/ month but your bound by a 2-year contract; neither option offer a pay-as-you go option. 

Day 3 I got the opportunity to test ride in a concept car of General Motors, the en-v, which is an all electric vehicle specifically designed for the Shanghai Expo. There has been no set date/year for production of the en-v for the public. I also got a very well presented demo of the BodyGuardz which is a screen protector designed for the whole body of your device. Another one on one demo I received was with the Blackberry Playbook, something that can really compete with the Apple iPad; contains a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a 5MP rear-facing camera and 3MP front-facing camera. 

  Day 4 I found a really cool backup service, clickfree, very unique from the other backup solutions that I’ve used, not only does it backup on schedule without hassle. Another feature that most of us run into is that when you do a backup its wipes current information on your hard drive with clickfree it doesn’t alter any of the current files on your hard drive. 

I really enjoyed CES 2011, it has been a great experience for me and the TekSocial website. This CES  was certainly the year of the tablets and 3D televisions. Hopefully I will be fortunate enough to attend next year and provide more coverage for TekSocial.com. For your enjoyment I’ve included all the coverage of my CES Experience below. An lastly I uploaded all the pictures’ I took at CES 2011 to my Flickr. 

How the Apple Sticker Changed Apple

Yes, folks, I’m not writing because I simply find the news coming out of the apple rumor hole to be boring. It’s just more cool applications for the iPhone and the news on the latest Snow Leopard build.

How am I supposed to blog about that? Well, here’s the thing I don’t. My last post, was completely unrelated to any recent apple news or rumors, so I’m going to do another one of those.This is about Apple stickers.

If you know who Guy Kawasaki is, you probably know that he was one of the people responsible for saving Apple when it was about to reach it’s downfall. He had started a website that encouraged all Apple users to spread the word, volunteer for no reason at a PC store, encourage someone to buy Macs. Now, stuff like that is just about impossible these days, but the Apple community did it.

Word spread, and it worked. But there was one thing, one thing that really stood out, it was the Apple stickers. They were everywhere. People were sticking them on their cars, notebooks, phones, wallets, water bottles, whatever.

I suppose you could say it was like the movie The Birds, except better.

Anyways, since Apple was even tinier than it is now, people were most like “What’s the apple thing for?” Well, that just led to the person who owned the sticker to explain the entire ordeal, and thus, sparked another interest into the mind of a soul that had never experienced Apple. Every person who owned a Mac at that time counted, that’s just to give you an idea of how badly Apple was failing during the 1990’s, somewhere I heard that people thought they would be sold to General Electric. Yes, general electronic stuff. I don’t think we see Apple as general electronic stuff anymore, yes?

Anyways, before I go off topic and start talking about Lance Armstrong not winning the Tour De France this year (Yeah he actually didn’t, poor guy is getting old), I’d like to say take pride in your Apple stickers! I stuck one on my own notebook before writing this post:

Ciao.

JD

My Bite Into Apple

http://mybiteintoapple.com