might be this year.
Here’s a rundown of the stuff I found interesting, in no particular order.
Some products are not yet available while some were recently released.
Niles-based Shure introduced three new in-ear headphones. In my
holiday guide last year, I wrote that Shure’s E500 line of headphones,
at a pricey $500, were by far the best thing I stuck in my ears all
year.
Well, it’s too soon to say if these new models will rival those in
sound, but the price points are friendlier. During a brief test at a
loud and crowded event, I was impressed at how well the new SE310’s
reduced the external noise while delivering rich sound. The headphones
drowned out the noise around me fairly well and at low volumes.
The SE310 will be priced at $250. I didn’t get a chance to listen to
the other two headphones, the SE210 ($150) or the SE420 ($350), but
both weigh about 1 ounce and easily fit in the ear.
The pricier SE420 model includes a dedicated tweeter and woofer in
each ear. The SE210 and SE310 models have what Shure calls hi-def
microspeakers in each ear plus the 310’s are tuned for more bass. And
last year’s E500’s? They’ve been renamed SE530 and now sell for $449.
The three new models will be available by mid-February, a Shure
official said Saturday night.
In another accessory for your iPod (there’s a lot of that at this
year’s show, shockingly), Duracell is launching a line of battery
chargers for video and Nano iPods. These adapters looked nice and
Duracell claims they will double the battery life between charges. As
a bonus, the adapters include an FM transmitter, something Apple has
yet to build into the iPod (but Microsoft has with the Zune). Hence
the product’s name, Power FM.
Both adapters cost $79 and can be found online at Amazon.com now or in
bricks-and-mortar stores in the second quarter.
Gennum Corp., a Canadian firm that makes noise-canceling chips, is
moving into the hardware market with what looks like a pretty cool
Bluetooth earpiece for mobile phones. Priced at $129.99, which is high
and sold at office supply companies like Staples and OfficeMax, the
NX6000 seems promising. The profile sticking out of a user’s ear
doesn’t look as dorky as other Bluetooth earpieces and a spokesperson
said the “ear tip” is shorter for a more comfortable fit. I didn’t
stick them in my ear, but they looked nice. The NX6000 is now
available, officially launched Saturday.
Another power-saving device that looks promising, but won’t be
available until sometime this spring for about $49, is the Ecosol
Power Stick. The device looks like a USB thumb drive but plugs into
devices ranging from BlackBerry’s to iPods to provide juice when
batteries are running low.
The company behind the power stick, Ecosol Solar Technologies, said
users can just put the portable charger in a pocket and skip taking
the power brick when on the road. I’m unclear how long a charge will
last, but the device recharges by simple plugging the USB end right
into a PC or laptop (so make sure you have that on your business trip
before leaving the power bricks at home).
More Top Picks Watermaker
Parrot, the French company that makes fun Bluetooth devices, showed a
new 7-inch digital frame that accepts photos sent via Bluetooth from a
mobile phone, a camera (Kodak has a Bluetooth model) or even a
computer. I gave a favorable review to Parrot’s 3.5-inch digital frame
last year, so the bigger model is welcome.
If your camera phone has at least 2 megapixels of resolution, these
Bluetooth photo frames make a nice gift. But even an image during a
test of phone with a 1.3-megapixel camera looked nice on the new
frame, which holds 500 images. It will be available in the second
quarter for $249; it’s already sold in Europe.
Kudos to Chicago’s Cobra Electronics for showing a smaller and more
affordable car GPS device. The Nav One 2100 will be available in March
for $299, a lower price than what’s offered by most competitors. The
3.5-inch screen was sharp and the unit should fit nicely on a
dashboard. Cobra’s previous model, the Nav One, has a 5-inch screen
and was priced at $999. It has since been reduced to $599, but I think
there will be few buyers for that monster once people see the sleek
2100, available in March.
Cobra also showed a new radar detector, it’s bread-and-butter product,
that some people may find controversial. The wireless device (no more
plugging into the cigarette lighter, err 12-volt battery) tracks which
traffic lights have cameras mounted on them. Hence, when you are
approaching a light with one of these cameras, the radar detector will
let you know so you’re not tempted to run the light and have a picture
of your license plate taken and ticket sent to you in the mail. (The
lights don’t emit a signal, so Cobra created a database of these
camera lights and updates are sent to buyers of this radar detector.)
A spokesperson for Cobra says these cameras are mounted at
intersections known for traffic accidents, so the detector actually
warns you that a potentially dangerous corner is coming up. I’m not
sure I buy that argument, but you’ll be able to buy this radar
detector, the XRS R9G for $450 in March.
Another product set to launch in March is the S-XGEN mini-computer,
from a company called Seamless Wi-Fi. The device, which runs on
Windows mobile software and has a 20-gigabyte hard drive, weighs 14
ounces, includes a fold-up keyboard, plays music, movies and displays
photo. It even has cellular connectivity, so it can be used as a
mobile phone. Call it a personal digital assistant on steroids, but
it’s pricey at $1,395. It looks pretty cool, though.
Got a lot of digital media on your PC, like movies or music? A new
software program, Vault 360 Platinum, stores and manages all that
content. More impressively, it reformats the content so you can easily
move it from your computer to you’re smart phone or any other portable
gadget. Can’t leave home without Napolean Dynamite? This program, $50
from Bamboo Technology, will put it on your Q, if you like. The
software is available now and it’s PC-only for the moment.
In what may have been the coolest product I saw, a new aftermarket car
stereo from Eclipse includes a removable GPS navigation system you can
take with if you’re going on a road trip and need to rent a car. The
rest of the car stereo, which has a CD player, a USB hub for an mp3
player, a plug for an iPod and can receive satellite stations, stays
in your auto.
The pull-out GPS device is made for Eclipse by Tom Tom, whose devices
I’ve reviewed favorably in the past. This robust auto audio unit will
be available at Circuit City in the spring, and the price will be
below $1,000.
Finally, Internet radio meets Wi-Fi with the Infusion portable radio,
made by Torian. It will be in stores sometime in February, priced at
$299, and uses Wi-Fi to connect to countless Internet radio stations.
This small, hand-held device works anywhere it can access a Wi-Fi
network.
—
(Throughout the duration of the Consumer Electronics Show, technology repoorter and Tech Buzz columnist Eric Benderoff will file reports from the floor of the show in Las Vegas)