Episode 8: CES 2012

    The annual CES (Consumer Electronics Show) started yesterday (January 10) and will continue till January 13th. All the coolest, soon-coming gadgets will be shown off. While I track the announcements through various websites, I will post my favorite findings here. Check back regularly because I will continue to update this post as I find more stuff, even after CES is over.

• Project Fiona  

              This is a 10 inch tablet PC designed by Razer (a company growing from gaming accessory brand to full-fledged computer manufacturer) with gamers in mind. It runs windows 8 and will have its own integrated game launcher, besides being able to accept regular windows gaming services such as Steam. On both edges of the tablet is a cylinder-shaped thingy with four face buttons, a shoulder button and an analog stick.  The specs are high enough to run the latest HD games, we just don't know how expensive it will be and how many hours of juice the battery has yet.

• Lenovo Idea Pad Yoga 

               This one's a windows 8 touch-screen laptop that transforms into a 13 inch tablet, or a 13 inch windows 8 tablet that transforms into a laptop. It's just 16.9mm thick and weighs just 3.1 pounds, making extremely portable. It's got a HDMI port, 2 USB 3.0 ports and an SD card reader. It priced at $1200, which is a lot to ask for a tablet, but a nice price for a 256GB laptop that transforms to a tablet. It has a webcam, mouse and keyboard like any good laptop should, but no CD tray. Who needs those nowadays anyway?

•  Lenovo ThinkPad T430u ultrabook

      You can read a short overview on what an ultrabook is below, but let's just say it's a really thin and light laptop (this one's 3.9 pounds) so I can jump right into talking about the T430u. It can take an i3, i5 or i7 processor, can have a hard drive of up to 1 Terrabyte, 1GB VRAM, and has HD graphics. It has 2 USB 3.0 ports, a HDMI port, a minidisplay port, fingerprint reader, an ugly keyboard (unfortunately), 7 hours of battery life (integrated battery. You can't take it out or replace it yourself) and my favorite feature, a SIM card slot so one can connect to the internet through 3G! 

      What's more, it's only $900! Seriously, unless somebody does something with all this functionality and better aesthetics (this ultrabook's ugly), I will definitely be getting this.

What's An Ultrabook (Quoting IGN.com)

"Ultrabooks bridge the gap between netbook and notebook, providing a significant amount of processing power while maintaining a thin and light form factor. Ultrabooks utilize Intel's new Ivy Bridge processors, which offer pique performance but are extremely energy efficient, providing exceptional battery life. What's more, in order to qualify as an Ultrabook, the design must include a solid state drive and a unibody chassis the is less than 22mm thick and weigh less than roughly three pounds. Finally, all Ultrabooks must be cost-effective, priced within a reasonable range of $1,000.
The Ultrabook category is regulated and defined by Intel, which has established minimum requirements for 2012 and 2013. For example, in 2012, the company has mandated that in order to be considered an Ultrabook, a manufacturer must utilize USB 3.0 technology."

•      Lenovo IdeaTV K91

       This is a 55-inch IPS 3D HDTV powered by Google's latest mobile OS, and sports a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon APQ8060 processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GBs of integrated storage, HDMI and USB 2.0 connectivity, an SD card slot, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and more. It supports voice control and facial recognition via an included 5 megapixel camera.
       It comes with access to Lenovo's suite of cloud services as well as downloadable apps. No word on price yet but it's too bad there's no chance of getting this. We just bought a 55in LG 3D TV last month after all.

      So any of these pique your interest? What do you think of the prices? Sound off in the comments section. By the way, a friend told me the comments aren't working. If you know me personally, try to comment and send me a facebook (or vgchartz) message to confirm to me that the comments section isn't working properly. Maybe I did some of my blog settings wrong.
             EDIT:  These were edited in after the original post:

• Razer Blade

             Razer's products (the tablet I posted at the beginning of this article was made by Razer, see that for the company's description) are usually named after predatory animals but this one's called the Blade because it's based off the Switchblade model (I guess). "The Razer™ Switchblade is a concept design and Switchblade is the codename for the project and not a product". I'm quoting Razer's official site, and my favorite quote from the site, by the way, is "Razer isn't just a gaming user interface specialist company - Razer is the world's leading gaming hardware brand".

         So what is the Blade? Well, it's the world's first true gaming laptop. I've heard of many gaming laptops before but this is the first time I've seen one that I would actually get..........if I had the money. $3000 is too steep for someone like me who'd rather just get a Nintendo 3DS, a PlayStation Vita and a 7 inch android tablet all for half that price. 

       The three things that make this stand out as a gaming laptop to me are the size, the location of the touchpad and the way all the other keys work. When you start up any game, the keyboard intelligently recognizes the game's specific interface and transposes the interactive visual elements such as command icons and control schemes right to the mechanical keys. Depending on the situation in-game, the keyboard can also change on-the-fly to give you only the controls you need.

           Note that the keys are different in the two pictures above. The best part is that since the touchpad is actually a touchscreen located at the right hand side of the laptop, and not at the bottom as in a regular laptop, the touchpad can be used as a mouse or as a second screen or extra buttons depending on the game/software the user is running at the moment. Above the touchscreen are ten OLED keys that adjust based on the game or function of the touchpad, and you can manually assign keys or macros for games without official support.

      By the way, those were Switchblade (aka prototype) images. This is an image of the actual Razer Blade.

• Sonofit Sculpted Eers

        Basically, you buy these earphones called "Sculpted Ears" and in 3 easy steps that includes 4 minutes of wearing the earphones before adding on some other piece (so that it takes the unique shape of your ear), you have your own customized, super comfortable, never-fall-off-during-sports earphones.

"SonoFit™ consists of a patented modular earpiece, a pair of inflation pumps and a medical grade silicone compound, all bundled neatly into a disposable headband.
Prior to customization, the earpiece fits comfortably in the smallest ears yet is large enough to house the electronics for most in-ear applications." - A quote from their official website. Sonofit tells me that my ears are more unique than my finger prints!

                                  I wonder what they'd say about Link's ears?