Digital Life
Thanks to Jose’s free ticket, I spent early Sunday afternoon at the Javits center surrounded by gadgets and games and gizmos at Digital Life, Ziff Davis Media’s consumer electronics and entertainment event.
The Slide show is here, becuase I couldn’t figure out how to embed the flash file into this post. I got the ambient noise and everything. This education really is paying off.
There was a whole lot a’ gaming going on: lan parties, console games and previews, and even a Namco booth trying to breathe new life into retro-arcade games for your cell phone. Whatever works, I guess, but I wasn’t really there for the games. I will admit to spending a few minutes watching the Final Fantasy XII demo. But there’s no time for that in J School. So, moving on.
Miscellaneous gadgets were pretty much everywhere. A couple booths were hawking tiny combo video/still cameras. But “Supacam” kicked the ridiculous meter up a few notches, not only with their stupid name, but by hiring two guys in lab coats to talk up their $299 bland piece of plastic. If that wasn’t enough, at least one of the guys had an Australian accent. I guess it’s better than Billy Mays, but this doesn’t seem like the best way to sell you gadget to anyone with half a brain. Then again, there were quite a few people flocking around them and the camera. Maybe they know something about the intelligence of your average American that I’m not quite ready to admit.
There were three vehicles in various places around the show-floor. Shockingly, one of them didn’t even have a Best Buy logo on it.
The Treo 680 was unveiled here earlier in the week. I took a couple pictures just for Jeff.
But Sony was the real reason I was there. Not the PS3, whose basketball game demo bored me, but for their ebook reader. I wasn’t sure it was going to be on display, but it turns out they had about five at the show. I’ve been reading and writing about this thing since it was first announced in the spring. Anyone who’s heard me rant about it in class knows that I think the device, or at least the e-ink technology it uses, will be a major part of the “newspaper” of tomorrow.
There wasn’t a whole lot I didn’t know about this device when I walked through the door. But I think it really takes a hands-on experience to appreciate it. If I can manage to save up enough pennies–that’d be 35,000–in the next couple months, maybe I’ll bring one to Jarvis’s class. In the meantime, here’s some images and a video. The thing is even more svelte and sexy than I expected. And the screen is amazing. There won’t be any eye-strain from this thing, unless you actually try to keep reading until the battery runs out, after 7,500 page turns, give or take.
Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhy-T0Ykm_o
