Dreamflyer

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Dreamflyer

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

The Dreamflyer won an innovation award for it’s clever use of flight simulator technology which is combined with plane-like controls that control the screen output. ie a a More fully immersive simulation than using a mouse and keyboard or other controller. The D-Box seemed like a stronger simulation experience, but runs many times the cost of the Dreamflyer which, at under $3000, seems to have a better chance of reaching a mass market, though still the high-end, of the gaming market.

CNET at CES 2008

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CNET at CES 2008

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

Several media places are broadcasting from CES. I was hoping to find Donny Deutsch’s Road to CES Program but the place is so huge it is hard to plan your visits with any precision. Today for example I headed to the Venetian Sands venue and won’t even go the the Convention Center today. Each of the Exhibit halls here – and there are something like a dozen of them – would be a spectacular showing for even a major conference. There are 2700 exhibitors here showing everything from Lawn mowing robots to total immersion gaming glasses to TVs to phone to cars with the latest navigation and audio to an actual (manufactured) home that Microsoft built over at the Convention Center with the latest home technologies.

CES Blogger Lounge at LVCC

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CES Blogger Lounge at LVCC
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

When I initially picked up my “blogger” badge here at CES I wondered if bloggers were going to be a sort of a “downgraded”press person, but they’ve been treating bloggers very well and it’s appreciated (as well as great leveraging of social media for CES and the CES sponsors).   There are spacious well equipped blogger lounges in both venues – one here at Las Vegas Convention Center LVCC, and one at the Venetian/Sands Venue.   Today’s lunch was excellent, and coffee and snacks are here all day long.  ( I’m posting this from the Press computer room right next door but there were computers in the lounge as well).

Thanks CES!

Yahoo’s Yang and Filo at CES

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Yahoo’s Yang and Filo at CES
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

One of the things I left out of my earlier David Filo interview post were the details of Jerry Yang’s talk, which I’d have to say was lackluster given the amount of attention the markets are paying to Yahoo leadership right now, and given the slick pizzaz of yesterday’s Gates keynote. (C’mon Jerry – no Guitar Hero action?). Yahoo spent a lot of time talking about and “introducing” Yahoo Go” Version 3, a product I’m not familiar with but Yahoo treated as if it was a household word. It looked a lot like the MS mobile phone innovations and offered excellent info+browser+mapping+data integration for phones. Also announced was an expansion of mobile and widget platforms to make them more “open” and therefore more appealing to developers, though I’m not clear how significant this will be. Yahoo, like Microsoft yesterday, noted that they are looking at *billions* of mobile users and that although PCs are still important to them it’s clear that mobile is the bright and shining star where innovation will be happening.

Disclaimer:  I’ve got some Yahoo Stock, but none of it was helped by this post.

Yahoo’s David Filo on Yahoo

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After Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang gave his talk today I had a chance to interview co-founder David Filo, who had just come in for the end of the talk and was hanging around afterward. Like many Silicon Valley elites David was engaging and personal and answered several questions for me.

First was simply a confirmation that David’s plans are to ease out of some of his technology management roles at Yahoo while Jerry’s intention was to stay engaged into the foreseeable future as CEO. When Semel left Yahoo some industry watchers suggested Yang would not stay long, but those rumors appear to have been unfounded.

I asked David if he’d met with Bill Gates during CES. He said “I haven’t”, which leads me to my current working hypothesis which is a little wild, but that’s what blogging is for!

The hypothesis is that the Gates Keynote last night and the Yang talk this morning were not coincidental, but were the result of meetings – probably last night – between Gates, Yang, and perhaps former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel. I’ll certainly take David at his word that “he” did not meet with Gates. Semel was *in the audience* this morning but was not introduced.

I should note that when I pressed David to talk about a potential merger he suggested he feels Yahoo has a lot to do themselves before moving in that direction, but he also noted how the industry moves in fast and furious ways. He actually asked *me* what the advantage would be to that. I’ve written about that before here at the blog but in short it’s that Yahoo+MSN would be able to fight Google in ways neither appears to be able to do alone.

So I’m not predicting a merger/buyout but I sure wouldn’t rule it out, and I’m guessing there are informal talks going on – probably here at CES.

Disclaimer: I’ve got some Yahoo Stock. Not that it’s making me any money mind you, but I’ve got some.

Bill Gates on the second “digital decade”

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Tonight at CES Bill Gates delivered his final CES (and perhaps final in the industry) keynote. The key announcements included a partnership with NBC to deliver video online for *every single sport* at the Olympics – some 3600 hours in total and I think he indicated close to real time. Also impressive was Microsoft’s work with partner “Tellme” and MS mapping to bring powerful voice and map navigation capabilities to the mobile space. They noted that mobile advertising will be some (11 billion?) by 2011, and that although they feel PCs will remain very important it’s clearly the mobile phone space where a lot of key innovation will be seen.

Back at MIX06 I noted that Microsoft had not yet embraced the social media revolution that clearly was going to dominate the online experience. I think they have now done so, but they may be too late. The demos of something called “Zune Social” were neat, but I noted the key feature was the ability to integrated with a Facebook profile. I’d argue that Open Social (or some variation on that theme), that is very largely company agnostic, will ultimately prevail. I didn’t get the idea Zune Social would be a big winner over time, but …

(posted from the CES Bloghaus! Thanks Seagate and Podtech!)

Update:  Engadget will have an interview up soon 

Bill Gates: Guitar Hero!

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Bill Gates: Guitar Hero!

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

At the CES Keynote – Bill Gates’ last after some 8 years in a row – he introduced a handful of new Microsoft innovations, but the highlight of the show was a very uncharacteristically self-deprecating video that featured dozens of celebrities “talking” to Bill about his post Microsoft plans. From Hilary Clinton to Bono, Bill’s rejection list grew. The video was a real crowd pleaser in an otherwise pretty unabashed Microsoft marketing pitch. At the end of the talk Gate’s engaged in a Guitar Hero competition where his opponent, MS’s chief of gaming tech, brought in the champion at Guitar Hero. Bill countered with a visit from Slash himself to close the keynote.

CES 2008: bloghaus bus has landed and their feed is up

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More:  Bloghaus is now open and John Furrier looks like he’ll do a great job blogging CES.  Of course it would be nice would be to get some clues about what Furrier and Scoble are up to with the new non-Podtech startup thing they’ll announce after CES, but I don’t blame them for keeping it a secret during the CES news maelstrom which started … today.

One of the contrasts I’m already noting between this conference and the pure internet conferences is that here it seems many people are only “just starting” to understand the importance and significance of online social media where at the internet conferences this is a given, and in fact many Silicon Valley businesses fail because they don’t realize how most regular folks could care less about many aspects of the social media revolution – they’ll wait for mass adoption rather than become early adopters.

In the gaming session discussing Massively Multiplayer Online games the most interesting observations were about the nexus of socializing and games, though how this would play out did not seem clear to any of the panelists.   I’ll try to write more on that session later, but key points were the potential growth of simple free games like Maplestory & Runescape and how those games were monetizing using “micropayments”, where users buy small game items with real money.    Also interesting was the discussion of the “secondary markets” where game features are bought and sold for real money.   Based on the enthusiasm of the panelists, I think this is a really interesting market to watch.

Toshiba and HD-DVD

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Franklin Paul at Reuters has good coverage of the CES Press Conference where HD-DVD is trying to dispel the rumors of impending doom:  http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2008/01/06/toshiba-defiant-says-hd-dvd-down-not-out/

So far the Blu-Ray smackdown of HD-DVD is probably the big story at CES, though it’s not clear to me that all the early rumors of people leaving and cancelled events were true, not to mention the rumor of an estimated 500MM payment from SONY to Warner.

Blogger Lounge – Convention Center

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You have new Picture Mail!

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

I haven’t been in this one yet, but the Venetian venue is really impressive – lots of PCs, TV, and comfort. I’d love to know the decisions involved in encouraging bloggers. It’s very smart marketing for CES to have a lot fo buzz, but they got that anyway from mainstream press. I’m hoping Scoble has some insider info about the decision to be so “inclusive” for bloggers.

Interestingly the badges are a different color – white – and they don’t scan them for the sessions. Maybe it’s a glitch, because it would be good info for CES to have regarding blogs / press and attendance.