CES 2009 - Followup (Page 1 of 1)
Written by
Steve Lake
Posted on: Jan 12, 2009 at 01:13pm
Section:
Hardware
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Well, as promised, here's the final update and complete overview of everything of interest from CES 2009 that wasn't covered in the previous updates. One of the biggest things I noticed this year in regards to Linux was that Linux was not king among the big players. In fact, it was like an evil step child. So this year, Linux was king among many of the smaller vendors, and really, that made it all that much more special. You weren't treated as a number, or some nameless face. You were treated with personal attention and with a lot of zeal.
Another thing I found funny was that I've read (and talked to) a few people/sites that said that Linux was relatively absent from CES this year. Actually, I think it had a much greater presense. The difference was, you had to go hunting for it. Which is what I did. I started out day 3 with a well organized walking plan. That lasted about 2 minutes before I ended up abandoning it and just walking the rows to see who was there. And that was the best thing that could have happened, because there was a bunch of people who were there who didn't show up in my initial search for companies with Linux.
Of the many interesting companies I found who were showcasing Linux powered equipment, iRiver was one of the most surprising. They were exhibiting at CES presenting their new Wave Home device, an LCD video phone system designed to do more than just be a video phone. You can send SMS messages, do Video conferencing, build contact lists, leave notes, schedule events, run widgets to check the weather, browse the web, locate information, watch movies, view photos, and even do either Internet Radio or FM radio. And all of this done through an embedded Linux OS.
Duracell, the battery company, is now getting into flash memory, with their introduction of numerous SD cards, pen drives, and even SSD drives. And in traditional Duracell style, they're also offering instant chargers along with those flash drives. 
I know their stuff isn't Linux powered, but it does work with Linux.
Dane-Elec was an interesting discovery, as they were offering 500gb and 1tb external wireless hard drives. But what makes these even more interesting ais they're also external media players. The amount of formats supported is also quite impressive, and the unit may actually have greater format support than even Netgear's offerings.
LimePC had several interesting items on display, including a 22" and 32" tabletop media TV, a webtv appliance for getting internet on your TV, a mobile PC/TV projector, a netbook, a desktop UMPC, an All-In-One PC-In-Monitor system, a 3G UMPC, a 3g enabled MID, and the new Linux Distro LimeOS that powers all of these devices.
Hauppauge also announced at CES that they were launching a TV application with a wide range of applications, and more importantly, increased support for their cards on Linux.
Nokia's appearance at CES was pretty much a wash, with most of their content being phone based. The only item of real interest was the N96, a pocket sized media player that runs on Symbian. (FYI, Symbian is now open source, so it counts)
The USB working group was also present, and had some USB3 and Wireless USB items on display, however, information I've recently gained says that initial speeds for these two formats is less than originally expected. While this is still a new technology, and some problems can be expected, the inability to at least reach initially advertised speeds is a disappointment.
Mifi was likely the darling of CES, as the cute and tiny little 3g to wireless pocket router is a powerful little device that a lot of geeks should just totally fall in love with.
Netgear, as mentioned earlier, was the biggest, and most welcome surprise, as they offered a HUGE selection (15 items total) of new Linux powered gear. These include 5 different Wireless-N routers, including a single and dual band Wireless-N Gigabit router (yes, gigabit on wireless), a 3G mobile wireless router, an "Open Source" wireless G router (all Netgear devices are Linux powered, but this one is accessible to developers for modification and special development), new ReadyNas devices, powerline networking devices, wireless print servers, Digital Entertainer Elite, and a brand new ethernet card.
Atheros had some new wireless chipsets and devices as well, including several Wlan and GPS products. But the best part of the whole announcement was that they will be continuing their support for Linux and working hard to increase it over the next couple of months.
Well, that's it for the followup to CES. There's LOTS of great Linux powered stuff this year, and while I haven't listed all of it, I've listed a lot of it. Some of it I'm still researching, and some other stuff is coming via email, so as I get info on other things, I'll post them as news blurbs for you to read and enjoy. I hope you've enjoyed these updates from CES and you look forward to next year's list of great new Linux products.
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