Gizmodo: Cea

CES Innovation Awards Innovating Bullshit?

Brian Lam — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 15:02:37 EST

A few days ago, we wrote about hardware that "demagnetizes vinyl and cds" to make them sound better. Utter bullshit, but the surprise was that CES had given it an award. What does a CES Award mean?

Just as we were wondering that, Chris Null over at Yahoo Tech writes about a 2005 winner that doesn't even exist.

The "Atom Chip" laptop allegedly featured several terabytes of "quantum RAM" and a 6.8GHz "quantum CPU." None of that stuff actually exists...One would especially expect CES's panel of experts to know the difference between reality and utter B.S. As an aside, I actually went looking for booth 36604 myself, which appeared not to exist at all. I mean, if a completely made-up product can win an award, you have to wonder...

This morning, I get an unrelated email from Sean Captain, one of the most knowledgeable freelancers around, wondering about all the press releases flying into his inbox with the claim that certain gadgets are CES "Honorees."

Apparently, the CES awards are chosen with only a company-submitted doc and a photo. And the fee for applying can be up to $970. Furthermore, anyone who submits an application can be called an honoree. So, the bottom line is that the CES Awards are selected by people who don't know tech, and the honoree tag is a bunch of bullshit. Be wary as you buy. The CEA CES awards have officially been taken down a notch. –Brian Lam

A Word of Caution on CES "Awards" [Yahoo! Tech]

[Sean Captain]

CES Organizer CEA May Make An E3 Replacement

Jason Chen — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 20:30:53 EDT

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) issued a press release saying they're forming an advisory committee to see if they're ready to explore gaming event options, a.k.a., make an E3 replacement. They're fairly experienced in tradeshows, seeing as they're responsible for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which gives gadget freaks like us a behemoth woody.

If anyone can make a new E3, resurrecting the spirit of the old one after it was brutally maimed, it's the CEA. Since we love E3 and love going to it, we'll wish them good luck. – Jason Chen

Press Release [CE via Guardian Blogs]

CEA Fights Back With Forceful Ad

Charlie White — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 12:57:40 EDT

The Consumer Electronics Association fired back at the content industry, publishing a print ad in a Washington newspaper that rips into the RIAA and MPAA for fear mongering and spreading disinformation. The CEA is trying to persuade congresspeople to oppose legislation that restricts satellite radio. The group convincingly makes its case by tapping the history books, finding quotes from the past that also engaged in stirring up a little fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD), and turned out to be absolutely wrong:

"I forsee a marked deterioration in American music...and a host of other injuries to music in its artistic manifestations, by virtue—or rather by vice—of the multiplication of the various music-reproducing machines..." -John Philip Sousa on the Player Piano (1906)

"The public will not buy songs that it can hear almost at will by a brief manipulation of the radio dials." -Record Label Executive on FM Radio (1925)

More after the jump.

"But now we are faced with a new and very troubling assault on our fiscal security, on our very economic life and we are facing it from a thing called the videocassette recorder." -MPAA on the VCR (1982)
"When the manufacturers hand the public a license to record at home...not only will the songwriter tie a noose around his neck, not only will there be no more records to tape [but] the innocent public will be made an accessory to the destruction of four industries." -ASCAP on the Cassette Tape (1982).

I'll add one more: "What is past is prologue." -William Shakespeare
– Charlie White

Consumer Electronics Association criticizes content industry fear-mongering [ars technica]