CES ended yesterday, but we’re still pumping out reports from the show, and will be for the next few days as we try to get a handle on everything we saw there. Our latest report is from Kevin Christley, and once again, he finds a whole slew of great gadgets:
Polaroid has entered the portable MP3 foray with their new Juke Jam, a hard drive player aimed squarely at the Apple’s iPod. The Juke Jam comes in 20, 30, and 40GB versions, plays both MP3 and WMA audio files, can directly record from a stereo or other audio source, and has a built-in FM radio. [Editor’s note: As far as we can tell,it looks like the Juke Jam is built by the same manufacturer that makes the MP-200HD for Jens of Sweden.]
GoVideo has a pretty good idea going on with their HH8040 Settop DVR. What makes their approach innovative is that it includes what they call the ShowPort, which holds a removable handheld mini-player with a hardrive that holds up to 20 hours of TV programming and easily connects to any TV for playback. What would make this a killer product, though, would be if the ShowPort had built-in LCD screen and speakers for viewing. Hopefully this will be something we spot at next year’s CES.
One cool gadget we saw is the Air Wolf Two Way Remote Car Starter which has a built-in LCD display that can show you the status of your car once it’s parked, i.e. if you left the lights on, if an alarm has been triggered (and why), if the hood, trunk, or doors have been opened, or if the engine has been started. It can also remotely start your car from up to 1000 feet away, so no more waiting for the car to warm up on those bitterly cold winter mornings.
Clearly aimed at a niche market is the new TracVision A5 mobile satellite TV system by KVH. It’s a phased-array antenna that fits on top of your SUV’s luggage rack and allows you to watch satellite TV channels while on the go. I don’t know about you, but I don’t watch enough TV in my car to make it worth the expense of installing what amounts to a satellite dish. When I was a kid, we had to play whack-a-bug (everytime you saw a VW Bug, you whacked your brother or sister) to keep ourselves entertained. I guess kids today need a little bit more stimulation on those family road trips.
Pacific Digital is trying to resurrect the market for LCD picture frames, which can display digital photos without being connected to a PC. Their new MemoryFrame doesn’t require a subscription to upload and display your pictures, and comes in two models, an 8″x10″ (that stores 80 images) and a 5″x7″ model (that stores 55 images).
Wurtilizer, famous for their huge arch-shaped retro neon-bubbletube jukeboxes, has updated their home jukebox line. The Wurtilizer Digital Jukebox, which can store up to 1000 CDs and connects to the Internet to download new music or listen to Internet radio streams, comes with a detachable color LCD remote control so you can control your music anywhere in your house.
