A Gadget Sampler from CES 2007
Each year hundreds of new consumer gadgets are announced and on display at the annual Consumer Electronics show (CES) held in Las Vegas, and this year was no exception. This is the largest show of its kind worldwide, making it impossible to see all that's offered, but here's a sample of some of the interesting products that caught my eye.
With the increasing popularity of digital photography, instead of boxes of prints piling up in a closet we now have digital pictures taking up space on our computers, and displaying all our favorite shots can be a challenge. At CES, it was apparent that the digital photo frame is coming-of-age, and the good news is that prices are dropping. Kodak's EASYSHARE Digital Picture Frames offers four models of digital display frames that range in size from seven to ten inches. All have 128MB internal memory, a USB port, a memory card slot compatible with most types of memory cards, and two of the models have WiFi connectivity. If your home has wireless internet access, the frames can connect to the Kodak EasyShare Gallery to display pictures stored there.
Cameras, like cell phones, are getting smaller and more powerful. The Casio Exilim® EX-V7 is a tiny, light-weight, long-zoom camera that easily slips in your shirt pocket or pocketbook. Its key features are 7.2 mega-pixels combined with an impressive long 7x optical zoom. Another great features of this little pocket camera is the advanced anti-shake, which reduces blur due to shaky hands or a moving subject. It also has a 2.5-inch bright LCD viewing area and new video technology with video stabilization.
One of my favorite discoveries at CES was the Loc8tor (pronounced like the word "locator"). This innovative hand-held gadget comes with a set of small tags that can be attached to items that are often misplaced. Loc8tor is very easy to use and helps you avoid the frustration of trying to find the car keys, purse, wallet, or cell phone when you're trying to walk out the door. It can even help you find the television remote! You simply attach a small tag to those item you tend to misplace often or want to protect, then use the hand-held device to locate them when you can't remember where you last set them. The device beeps while the on-screen directional guide helps users locate the missing tagged item.
Speaking of getting lost, a popular item at CES was portable GPS navigation systems. The Michelin Group's ViaMichelin Navigation Systems, is an example of these devices. It can be used in your car or slipped into your pocket for use while walking, is slim and lightweight, and features voice and text turn-by-turn guidance with street-level maps for all 50 states and Canada or Europe. It has a directory of more than 1.5 million points-of-interest that allow users to find restaurants, hotels, gas stations, banks/ATMs and other businesses and services.
And some exciting advances are coming in the future, such as mobile payment systems that would allow us to manage our monies with mobile devices, such as paying for groceries or other purchases by waving our cell phone over a reader.
As the world of gadgets continues the trend towards small, wireless, light-weight and portable, I hope they all come with built-in location devices so we can find them when they get misplaced!
AARP does not recommend or endorse any of these products or web sites. Please be advised that there are other similar products and web sites available which were not reviewed and are not listed here.
About the Author
Susan Ayers Walker is a leading-edge boomer with over 35 years experience in emerging technologies.
