CES 2007

If there were no buttons on your cell phone, imagine how big the screen could be.

Synaptics is doing just that with its Onyx phone, a new concept in cell phone technology. Shaped like a remote, it's a bar-style phone that would integrate GPS, music, teleconferencing and calendar events.

The Onyx concept phone

(Credit: Synaptics)

But the coolest part is the screen, which takes up nearly the whole handset. Synaptics calls it ClearPad, a thin, high-resolution touch screen based on the company's proprietary sensing technology. With it, there would be no need for buttons to input information. Information can be entered into the Onyx concept phone with two fingers, or via text entry.

Unfortunately, no company is planning on releasing this phone anytime soon, but the Onyx is out there and could be an indicator of what's to come in the design of mobile handsets.

Motorola's Follow Me TV feature for its DVR set-top boxes lets users choose which TV to watch a recorded TV show on.

Instead of keeping content stored on only that TV, Follow Me TV lets users bring TV with them from room to room. Any recorded show is aggregated and made available on any TV on the network. In addition to TV programs, music and photos can also follow to any TV, and the content can also be sent to portable devices.

Or, as Motorola CEO Ed Zander demonstrated for the audience here at CES 2007, you can pause a live show, push a button, and pick up that show in a different room.

Verizon first introduced the service on its multiroom DVR in late 2006, but Zander announced during his keynote Monday morning that Comcast will be offering it this year.

Imagine being able to recharge your laptop by placing it on a pad. The people at WildCharge hope you can. In fact, they're betting that you're also sick of buying different power cords for every gadget you own--cell phone, smart phone, MP3 player, etc.

The WildCharger from Arizona-based WildCharge is the latest attempt to bring wireless power mainstream. The device works using a small flexible pad, approximately 6 inches by 15 inches on which gadgets or laptops are placed. The pad does have a wire and plugs into the wall. A receiver either integrated into a phone or laptop or attached as a battery pack.

It's been done before, but it didn't exactly take off. WildCharge says this time will be different.

In the future, WildCharge's goal is to have the receivers integrated into a variety of devices and the pads would be hotspots for recharging, either at a desk or in a house, or even in airports, cafes, or hotels.

The WildCharger, which is being shown off at CES, will go on sale this summer. No word on pricing yet.

A Pennsylvania start-up says it has the answer to one of the biggest problems in mobile phones: battery life.

After three years of keeping its technology under close guard, Powercast has come to CES 2007 to get consumer and manufacturer attention. Powercast is a radio frequency that is transmitted over a small area, and its energy is "harvested"--wirelessly--to give power to small devices like cell phones.

While it's presented as wireless power, Powercast isn't just a replacement for a universal charger. Instead, it's meant to either continuously charge a battery or replace the need for them altogether.

It works like this: a transmitter can be placed anywhere--in a lamp, for example, that is plugged into the wall and sits on a table. The transmitter in the lamp sends out a continuous, low RF signal. Anything with either AA or AAA batteries set within its range--and equipped with a Powercast receiver, which is the size of your fingernail--will be continuously charged.

"Our solution is, if talk time (on a cell phone) is 5 1/2 hours, by trickle-charging (it) at work, now talk time is 10 hours because the battery never gets to dead," John Shearer, CEO of Powercast, said in an interview.

There are many applications for Powercast, said Shearer, but the company is making the PC peripherals market a priority. Think a wireless keyboard or mouse with no battery, or a hermetically sealed battery that the customer never need access again.

Major CE and IT manufacturers will have to agree to build Powercast capability into their products, and thus far Powercast is revealing only Philips as a future partner. The first Powercast product will come to market by the end of 2007, the company says.

A waiter-bot fetching sodas from the fridge

(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET Networks)

What can robots do? Fetch beer, pick up socks and empower rodents.

At the Consumer Electronics Show this week, iRobot will publicly release its latest product, the Create, a programmable robot for entertainment and education. The base of the Create is similar to the Scooba, the company's mopping robot, and the vacuuming Roomba. It comes with wheels, motors for movement, and sensors that prevent it from tumbling downstairs or getting mired in corners.

Bot as minibillboard

The brushes and fluid tanks, however, have been removed and, instead, the Create comes with a series of connectors that let users attach reticulating arms, cameras and other devices. The idea is that people will devise their own tasks and write their own programs for it. Some of the add-ons can be purchased, but the company also expects people will craft their own peripherals.

Some people participating in early tests have made robots that can fetch drinks from the fridge, while others have put hamster balls on top to make bionic rodents. Another group in India made one that can make sand mandalas.

Hamster movements guide this bot.

"This isn't a toy or a plug-and-chug thing," co-founder Helen Grenier said in an interview. "It is programmable robot for students and robot enthusiasts."

The Create costs $130 and the logic board, for fancier programming, costs $60.

MediaZone will debut Social TV here at CES 2007, a mix of Internet television, MySpace, and instant messaging.

It's professionally produced online content that can be streamed or downloaded from the ad-supported site. The idea is to let users give feedback on, chat about, and rate programming, as well as forward the good stuff to friends. It's like YouTube, but from pros. Social TV aims to create global online TV channels that can be launched without the restraints of traditional television.

MediaZone has a shared-streaming technology allows users to securely share video packets, which lower the distribution cost all the while wrapping content in DRM.

MediaZone is currently a site where users can get live sports programming like European rugby, motocross, tennis, fishing, surfing and poker, and a cross section of international television and news shows.

The new Social TV will have extreme sports, dedicated comedy and horror film channels, as well as a hip-hop lifestyle-focused channel, Voice of America, independent short films and more.

Social TV will launch in the first quarter of this year.

What's the opposite of the Slingbox? The new SlingCatcher.

The SlingCatcher is a set-top box that will let users project Web content to a TV screen, either wired or wirelessly, through an application called SlingProjector. Navigation can be done with either the included remote or through a PC.

SlingCatcher

(Credit: Sling Media)

The device is set to be announced Sunday at CES 2007 by Sling Media, the same people behind the Slingbox, which lets you watch your home TV channels on a laptop or a smart phone. The SlingCatcher retains the Slingbox's familiar trapezoid shape.

With an eye on Apple's upcoming iTV, Sling Media CEO Blake Krikorian said announcing the new device for bringing Web content, such as YouTube videos, to a living room is his company officially "throwing our hat in the ring there."

Krikorian said the SlingCatcher will be available for "less than $200" sometime in the second quarter or as late as this summer.