Highlights at CES 2007

According to the unanimous opinion of the visitors, the most enchanting sight at the exhibition was a water video show in the outdoor pool. The image from the projector was projected directly onto the water curtain, so that a translucent image hung in the air in front of amazed viewers ( video , WMV, 56 MB). However, the public interest at CES 2007 was primarily riveted not to the entertainment show, but to technological innovations. Recently, CES has become the largest computer exhibition in the world, so many IT companies are trying to coincide with the release of new products for this event. The exhibition Consumer Electronics Show 2007 opened on January 8 and will run until Thursday 11 January. The company Walt Disney





made a real show at CES 2007, introduced a new version of Disney.com portal in the style of Web 2.0, and also invited movie stars who starred in the TV series “Lost” to the presentation. The fact is that Walt Disney is actively promoting content for mobile phones, and this series is better sold than others in the mobile version.

Director of Motorola in his speech at CES announced amazing statistics: every second four children are born in the world and 25 mobile phones are sold. Mobile revolution comes to third world countries. Of course, this is hindered by the fact that in Africa, for example, there is no electricity anywhere, but Motorola has figured out how to solve this problem: the batteries will be charged from bicycles.

In Western countries, where everything is normal with electricity, the revolution will go further. The most progressive company here is Yahoo , which at the exhibition announced that the Yahoo Go 2.0 search widget will be preinstalled on more than 70 models of mobile phones from various manufacturers (Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Research In Motion).

The company Nokiaintroduced new models of mobile phones, including the innovative model N800, which is an advanced version of the N770, with a tactile keyboard, Skype support and a webcam. The Microsoft manager gave a presentation of Windows Vista and showed several "features that are first publicly shown" ( video ). Among them - a quick search for documents by the first characters in the name (works directly from the desktop, and searches not only on this PC, but on all computers on the network); viewing previous editions of a document without opening it; tight integration with Windows Live search engine and Virtual Earth mapping service



(so, the geographical map opens automatically if you click on any address or phone in the text of the document on the PC); support for Xbox 360 joysticks (for example, for "flights" on Virtual Earth on the Internet - this fragment of the presentation caused applause from the public).

Bill Gates in his speech at CES ( text ) announced the imminent appearance of home computer systems based on Windows Home Server. The first such HP MediaSmart Server machine will be released in floor I. 2007, although almost nothing is known from the technical details . It is only clear that these devices can be of different form factors, like the prototype in the photo below. The company Real Networks



at the exhibition announced a number of new contracts for its online music service Rhapsody . Among the new partners are Nokia, TiVo, Logitech and the Korean company Reigncom (manufacturer of iRiver players). All listed companies will release devices with Rhapsody support. It seems that this open platform can become a serious competitor for the “closed” bunch of iPod-iTunes.