Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada

As you know, I was in Vegas last week for the Consumer Electronics Show. It's an industry-only show, but somehow I always manage to get in. This was my fourth year and I look forward to seeing what's up and coming in the consumer electronics field. This year it seems to be television--really big screens (102 inch, 1080 DLP) and really small (mobile TV.) Also better resolution on cell-cams. Nokia has a new N-phone that has a higher pixel camera and a flash. They also have one for taking video, which looked really slick. They don't call it a phone anymore--it's a "multimedia computer."

The show is enormous and I found myself concentrating on specific areas. For instance, I never even went into the North Hall of the Convention Center, which was predominantly sound systems for cars. Instead, I focused on home computing (Microsoft, Hewlett Packard), home sound (speakers, home theatre systems), and of course, athletics.

In the latter category, I was disappointed to find only Garmin. Last year Garmin announced their 301 and 305. There wasn't anything new that I could see for this year. At least not for runners and bikers; they had a huge booth, but I didn't pay any attention to the other GPS products. I spoke with a Garmin representative and he showed me the bike computer. I told him I was interested in biking and running, and he said I could take the wrist strap off my 305 (which I don't have, but want) and mount it on my road bike (which I also don't have, but want.) There's also a cadence counter that you can attach to your bike. He said if I wait until May, they will probably package it all together. That will be about the time I expect to move into my new house, so I guess I'll wait until then.

I got an overview of their software, too. You can type in a city and get a suggested running route, complete with map. It allows you to view streets from your computer, but when you download it to your watch, you just see an arrow indicating when you should turn left or right. The site allows others to download their favorite routes, so that there will be a whole network of running and bike routes to access, all over the world.

Trade shows are fun, but they can be exhausting. Marketeers do what they can to attract you to their booth and after hours of walking on concrete, I'll gladly listen to a sales pitch just for the opportunity to sit down. One year David Crosby (of Crosby, Stills, and Nash) was performing. That was very special for me. Last year Ricky Skaggs played. This year I didn't see any performances, but that may be because I didn't know where to look. Maybe the XM booth had entertainment, but they were over in North Hall.

SD had meetings the first two days, so I was on my own. At the Dolby booth, I sat in their makeshift theatre and watched movie excerpts that showcased Dolby's awesome sound. And I talked to someone at Wynit, because they are a Garmin distributor. He said if I was a dealer for them, I could buy Garmin at a discount. I told him Wynit is a distributor for the company SD works for and he told me to have SD contact him and I could get a price break. When I told this to SD, he said someone at Wynit told him of a contact that could provide a better price than even Wynit. I was very excited, but then SD said we'd been spending a lot of money and should wait on buying a 305. What!!! I've already waited over a year, I think that's long enough. But OK, I'll wait a little longer. My 201 is working fine, I just want to have the latest model. Although on the last day, we bought a unit from XM radio, one of those "show specials." I guess we only need to save money on things that I want.

I didn't drop any money in slot machines or on the gaming tables, but I did gamble. Creative Labs, the people who brought you SoundBlaster, had a large booth and if you sat through two demos, you get a chance at the Wheel of Fortune. The first day, I won this. That's all well and good, but what I really wanted was a web cam. I went back two more times to win one, but no luck. I did win a travel mug and a duffle bag. I had to leave the mug behind for lack of luggage space, but I can use the duffle bag for the gym.


SD had time on Wednesday to look at the show, so we wandered over to the Sands, which is where the high-end audiophile electronics are. It's also where another trade show, not related to CES but capitalizing on the attendance, is located. It's an "adult entertainment" show and you can generally tell who is there for CES and who is there for the other one. Sometimes you can't avoid mixing. I was walking down the hallway of the Sands and there was a woman wearing very little, posing. Unfortunately, I saw her from behind... and saw her behind. I found that very offensive. I mean, if I wanted to see a woman's butt, I'd pay good money to see it in a Las Vegas show.

Speaking of Las Vegas shows, we saw the Cirque de Soleil "Love" show. It's done to the music of the Beatles and it's incredibly well-done. I've seen other Cirque shows in the past, but this was my all time favorite. If you ever get the chance, I encourage you to see it. We brought one of SDs Japanese co-workers, and he wasn't familiar with Beatles' songs. I was concerned that he wouldn't enjoy it, but he loved it!

I did get one run in while in Vegas. It was nothing spectacular, but it felt good to get outside. I mostly ran behind the Strip, because I was trying to avoid crowds and I prefer to run on asphalt, which I can't do on busy Las Vegas Blvd. We left on Thursday morning and drove a rental car to our homesite in California. More on that in another post.