The OCZ crew chucks prizes to tall, aggressive people
The OCZ suite party was a blast. We got to hobnob and meet with a bunch of great people, including peer site owners, tech company executives, and gamers. We also got to start a smack-talking rivalry with FiringSquad; Tom Colarusso thinks he’s got game in TF2 (the match was a wash; we decimated them). Thrax and BuddyJ got into a great (and very in-depth) conversation with Olin Coles (Editor of Benchmarkreviews), Tom Colarusso (crap-ass TF2 Pyro) and Tony Leach (OCZ Technology) about the need for standardized SSD benchmarks. Towards the end of the evening, the OCZ crew tossed out handfuls of swag. I, of course, had to take photos, so I didn’t even have a chance to grab anything. Also, I’m short and the room was full of tall, aggressive dudes. Damn tall dudes.
Day 2:
This time we decided to tackle the main convention center. Peter left a little early to go ride the thing, and Thrax and I set off for the main convention hall. Peter went to check out the latest from Razer gaming peripherals, while Thrax and I wandered the aisles. After Peter finished with Razer, we met up with him and headed towards the Nvidia booth, where we saw a lot of great tech, including their new 3D goggles (not as hokey as they sound!), and met with Nvidia reps to discuss Icrontic’s folding efforts. Next, we moved on to the Mtron booth, where we saw some of their new ultra-fast SSD products. Then came Asus.
An Asus concept laptop: Origami
Asus is doing some incredible things. We got to see some of their “Origami” concept line of devices that are in that magical “5 to 10 years away” category. We had the opportunity to speak with Daniel Alenquer, the Lead User Experience Designer at Asus, and he was very passionate and excited to talk about the way Asus approaches design problems. Tech companies would do well to hire people who have the same passion and childlike wonder that us enthusiasts and people like Mr. Alenquer have towards technology.
Next up we visited MSI and got to see their latest Wind netbooks as well as their Macbook Air competitor. MSI is a company that is serious about competing in entrenched markets, and may just be able to pull it off. MSI may not have quite the brand recognition that major American OEMS like Dell and HP have, but they certainly have the products, price, and features to compete in that space. As you are probably well aware, Icrontic contains many MSI Wind fanboys (and girls); at the Icrontic St. Patty’s Day party, a couple of people saw the Winds already in attendance and went out to buy their own. Many Icrontians own MSI Wind netbooks now (this guy included).
A quick jaunt across the aisle brought us to Shuttle‘s display. Shuttle is a company that is near and dear to these old geeks’ hearts. After we saw a little Shuttle XPC pushing Crysis on high… on THREE displays… we were intrigued. We met with Shuttle’s Nick Villalobos—another guy whose passion shines through the suit-and-tie-PR-guy-at-the-trade-show persona. Many of us used to have a Shuttle XPC back in the day, myself included, and to see that they are still going strong is both nostalgic and encouraging. Their new mini-PCs have integrated watercooling, high end video cards, and quad core processors. These aren’t your daddy’s XPCs.
Thrax plays HL2 on a Novint Falcon while Tom Anderson looks on
Later on, we moved downstairs to check out the gaming stuff. We ran into Novint Technology and got a chance to meet with Tom Anderson, Novint’s CEO. He gave us a private demo of the Novint Falcon controller. We were dubious at first, but came away highly impressed with the technology. I’m not sure if gaming is the ultimate best use for their product, but it’s an amazing thing to use. Like Nvidia’s 3D glasses, it’s one of those things that must be experienced to understand.
After the show, we headed over to the Wynn to attend the Netshelter party. Oh what a night we had. After taking over a corner of the suite and dubbing it the “geek’s table”, we met up with more great industry people (that toolbag Colarusso showed up again, by the way) including Futuremark’s Kent Wu (who, five months later, has graciously provided some awesome giveaways for the Expo Icrontic.) and had an amazing meal. Overall, we discovered that the suite parties are where it’s at for making new contacts and friends in the industry.
Vegas at night is a beautiful thing
After the party, we rounded up a few people and hit up Vegas proper. We had another pretty awful experience with a shady cab driver who ended up bringing us to a totally incorrect destination, but we ended up finding where we wanted to go. We had heard a rumor that AMD was having a party at a club so we tried to find that, but got rejected by the bouncers because we weren’t fashionable enough. We bailed on that and ended up at a different bar inside of Planet Hollywood, where we ended the night.
Day 3:
Thrax and Pete check out Microsoft Surface
Day 3 was spent roaming the show floors again, but it was a bit unfocused. We wandered into an entire area full of car audio stuff, and it suddenly felt like we were at a car show. We made our way through it eventually and ended up finding Microsoft’s area. We didn’t have an appointment, but because we had the magic orange press badges, we were let in to the private lounge where there were Surface tables set up. We got to play with Surface, which is a really cool experience. Surface is something that is going to be awesome at restaurants, bars, airports, and the like. I don’t see the whole “Surface as a coffee table at home” thing happening for normal people like me, but perhaps someone with a lot of disposable income could have some fun with it. We made our way down to the general area and got to talk Windows 7 with some of the floor employees.
Next, we went over to Intel. We met and had a great conversation with David Scheer, an Intel performance guy; turns out he’s originally from Michigan so we talked local stuff and had a great demo of Intel’s TDP software, turbo mode, and told him about our own NehalemCalc. Next, we headed over to an appointment with Intel’s PR manager, Dan Snyder. It was great to finally meet him; primarily because he was one of the main reasons we went to CES. He is very enthusiastic about Intel and their relationship with communities like ours. Intel has so many exciting products right now that it’s easy for us to reciprocate and be passionate about what they’re doing. Core i7 is clearly the price/performance leader and they show no signs of slowing down.
After Intel, I had a meeting with Peavey to check out their upcoming guitar training software; unfortunately it wasn’t available for the show floor. I did get to check out their Rockmaster guitars for Rock Band/Guitar Hero and they were awesome. As a “real” guitar player, the feel and heft of an authentic instrument is immensely helpful to improving my video game performance.
Can't you see I'm on the Goddamned Phone?
CES was an incredible experience; overwhelming, exciting, uplifting, and educational. As our first trade show, it was definitely a learning experience, but the skills and tricks we picked up along the way will become immensely helpful in covering future trade shows.
Stay tuned for our coverage of E3. We’ll be there in force to check out what’s going on in the entertainment world as well as provide (more timely) coverage for you guys.
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