CES: Sony's XBR-LX900 HDTV -- half robot, half TV

There are a ton of 3D HDTVs at CES, but I have to hand it to Sony for managing to jump ahead of the crowd. Their top-of-the-line XBR-LX900 series TV comes with a built-in proximity sensor that automatically dims the TV's backlight when you're not in the room. This in turn helps you save money/not waste electricity. Gimmicky, yes, but pretty cool nonetheless.

Sony calls it the Intelligent Presence Sensor. It's essentially a tiny camera/lens built into the TV's bezel. It use face detection to track your mug and another cool feature is that if you (or a child) is sitting too close to the TV, the backlight will turn off. (Sony's playing the "mom" role and making sure you don't ruin your eye sight by sitting too close to the TV.)

Another interesting feature is that the TV will adjust its speakers based on where you're sitting so that you'll always get a full "surround sound" effect regardless of whether you're sitting directly in front of it or off to the side. That I thought was really cool and impressed me a little more than the proximity sensor.

We saw a demo of all of this and it worked pretty well. The face detection wasn't always as smooth, but considering there were a lot of us standing in front of the TV, it did a good job at tracking most of us. When the Sony rep covered the lens, the TV slowly dimmed itself off.

The edge-lit LED TV also features 240Hz motion technology, built-in Wi-Fi, Netflix, Amazon VOD, and YouTube streaming, and it comes with two 3D glasses. (Word on the street has it that most TVs don't come with the glasses!) It's due out in June. When we asked how much, the Sony rep smiled and said, naturally it'll cost more than our regular TVs. In other words, start saving now.

CES: Sharp's 4-pixel TVs

I like Sharp's Aquos line of TVs. Hell, I own one. But I'm not sold on their new QuadPixel technology. Basically, they're adding a 4th pixel (a yellow one) to the color scheme. The result is supposed to be a better overall image. Honestly, I couldn't tell the difference when we saw it. Looks great, no doubt, but so did every other 1080p HDTV out there. For now, this one's a pass.

CES: PowerMat redeems itself

I like the concept of "wireless" charing pads, but after reviewing the current PowerMat Power Pad and Duracell MyGrid, I just couldn't recommend either. They're expensive, they require the use of various tips/adapters, and they're anything but wireless. We met with PowerMat at CES today and their new updates are pretty impressive.

Rather than continue making sleeves and cases for your gadgets (before your gadget can charge on a Power Mat, you need to fit it into a $30 sleeve), PowerMat is now making batteries. These new batteries will come with the PowerMat sensor built-in, so you no longer need to buy the sleeves/cases. Just pop the battery into your phone and you're done. You can now charge your handheld directly on the PowerMat pad without any sleeve/case. The battery shown here is for an HTC phone (I forget which one) and each battery will cost $39. Not exactly cheap, but I feel this is a better approach than what PowerMat had before.

As an alternative, you can buy the PowerPak for $69, which includes a battery and a mini PowerMat that will let you charge one device. They work with most popular smartphones, even the Droid. iPhone users will have to buy the sleeve for the iPhone, which they've now made thinner and it now doubles as a case w/ a built-in battery.

The other PowerMat product I liked is the PowerMat with the built-in battery. Again, it's like the current mat, except it has a built-in battery, so when you're on the go, you can just take the pad and that's it. No wires needed. (Of course, you'll need the wires to recharge the mat's built-in battery). But for quick getaways, it's pretty neat. This pad is $99.

Overall, the PowerMat is an expensive way to charge your gadgets. But with the $69 PowerPak, it's a little easier on the wallet and it's closer to being a truly wireless alternative than it was before. Stay tuned for reviews when we get the products.

Energizer's wireless charging pad -- still overpriced

Guess who's joining the PowerMats and MyGrid's of the world? Energizer! They were demoing a prototype of their new wireless charging pad at last night's Digital Experience pre-CES show.

The main questions. Will your gadgets still require separate sleeves for charging? Yes. Will those sleeves support all of your gadgets? No, initially they'll just support the more popular ones. Will the sleeves cost extra money? Of course. How much will the pad retail for? About $100.

In other words, there's really nothing to distinguish this from Duracell's MyGrid or PowerMat's own power pad.

This I'll say, Energizer's pad looks nicer than Duracell's. Maybe even nicer than PowerMat's. But $100?! C'mon. It's due out this summer.

Hands-on w/ the Nexus One

I cheated on my Droid last night. And you know what. It was worth it. Don't get me wrong. I love the Droid. But after a few minutes with the Nexus, I just don't think the Droid and I were meant for each other.

The Nexus is physically gorgeous. It's so much lighter than the Droid, but yet it doesn't feel cheap or flimsy. I'm not saying the Droid is fat or cheap, but after holding a Nexus in your hands you realize no phone should weigh over 5 ounces.

The Nexus kinda resembles the Hero/Eris to be honest. It has a tiny trackball below the touch-sensitive buttons and that's really it. Think of the Nexus as the Droid's sexier, skinnier cousin.

The Nexus is also noticeably faster. The Droid isn't slow, but thumb around the Nexus' interface and you'll notice the speed bump. And you should. There's a 1GHz Snapdragon processor in there. That's the fastest smartphone processor out there period. It's faster than my first computer! (An Apple Performa 637CD fyi.)

The screen is the same size on the Nexus as it is on the Droid, but colors seemed to pop out more on the Nexus than on the Droid. (The Nexus' screen is AMOLED, not so for the Droid.)

I guess what I'm saying is — the Nexus has won me over. If not for the Droid's useless QWERTY keyboard, I probably wouldn't have looked at the Nexus. But HTC has done an amazing job and by bringing it to Verizon, Google has found my weak spot.


Nexus One
Weight: 4.5 oz
Display: 3.7" WVGA AMOLED 800x480
Camera: 5MP, 2x digital zoom w/ LED flash
Keyboard: Virtual

Motorola Droid
Weight: 6 oz
Display: 3.7" WVGA 480x854
Camera: 5PM, 4x digital zoom w/ dual LED flash
Keyboard: Virtual & slide-out QWERTY

Coolest OLED screen you'll never use

Chances are you'll never use this in the real world, (other than to wow your friends), but hats off to Samsung 'cause this is one of the coolest prototype technologies I've seen in a long time. It's Samsung's transparent OLED display. As you can see from the pic, it's 40% transparent so you can see right through the screen. Samsung claims we'll see these screens out in the real world as early as next year, but considering that large-screen OLEDs have yet to catch on, I'm a little hesitant to believe them.

Not to mention, why would you really want this? I can't imagine using a screen like this all day at work. On an MP3 player, maybe. On a laptop, I'd go crazy. Still, seeing this technology in action totally blew my mind. Expect to pay through the teeth when this comes out.

Pre-CES

Less than 48 hours before Jeff and I head to CES to cover the latest and greatest in the tech world. 3D TVs were the "it" product at last year's show, so I'm curious to see what the new "it" device will be this year. (It is 2010 afterall.) E-book readers? 3D TVs again? Netbooks? Tablets? To be honest, I'm expecting it to be "all of the above."

We'll be twittering and posting away live from the show. All I need to do now is find a bag that's small, yet light enough to fit all my stuff. Not looking fwd to airport security checks.