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HTC has been innovating with phones every year as far back as I can remember them being in business. They incorporated features into their phones that no one else had. My first HTC phone was an HTC Wizard, awesome when I got it and still works like a champ (it’s my backup phone). So this year at CES I think everyone was expecting great things from HTC given what the other manufactures were able to come up with, but HTC all but skipped CES. Now at MWC (Mobile World Conference) many expected HTC to announce some new cutting edge phones. Instead, they were met with some average phones that are not even close to cutting edge, I would be hard to classify them as ‘new’, just different or more of the same from last year.

Every manufacturer goes through this problem at some point, but not so early in their business life. What happened to the innovations at HTC? Did they lose some engineers to other companies like LG or Motorola, both of which have come up with some very innovative new phones? I will be sad if HTC becomes the next victim of the lack of innovation. Sure, they released the EVO Shift early this year, but that was not really innovative given that the EVO was last years new wonder of technology. The Shift is basically a smaller EVO with a slide out keyboard, I would have liked it better if it had been an EVO with a slide out keyboard.

HTC please get it together and get back to designing cool new toys for all of us!

I arrived a bit early as usual to this years CES show, and the place was already buzzing with people. I waited around for the doors to open, next to a twitter wall which was kind of loud when it was showing updates. i am not quite sure what the big deal is with twitter (I don’t use it myself) but the board was ablaze with tweets about CES. The doors opened, and the rush was on. This year, unlike the past years attending CES, I was not in a hurry to see the whole show in one day. Did I see some things that I think are pretty cool, you bet!

In no particular order:

PhoneGuard is software (Android & Blackberry are supported) that will block texting while you drive, Sounds an alarm when you are going above a determined speed (great for those teen drivers), will report activity in real time (to the ever watchful parent or company), and will auto reply to texts while you are driving.

Vablet is a content management system for iPads that  can push or remove content from an iPad remotely; video, PDF’s, documents, presentations, and other media. I liked that you could save notes while viewing the media and the application reports back to the publisher when the media has been viewed in it’s entirety, which will make those pesky HR people happy.

Jorno is a folding Bluetooth keyboard that folds up to about 3″ square, it also includes a detachable cradle that will hold your device in vertical or horizontal position. I didn’t get to try it out as they only have the prototype at the show, but it looks good to me.

Chill Pill Audio makes those speakers for your iPod, iPhone, or any other device that has a 3mm headphone jack that are  in the shape of a capsule (pill). They connect together at the bottom when you need to transport them and come with a handy pouch. Additionally, all of the cords retract into the units so they don’t get lost and the batteries are Lithium Ion that last about 6 hours. A retail price of $39.99 is not bad for good portable sound. They also make stylus for touch screens (like your iPhone, or in my case Nexus One). They have three styles; Standard, Retractable, and Stubby. I really liked the Stubbie and Retractable ones, the Stubbie fits my fingers well and was easy to use on the soft keyboard, the Retractable was very good to drawing or sketching on the small screen.

iaPeel makes inkjet printable skins that you do at home for phone, laptops, tablets, and gaming devices. While they are not heavy duty and do not protect against scratches, it is nice to be able to make your own skins. One feature that stood out to me is that not only are you making your own skin, but you can create wallpaper for your device that lines up with the skin. You really have to see it to appreciate it.

Aiken Labs is showing its Immersive Motion product which is basically motion capture without cameras or IR, a truly wireless solution that can be used with multiple devices as it is platform independent. While they were still setting up when I first arrived, I stopped by later for a peek at the demo. They are still working on tweaking the system, but overall I can see this system being used for multiple applications. Imagine, virtual paintball where you can really move around or a multiplayer game with augmented reality and motion capture at the same time. Aiken Labs is demoing the prototype, but is working on getting the devices to be smaller. I think they are on to something, just think of the small independent film/software makes being able to have motion capture at a reasonable cost.

I took some pictures of some other cool stuff. They are in a gallery.

2011 CES

Day 1 2011 CES

21 Photos

While Sprint won’t say who will be producing the tablet yet, they did indicated that it would be next year (2011). I find this interesting since CES is right around the corner, and the tablets will most likely be announced at that time. Currently there are 12 tablets that are slated to be announced at CES, but that number may grow.

There will be no shortage of tablets for Sprint to choose from next year, as handset makers vie to steal market share away from Apple’s iPad. In addition to RIM, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, LG and others all plan to release tablets next year.

As with all new things there will be the exceptional, the good, and the bad. Since I am going to CES (again), I will see what I can dig up while I am there as far as Sprint’s new tablet. Of course, since I am not the mainstream media, I will probably be finding out after everyone else. At least I might get to touch it though.