With a name like The Dream Machine we could be talking about anything from a sleep tool to something a bit more R-rated. In this case, it’s a video game controller (sorry for the letdown if that wasn’t what you were hoping for). But it is a big controller and does all sorts of cool stuff! Watch the video and check out the photos below.
More CES Dream Machine coverage: The Gizmos, SF Gate (and their video), and Gizmodo.
I so want one of these. These tiny helicopters cost around $40 and I’m sure if I was at the controls I couldn’t do what this guy can do. But then again, I don’t own a flight suit. I was waiting for the guys to turn to me and say, “Mission Accomplished.” The next version of these will have 3-way directional controls which according to Hobbytron will make a big difference in maneuverability.
More CES coverage of Hobbytron: Gizmodo, Views from the Coop,
WowWee, the company behind the massively popular Robosapien, introduced 5 new robots at CES this week. We shot this little video of the new Roboquad (a “spider-bot”) walking. This is gonna delight the kids and creep out the moms. Perfect! 
More Roboquad CES coverage: Engadget, StreetTech, technabob, and this robotics blog.
WildCharge was one of the few companies whose press releases prior to CES really caught my eye. Wireless power? Whozawhatzit? Huh? Watch this video interview for a brief explanation:
Ok, that subject line could take hours to answer, so while dropping by the Meridian booth at CES, I asked someone to answer it in about 60 seconds. For those of you unfamiliar with Meridian, they make, well, the best stereo equipment in the world. I’m sure that by writing that I’ve enraged either some little company that happens to out-do them, or people who own Meridian equipment and think the word “stereo” isn’t good enough. But right now since I can’t afford any of it, I get to call it like I see it. Now onto his answer…
I got a chance to meet Fatal1ty at the DirecTV press conference at CES this past week and grabbed a quick video. By exclusive I mean that I am the only one with exactly this video. Check out his thoughts on a professional gaming league!
Continuing from part 1…
DirecTV
From walking in it appeared that the DirecTV conference was going to be a bit of a rehash of Echostar, but once the lights dimmed, the difference was substantial. First of all, the presentation included… video. Yup, video – from a media company – what a surprise! I was also impressed that the company brought a team of execs, and a couple of guest stars!
The presentation from Chase Carey (President/CEO) began with a recap of 2006, then went on to discuss the year ahead. The focus will be on Sports, HD, and VOD, and will include new content and services to support the vision. Chase then professed the company’s HDTV leadership position.
Steven Roberts (VP of Games and Strategic Initiatives) came on to present DirecTV’s new Championship Gaming Series, which he described as a “sports league” for gaming. The league will debut later this year, and includes a draft, commissioner, and salaried players. They showed a promo video which I felt was a really exciting vision for gaming. This is definitely something I’d have applied for as a teenager, and I hope “the kids today” take advantage of the opportunity. Fatal1ty also appeared, as he’s under an exclusive contract with DirecTV. I also got a brief interview with him which I’ll post later.
Next up, Eric Shanks (EVP for Entertainment) took the stage to discuss a few new technologies and services. The theme of “being connected” is key, with their Viiv-enabled DVR as their first foray into a connected, digital home. Eric also showcased the upcoming DirecTV-on-demand (launching in Q1), which allows subscribers to view a whole new lineup of on-demand programming. Broadcasters will have the ability to create their own styles and themed “pages” for users.
Eric mentioned consumers’ frustrations with receiving announcements (for new channels, programming, features, etc) from DirecTV and how they are addressing it with a new feature called GMessages (the G is for Guide). In the demo, the program guide has new lines with ads announcements from DTV or broadcasters. These ads announcements can also include interactive features (e.g. “record this” or, more appropriately “buy now”). I don’t know about how many customers are complaining on this topic, but I’d recommend this article at PVRWire on some quite major complaints.
Next, Eric introduced TV veteran Rick Rosner as the pioneer/inventor of a new product coming soon from DirecTV called Sat+Go. Now I have the pleasure of having met Rick while I was working at Sling Media, as he was a big Slingbox owner and helped spread the word to Hollywood. Rick’s a great guy and a visionary, and while he loves his Slingbox, he really wanted to come up with a way to watch DirecTV without any connection, whether he’s in the middle of the desert or out camping somewhere. Thus, Sat+Go was born (read more from the NY Times). Congrats to Rick, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy!
Next up from Eric was a preview of the Nascar Hot Pass, a DirecTV exclusive debuting next month. For each race, the DTV/Nascar team will pick 5 racers and give them dedicated channels during the race. It adds 30 new cameras and 10 announcers per race! I’m not much of a Nascar fan myself, but it sounds like a great service to Nascar fans.
During Q&A, I decided to pop in a question myself, wanting to find out where DTV sees Internet/user-generated content (read: YouTube) fits in. DirecTV believes the trend is toward HDTV, and most UGC doesn’t look good (read: it looks very bad) on HD displays. That said, they acknowledge the growth and are looking into something down the road with “Web players.” My hunch is they’ve gone into it pretty far, as they even mentioned a possible implementation where Web videos could have a “send to my DVR” button added to the screen. This was actually my first time hearing a company like this one admit there is a benefit to working with Web services (as opposed to the PR rep at Moxi/Digeo who felt that its not the right target market and a bit too niche). I’m impressed!
The final interesting comment came as a reporter from a HD publication asked about 1080p support. DirecTV has not committed to 1080p, and their CTO rose to state that they weren’t making any commitments yet. As the reporter pushed on the question, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that they weren’t budging yet, and weren’t convinced on the benefits of the format. This is a sentiment I completely agree with, and will discuss in the future – don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-1080p, I just think there’s a lot of FUD on the topic.
Powerpoint slides, screenshots, and pictures from the event are below:
In Conclusion
I have decided to create an arbitrary scoring system to pronounce one of the two companies the First Ever Winner of the CES 2007 Battle of the Satellite Company Press Conferences…
Initial score: Echostar 3, DirecTV 3. Holy cow, a tie. Hmm.. I need a tiebreaker. OK, how about:
