Sneak Peak: The Year's Newest Gadgets

Jan. 3, 2005 — -- It's the "Big Show" for us geeks: the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. CES has become the premier event for showcasing the latest hardware, software and online services that cater to the end user -- you and me.

The show officially opens to technology professionals on Thursday, so here's a sneak peek at some of the offerings we think will be big.

The story of the show is usually the expensive plasma TVs, audio systems and cameras that we really can't afford, so I thought it would be good to start with a real innovation that we could all use -- and it only costs about $20.

This little silver tube looks like a lipstick holder, but it's an emergency cell phone charger. Costing just $19.95, it takes one AA battery and comes with a bevy of cell phone charger adapters. If you are running out of juice, you plug the phone into the Turbo charger, and you have enough juice to call the boss, call your wife or call for a tow truck. A real lifesaver, if you ask me.

No digital camera has all this in one unit. This camera actually has two lenses, two different eyes on the front of the camera that allow you to get really tight and extremely wide shots. The feature I really love is the 180-degree panorama option: You know how tedious it (usually) is to shoot three photos and paste them together so they make one wide panoramic shot? The Kodak has a seam finder that helps you to take three shots at just the right location to cover the whole panorama. Then the camera automatically stitches the shots together to create a 180-degree shot. The form factor is nice too; the V570 fits in your shirt pocket. This isn't the Ansel Adams option for serious photographers, but it would be great for real estate agents who want to show a home's entire view or for people who have really big families to fit into a portrait.

Last year, Samsung showed us the 102-inch Plasma screen, but that was just a prototype. LG Electronics is now rolling out the biggest plasma you can actually buy: an HDTV 71-inch plasma screen. This screen will retail for $70,000, which is really outrageous, but the images are exquisite. This set has top-of-the-line high-def resolution at 1080-P. That's geek-speak for images so crisp they will jump off the screen and slap you.

This video camera is small -- about the size of a tube of toothpaste. You strap it on your bike's handlebars or snowboarding helmet to record your extreme activities. What's neat is that it has no wires hooking it to an external recorder. It records video or pictures directly to an SD memory card that's in the unit. It retails for $119 and comes with 32 MB of storage. That records a pathetic amount of video (10 to 15 minutes) but you can upgrade the card and record hours of your shredding and carving activities.

Everybody needs a 6-foot-2-inch boxing robot. This large, hulky android is dressed in red, white and blue silky boxing trunks and some ominous red gloves. Really, who would need this? Well, you might need one if you need a sparring partner and you live alone in northeastern Alaska. Or if you were afraid to really unload on a human sparring partner and you wanted to just punch the daylights out of something other than a bag. OK, nobody needs the fighting android, but it sure does seem like a lot of fun and a decent workout. But the android costs $30,000, and with that kind of money, you could probably get Sugar Ray Leonard or Mike Tyson to go a few rounds with you -- even in Alaska.