Channel 10

Niveus Media had their impressive Media Extender - EDGE device on display at CES 2008. A high end, full 1080P, multi zone media center extender targeted at the premium audio/videophile market. One feature that sets Niveus Media devices - including the EDGE - apart is the passive cooling system that is incorporated into the devices housing which enables virtually silent operation. We spoke with Tim Cutting, CEO and co-founder of Niveus Media, at CES 2008 to learn some more about the company and the range of products and services they offer.

At CES 2008 Panasonic unveiled the world's largest plasma screen at 150 inches (or ~ 381cm). Sure it does four times the resolution of 1080P but it's also a) not (yet?) available for sale and b) probably won't hit shelves for less than six figures. So for those of you out there looking for big HD displays, without the need for a second morgage, LCD projectors are a great option. Sanyo had some very cool devices on display at CES this year. The PLV-Z5 for entry level consumers, the PLV-Z2000 for full 1080P resolution with lens-shift and the amazing PLC-XL50 Short Throw Projector which creates an 80" picture from a distance of only 3 inches.

I dropped by TN Games last week to check our their TN Games' 3rd Space™ Vest. The vest allows you to feel the impact of punches, kicks, bullets and blasts that happen to your character in the game. The vest communicates with compatible games to give precise, 3 dimensionally accurate impact where it happens, as it happens. Impacts from in front of you, you feel in the front. Impacts from behind you, you feel in the back.  I also had a chance to check out the helmet which will available later this year.  And if your a developer TN Games has made enabling 3rdSpace into game titles easy. A simple, yet customizable, API can be integrated into any game with minimal effort. TN Games provides game developers full support so if you want it check out their site.

Just when you thought there couldn't possibly be any more accessories for your Wii- or that you'd rocked in every way possible on Guitar Hero for your 360, well there's always more. Enter EZ Gear. A third party gadget and gaming peripheral company that believes in offering us all quality products that are also new and unique. I go over a few of the finer pieces at the booth and, of course, linger for a while over the badass new Guitar.

Don't let the name fool you, ButtKicker brand low frequency audio transducers are serious, award winning and patented. You haven't enjoyed your gaming or movie viewing experience until you've felt the powerful THUD of bass pounding beneath your tushy. The best part about the ButtKicker is that you can install it in your own chouch or chair- so you aren't required to re-style your living room.

Once again, in the search for all things small at CES this year, I hunted down the MyVu booth. Personal media viewers are something I've been excited about for awhile, but was skeptical about their image quality and hedn't yet gotten to try out a pair. I sampled a few at CES this year and foud these to be the best. Not only are they super futuristic stylish from the outside, but the screen actually tricked my brain into thinking I was looking at a big screen TV. So instead of staring at the tiny screen on your Zune or laptop, take these for a ride- oh, and they're hands-free!

The Eye-Fi Card is a wireless memory card. It automatically uploads pictures from your digital camera to your PC or Mac and to your favorite photo sharing, printing, blogging or social networking site.  Here's why this is so great.  Because you don't have to drag any wires and have access to a computer to share great pics.  And it's all for under a hundred bucks.  You can't take video yet with the 2GB SD card but that certainly is the future.  They have over twenty partners for photo-sharing including Flickr and Windows Live.  I chat with one of the founders of Eye-Fi.

It's Dinosaur hunting season. The latest evolution of the classic Turok franchise will soon be playable on your xbox 360. I met up with Touchstone to learn all about the game before it comes out and give you this sneak peek. There's more carnage, more weapons, more creatures and of course...more fun. Check out this clip to see what you will soon be playing.

From 4TB, rack mounted, RAID 5 content servers (for the home) to gold tipped, passively cooled, multi-room Media Center extenders, the world of high end, home theatre PCs (HTPCs) will have most of us drooling and seriously consider smashing open the piggy bank. One of the companies at CES this year in the high end HTPC space was Inteset. We sat down with David Hirsh from Inteset to talk about the types of products and services his company offers and what sets high end HTPC's apart.  Company Web Site: http://www.inteset.com/

Edit: So Laura tells me she covered this story at last years CES... hmm... "that was not the Nikko R2-D2 story you were looking for...?" Love Star Wars? Yep! Interested in a scale replica R2-D2 to follow you around the house playing your favourite music/movies/Xbox 360 games? Hells yeah!!! Got a spare 3000 Euros? ....err.... what was the first question? Along with the R2-D2 entertainment droid (who you control with a model Millennium Falcon remote no less) Nikko are also about to release a motorised R2-D2 web cam and light sabre VOIP phone... but you'll need a few Imperial Credits. More info: http://www.nikkoamerica.com/nhe/index.html

One of the most impressive displays at CES 2008 wasn't on the show floor. Instead of a traditional plasma-screens-and-pamphlets CES booth life|ware chose to build three fully functional homes out front of the Las Vegas Convention Center to show off the various home automation products and solutions they offer. Jason from life|ware gave us a tour of the living room in one of the e-homes and showed us some very cool home automation solutions integrated with Windows Vista Media Center. For more info on life|ware visit http://www.life-ware.com

DialKeys Gen2 provides Windows XP and Windows Vista touch, thumb and pen devices with an interface for text input, 2 clicks email, Geo Tagged pictures snapping, instant access to location services, and many more features.  I couldn't resist sitting down, or standing up with Dial Keys to get the skinny on their newest version.  Some new additions and features include the Picture Snapper Features: it transforms your UMPC into a portable camera powerhouse that has the capability of time and GPS, tagging your photos and directly paste it into an open application in three clicks. Take pictures and paste them directly into Documents (e.g. Live Writer, Word, …) Snap pictures and upload them automatically to web or ftp sites. Time and GPS stamps if enabled, are embedded in the snapped pictures.  This allows you to easily organize the photos on maps or on time lines, a feature travelers and surveyors are keen on.  And like I said earlier Dial Keys Gen 2 works on XP.  Not that any of you aren't running Vista but just in case you know somebody who knows somebody's cousin who has an ex-boyfriend who met Hillary Clinton once that's still running XP.  Just saying, it works on XP too. 

We took a poll and you voted- what you wanted to see from the 2008 CES show was small, tiny gadgets. So I found what I think is TRULY the smallest MP3 player at the event. The added bonus is, not only is it small enough to wear as a necklace charm but its easy to use, affordable, stylish and has great audio quality.  

Intel were showing off some cool new concept Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) at CES 2008 featuring the new Silverthorne chipset. Silverthorne is the code name for Intel's upcoming 45nm processors designed for UMPCs and MIDs. Uday from Intel showed us one of the functioning Silverthorne prototypes (as opposed to THIS sexy looking - but totally non-functional - prototype) they had on display and explained how the new chipset will enable faster and better MIDs and UMPCs. More info:  http://www.intel.com/personal/our-technology/mids/ http://blogs.intel.com/technology/2007/09/intels_silverthorne_chip_insid.php

As expected, this years CES was filled with every type pf television imaginable. Big ones, little ones, plasmas, HD...you name it. With all of those options at your fingertips it's hard to imagine one screen actually sticking out. But I found one! In the way back of the South Hall I found Mirror Image by Ad Notam. They make custom glass or mirror contained High Definition televisions. Now we can all watch Oprah while staring at ourselves! My favorite is the disappearing screen- check it out.

If you like to build your own Home Theatre PC (HTPC) or gaming rigs and have done some research into cases or cooling solutions you've probably heard of Silverstone. We caught up with Tony Ou from Silverstone at CES 2008 for a look at some of the new products on show including an HTPC case with embedded 1080P touchscreen and a 2.5" hard drive enclosure with RFID encryption. More info: http://www.silverstonetek.com/

I did an interview yesterday with a few of the peeps from Zumobi.  When I say peeps I mean Beth Goza and Sue Schmitz.  Does anybody use the word peeps anymore?  Anyway, in case you aren't familiar with Zumobi, their mobile content application allows you to access and share web-based content on most mobile phones and its FREE.  They are in beta right now and are constantly looking for community feedback.  You can choose up to sixteen widget-like tiles and it's got a unique zooming user interface.  Today their announcing a major partnership with Microsoft.  Check out the details and team from Zumobi.  Come on, everybody's doing it. 

Have you ever been sitting the park on a beautiful afternoon and thought to yourself, "Gosh, this is perfect but what would really make today complete is if I could spend all afternoon here in the sun AND be on my laptop the entire time." Of COURSE you have! And now you can. Not only do these bags come with solar LED panels that fuel up the batteries inside- to charge your every accessory, but they're stylish accessories as well.

I'm often torn between turning on my Xbox 360 and rocking out to some Guitar Hero or plugging in my *real* guitar and annoying the neighbours with some RAtM drop D thrashing.Well the decision is about to become harder again. Instead of the flimsy half-scale plastic Explorer or Les Paul controller models that come with the game you'll soon be able to order an actual custom Peavey guitar modified with decals and guitar hero controller guts for the ultimate Rock n' Roll experience. Watch the video for more info and if you're a drummer (or wannabe drummer) make sure you check out the custom Rockband drum kit controller from Ion Audio.

If you live in North America you can now get access to MSN Direct services on a selection of Garmin Satellite Navigation devices with more coming soon.MSN Direct is a service that delivers traffic conditions, fuel prices, weather data, and more over parts of the unused FM spectrum via Microsoft Directband technology.Want to see the service in action? Check out the demo of MSN Direct we were given at the Microsoft CES 2008 booth.Alpine and Pioneer will also be bringing out MSN Direct compatible devices in 2008. For more info check out http://www.msndirect.com

A message from the Office Live Workspace team: Stop emailing yourself files! :) Office Live Workspace is a free service - currently in private beta - for document access, storage and sharing "in the cloud". The service will be open to anyone with a Windows Live ID and (currently) gives you 500MB of space for Office documents, images, PDF files, custom lists and more.I was interested to see how Office Live Workspace differed to Windows Live SkyDrive so we sat down with Erik from the Office Live team at CES 2008 for a demo.Make sure you check out the OLW website for more information or to register for the private beta: http://workspace.officelive.com/

When we spoke to Robbie Bach at CES he referred to a piece of Microsoft technology called Microsoft Media Room as a key component of the "connected entertainment" experience. I didn't know a lot about Media Room so we met with Peter Barrett, CTO of the MSTV group (and fellow Aussie), at CES 2008 for a hands on introduction to Microsoft Media Room; What is it, how does it work and how can we all get our hands on it?More information: http://www.microsoftmediaroom.com/

Want a more realistic feeling (and looking) drum kit controller for your garage Rockband,.. err band? Check out Ion Audio's custom Rockband drum kit controller featuring four toms, three symbols and a kick drum pedal.The symbols are colour coded in parallel with the toms so you can mix and match the way you play through the games drum lines however you want.The kit isn't available for sale just yet so check back at Ion Audio's web site for more info: http://www.ion-audio.com/

Windows Home Server has come a long way in a very short time. We caught up with Joel Sider at CES 2008 to check out some of the new OEM systems available on the market as well as some cool home automation add-ins that allow you to remotely control electrical devices (for example your house lights) via WHS.WHS now boasts over 30 available add-ins enabling everything from DHCP to the automatic syncing of your photo collection to flickr. For more info visit the Windows Home Server web site.

The PC industry is paying more and more attention to the look of their products since we (the people) are more and more asking for stylish, unique PC's to accent our personal styles. Microsoft even had a full runway show to show off their new high fashion coutour PC's. Then- Microsoft asked three fashion industry leaders to pick their favorite PC designs. The three judges were Nigel Barker, top fashion photographer and a judge on the hit TV show, “America’s Next Top Model,” hip-hop trend setter and fashion innovator Tony Shellman and A-list fashion stylist and entrepreneur Misa Hylton. After considering 12 of the most stylish Windows-based PCs to hit the market in the last year, they each chose a favorite.

It's been a busy Christmas and New Year in the Lindsay house-hold; I decided it was time I moved to an OCUR system. In addition I’ve been working hard on my MCE Home Server Manager application which allows automatic storage of your recorded shows on a Windows Home Server machine.So I decided over Christmas that I would buy a new Media Center machine and take the plunge into an OCUR system. I eventually decided upon a Dell XPS 420 with Dual ATI Cable Card tuners. This is now setup and I have re-organized my setup substantially since the video interview with Brian Johnson (if you missed it, you can catch my original interview here: Show us your tech: Steve Lindsay edition) I made a quick video of what I’ve done since the last video which you can see on this post.In addition I was interviewed last week by Ian Dixon on his Media Center Show Podcast, you can catch the interview in a couple of weeks when Ian gets back from CES.Apparently it seems someone over at ehomeUpgrade.com thought I was geeky enough to earn a Digital Home to the Max 2007 award over Christmas which was nice. All I can say guys with what is coming with Media Center and Home Server; 'you isn’t seen nothing yet'.Finally I wanted to mention I'm about to go into beta on my MCE Home Server Manager application. So I wanted to reveal a few features in advance for you. I'll be posting here when I release so you can snag a copy for yourself. Here are some of the features. Simple install. Move recordings to Windows Home Server drive on scheduled intervals. The ability to configure file types moved (i.e. commercial skip files etc). The ability for the application to automatically cleanup files which the corresponding recordings no longer exist for (i.e. commercial skip files). The ability to move recordings from multiple locations. The ability to configure the watched folders in media center (thus letting you add the Windows Home Server recorded TV share). Anyway that's all from me for now guys, I'll be back soon with more Media Center / Home Server tips and tricks.

This was by far the best part of the Bill Gates keynote for me and probably the highlight of the show overall. Microsoft Auto showed of 2 new great technologies to make all of our driving experiences more pleasant with a focus on the Sync My Ride technology. I can't wait to get this in my car. Not only does it offer voice activated features with your wireless MP3 player and your bluetooth mobile phone- but you will be blown away at the excellent text messaging options. Well, at least I was. Take a look and you be the judge.

Xbox Live Marketplace has always been the place to be for all your gaming needs, but it's about to get even better. There are great games coming in 2008, Grand Theft Auto, Splinter Cell Conviction, Halo Wars, Resident Evil 5, and of course the fan favorite Burnout 3 (download the demo now), Xbox Live Marketplace is more than the service that connects you to your friends, it's the way to play the games before they ship. Your Xbox will now be the destination for all things entertainment.

Other than jetpacks and freeze dried food, there may be some other things to look forward to in the future. OLED displays, surface computing, and of course a robot that walks your dog for you...Some of us, however, believe there could be more to how technology progresses. Will new genres of devices emerge or will we continue to converge and overlap in capabilities? How will these devices work with each other? What will the interface be like?Check out this video to catch a glimpse at what software and services could potentially lead to in the not so distant future...

During the Bill Gates keynote, Robbie Bach announced the Zune launch in Canada* in Spring 2008. The Canadian offering this spring will first include Zune players (including Zune Originals), Zune software and Zune Social, with the Zune Marketplace online store coming later this year. He also showed off some pretty cool functionality between Zunes and Microsoft Auto software with the "Sync My Ride" demo (check back soon for my interview with that team).But still, after all that Zune love I felt there might be a little bit more. In this clip I chat directly with the Zune team about the new features on Zune marketplace and how much emphasis is being placed on perfecting Zune Online as a social networking site.