We're looking for new writers to join us!

CES 2012: Ben's Journal Day 1, Part 2

by: Ben Berry -
More On: CES 2012
Especially in Vegas, the day isn’t over when the show floor closes. Tuesday night saw me headed out for another night of working, walking, and fun. First up was a visit to Showstoppers, which is essentially a slightly lesser version of Digital Experience, but with usually better food and has a wider variety of products.

Especially in Vegas, the day isn’t over when the show floor closes. Tuesday night saw me headed out for another night of working, walking, and fun. First up was a visit to Showstoppers, which is essentially a slightly lesser version of Digital Experience, but with usually better food and has a wider variety of products.
 
To be honest, there wasn’t a lot really memorable at Showstoppers this year with two notable exceptions: Powermat and Violet (Aldebaran Robotics), but sadly for very different reasons.
 
Powermat is actually now Duracell Powermat, and while they’ve moved forward in turning their Powercube product into a mobile power cell for on the go recharging, it still requires attaching to your device via cord. They’ve moved their focus away from developing batteries that will support induction charging instead of requiring the purchase of a sleeve or battery cover. It’s truly disappointing to see a product and a company simply abandon one of the biggest potential changes in how mobile devices are used that could really revolutionize the mobile industry. Thankfully, Energizer is providing competition in the marketplace and have said they are in process on development of batteries that support induction charging.
 
The coolest thing I saw at the show was Violet’s Karotz! Which is a described as an “internet connected robotic rabbit companion”. Think of it as an internet appliance that can do all sorts of fun stuff for you while you sit at your desk, like read you twitter or text messages, tell you the weather, and provide custom alerts to all sorts of online events. It looks like a fun way to keep up with what’s going on in your digital world while you’re neck deep in orcs or Imperial soldiers without having to stop what you’re doing..
 
It’s hard to believe that after 3 years there are still things I haven’t done, or at least not done to excess the way all things should be in Vegas. One of those things is heading to some of the after hours events that you hear people talking about on the show floor the next morning, usually with a look of “wow, I drank WAY too much last night.” I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend the NZXT party at the Palms on Tuesday night.
 
Let me tell you that in life there are parties, and then there are PARTIES. And there is nothing like a party in a 2 story suite in Las Vegas. Especially one where the big raffle prize is high end gaming rig in a NZXT 410 custom modded case based on a ship from The Old Republic. On top of the free drinks, amazing music, hostesses dressed to impress, and this prize was something else. I can’t properly describe the awesomeness so I took a bunch of pictures. The work was done by a couple of staffers at iBUYPOWER, who put in more than 100 hours of project.
 
Finally, what’s better than 1 party in a 2 story suite in Vegas? 2 of them. I’ll be attending the Steelseries party in the same suite on Thursday night. Oh, and on top of all of this, I met Snooki Paloozi from “Jersey Shore”. Quite the day.