Hasta La Ideas

With almost 150,000 people in attendance at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, CES had the buzz of the 2007 and 2008 shows and the long lines at the convention center was a good indication that the market is booming once again.

From the design perspective, there was a lot of great color material finish (CMF) examples and some interesting forms. Speck has nice in-mold fabrics and House of Marley really did a kickass job using real wood and other natural material in its inspired products. (Ed. Note–check out our post about House of Marley!)

There was a ton of hype around tablets. With over 15 new Android-based tablets on the floor I was really expecting more compelling product. Blackberry’s Playbook fell a bit short but the cases were cool. Motorola’s Xoom and Artix with built-in phone charger were pretty dope as well. However, you won’t see me ditching my iPad any time soon.

Razer’s Switchblade mobile-gaming PC was probably the most innovative device I saw on the floor. A customizable switch-on-the-fly keyboard and 7-inch LCD screen means this little guy packs a mean punch for mobile-PC gamers. Razer also had a pretty sweet Tron-inspired keyboard and mouse.

The Casio Tryx was also one of the more innovative designs I saw. Its articulating design allows the user to set up and hold the video camera in an infinite number of configurations allowing you to capture any moment. Microsoft’s new Multitouch & Arc touch mouse were pretty sweet as well and for those of you who have not tried out Kinex yet make sure you do.

See more of Jordan Nollman’s Roundup at Sprout and make sure to check out his comprehensive Flickr Roundup!

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