Kicking off the new year with a bang, our Partners announced and showcased all kinds of awesome new products for Windows 7 at the 2010 International CES. I spent some time over the week compiling many of those announcements which include PCs, hardware and apps. This list is in no particular order. And just to warn, this is a pretty lengthy blog post!
HP: HP announced several new PCs this week at CES including the HP TouchSmart tm2, and additions to their Mini line. The HP Mini 5102 brings multitouch!
Dell : Dell has announced new Alienware PCs, Inspiron and Studio laptops and a new Studio XPS desktop PC and many of these PCs will be shipping with Intel’s i3, i5 and i7 processors (desktop and mobile versions) processors. For more on what Dell showed off at CES, read this post from Lionel over on Direct2Dell.
Lenovo: You can catch all of Lenovo’s new PCs on their CES 2010 page. I’m diggin’ their IdeaCentre A300 All-in-One desktop PC.
AMD: AMD has shipped 2 million of its DirectX 11 capable graphic processor. Holy cow that’s a lot of DirectX 11! They also introduced the ATI Mobility Radeon 5000 series graphics – bringing DirectX 11 capable graphics to laptop PCs. The 13” Lenovo ThinkPad Edge will be shipping and is the first laptops to ship with AMD’s Vision Pro Technology which includes the ATI Mobility Radeon 5000 series graphics.
Samsung: This press release talks about Samsung’s new PCs being shown off at CES.
Toshiba: Here’s what Toshiba announced at showcased at CES this year. Toshiba is shipping custom touch apps on PCs that support multitouch in Windows 7 – the Toshiba Bulletin Board and Toshiba ReelTime apps. They also announced the Satellite E205 series, the SatelliteT100 series, and the NB300 netbook series.
NVIDIA: At CES 2010, NVIDIA showed off their new “GF100” (Codename) graphics chip. The GF100 is based off NVIDIA’s Fermi architecture and supports DirectX 11. They also showed off their impressive 3D Vision technology including 3D Vision Surround which allows gamers to play games in 3D on up to 3 screens. 3D was huge for NVIDIA this year – they also showcased Blu-ray movies playing in 3D on PCs on top of gaming. ASUS also showed (introduced) the G51J 3D Gaming Notebook powered of course by NVIDIA’s 3D Vision! You can expect me to be blogging more about 3D Vision from NVIDIA in the coming months. For more on 3D Vision, check out this blog post from NVIDIA.
Sony: Sony announced an eco-friendly netbook PC – the VAIO W Series – that is 23% made out of recycled CDs. They also announced the VAIO Z and F series laptop PCs and the VAIO Y Series as well for high power at an affordable price.
Acer: A few new PCs were announced at CES this year from Acer. The Gateway EC14D is an 11.6” ultraportable ULV notebook with a DVD drive that will cost $629. And the Acer Aspire Gemstone series laptop PCs will be shipping with Intel Core i3 and Core i5 processors starting at $599. They also announced the Acer Aspire One 532h and Gateway LT netbooks. Acer also revealed the Aspire AS5740 and AS7740 series of laptops. These will ship with the new Intel Core i3 and Core i5 processors and select models will also come with AMD’s ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 or ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 graphics – supporting DirectX 11!
MSI: MSI this year at CES revealed several new Ultra-Thin PCs: the 13″ X350 and X360, the 14″ X420, and 15.6″ X600Pro.
Silicondust: Silicondust has announced a new addition to their HDHomeRun product line – HDHomeRun CableCARD. HDHomeRun CableCARD is the first network attached TV tuner with CableCARD support for PCs running Windows 7 & Windows Media Center. I’ve heard a lot of great things about HDHomeRun so you can bet I’ll be checking this out!
Ceton: Speaking of TV tuners with CableCARD support, Ceton has announced it will release a quad- tuner CableCARD capable PC card. With this card, you’ll be able to record up to 4 HDTV shows at once in Windows Media Center!
While PCs and devices were front and center at CES, I thought I would take a look at some really cool software for Windows 7 that was highlighted at CES this year.
Ambient Design: You can use ArtRage 3 to use a real paintbrush or your fingers on a Windows 7 PC with multitouch capabilities through Windows Touch to create a painting just like you would on a real life canvas or you can recreate a photo by tracing it.
Nuance: OmniPage 17 is software that converts paper, PDF and pictures into files for editing in Office. If you are a student, you can use OmniPage 17 photos of blackboards or scans of notes into Word docs, or send them to a Kindle. Check out the OmniPage 17 page on Nuance’s website for more information.
Sabi Games: Based off an IP Ventures spinout from Microsoft, leveraging multi-year research, Sabi Games introduces multi-touch support for their award winning new game called ItzaBitza. ItzaBitza is a children’s game that takes their sketches and brings them to life using the game’s built in drawing recognition technology. Sketches become interactive and the game encourages reading. If you have a young kid, this game is worth checking out. Sabi Games will also be announcing upcoming multi-touch enhancements. They support single touch today.
Graphic.ly: a digital comic book plus a whole lot more. Read my Q&A with Graphic.ly CEO Micah Baldwin for the lowdown on Graphic.ly and why comic book fans should pay attention to this app!
Blio (KNFB Reading Technology): The Blio eBook reader will provide full-color, interactive reading of tons of books. The Blio eReader software will include features such as annotation, embedded multimedia and web look-up, translation, a “read-aloud” option for hands-free reading, and a multi-device synching personal library. For more on Blio, read this guest blog post on the Windows Partner Blog from Forrest Dobbs, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at KNFB.
Betty Crocker Kitchen Assistant: I’ve talked about this app before – Kitchen Assistant from Betty Crocker helps you find the right recipe for dinner through an interactive experience. This app is perfect for a Windows 7 PC serving as a Kitchen PC and is even more perfect if that PC supports touch. You can download the Betty Crocker Kitchen Assistant here. At CES, they announced the app will support multitouch (right now, it only supports single touch through 1 finger).
I also wanted to take a moment and remind everyone to check out the videos I posted late last week and over the weekend sent to me by Mark Relph. Mark stopped by several of our Partner’s booths on the CES showroom floor and talked to them about what they are doing, new products, and of course Windows 7.
#1: A Closer Look at the Microsoft Booth at CES 2010 and Partner Products Inside!
#2: AMD bringing DirectX 11 to Laptop PCs
#3: Canon Cameras & Printers with Compatible with Windows 7 Logo
#4: NVIDIA Showcases 3D Vision Technology on Windows 7
#5: Kodak talks using Windows 7 to offer ease of use for their customers
#6: D-Link shows their concept of “Link your Life” at CES 2010