2009 CES - Our Convention Equipment GuidePosted 1/6/2009 at 8:02 PM By GamingShogun
It is that time again Shogunites as the GS crew begins their trek to Las Vegas to cover the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show. Last year yielded some very good information, including a good look at the combat of the then-still secretive Age of Conan. Our appointments have been made and our plans finalized, so we can now give you our official rundown on the equipment we are bringing along to cover the event.
Note-Taking Devices
#1) Pen & Paper - You would be surprised that, with however many pieces of electronic note-taking goodness I bring, it often times all boils down to these two simple writing tools. Often duplicated, never replaced! I prefer a standard bic, its got a good glide...
Price: $1.79 for a box of 12 pens, $5.93 for a box of 12 pads.
#2) Olympus USB Voice Recorder - Having the ability to plug directly into a USB port to offload your recordings, the Olympus WS-100 voice recorder can store up to 27 hours of audio on its internal memory. It can also be left on for up to 13 hours via its single AAA battery. Now that is eco-friendly!
Price: $78.95 dollars new on Amazon.
Backpacks and Slings
#1) Tom Bihn's 'The Buzz' - This sling made a lot of waves when it first unveiled a few years back. It originally carried up to a 12'' iBook or PowerMac notebook and also provided splash proof materials and pockets as well as being incredible light. The new version of The Buzz is a bit larger, accommodating up to a 15.4'' notebook while keeping the other features of its predecessor such as the splash-proof pockets, water bottle straps, and cell-phone pouch. The Buzz stays close to the body, becoming essentially part of the wearer instead of getting in the way like make other sling bags do. This piece of our CES equipment arsenal will be saving yours truly some serious back ache.
Price: $120 dollars at TomBihn.
#2) Targus Grove Sling Laptop Bag - Available for a while at Best Buy retail stores, we picked up one of these bags for a previous expo. While not nearly as comfortable or efficient as The Buzz, the Targus holds up to 15.4'' notebook and is a good, inexpensive sling.
Price: $42.53 dollars new at Amazon.
Cameras and Accesories
#1) Kodak EasyShare Z712 7.1 MP Digital Camera - This Kodak camera is inexpensive and takes good pictures, simple as that. It features a 12x optical zoom, 2.5'' LCD, and a Schneider-Kreuger Varigon lens. The camera even has optical image stabilization technology.
Price: $205.99 dollars new at Amazon.
#2) Cannon HG10 Digital Camcorder - Canon's 40GB digital camcorder not only allows recording in 24 frames-per-second mode for a more cinematic quality, it also features a 1920x1080, full-HD CMOS sensor. Thankfully, we generally do not need such an incredible quality for streaming-video, but it is nice to know we have it just in case. It also includes a microphone input, which may sound odd to say, but it is actually somewhat of a dying feature these days on digital camcorders.
Price: $649 dollars new on Amazon.
#3) Flip Video Ultra - Providing 60 minutes of YouTube-quality video, PURE's Flip Video Ultra is perfect for quick-capture of video. In addition, its small size makes it extremely easy to carry around. Video transfer is done via a flip-out USB port however the video codec is not supported by all video editing programs.
Price: $128.78 dollars new on Amazon.
#4) Black Rapid's RS-4 Camera Strap - BlackRapid has created quite the stir recently with their quick-action camera straps, the latest of which being their 'RS-4' model. Designed to allow the camera to hang slightly behind your side, via its fastener piece which screws into the bottom of your camera, and, in a moments notice, swing around to allow you to take a photo, it really works and must be seen to be believed. It even has a small pocket in the strap for an extra battery or memory card to be stored.
Price: $48 dollars at BlackRapid.
#5) Griffin's Clarifi iPhone 3G Case - Griffin's Clarifi case provides not only the protection of its polycarbonate coating, but also a sliding macro-focus lens. This will allow your iPhone to take those up-close and personal photos you normally can't get with the stock lens. Business card details, bar codes, you name it!
Price: $34.99 dollars at Griffin.
Organizational Hardware
#1) Apple iPhone 3G - All of our meetings and events are stored within this little gem of mobile computing power. Just hope it doesn't run out of battery life!
#2) Dell Vostro 1400 - Equipped with a 2Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of RAM, this little laptop edits video and photos wherever we need it as well as can play a few rounds of Shattered Union here and there (I am a sucker for that game).
#3) Verizon Wireless 3G Internet Service - The sponsors of our CES bandwidth this year, Verizon is providing us with 3G internet access so that we can bring you news from anywhere around the expo, regardless of the convention center's connection quality.
(Continue reading '2009 CES - Our Convention Equipment Guide'...)