2001 CES Day 1

Witten: 1/6/2001
Writtn by: Moto

Once known as a trade show for audio and video products, the 2001 Consumer Electronic Show has become somewhat of a mini Comdex. Why do I say that? Well, a list of the key note speakers should give you a clue. Craig Barrent of Intel and Bill Gates of Microsoft were key note speakers. We're use to seeing their name at Comdex but CES? No way! The times are a changing.

The 2001 International CES opened with presentations defining the status of the consumer electronics industry in a networked world. In the opening keynote address, Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of CEA, and Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corp., each outlined the importance of digital technology in the evolution of the consumer electronics industry. Bill even had the help of The Rock from the WWF to show off the X Box. Here's some of what we saw on our first day of CES.

Mercedes Benz was the official auto sponsor of the 2001 CES and they had several models of Benz on display including this awesome AMG CLK 55. With its 347HP 5.5L V8, the CLK 55 is nearly as fast as a Corvette but a lot more comfortable. Of course it's a lot more expensive.

Monster cable showed off the ultimate NIC cables. Now I doubt these cable can make your LAN game travel any faster than standard NIC cables but it sure does look good and Monster Cable claims a lot less packet lost. They also had a nice looking suitcase on display. Inside were the new M2.25 speaker cable. You don't want to know how much this cost.

Dolby Labs had a great big Fifa 2001 game on display. They were showing off their Dolby 5.1 surround sound effects on a PS2.

Creative shows off their new 5.1 speakers for the Sega Dreamcast. There are front speakers only but when you're sitting in the center, you do hear sounds coming from behind you!

One of the stickiest thing I saw at the CES was the Sticky Pad. This thing is placed on your car dash and anything you put on it just sticks to it! Only cost $5.00 per pad.

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