Source: PC Magazine
Two products took the top honors in PC Magazine’s Last Gadget Standing contest. In this contest, audiences at the Consumer Electronics Show and visitors to pcmag.com narrowed a field of 32 products and services chosen by PC Magazine editors to 10 finalists. These finalists then competed at the Las Vegas Convention Center by giving four minute long demonstrations to a live audience, who then voted at the show , to name one finalist “The Last Gadget Standing”.
Dell Axim x50v, the first PocketPC with a VGA screen, was the winner of the in-person voting at CES. Dell showed the unit displaying Powerpoint and playing Windows Media 10 files on its large screen.
“Like many products at the show, this Axim shows how the evolution of consumer electronics products is enabling all sorts of new applications” said Michael J. Miller, editor-in-Chief of PC Magazine, who co-hosted the presentation.
CarChip, from Davis Instruments, also won in similar voting on the web site. CarChip plugs into your car and can record your speed, mileage, and many other car features, including engine diagnostics.
“This product joins OnStar, an in-vehicle concierge service, and Roomba, the popular robotic vacuum cleaner, as well as others to signify products that people think transcend the fads and trends of the moment,” said Robin Raskin, “the Internet Mom” who co-hosted the presentation. “This year we had a great selection of products and a very enthusiastic audience, both in-person and on the web site.” The other finalists included:
Epson PictureMate – a portable photo printer that produces good-looking, inexpensive prints.
Kodak EasyShare PrinterDock, a camera dock with a built-in photo printer, which allows for easy printing from a digital camera.
Logitech Harmony Universal Remote, which lets you control PCs and consumer electronics devices all from a single remote.
MobiTV, a service that lets you receive TV programs on your cell phones.
Orb Networks, which lets you connect to your files from any machine with an Internet connection – letting you view your photos and play your music wherever you go
PalmOne Treo 650, the latest version of their connected organizer, which offers PDA functions, wireless e-mail and phone service in a single device.
Sonos, which has a system for distributing and controlling your audio throughout your house, controlling multiple room audio from one hand held device.
XM2Go – a portable device for running in XM satellite radio.
“All these products show the directions in which the Consumer Electronics industry is moving, and it was great to see them all on stage together,” Miller said.