Best of CES Awards Video

Best of CES Awards Video Transcript

>> Brian Cooley: Hello everybody and welcome to the pinnacle event of CES 2009. It's the best of CES awards. I'm Brian Cooley, Editor at Large for CNET.com and we are so glad you're here to join us today. Now we put this show into focus. These by the way are the official awards of the Consumer Electronics Show. Not just CNET's awards: these are the awards in conjunction with the CEA and awarded by CNET's editors to really put this show into perspective and decide who's best, who's top of the stack. Now we're going to be giving awards in 10 categories: various product categories. And there's also going to be a People's Voice Award. That one's interesting because it has nothing to do with us in the official side. It's all of you and CNET's users who have voted online. And of course the ultimate honor? It's the Best in Show. That is given to 1 product that is the best of every single thing we have seen here in these frenetic days on the floor at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Now the action takes place in 2 zones: here at the Awards Announcement Table and also back at the Winner's Circle which is there to the rear of the CNET Live stage here at the Las Vegas Convention Center. You'll be seeing action going on in 2 places. As I announce winners, the companies will send their representatives to the table there to receive their honor, receive their award, and get the evidence that they can show the world that they make the best product of it's breed. Now without any further ado, let's begin the Best of CES Awards. Alright folks, the first category that is driving some real change in what we see here at CES. That's right, it's car technology. Navigation, communication, entertainment, internet connectivity all were part of the flavor of Car Tech here at CES 2009. Let's recap the nominees in the category of car technology. And they were AT&T's CruiseCast, Ford Sync Version 3, and the third nominee Gracenote/Voxonic CarStars. And the winner for the best of CES in the car tech category is Gracenote/Voxonic CarStars. Congratulations on that one. A very innovative technology. A flash innovative inner face. Their music station technology lets you really get your arms around a huge variety of music. And an innovative Avatar based guide to the kinds of music you may want to listen to in various types of moods and modes. Alright, the next category for the Best of CES Awards knows exactly where it's heading. That's right, it's GPS: connectivity, live traffic, local information, and more intelligent routing thanks to that information feed. Those were all keynote attributes this year in the category of GPS. Let's review the nominees for the Best of CES Award in this category. And they were Tom Tom GO 740 Live, Dual XNAV43HD and Garmin's ecoRoute. And the winner for the Best of CES in the GPS category is, give it to Tom Tom: the Tom Tom GO 740 Live. Congratulations to them. Report to the Winner's Circle. You belong there. We've seen connected GPS before but this unit impressed us as finally getting all the elements right and perhaps kick starting a sector going forward from this CES. Our next category is one of those technologies that you can honestly call indispensable. That's right, cell phones and smart phones. And here at the show we saw touch screens, really inventive interfaces, connective services of all kinds and some entirely new product types. They put their stamp on cell phones and smart phones at CES this year. Let's review the nominees in the cell phones and smart phones category. First we had the Motorola Surf A3100, LG's Watch Phone and Palm Pre. And the winner in the Best of CES in the phones category is, give it to Palm. Palm Pre takes it: Best of CES cell phones and smart phones. Palm very much on the comeback trail it would seem. They have a Web OS, multi-touch screen, slide out physical keyboard and a very interesting interface. We'll be watching with great anticipation how that product does in the marketplace. Please report to the Winner's Circle the Palm team. Our next category is enjoying one of its most innovative years ever at CES. That's right; we're talking about computes and hardware. We saw machines of every size and type, new kinds of networking, new ways to think about form factor. It was a very interesting year for one of the more mature categories in consumer electronics. Let's review the nominees in the category of computers and hardware: D-Link's DIR-685 Router, Sony's Vaio P-Series Lifestyle PCs, and the HP Firebird with VoodooDNA. And the Best of CES in the computers and hardware category goes to Sony Vaio P-Series Lifestyle PC. Let's hear it for Sony: widescreen 8-inch display, completely different form factor and all kinds of connectivity from 3G broadband to 80211 and GPS built in and of course Bluetooth technology. Report to the Winner's Circle Sony. The next category is again redefining how we capture an image. That's right: digital photo and video. What did we see? We saw geotagging. We saw wireless connectivity from the camera. And we saw a lot of still cameras that do high definition 720 p video right inside of that same device. Photos and video: really moving along with this show. Let's review the nominees for photo and video and they would be Casio's Exilim EX-FC100, Sony's Handycam HDR-XR520V and the Sony Cybershot DSC-G3. And the Best of CES in the photo and video category goes to Sony -- Sony Cybershot DSC-G3: a WiFi camera that CNET's Editors believe finally got the combination right of integrating WiFi, a high quality camera and the functionality of the 2. So congratulations to Sony. We've got a trophy waiting for you at the Winner's Circle. Our next category is all about fun but the competition is no joke. That's right: gaming. We saw surround sound, 3D displays, completely new ways to think about controllers and at the heart of the gaming category is of course innovation around the enjoyment. Let's review the nominees in the gaming category for the Best of CES award and they were the Nyko Wand, Nvidia's GeForce 3D Vision technology and the Psyko 5.1 Surround Sound Headset. And the Best of CES in gaming goes to Nyko Wand. It improves so much on the original Wii remote in our Editor's opinion that it really is going to spawn a whole variety of accessories and ways to interface with the Nintendo Wii with its innovative transport technology. Nyko, we'll see you guys at the Winner's Circle. Our next category is all about sound yes, but there are no earbuds involved. That's right: home video; home audio I should say. Wireless speakers that really rock. We saw internet connected home theater units and players. AV receivers that can pull it all together with all the inputs and outputs we finally have and have always needed. That was the home audio category. Let's review the nominees. First up we have Samsung's HT-BD7200, Panasonic's SCZ-T1 and the Pioneer VSX-819H. And the winner, the Best of CES in the home audio category is Samsung HT-BD7200. Congratulations to Samsung: Winner's Circle please. Our next category is right at the center of the changing entertainment landscape. That's right; we're talking about home video folks. A major footprint at CES. This year we saw Blu-ray with networking, DVRs with built in technology for remote viewing and putting the very best resolution into devices that can be taken on the go. That was home video. Let's review our nominees. First Echostar's SlingLoaded Hi Definition DVR, LG's BD390 and the Panasonic DMP-B15. And the Best of CES in the home video category is - there it goes - Echostar SlingLoaded Hi Definition DVR. Congratulations. Let's get you guys to the Winner's Circle as well. A terabyte, high definition and built in slingbox, remote viewing technology, definitely wowed our Editors. Our next category proves that there is a lot more than just the iPod line to think about when you go portable. MP3 and video: the portable media players that we all love so much. We saw groundbreaking interfaces this year, new levels of integration of media and other devices, a tremendous amount of touch screens everywhere: all of that made for a very interesting sector for MP3 and video. So let's review the nominees that made us feel that way. First up Samsung's P3, Sony W-Series Walkman and the iRiver P7. And the Best of CES in the MP3 and video category is Samsung P3. Three inch, WQVGA display, innovative touch screen interface and sizes up to 32 gig of internal memory: coming out first half of 2009. Alright folks, out next category is the one you simply can not avoid here at CES. Of course: televisions. Was there any place you ever stood that you weren't surrounded by 50 of them? No. That's CES. We saw internet connectivity, THX certification galore and real innovation in not just the size and shape of the case but also in the price which is pretty nice for consumers. Let's review the nominees in the televisions category for Best of CES. We had the Panasonic G10 Series, LG's PS80's and the Vizio VF551XVT television. And the Best of CES in the television category is, it's the Panasonic G10 Series. THX certification, Viera Cast internet content service, Amazon video on demand and this unit uses less than half the power of the previous models of the same type and size. So that's a very nice green angle on that one as well. Panasonic, congratulations: to the Winner's Circle please. Now a category that is unique among all in the Best of CES awards. It's People's Voice everybody. This was selected by you and the users on CNET.com online voting for the past 24 hours. As of just minutes ago we had well over 4 thousand votes that have come in, over the same 30 products that I've just reviewed with you - all of those nominees - the same pool. And the winner of the People's Voice for CES 2009 is the Palm Pre. Nice work: a double header for Palm this year. People's Voice goes to Palm for a very highly anticipated follow on to their Treo line. Now we come to the summit of the Best of CES awards for 2009. The award that every company here would love to take home but that only 1 can. That's right: the best in show. Best in Show is the award. This transcends categories. The CNET Editors looking at all of the categories from 2700 exhibitors, thousands of products, all the ones I've shown you and many more in deciding which one transcends and really points the way for the exciting future of consumer electronics regardless of category. And the winner CES 2009 Best of Show award is Palm Pre. A triple header for Palm. That's pretty impressive. Let's have Palm on stage. We want to talk to our Best of CES winner. Who do we have from Palm? Palm Pre of course was highly anticipated going into this. Stefan Moss [assumes spelling] from Palm, thank you for being with us.

>> Hi, thank you. Thank you very much.

>> Brian Cooley: Let me ask you -- come into the limelight here where you guys ought to be.

>> I appreciate it. Glad to be back.

>> Brian Cooley: Yeah I was going to say "glad to be back" is kind of the theme here isn't it?

>> That's right. We've been working really hard on this thing. We're really excited to be back.

>> Brian Cooley: Now give us the latest on availability of this device.

>> It's going to be available the first half of 2009 and we're really excited about the product because it really brings everything together: your whole life.

>> Brian Cooley: What do I see in your hand right there?

>> So here's the Palm Pre.

>> Brian Cooley: There it is. This device is aimed where? Some devices are business. Some devices are consumer. Where are you going to try and thread the needle?

>> Well we're focused on bringing people's whole lives together with Palm Synergy, really with layered calendars, layered contacts: people have this stuff all over the web. They've got their stuff in Facebook. They've got their contacts in Facebook. They've got their contacts in Outlook at work. They've got their calendars in Google. They've got their calendars at Outlook. So bringing it all together in one device, that really brings it all together so you have everything together.

>> Brian Cooley: And just when I thought we'd seen every interface, you guys have come up with yet another one that looks really good.

>> That's right. We've really been focusing on a way to get everything in one device and the key thing here is to be able to get - you know - access to multiple views of your key things at one time. So for example, like a desktop you can have multiple windows going at once. You can switch between applications on a dime in what we call "carts."

>> Brian Cooley: And may I personally thank you for having a real keyboard in there?

>> Thank you very much: exactly. That's the key when you're hammer out messaging. It's the way to go.

>> Brian Cooley: That's a personal one for me. Stay right here Stefan. Can I have all of the winners of CES Awards join me on stage right now and I want to give them all a hand. Everybody come on up or stay up. Join me up on stage. Ladies and gentlemen, let then know how much you appreciate the innovation and the hard work that they've been doing to really make CES so exciting and to make our industry so exciting and enjoyable to be part of. Congratulations. Congratulations. Welcome. Congratulations. Good work. Chris, congratulations. Hi Josh, congratulations. Let's hear it one more time everybody: the award winners for the Best of CES 2009. These are the leaders. ^M00:14:52 [ Music ] ^M00:15:01 Raise those awards up high guys. Let them see them. ^M00:15:04 [ Music ]