The Best of CES 2006 - Day 3

You may also want to read Digital Inspiration 2006 CES Coverage of Day 1, Day 2

WinBook announced a Viiv all-in-one PC today, calling it the Jiv (rhymes with Viiv, which we all know rhymes with jive). The Jiv weighs 9 pounds and features a 17-inch wide-screen display, a TV tuner, an integrated camera, a wireless Bluetooth keyboard, and a built-in wireless antenna. WinBook also announced the Jiv Mini that resembles the Mac Mini.

The Uniden WXI377 cordless phone can swim next to you. The home phone can be dunked in up to nine feet of water for up to three hours, or can just bob along pleasantly until someone calls. The WIN1200 is the first official Windows Live Messenger phone, hooking up both to your ordinary landline and to your PC to make soft-phone calls through Microsoft’s system.

Near Field Communication (NFC), a contactless payment technology, will change the way you do shopping. To use your credit card at one of these touch-and-pay spots, you’ll need a smart-chip-embedded credit card, already offered by providers like MasterCard, Visa and American Express. Once NFC armed, users are able to simply wave or tap their mobile device or card in front of any point-of-sale terminal, and transactions made will then be charged to their credit card or bank account - which are securely stored in the integrated smart card chip.

Toshiba announced gigabeat S series of MP3 players, available in 30GB and 60GB capacities with support for Microsoft WMV plus any format that Windows Media Player can convert. The players will also support WM DRM 10, letting you use online download and subscription services for both video and audio content. The MES30V (30GB model) and and the MES60V (60GB model) are priced in line with Apple’s fifth-generation iPod pricing.

iRobot, makers of Roomba robotic floor vacuum, announced Scooba that washes hard floors. In one pass, it sweeps up loose dirt, squirts a cleaning solution down onto the floor, scrubs, and suctions up the dirty water. There’s no automatic charging station for the Scooba, since the designers don’t want a machine full of dirty water going unattended for too long.

HP’s chief advantage over rival Dell is that it sells both Intel- and AMD-powered machines, giving customers a greater array of choice. HP announced a new dual-core version of the company’s flagship thin-and-light, the HP Pavilion dv1000. In addition to Intel’s new Core Duo processor, the dv1000 now has a remote that fits into its PCI Express slot, as well as the newest version of Quick Play, HP’s homegrown media-player application, which can play CDs and DVDs whether or not Windows is booted.

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