Electronics show prize goes to memory card that transfers photos to computer (Canadian Press)
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 24 minutes ago
LAS VEGAS - A memory card that wirelessly sends pictures from a digital camera to a computer - letting you skip the tedium of plugging the camera in to upload images - got bragging rights this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show.
Eye-Fi Inc.'s wireless card beat nine other contenders for the top spot in the traditional Last Gadget Standing session, a breezy and informal CES contest staged by Yahoo Inc.'s technology section. The winner is determined by the volume of audience applause.
The $100 Eye-Fi card, which has two gigabytes of memory, uses Wi-Fi to instantly zap pictures to computers and photo-sharing websites. The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., announced earlier at CES that it had a deal to get its technology into memory cards made by Lexar Media.
Eye-Fi's diverse set of rivals included a golf simulator, a Toshiba Corp. wireless projector and the Sansa TakeTV, a USB memory stick from SanDisk Corp. that is designed to transfer video from the Internet to the TV.
But the closest challenger appeared to be the Looj, a $99 gutter-cleaning robot from iRobot Corp. That would have been the home-robotics company's second triumph in the Yahoo contest: its Roomba vacuum was the champ for 2002.
Other previous winners include General Motors Corp.'s OnStar car-information service, but the prize is not exactly a guarantee of success. The Last Gadget Standing in 2004 was the Tapwave Zodiac, a handheld digital assistant with multimedia features. The company went bankrupt in 2005.
-Brian Bergstein, AP Technology Writer
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On the Net:
Yahoo's Last Gadget Standing:
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/cpress/ca_pr_on_tc/storytext/cesnotebook/25852664/SIG=10r3f2e3d/*http://tinyurl.com/39lgpp
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Bed brings Wi-Fi, iPod dock, surround sound, snore detection to dreamland
You're probably used to having a big-screen TV or a cellphone charger in the bedroom, but diversified manufacturer Leggett & Platt Inc. wants to take things a step further by bringing tech gadgets right into your bed.
The company plans to sell a tricked-out place of rest it calls the Starry Night Sleep Technology Bed, mattresses included. The bed, which was on display at the International Consumer Electronics Show, incorporates features like wireless Internet connectivity, an iPod dock, a surround sound speaker system, LCD projector, dual temperature controls and DVR capability.
Leggett & Platt said the bed also comes with a vibration-detection feature that will elevate that half of the bed seven degrees if a user is snoring and then return to the original position once the snoring stops.
The company expects the Starry Night to be available in the first half of 2009 for $20,000 to $50,000 depending on which features a buyer chooses.
"I know it sounds like a lot, but you show me somebody that sleeps in a bed with someone that snores; I will show you a person that thinks $20,000 is a very small amount to pay to solve that problem," Mark Quinn, group executive vice president for Leggett & Platt's bedding division, said Tuesday at CES.
-Rachel Metz, AP Business Writer
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A CES reminder that retailers profit from fears that gadgetry isn't perfect
Consumer Priority Service Inc.'s humble little stand at the International Consumer Electronics Show has no blaring speakers, no shiny flat-screen display, no "booth babes" in tight clothes. But it is memorable for its honesty.
The company facilitates the extended warranties that electronics retailers sell to consumers. In the midst of an ardent celebration of gadgetry, Consumer Priority Service is reminding people that this stuff isn't flawless. Sometimes it needs to be fixed.
"There's nothing else out here in this entire conference that can attach to any product that's sold," said Jack Heftez, a salesman for the Newark, N.J. company.
Extended warranties are enormous money makers for retailers, generally more profitable than the underlying products. Consumers will pay a lot for peace of mind.
But it's likely that consumers are overestimating how often repairs are necessary and what they would cost. In fact, Consumer Reports magazine has urged consumers to reject almost all such warranties, which sometimes cost several hundred dollars.
If extended warranties are not a good bet, Consumer Priority Service might not deserve the blame.
It arranges for repairs of broken items, but it doesn't directly sell the warranties. It sells them to retailers, which resell them to consumers at a markup. And Heftez said his company adjusts its prices regularly to reflect how often certain products need to be fixed. That means that stores pay less for service contracts on goods that don't really break much.
Whether the stores pass the savings on to consumers is another question.
-Brian Bergstein, AP Technology Writer