By Carl Laron on November 12, 2009 in
One of the fun parts of the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is guessing which of the products introduced with great fanfare will actually make a go of things, and which ones will soon be relegated to the technology scrap heap. Tuesday's CES Unveiled media event more or less confirmed that some of the big trends that have been building over the past year -- such as sustainable technology, 3-D TV, the growth of apps, and others -- should be major presences at the 2010 CES in Las Vegas. But Tuesday's event was also the coming out party for the 2010 Best of Innovations award winners: products selected by a panel of experts as being the most innovative in terms of design and engineering. Some of these are already available, and the rest should reach the consumer market in the coming months. As always, we think some of these innovations look as if they'll be hits. Others? Not so much.
Among the winners announced, Audiovox's FLO TV Auto Entertainment System takes advantage of the recently-approved Mobile DTV standard to bring live television entertainment, including TV shows, news and sports, to cars. Audiovox's product is powered by FLO TV, which has content partnerships with a variety of over-the-air and cable providers, including CBS, NBC and ESPN.
Nikon earned its ticket to the party with the COOLPIX S1000pj, a 12-megapixel digital camera that includes a built-in projector capable of displaying photos as large as 40 inches on any convenient wall.
The Viper SmartStart lets you use your iPhone or iPod Touch to remotely arm or disarm your car alarm, lock or unlock the doors, pop the trunk, trigger the panic feature, or remotely start your vehicle.
There are more, of course -- about 21 Best of Innovations award winners altogether. You can have a gander at the whole list over at the CES website. Take a stab at guessing which products will break through, and which ones will be forgotten by the time the 2011 Best of Innovations winners are announced. It can be fun.
