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The Revolution Will Not Be Digitized

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Posted Thursday, January 10, 2008 5:11 PM

Leaving Las Vegas

Brian Braiker

Well that about wraps it up for me, your deflowered CES correspondent. I have a flight to catch in a couple hours, which is about how long the cab lines are around here. It's been complete gadget madness. Tech overload. It's hard to say that I have any favorites--I've looked at everything from refrigerators to televisions to robots to porn--and I'm still trying to process it all. I'll let the pros prognosticate on what the hits and the duds will be. But I have heard grumblings among my fellow reporters (and even exhibitors): There was no big story this year. No home run. No major hit. CES is just too big, they complain. Exhibitors are frustrated because it's hard to stand out in this crowd. Unless you've got a freakshow of a gadget (150-inch screen, anyone?), there's no way you're going to gin up any major buzz. I don't have anything to compare this year's show to since it is my first time, but there does seem to be this undercurrent of disappointment. People are vaguely underwhelmed--and exhausted.

Maybe they're jaded, but I certainly saw some pretty neat stuff here. Some people who come to CES year in and year out may have lost the view of the forest for all those high-tech trees. Just as you don't see yourself age when you look in the mirror every day, you tend to forget that technological evolution is grinding ever onward: geek guru Robert Scoble mentioned offhand that he remembers when he couldn't even make a cell phone call from the floor--and now folks are streaming high definition video. That sounds like a pretty great story to me.

And now I've got a plane to board. I can't wait to settle in and spend some quality time with one of the lowest-tech items on earth: a book.

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