Pounding the CES Pavement - our poor feet!

First view of CES
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An early start this morning was required to pick up Joe’s CES conference badge. Even though we both registered back in September, only my badge arrived in Brisbane - the other one probably went to Austria! After seeing the lines at the airport the previous night to pick up badge holders, we decided that we better be at the conference centre registration desk at 8am. This turned out not to be required as there were no lines, and left us with two hours to spare before the doors officially opened. We found the only option at the conference facility for breakfast and went the hot breakfast option, which turned out to be a bad, bad mistake, with powdered eggs and a sad excuse for bacon. I then braved the queue at Starbucks while Joe went through the centre maps to decide where to start. Thirty minutes later I returned with our coffees, which we both proceeded to burn our tongues on!

Just a little car audio sound system upgrade here...
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At 10am the doors opened and the people surged into CES. Our first view was of bright lights, loud music and people hawking their new products. The first thing that drew people in was the 3D television experience. Donning the special glasses put you into a new television viewing world. There were many vendors offering their versions of these TV’s, so expect to see these arrive soon.  The other item that seemed to be in abundance was the e-book. These devices, which will see the demise of the hardback and paperback book in future, were everywhere you looked, including booklet tablet version with a PC screen on one side and an e-book screen on the other. The fight will now be on to standardise the e-book format, with some of the vendors currently only supporting their own formats. There were also many vendors displaying their many versions of the netbook and/or PC in a box.

Quick, duck, there is something flying at my head... damn 3D TV tricked me again...

Video phones are a coming..
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Home Automation, smart power (with your own power transformer to all but eliminate your power footprint) and green products were also very interesting to see. High Definition Video recorders that fit in the palm of your hand, and digital photo frames with software that enable you to animate your family photos were also on display. There were also new models of all the existing market products being spruiked.

We walked up and down the aisles of the five convention halls looking at all on offer. By 5pm, we were 7hrs down and our feet were throbbing and our gait lilted. I was dreaming of soaking my feet and sleeping. We both are not used to being on our feet for so long and both bodies were complaining.

yummmmm...
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We took the monorail back to the MGM grand and decided it was time to get US SIMS for our phones. This turned out to be a little problematic as there are no retail outlets for the carrier we wanted on The Strip. Thanks to a map from the Concierge at the MGM, then a 15min taxi ride to the Boulevard Mall, we found what we needed. On our return to the Monte Carlo we headed to the Cafe and enjoyed a light a-la-carte dinner before heading back to our room and resting our weary feet. Much relief but a little amazed that we could be in Vegas and in bed at 9.30pm!! A much slower day tomorrow expected with it filled with flights and airport lounges.