{"id":1524,"date":"2014-01-12T21:43:01","date_gmt":"2014-01-13T03:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thechristys.net\/?p=1524"},"modified":"2014-01-12T21:52:38","modified_gmt":"2014-01-13T03:52:38","slug":"a-couple-specific-ces-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thechristys.net\/?p=1524","title":{"rendered":"A couple specific CES products"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was asked specifically about 2 products that were shown at CES.\u00a0 Here is a quick summary of what they are and a few observations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"cogito_smartwatch\"<\/a>The first is from a company called Cogito<\/a>.\u00a0 This is a 2nd generation offering.\u00a0 They take the position that a smartwarch should be an accessory to your phone not replace it.\u00a0 Their premise is that it\u2019s easier to glance at your watch than to pull out your cell phone to decide if immediate action is required when you receive a notification.\u00a0 Another strong selling point is that you don\u2019t have to remember to recharge it regularly.\u00a0 I has a user replicable battery which needs replacing every 10-12 months.\u00a0 The smartwatch also sports a traditional analog watch face.\u00a0 They have a couple of models and they should retail for $150-$180.<\/p>\n

I like the ideal of an analog watch face.\u00a0 If I had a smartwarch I would probably choose an analog style display (the digital display watches usually give you a number of options for displaying the time).\u00a0 The large battery and added electronics make the watch rather thick and give this watch away as something more than your standard issue timepiece.\u00a0 There is a small text display that can show you part of the name of your contact sending you a message or calling but most information is conveyed by small icons that light up or flash on the watch face.<\/p>\n

Should I buy this smartwatch.\u00a0 This is the question I always want a reviewer to answer.\u00a0 They seldom do for several reasons.\u00a0 I will tell you how I<\/em> would answer the question for myself , your mileage may very.\u00a0 I, like most people, am not sure what a smartwatch is supposed to do but I can say for me to pay $180 and give up my Casio G-Shock I want it to do more than what Cogito offers.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have a million people texting or calling me so pulling my phone from my pocket each time is buzzes is not a hardship.\u00a0 Another reason to buy a smartwatch right now is the cool factor.\u00a0 Having the latest tech is fun.\u00a0 The simple black and white icon display just doesn\u2019t have that wow factor.\u00a0 I wish the company well and it\u2019s never too soon to start working on the next version.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Project_Christine\"<\/a> The second product is heavy on the wow factor.\u00a0 It is called Project Christine<\/a>.\u00a0 The company that created it is Razor best known for gaming peripherals like mice and keyboards.\u00a0 Project Christine is a modular PC design.\u00a0 The idea is to have a backplane that you can connect self contained components into and swap them out when needed.\u00a0 Because of the self contained modular design anyone (not just the tech savvy) could upgrade or customize their system.\u00a0 Another interesting feature is the components are liquid cooled with mineral oil.\u00a0 Pure mineral oil does not conduct electricity so working electrical components can be submerged in it without shorting out.\u00a0 With all that said, Project Christine is basically a concept not a product.\u00a0 Razor would like to generate enough interested to move the project forward.\u00a0 They would need the support of a fair number of other PC players for it to morph into a successful consumer product.<\/p>\n

Is this the future of PCs or high end gaming PCs?\u00a0 The mineral oil cooling is a cool idea and I suspect there will be more development in the liquid cooling area.\u00a0 The concept looks<\/em> great, it has a \u201cart meets technology\u201d vibe.\u00a0 As far as the meat of the concept goes \u2013 being able to switch out components easily.\u00a0 I\u2019m afraid the truth is, people don\u2019t customize or even upgrade their machines very often, if ever.\u00a0 The people who do, have no problem swapping out some RAM or a hard drive.\u00a0 Since the components are non-standard they will be expensive.<\/p>\n

A universal trend in computers is that more and more components and functions are being integrated<\/span> not broken out into components.\u00a0 PCs are mostly a commodity, Project Christine would have been far more viable 10-15 years ago as a strategy for Workstations and high end gaming rigs.\u00a0 But alas, with the razor thin margins and commoditization of the PC industry Project Christine will end up being a terrific exercise in industrial design and thinking outside the box, not the next generation of gaming machines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was asked specifically about 2 products that were shown at CES. Here is a quick summary of what they are and a few observations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The first is from a company called Cogito. This is a 2nd generation offering. They take the position that a smartwarch should be an accessory to your phone not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26,24,28],"tags":[43,55,54,56],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thechristys.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thechristys.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thechristys.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thechristys.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thechristys.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1524"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/thechristys.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1527,"href":"http:\/\/thechristys.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524\/revisions\/1527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thechristys.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thechristys.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thechristys.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}