Manufacturer-made manna has stopped raining from the heavens; now it's time to sort the wheat from the chaff. We pick our 10 favourite gadgets from CES 2006 in Las Vegas.
Sony Ericsson W810i
What do you get when you take a successful W800i and add a few sprinkles of W900i? The W810i, that's what. Nearly identical to the original Walkman phone, the W810i adds quad-band GSM and EDGE to a highly successful handset, and also tweaks the navigational setup for quicker access to audio player commands. Not only for the Americas, this hot little number is also due out in Europe in the spring of 2006; price to be confirmed.
 LG PM70
With the advent of LG's PM70, Microsoft's Portable Media Center platform shows it's finally grown up. A 4.3-inch widescreen display joins a 30 GB hard drive and - at long last - support for other codecs than Microsoft's WMA and WMV as DivX and XviD join the table. Its good looks do nothing to lessen our interest in this sleek looking device, although we're a bit curious as to whether it will still look as good by the time it hits shelves some time in the first half of 2006. Price unknown, unfortunately.
 Sony Handycam DCR-S100
If you're going to do something, you should either do it properly or not at all. Up until now, Sony has shyed away from hard drive camcorders, but my oh my what a beauty the Handycam DCR-S100 is. Turning up the heat on Sanyo's Xacti HD1 and JVC's Everio GZ-MG77, also unveiled at CES, this little marvel boasts a 3 Megapixel CCD sensor, a 30 GB hard drive, widescreen recording capabilities and a super-size, 2.7-inch LCD viewfinder. Due out in May for $2,200 USD.
 Motorola ROKR E2
It's time for another improved music phone: now running on a mix of Linux and Java, the ROKR E2 wipes the floor with its predecessor, the ROKR E1. Gone is the 100-song limit and iTunes support, and instead we're graced with USB 2.0 and stereo Bluetooth audio streaming as well as support for WMA, AAC and RealAudio formats in addition to MP3. Also, miniSD cards have been replaced with larger and cheaper SD cards - good news all around, except Motorola would only say it's due out some time in the first half of 2006. Price unknown.
 Sony Reader
At long last, a device that finally seems able to deliver on the promise of the e-book. With near paper-like contrast, the quarter-Kilo Reader offers a 6-inch, 4-greyscale display which serves up documents in a proprietary format - and Adobe Acrobat. It even does JPEGs and MP3s, and with a (gasp) SD Card memory slot on board is infinitely expandable beyond the 80 average books its onboard memory will hold. Due out in the US this spring; no word on pricing.
 HP's SLC3760N
TV? Check. Wi-Fi? Check. Media extender? Check. The cumbersomely named SLC3760N is nothing less than a Wi-Fi equipped, 37-inch HDTV with built-in media extender capabilities courtesy of Windows Media Connect and Viiv technologies. To arrive 'early this summer', it streams a comprehensive array of audio, pictures and video content from a home network on the fly either wirelessly or by wire, also integrating two 20W speakers and boasting a 6 ms response time. Price - you guessed it - unknown.
 Sony VAIO TX2
Even smaller and lighter than the
VAIO SZ series also unveiled at CES, the TX2 offers a starting weight of 1.24 KG despite integrating such features as a Dual Layer DVD+/-RW drive and an 11.1-inch widescreen display. The latter mentioned is also Sony's first to incorporate LED backlighting, which, in combination with a choice of Intel Pentium M processors, Sony claims allows for a battery life of up to 7.5 hours. Also present: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and a carbon fibre chassis. Due out this spring, price to be confirmed.
 Dell Inspiron E1705
The latest addition to Dell's line-up of Media Center enabled notebooks, the Inspiron E1705 comes with a choice of Intel's new dual core processors running in tandem with a 256 MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7800 graphics chipset for top-of-the line performance. A 17-inc widescreen doesn't hurt either, nor does up to 2 GB of RAM; an ExpressCard slot; a Dual Layer DVD drive; and Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 - with optional TV tuner. Starts at $2,300 USD, and would you believe it - it's out now.
 Logitech Mobile Stereo Headset HS 210
The HS 210 has it all: support for the AD2P, Headset and Handsfree profiles enable stereo and mono audio streaming and mobile phone chatter, whilst padded ear pieces and a weight of 90 g should allow for a degree of comfort. Although skipping the extendable mini boom microphone of its HS 200 sibling in favour of a more streamlined exterior, it still incorporates Logitech's WindStop noise reduction technology along with talk and standby times at up to 8 and 300 hours, respectively. Due out this spring for $130 USD.
 LEGO Mindstorms NXT
It's time to get in touch with your inner child (or world conquerer) again: eight years after the introduction of LEGO's original Mindstorms robotics toolkit, the company is at it again. With new and improved sensors enabling hearing and 'seeing' for the first time, the software for building instructions has been updated - and for that true post-2005 feel, you also get USB 2.0 and Bluetooth connectivity to pass orders to your minio... er, creations. All yours for $250 USD in August 2006.
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