CES 2012: The couch edition

The Consumer Electronics Show: CES 2012 is in progress!  Although I am not there now, I was there last year, and years past.  The past trips gave me a realization.  Without the right credentials, you really can’t get truly good info.  Rather as you walk from both to both, you get the AOL homepage of technology overviews.  The booths are mostly manned by models who have memorized a marketing script, and respond to most questions with the comforting but empty response: “That’s a great question.”  So who then gets the real low down on hot gadgets and tech trends at CES?  Bloggers.  Bloggers get care packages, special credentials, their own lounge for interviews, and uploads, and exclusive blogger only events.  This is the one place where a underpaid writer of a techblog is heralded as the king of all he surveys.  And for good reason, no one will be researching their next camera purchase on NBC or CNN.  Rather a good review from CNET is the make or break of most electronic technology.

So this year, rather than fight the windmill of Vegas, hike miles of show-floor, squeeze through crowds, and comb through miles of marketing fluff.  I have relaxed and let the bloggers bring the real scoops to me.  From the comfort of my office, I receive interviews with executives, high res photos, and hands on demos of the products normally protected by bulletproof glass.  During the course of this year’s CES my Google reader has mined 3500 articles which I sort through and review.  Take a look through the next few posts, I as I attempt to bring you the nuggets buried in the lights and signs of CES.