Yesterday, the first official day of CES, kicked off with a bunch of announcements from Panasonic President Toshihiro Sakamoto. Chief among them is the 150-inch plasma--which the company is calling the "Life Screen," probably because that sounds better than the "Life Savings Screen"--the largest plasma screen in the world. Although there was no official word from Panasonic, analysts have predicted the TV could go for as much as $100,000. For those of you keeping score at home (and actually know what this stuff means), the TV has 2,000-by-4,000 pixel resolution. It is 11 feet wide. Which is the size of nine 50-inch plasma TVs.
 
I finally got a look at it today. Here you go:

I included the guy standing in front of the TV in order to give you some perspective as to how freakishly large this thing is. He's 15 feet tall. That cocked thumb alone is the size of a VW Beetle. And yet he is dwarfed--dwarfed!--by the Monster TV. If, for some reason, the screen were to topple over it would kill everyone in Las Vegas. Let us pray that it does not.  

As I mentioned in passing before, the only TV I own is a 30 year-old cathode ray dinosaur that runs on diesel fuel. It's sitting on the floor in my house, not even plugged in. I can't lift it up to put it on our coffee table. Years of not watching TV, I've concluded, have made me a better person than you. And yet. Looking at this plasma leviathan, I have only one thought: Daddy want.

Seagate's D.A.V.E., pictured on the right

What is it?

D.A.V.E. (Digital Audio Video Experience) Platform 

How much will it cost me?

To be announced, but the rumor mill claims under $200.

Who makes it?

Seagate.

Why should I care?

It's a portable hard drive that connects wirelessly to a slew of devices--perfect for those memory-starved iPhones.

How would you describe it?

When I first saw D.A.V.E. at hard drive manufacturer Seagate's fall press tour in New York City, they didn't have a working model to show me. Now they do, and it's one of the subtly coolest things we've seen at CES 2008. It's a 60 gigabyte hard drive with built-in Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi, a Web server, and DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) support. What that means in plain English is that you can store a vast amount of content on the drive--data, photos, music, movies--then easily access it on your mobile phone, iPhone, PDA, laptop, TV or Playstation 3 that supports Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. The demo I saw showed D.A.V.E. working in conjunction with both an iPod Touch (pictured above) and a car stereo, and it was sweet to be able to play a movie or listen to a song stored on a separate device without needing a wire (though if necessary, there is a mini-USB connector). Even better, multiple devices can access different files--or the same file--simultaneously.

What's confusing me is that Seagate currently has no plans to offer D.A.V.E. directly to consumers, even through its own Web site. Instead, it will be teaming up with companies like Harman/Becker for car stereo systems; PortoMedia for selling digital movies, TV and music at kiosks; and Sanyo for use with its camcorders. I can't for the life of me believe that retailers would turn away this product or that it couldn't at least sell D.A.V.E. directly through its site, because all it would take is a couple of video clips of this gadget in action and geeks would be lining up to score one--especially iPhone users. Nevertheless, Seagate execs are sticking to their guns on this strategy, but I hope they'll change their minds.

When can I get my hands on it?

Last quarter of 2008.

What's your verdict?

Buy...if only Seagate would sell it to you directly.

If you had three wishes, what would they be?: 1. Good health for myself and my family. 2. The resources to continue to travel for the rest of my life. 3. A husband and 1-2 kids.

Describe an interest you have that you would truly hope your partner could share with you.: Entertaining. Nothing makes me happier than filling my house with friends, good food, and good drinks. I would want a partner that enjoyed the same.

Times approximate

7:00 A.M.: Send report of last night’s Bill Gates keynote to editors.

7:50: Walk out of hotel, get in endless cab line. One cab pulls up five minutes later, two people get in. Valet asks if anyone wants to go to the Convention Center and share the cab. People on line, mostly Japanese convention-goers, are frozen. New York City instincts kicking in, I leap forward.  

8:15: Arrive at Convention Center for Sony Pictures Television breakfast. Look at Sony booth while coffee is being set up. Admire the new super-bright OLED TV’s, which, with 11-inch screen and fingernail-thin width, are like cufflinks compared to 150 inches of high-def screen elsewhere on the floor.  

8:30: Talk to executive for a very big company that’s on top of the world who used to work for a very big company whose good fortunes have turned rotten. Hear devastating stories about the former company and interesting insights on his current employer. It will probably be the best conversation of the week.

9:30:  Sony Presentation for Sony Pictures Television opens with introduction by Vanna White, then has Alex Trebek (looking good after heart attack) chatting with Steve Mosko, head of the division.  He introduces a digital service with content in 4-minute bursts, cut out of full-size dramas and Seinfeld episodes. Jerry Seinfeld appears, does 15 minutes of jokes about toiles and commercials--but very funny. Tony Bennett comes out and sings a song.  

10:30: Struggle with iPhone to get it to resend file I sent in early morning, which didn’t go through.

11:00:  Go to “Industry Insider” speech by Chief Yahoo Jerry Yang.  Before he takes the stage there are slides of “fun facts” about Yahoo, all of which have to do with its huge user base, like telling how many times Yahoo users would circle the earth if they were arranged around the equator (three).  He shows new mobile software.

Noon: Go to Microsoft press building (a separate structure outside the hall) to interview Chief Technical Officer Craig Mundie supposedly over lunch. There are boxed lunches in a waiting area, but I don’t take one, figuring we’ll have food inside. There isn’t. PR person asks if he could tape the interview. I say OK, and take out my own recorder. Brief discussion on how great digital tape recorders are.  

12:03 P.M.: My tape recorder stops. Screen says “low battery.”

12:05:  Microsoft PR guy has extra batteries, so interview resumes. Discussion of spectrum auction, Microsoft’s impact on consumer electronics, Bill Gates’ departure, and personality of One Laptop Per Child leader Nicholas Negroponte.

1:00:  Food outside the interview rooms is gone. I go to press room where there is a long line for the lunches provided reporters. Someone calls out, “There’s only rice and beans.” Go into a room full of computers to do email.

1:10:   Internet goes down in press room.

1:20:  Walk around some of the 1.7 square feet of exhibition space. Lots of noise and big TVs.

2:00:  Take Las Vegas Monorail back to hotel and eat lunch in a facsimile of a Paris bistro under a fake twilight sky.

3:00:  Internet in hotel room.

3:20:  Get email from a Microsoft PR person. I left my tape recorder on the table there.

4:00:  Walk to Venetian Hotel for meeting and press conference. Sidewalks lined with people passing out cards for “Girls Direct to your Room in 20 minutes.”  

4:30:  Interview Ron Sanders, head of Warner Brothers Home Video, the guy who just stuck a dagger in the heart of the HD-DVD hi-def format fight by announcing that his company--the biggest studio in home video--would support Blu-Ray exclusively.  (Previously Warners was the only studio supporting both formats.) He says he was just following the consumer, who is buying Blu-Ray two-to-one.

5:00: Press conference of Blu-Ray consortium, with Sanders and reps from other studios promoting the format,  is an hour-long gloat-fest. Old message: We’re better than HD-DVD. New message: Now that format war is over, we must “educate” consumers to buy new players and the more expensive disks.

6:00:  Almost get killed crossing the street to the Wynn.  Attend ShowStoppers, a show-within-a-show with more than 100 companies presenting new stuff. See an air-guitar variation on Guitar Hero, test a Wi-Fi picture frame, taste beer made from BeerTender, a Krups product that taps a keg of Heineken. Interviewed twice by different people on Podcast Network. Run out of business cards.

8:45:  Decision time--there are two parties at the Palms (Intel and Digital Freedom party sponsored by Consumer Electronics Association), and a Sony party at some hotel I’m staying at. Ponder this while waiting in cab line with a friend who’s going to the Palms.

9:30:  Get to head of cab line. Decide to go back to hotel.

10:15:  Sony “After Hours” party is happily low key, with three-piece acoustic band playing classic rock covers. Talk to a few people--“See anything new?”  “Not really”--and get a brew from a bartender, not a BeerTender. Someone asks the band to play “Free Bird.”

11:15:  Back to room. Email. Sleep.