Consuming Electronic Gadgetry
OQO computer, Paul Sakuma -AP, washingtonpost.com /Artwork: designslinger]
Throngs of people were out at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this past
weekend. The latest and greatest in technology put on quite a display this year, and I'm continually amazed at the constant downsizing of many product lines. I'm not talking about smaller market share, people losing their jobs, or the show's attendance figures - no, I'm talking about the products themselves, which continue to shrink in size every year.
Getty Images, washingtonpost.com; Portable DVD player, Jae C. Hong - AP, washingtonpost.com /Artwork:
designslinger]
I am not a product designer, I'm an art director, and I can appreciate good design as
much as the next person. So while most of the images on today's page are great looking, I'm on a personal crusade to stop making everything so tiny. I know that a lot of people get very worked up when the most advanced technology comes in teensy-tiny packages. But, unless your fingers are the size of a three year olds, using some of these cool, hip, ultra-thin electronics aren't worth the effort. And - when will screen dimensions stop shrinking; at the postage stamp size?
Ethan Miller - Getty Images, washingtonpost.com /Artwork: designslinger]
I do like Polaroid's new PoGo instant digital camera because it's big enough to hold
comfortably in your hand and you still get the satisfaction of getting your photo right away. The image is a little smaller (there we go again) than in days of yore, but at least the company has reintroduced the old immediate gratification photo. Kodak's OLED digital picture frame has a decent screen size, comes with all kinds of bells and whistles, and it looks good. (You can buy one at Amazon for $858.99)
glasses, Rick Wilking - Reuters, washingtonpost.com /Artwork: designslinger]
I loved this picture of Jeffrey Katzenberg with his old 3D glasses. He's the head of
Dreamworks Animation, and the company is on a big campaign to sell 3D-imagery technology to movie theater owners and the public. As movie admission numbers continue to decline, the studio bosses are looking for something new to bring us all back into the movie watching family. Hopes are that 3D technology may do the trick. Does the picture on the right, with the audience wearing the new version of 3D glasses, remind anyone of the 1950s? I read that the new glasses were designed with the Ray Ban brand in mind. I can see the Ray Ban profile, but these spectacles still look as funny as they did 50 years ago.
Now we'll have to wait one more year to see if our cell phones become as small as a
watch face, and if our TV/movie viewing screens will finally become as small as one lens of a pair of glasses. In the meantime, I'll just continue to struggle with our new DVD remote which measures 4 1/2 inches long, 1 3/4 inches wide, 1/8 of an inch thick, with buttons that are 3/16 of an inch in diameter. It looks sleek and techie; now - if I could just develop a 21st century finger.
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