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CES 2011: 4th Mashable Awards

My mates convinced me that it was worth it to fork out US$150 for a VIP pass to the 4th Mashable Awards. I couldn't get the VIP passes because it was sold out but really, the US$50 General Admission ticket was good enough. I got a free beer and some popcorn, and I was seated 3 rows from the stage in Zumanity, a Cirque du Soleil cabaret-style theater, at the New York New York hotel.

I am not terribly fond of award shows but at least this one didn't drag much. Comedian Baratunde Thurston was the host and he was fairly funny. I recognised some of the nominees and was glad Angry Birds and Antoine Dodson a.k.a. the Bed Intruder dude, won. DJs Eclectic Method were also very good.

But the highlight of the evening, besides making some new friends, was the performance by the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity team. The Mashable publicity mentioned "performances" but there was only one. But it was very very good. I shall leave the photos to speak for themselves.

CES 2011: Day 1

We survived Day 1 of CES. The key to this is: wear good walking shoes, hydrate, and don't eat too much during the lunch buffet (pro tip: the more you eat, the more you are going to dump and that just slows you down).

I am not even halfway through the halls. I did see some really cool stuff. These LG monitors were so thin, people kept looking at them from the side to see how thin.

It was also reassuring to know that in America, their tech shows also deploy their share of booth babes.

I also spent a fair bit of time in 3D. Everyone seemed to be offering a 3D something or other. I picked up a pair of 3D glasses from these nice LG ladies and watched all their 3D stuff on different screens.

Hang on, that sounded very wrong. I mean "watched all of LG's 3D stuff on different screens".

I liked the demo in the room with the 180-inch full HD projector screen. Although I am not sure I was cut out for playing the racing game with 3 screens in 3D. I can play an FPS or driving game and I can watch a movie in 3D, but I am not sure my brain can handle doing both: FPS + 3D.

This steaming cabinet fascinated me. When the gentleman opened the door, there were jackets shaking inside and steam coming out. I also saw a fridge that can tweet.

By mid-afternoon, my feet were starting to feel like these booth ladies: tired and aching. Good thing I have all that training running around the San Diego Comic-Con.

I knocked out that night, again with the TV on, and missed the movie National Treasure showing on the USA cable channel. Maybe that's not such a bad thing.

CES 2011: LG Mobile Tech Night and then it's CES in this morning!

Today is the day CES booths are open and it is going to be a lot of walking to do. I am grabbing some breakfast first. No buffet for me, just some coffee and a bagel maybe. I am still recovering from the LG Mobile Tech Night at the Tao nightclub in the Venetian Hotel. That's me, Travis (@teedubya), and Arnold (@mr_gadget), and Jean from LG in the picture. @mr_gadget is such a snappy dresser haha!

I think I look like one of those dudes standing along the street giving out flyers with pictures of "Amber" and "Moniqik" on it. I really need to update my Las Vegas wardrobe.

We had a chance to play with the Optimus 2X and Optimus Black. They even hooked up the 2X to some big screen tvs and folks could race.

I think I spent more time playing with the phones than drinking. Just as well, I don't want to start the morning with a hangover.

CES 2011: LG shows off some Smart Stuff at their CES 2011 press conference

It was a packed hall for the LG press conference at CES. Traditionally, they always get the first slot, hence the 8am timing. I dragged myself out of bed at 6am to be on time but even then, I only had space to stand. Chopeing seats is not only a Singaporean phenomenon, I discovered. Journalists from other countries do it too. It didn't matter much though, I was standing at a good spot near the front.

In 45 minutes, LG presented a slew of products from TVs to fridges to mobile devices but there were a few products that people in the room were obviously more interested in.

The LG Smart TVs with access to content providers like Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu Plus and Youtube look intriguing. With a built-in menu to access premium content, and even a bunch of LG apps for the TV (I know right? Apps for a TV?), and a Magic Motion remote control for easy access to the UI, these televisions should prove very attractive. I am particularly interested in how seamless the integration will be with the content providers.

The mobile televisions were also very exciting, especially the Auto-stereoscopic 3D Mobile TV, or in layman's terms, the No-Need-Glasses-for-3D Mobile TV. I recommend LG to find a better term than Auto-stereoscopic 3D because it is quite a mouthful. Heheh.

Everyone wanted to see that up close and I found myself surrounded by a wall of journalists and bloggers after I took this shot of the device up close. It was showing a 3D clip of the Yogi Bear movie.

LG seems to be pushing 3D in many areas this year. It will be interesting to see if consumers will really buy into 3D for their television, home theatre and Blu-ray needs this year.

And of course, everyone wanted to see the mobile phones. They showed the Optimus Black, a very slim (9.2mm thick only) smartphone with a NOVA display, said to produce a bright screen (700 nits, for those who like these numbers) with less power than an AMOLED display. It is also upgradeable to the Android 2.3 a.k.a Gingerbread.

But the real star mobile device at the LG press conference was the LG Optimus 2X or when it was leaked, the LG Star.

The Optimus 2X sports a dual-core processor that makes stuff like browsing faster. See the iPhone 4 vs Optimus 2X leaked video comparison below (via phonearena):

It can also do full HD playback (yes, 1080p) and comes with HDMI mirroring. That means the 2X can be hooked up to a big screen TV and play full HD! Check out this leaked video comparison of the HDMI mirroring:

If you want to find out more, go check out the LG Mobile facebook page at www.facebook.com/LGMobileHQ. You can also visit their press site at www.lgnewsroom.com.

Uncle Bus Fight Club

These two uncles gave us a glimpse into the mystical underground Uncle Bus Fight Club scene. The fight took place on Bus 143 which was travelling from Orchard Road to Chinatown in Singapore.

That right hook was epic stuff.

Also note the safety consciousness of the two parties as they held on to the bus straps while the bus was moving.

Las Vegas and CES 2011, here I come!

On the invite of LG Electronics, I am heading to Las Vegas for the world's biggest consumer electronics show, CES.

Together with mr gadget (@mr_gadget) of Australia and Travis Wright (@teedubya) of the US, I will spend the week covering the launch of LG's products and all the goings-on at CES, so do keep an eye on the blog and twitter.

Now to get back on my plane in Narita for the next leg of my long flight. See you Stateside.

Atlanta: Fish, Art and CNN

Another of Atlanta's big attractions is the Georgia Aquarium. It is located right next to The World of Coca-Cola (I guess they like to park all their attractions in one spot) and is the biggest aquarium in the world.

My favorite were the penguins. There is a crawl space where you can crawl into a small tunnel under the penguin display so that you can pop your head up a window and see them up close. My old man bones are still recovering from crawling in there with other people's kids.

If you really want to, you can also pop over to the CNN headquarters for their studio tour. It is US$15 for the regular tour and US$35 for the VIP tour. It was a little overpriced for that one hour tour, I felt but still, interesting to see the inside of one of the biggest news channels in the world.

There is some decent shopping to be had at the Lenox mall, their biggest mall there. You can also check out the Premium Factory Outlets some 45 minutes away by car.

What is REALLY worth a trip though, is the High Museum of Art. Jonathan and I went to see the Salvotore Dali exhibition there and it was awesome ("awesome" is a term you should use for everything in day-to-day conversations in America. The other word is "absolutely"). For US$18 entry to the museum and US$5 for the audio tour gear for the Dali show, you get a lovely way to spend the afternoon if you are a museum and art gallery geek like me.

Besides Dali, we also got to see the photographs of Peter Sekaer, one of the leading Depression-era photographers. The museum recently acquired more than seventy rare vintage prints of his and this was the first time they were exhibited. It was a real treat for Jonathan and me.

The other thing I thoroughly enjoyed was the ice hockey game. We went to watch the Atlanta Thrashers compete against the Boston Bruins at the Philips Arena. For a ice hockey newbie like me, it was still very enjoyable. I was using hokkien and soccer terms throughout the game and I am sure the American fans next to me were wondering what I was saying.

They certainly know how to put on a show in the US. There were hot ladies who came out to clean the ice in the breaks between periods. There were also silly contests and the kiss cam (when the camera points at a couple, they are supposed to kiss for the stadium screens). No moment was allowed to be boring.

The Thrashers won on a penalty shootout when the game drew 2-2 even after overtime. Sure they may not be a top-tiered team in the NHL but the game was still very fun for me.

We finished the evening with some jazz at The Whisper Room, part of the Churchill Room next to the Fox Theater. Man, was the band good. I wanted to stay all night just to hear their entire set but it was a long day out and we were bushed.

SIA Air Steward: you can't charge your iPhone on our USB port

On the Hong Kong-to-Singapore leg of my SQ1 flight from San Francisco, a B777 aircraft, an air steward noticed my iPhone connected to the in-seat USB port.

He then told me I couldn't charge my iPhone this way. It seems it's not a question of not enough juice in that port but because the USB port does not have a circuit breaker and will keep charging even when the battery is full. Apparently it may overload the circuits or something.

I even offered to disconnect my iPhone when it was full but he wouldn't have any of it. So
I disconnected my iPhone from the USB port.

This is new to me. I have seen many people use it, myself included, without being told off.

It seems strange to me that you would design a plane with a USB port that cannot do what normal USB ports on computers do.

Anyways, I just switched to charging via the in-seat power socket (good thing I had my iPhone charger head with me).

So these SQ USB ports, are they only good for flash drives? Strangely, their Krisworld magazine touts connecting your iPhone to the Krisworld system to access your own movies and music via the in-seat screen and the connection method? The USB port.

They did have an asterisk on the iPhone bit that stated "On Selected Aircraft Only". So maybe my B777 was not one of the "Selected Aircraft".

Maybe Singapore Airlines can go to Sim Lim Square and pick up new USB ports for these planes. I heard got offer.

Atlanta: The World of Coca-Cola

One of the main reasons we were here was to see the World of Coca-Cola, the Coca-Cola HQ, and to welcome the three travelers from Expedition 206. The three, Tony, Kelly and Antonio, were part of a campaign by Coke where they had to travel to 206 countries in 365 days, to find out what Happiness meant to people around the world. It's more than a soft drink, folks, it's happiness in a bottle.

The World of Coca-Cola is easily the biggest attraction in Atlanta. You get to see all the history of Coke, all kinds of Coke memorabilia and a mini bottling plant.

There were the usual things an American attraction has: Photo ops with the Coke polar bear, a 4-D show, but the most fun part was tasting drinks made by the company for their markets all over the world. The most "famous" drink is Beverly from Italy. It is an, er, acquired taste. It was fun to see folks place their cup at the Beverly fountain and take a sip, then wince.

We got a little carried away in the Coke Store. I think it is one of the few soft drink brands you'd buy souvenirs and wear t-shirts with its logo on it. I got a cool Japanese Coke cap and some special edition bottles for my dad, a lifelong Coke drinker.

The highlight of our visit was the a visit to the Coca-Cola HQ and the Archives. We got to see the restored office of their most famous CEO, the late Robert Woodruff and the offices of their HQ.

In the Archives, Ted Ryan, who manages the Archives showed us his extensive collection. Ted also blogs at Coca-Cola Conversations, their official blog.

Let me just say that the Archives had EVERYTHING. Coke art dating back to the 1930s, old Fanta bottles I grew up with (anyone remember the Green Fanta drink in the ribbed bottles?) and even a special drink fountain and can of Coca-cola that went to space in the space shuttles.

There was a small media circus when the Expedition 206 team officially made their arrival to the final destination of their year-long trip, The World of Coca-Cola itself. I had the opportunity to catch up with Tony, Kelly and Antonio over dinner and Tony regaled us with his tales of their travels.

Tony, I hope you've recovered from jumping into the cold waters of that waterfall and the sometimes dodgy plane rides on domestic airlines that shall not be named, dude.

They also remembered the warm hospitality of the polytechnic students when they stopped over in Singapore.

To travel to more countries in one year than most people have been to in a lifetime, that is really something. I am not sure if I would have the same kind of energy as these three young people.

Atlanta: Touchdown

It took more than 25 hours to get to Atlanta from Singapore. I was traveling with Tiffany from Coca-Cola and Jonathan, a photojournalist, for this trip to Coca-Cola's HQ.

We were fortunate because we came via San Francisco instead of New York because the East Coast was totally snowed-in and all you saw on the news was how badly snowed-in things were there.

Flights were canceled, roads closed and public transport suspended in New Jersey and New York. On the plane, I watched the Delta airlines NBC channel news and got a little worried about Atlanta.

But we landed safely and without incident. The only big deal was walking out into the 0°C temperatures for the first time then running back into the airport to get my heavier sweater out of the luggage.

It was early morning when we landed so after a shower and some breakfast, we decided to visit Martin Luther King, Jr's birthplace. It was a little surreal because when we took the subway to the station nearest to Auburn Avenue, there was hardly anyone around. I am not sure if it is the winter, or the Christmas holidays, or because the place is generally not visited during this season but the streets were quite deserted.

It is rather humbling to be in the place where Mr King was born and where his memorial park is. It was like being transported into history.

The rest of downtown Atlanta itself was a little underwhelming. I expected to see a visible downtown but it had more of a spread out city centre.

We decided to grab lunch at Johnny Rocket's, famous for their huge burgers. Our meal was so big, we ate that and did not have dinner. In fact, all three of us slept through dinner, jet-lagged from our long flight and the 13-hour time difference. Good thing the hotel we were staying at, the Georgian Terrace, was nice and cozy. I had a one-bedroom suite all to myself, with two big-screen televisions, one in the living room and one in the bedroom.

So that you can watch half your program in the living room then, for a change of pace, watch the other half in the bedroom, I guess. I am not complaining.