CTIA Wireless Wrapup
CTIA Wireless didn't showcase anything truly amazing this year, although there were plenty of incremental leaps to handsets, headsets and other wireless gear. Maybe the biggest news at the conference was knowing virtually every cellular handset shipping this year will support Bluetooth, which should mean pervasive support for wireless headsets instead of dealing with a cord trailing into your pocket. Nvidia showed off their handset video chip which currently plays back any video you throw at it without a hitch because the screens aren't even close to the video processing power. Qualcomm is pitching something called MediaFLO which amounts to cable television broadcast to your phone; a concept that's potentially interesting as long as it's cheap. I'd much rather watch advertising and get television for free on my cell phone than pay extra for something I already get elsewhere at much better resolution.
I got a great opportunity to interview the President and CEO of CTIA Wireless, Steve Largent, who happens to be the same Steve Largent with the Hall of Fame NFL career for the Seattle Seahawks. As far as I know, I'm the only podcaster to interview him at CTIA and I certainly the only one with a cheesy photo on a balcony at the Wynn. At the tail end of the interview I even got his comments on the Seahawks trip to the Super Bowl. More interviews to follow as I get caught up on the backlog of audio editing for The Chris Pirillo Show.
The conference also made me a bigger fan of Sony. I'm a huge fan of the PSP but generally despise the confusing array of MemoryStick options across the Sony product line. As a last minute purchase before I left for CTIA I picked up the Sony Cybershot DSC-T5 at Best Buy because they were out of the Canon Digital Elph I wanted and I needed a pocket-sized replacement for a Casio Exlim that met a tile floor with a little too much velocity. The DSC-T5 performed like a champ, taking acceptable shots in low light at the Mortricity party and outstanding shots anywhere there was plenty of light. What really impresses me is the image quality of the movie mode. I shot video of Busta Rhymes from the side of the stage at the Morticity party and am completely amazed at the video quality in a generally dark club (the audio contains profanity, so wait till you're at home if you plan to watch). Since I already had MemoryStick ProDUO cards for my PSP, I didn't even need to get a newer more expensive memory stick for the camera.