Gizmodo
A few days ago, we wrote about hardware that "demagnetizes vinyl and cds" to make them sound better. Utter bullshit, but the surprise was that CES had given it an award. What does a CES Award mean?
Just as we were wondering that, Chris Null over at Yahoo Tech writes about a 2005 winner that doesn't even exist.
The "Atom Chip" laptop allegedly featured several terabytes of "quantum RAM" and a 6.8GHz "quantum CPU." None of that stuff actually exists...One would especially expect CES's panel of experts to know the difference between reality and utter B.S. As an aside, I actually went looking for booth 36604 myself, which appeared not to exist at all. I mean, if a completely made-up product can win an award, you have to wonder...This morning, I get an unrelated email from Sean Captain, one of the most knowledgeable freelancers around, wondering about all the press releases flying into his inbox with the claim that certain gadgets are CES "Honorees."
Apparently, the CES awards are chosen with only a company-submitted doc and a photo. And the fee for applying can be up to $970. Furthermore, anyone who submits an application can be called an honoree. So, the bottom line is that the CES Awards are selected by people who don't know tech, and the honoree tag is a bunch of bullshit. Be wary as you buy. The CEA CES awards have officially been taken down a notch.
A Word of Caution on CES "Awards" [Yahoo! Tech]
Comments
Well, I'm off to become a CES Honoree...
Cool, now my unicorn mounted leprechauns can have their rainbow guns demagnetized by a CES Honoree product.
Since they are 'free' I hereby bequeth upon Gizmodo the 2007 CES Honoree Award.
Please link to logo for display on your homepage so that all your readers know you are one of the select few.
http://i15.tinypic.com/2uh2zht.jpg
buyer687...
I have the v2.0 version of the leprechauns...any idea if it works on that or do I have to wait for a firmware upgrade?
Thanks in advance.
Moral of the story is that if you put the word "Quantum" in front of some specs you get an award...
All right ladies, come here and let me show you my quantum...PS3 scratcher.
*ZZZZZIP*
Atom Chip are one of the funnier things on the internet. I believe Gizmodo covered them, their booth, and their "Solar Memory" in the past:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ces/live-from-ces-quantum-disk-...
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/pcs/live-from-ces-atom-photo-sw...
They've long since deleted the hilarious demo video from their website, but the Internet Archive's sentinel gaze did not miss it (Save As, note it's a very slow server):
http://web.archive.org/web/20060114064830/http://www.compu...
I think that Gizmodo should have a contest for a gadget to be submitted to CES. It should be something outlandish, but easy to make good adcopy for it. Bonus points for submitting a good photochop of said device.
This is exactly like those high school book deals where you can get your name and photo "published" in the "National Scholastic Society's Directory of Outstanding Students" (or some crap like that), which you can obtain for only $79.95 + $10.95 s/h. It doesn't really matter if you're class valedictorian or a sophomore dropout, so long as your money order clears.
Most things that the CEA does are shills for member companies. Every single award that they give is payola. Simple as that.
The "CEA Hottest Gadgets" or "Top Tech for Women" is back-avenue advertising that's paid for and placed by member companies.
CEA is a good group, but be VERY wary of everything that they publish or endorse. Most of it is fueled by sales and/or promotion of member companies.
Chris Null knows his stuff, too -- he used to be the editor for the now-defunct "Mobile Magazine." (It wasn't his fault that it folded; long story short, call it market saturation.) I'm glad someone like him looked into this; it sounds very shady, but so easy to exploit.
Just read on Lifehacker how to build a DVR ... recommended product was Sage TV a CES 2006 HONOREE!
Some awards I'm going to look into and see what they cost to get:
Top 50 sexiest people of CES
Award for new laptop with 128 gigs of Dupermemory, CPU with UFOCertified(tm) technology and 4D video display, so many dimensions you'll meet your evil twin!
USB powered Halle Berry cloning device.
i love thecapt's idea...
meanwhile, ive just been informed my razr v3-xr80 PD3001 has just won a CES award...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/smokyburnout/09-03-...
Ignignog: 4 dimensions Hello_Newman? that's sad on our planet we have 5....
Ur: thousand...
Ignignog: yah, 5 thousand, take that.
Hello_Newman: 5,000? I only see 2.
Ignignog: Sounds like a personal problem to me.
djdare: huh?!?
More on the generally hilarious Atom Chip at the end of this column.
While we're talking meaningless awards/qualifications/stickers; THX certification for real home theatre components means something. It's not that big a deal, but a full THX system does indeed pretty much meet George Lucas' standards for cinema sound.
THX certification for computer "multimedia" speakers, on the other hand, appears to mean nothing at all. Once again, all it seems to indicate is that someone paid a fee to get the sticker to put on their product.
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