Plaidophile

(Note to self: Seriously, you're agoraphobic. Stop doing these things.)

On the plus side, the curbside checkin and subsequent security line were really short. (I don't know why everyone was lined up inside when curbside checkin had like 3 people in line.)

I did see some pretty good stuff today, though, particularly in the morning before things got crowded. I hung out at Roland's booth and played with their new entry-level v-drums kit (pretty good, though limited) and their portable jam/practice studio which has some very nice built-in effect processing. Also, ever since the Casio Privia line came out, Roland's gone and reworked their hammered keyboard action, and so now Roland's ahead again. (This is, of course, how competition is supposed to work.) Okay, the current gen of Privia is way better than my first-gen keyboard, but Roland's latest action blows the current Privias away. If I were in the market for a new keyboard I'd definitely go Roland.

I'm also pretty amazed at how good the low-end TVs have gotten. Westinghouse and Olevia have always been good for their price but their latest things are actually quite competitive with the last-gen Sony and Samsungs. Of course the next-gen Sony and Samsungs are pretty incredible, and Panasonic (I think, or maybe Pioneer) was showing off an experimental LED-lit LCD which claimed a 100,000:1 contrast ratio (though I presume that's the dynamic contrast; the actual image wasn't really anything phenomenal).

It's also interesting that Sony is making such a big deal about the 11" OLED, considering Samsung was at least implying that their 30" is ready to ship. (Of course there have been much larger OLEDs demonstrated in the past, but they were nowhere near consumer-ready, with low yields and terrible longevity.)

First Act was also there, displaying (but not allowing people to try out) their higher-end guitars. The guy at the booth (who really wanted me to be able to try it out but he said he was specifically not allowed to do so, which is weird considering they had amps and everything there) was gushing about their quality in a completely sincere way, and he also pointed out that the guitarist for The Replacements had discovered that their $150 Wal-Mart guitar was actually insanely good. I always thought First Act stuff would be pretty crappy (seeing as how it's sold at Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, etc.) but maybe it's worth trying them out. Unfortunately they're not sold at places which let people demo them, which is probably why they have this self-fulfilling cycle of perceived suck about them.

The reason I was sent was to see what the state of the art was in the product area that we're working on, and what I found was that only two companies were really working on anything even remotely close to what we have designed and neither of their solutions are particularly general or big-picture like what we're doing. That's either reassuring or cause for distress. I'm not sure which.

Also, Sony's got some pretty cool stuff coming out, including some very nice noise-canceling headphones, and of course Sony Ericsson has new phones coming out, including two which are still compelling upgrades from my W580i. Damnit, stop coming out with such nice things! I'm serious! Though I showed my (gray) W580i to the S-E guy and he said I could probably sell it on eBay for twice what I paid for it, what with them being so desirable and sold-out everywhere. Might be worth looking into. (The two which were interesting were basically the W580i in a slim form factor with the old-fashioned T39-era flip, and the W580i with HSDPA in addition to the EDGE. However, I don't really care about HSDPA, and the way they designed the music playback controls on the flip means it's probably not pocket-friendly which kind of negates the point to the classic flip. So I'm sure I can resist this upgrade cycle.)

Meanwhile, I have like two and a half hours to kill before my flight. At least I can catch up on weblogs and comics and such now. (Yay for free WiFi.)

5:55 PM And now I'm bored. Oh well, I guess this is a good time to get some dinner since boarding is in like 40 minutes. Then I can board and be bored. You know the drill. (Drills also bore.)