ces 2008

Too busy to drive? Let the car take the wheel. PopSci recently went for a ride in the Chevy Boss, winner of the 2007 Darpa Urban Challenge. With tricked-out GPS, sonar, laser guidance and a stack of computers, this 2007 Chevy Tahoe SUV can navigate an urban setting, weave around obstacles, and even negotiate intersections with other cars. GM expects the technology to be affordable, and less obtrusive, in about a decade.

Even if you think the Bose Sound Dock is the pinnacle of audio clarity, you can't find a more pleasant way to spend an afternoon at CES than touring the high-end-audio area, moved last year from a sketchy off-Strip motel to the Venetian. There are no flat-panels in sight. No pushy PR people. No throngs. Just room after room of equipment you can't afford, all set up simply for you to sit and listen to unbelievably realistic reproductions, for as long as you like.

I knew that GM had built real, road-ready hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. But I didnt really believe it until I saw one, and drove it.

The Chevy Equinox I piloted—one of about one hundred that GM will put on the road later this year—looked as polished and user-friendly as any new car on the lot. Its a comfy, soccer-mom/dad vehicle that seems like any other small SUV until you turn the ignition—err, I mean the key. There is no ignition.

While most of CES is devoted to all things geek, there is one hall where the more macho gearheads come out to play every year: the temple to high-watt subwoofers and tricked-out rides that is the North Hall.

Launch our photo tour here.

Your next cellphone could have a 100-inch screen—without getting an inch bigger. Microvision's tiny PicoP projector can turn a wall, tabletop or any other surface into a display. It's small enough to fit in pocket-sized gadgets because it uses lasers, which sip power, are extremely bright, and produce little heat. They also do away with bulky lenses: The pinpoint beams are always in focus, from any distance.

Every year, television innovations make up the backbone of every major consumer-electronics player's booth. And for good reason—we've been buying televisions for well over 50 years now, with no sign of slowing anytime soon. Try saying that about any of the other product families at CES—personal computers are practically infants in comparison.

This year, the race for the biggest picture is as heated as always, although the parade of massive, mini-Jumbotrons are now sharing the spotlight with razor-thin OLED sets.

To a certain extent, your computer's only as good as the stuff you plug into it. Give yours more than a face lift with these add-ons we've been eyeing. The Printstik, above, is just one of the thoughtful and well-designed peripherals debuting at CES. Check out some more, after the jump.—Abby Seiff

I went by Lenovos booth to check out their new laptops, and it turned out that their laptops checked me out instead. Thats because the laptops use your face, in addition to your password, as a security measure. As soon as you approach, the webcam takes your picture. Then face-recognition software called VeriFace compares your pic to photos of authorized users. If they match, you can log into the computer. If they dont match, its a double whammy: Not only can you not log in, but the PC saves your pic, so the real owner can see whos been snooping around her laptop. The tech showed up on a couple of Lenovos business-y ThinkPad laptops last year, but is about to make a much bigger showing now that Lenovos releasing its first consumer laptops for the U.S.—Lauren Aaronson

Want more? Check out our entire CES 2008 coverage here.

On the one hand, Vegas does gaming really, really well. On the other, well, maybe it's not its strong suit. Even though gamers may get less CES love than the larger gadget crowd, if these products are any indication, they shouldn't feel short-shrifted; it's quality.—Abby Seiff

Your standard LCD may be svelte compared with the old tube set, but at about four inches thick, it hardly hangs flat like a picture frame. For that, you need Hitachi's new Ultra Slim TV, redesigned to a negligible 1.5 inches thick but up to 42 inches diagonally. In principle, Ultra Slim models work the same as standard LCDs: Fluorescent tubes illuminate a liquid-crystal display from behind.

If a simple polygon can hold up a pharaoh's tomb for 4,500 years, it should survive some off-road riding. That's the thinking behind the 2.75-pound Arantix mountain-bike frame from Delta 7 Sports. It's 10 times as strong as a steel frame of the same weight would be—enough to survive the company's informal "run- over" test with a Ford F350 pickup.

Photographers have it easy: They need to catch their subjects looking great for only a split second. Videographers have to capture a good-looking scene for several minutes. Sony helps them out by equipping its newest camcorders with face detection, which finds up to eight mugs and continually adjusts the focus, exposure and color to optimize their appearance.

Sure you've seen two big flat-panels linked together side by side on gaming rigs before. But this bad boy ties them into one sveltely-curved unit. The Alienware Curved is a single 2880x900 (2x WXGA+ resolution), powered by DLP projection (so it's not that svelte, from behind anyway). But it works with any game that already supports dual-head WXGA+ setups and should hit gaming dens near you in the second half of '08. —John Mahoney

Want more? Check out our entire CES 2008 coverage here.