Arc Audio's Ultra boat was packed to the gunwales with audio and video.
The Consumer Electronics Show attracted more than 150,000 members of the trade from 150 countries in January, including intrepid journalists looking for the latest permutations in the mobile electronics industry. Among the 2,500 exhibitors were a lot of products and a few sick-looking custom pickups and SUVs in the crowded North Hall, where most of the mobile electronics makers crowd together to purvey their wares. Look for future features on some of those vehicles.
CES 2006 Consumers have redefined the word "mobile" when it comes to when and where they enjoy their music and video entertainment. Manufacturers have been scrambling to keep up. The result is that USB connectivity was big at CES, which means that users have more opportunities to transfer digital music files from one player to another using compact, flash-memory thumb or jump drives. Bluetooth has finally hit its stride, and satellite radio continues on its sharp growth curve, while satellite TV and internet reaffirm their relevance. Video, of course, was all over the place, as were iPod integration solutions.
We already covered the products that made the wettest splash with our Innovations Award coverage in our "Trucktronics" column in Issues 4 and 5. But here we showed you a couple of vehicles and more products that were at the show and still worth a gander.