I’ve been in Las Vegas for CES for the last few days, and wanted to pass along some of the sights from the trade show floor.  It’s been a really good experience, and I think I’ve made some really good contacts, and refreshed lots of old ones.  Thanks to Sage and Greg LaFollette for a very nice meeting with some of the CPA profession’s technology leaders at the Aria casino last night.  It’ was a very interesting meeting, and I think we all had a great time exchanging information and tips about how best to work this meeting.

Planon had a new version of their portable scanner (with bluetooth and an LCD) and a new thermal portable printer.  Looks interesting, but I’d like to work with one for a few weeks before I pass judgment.  There were some scanners here, and I’m planning follow up visits to some of them, but I haven’t seen anything super-revolutionary.  I’ll probably have another post on anything that turns out to be super-exciting.

Displays continue to be a big deal in the computer space.  Kodak and some other vendors were using the Microsoft Surface platform (funny parody of this technology here) to have an interactive digital experience.  The technology was really cool, and it helped me get more of their messaging – so it worked.

Displaylink showed off a Samsung display with six large monitors configured to be one massive display, running through one small digital cable.  They demonstrated it running a driving game, and the video performance was truly amazing.

The Microsoft booth had a small notebook with two displays that slide out from each other to give you two monitors on a laptop.  Very cool, although these two displays are only about 12” diagonally (16×9) each, and this is a prototype which won’t be in production for a while.

Skype continues be featured in numerous products, including the ASUS AiGuru SV1T device (left, below).  Television manufacturers continue to incorporate features into their new LCD/LED sets, including the Skype feature demonstrated by LG (right, below).  Other applications on displays include media streaming, Netflix, and many others.  Microsoft launched a new IPTV interface for Windows 7 Media Center which can be used to directly receive IPTV from services like my TDS Fiber Account, AT&T U-Verse, or Verizon FIOS without needing a cable box, which looks pretty interesting.  (I’ll believe it when I see it working in my home office).

If you have specific things you’re interested in, send me a Tweet (@BFTCPA), and I can let you know what I’m seeing that might be of interest.