CES 2011- Microsoft Partner Party

So I have to say, one of the best parts of this year's CES was the Microsoft Partner Party. I do not work for Microsoft nor am I a partner but my associate was able to gain my fat head access to what was most likely the coolest Vegas experience I've ever had.

We cabbed from our hotel over to the newly opened Cosmopolitan. The party was being held on the three floors (yes, three floors) of The Marquee. A quick description from their website...

"The venue is more than 62,000 square feet, with 50-foot-tall ceilings and an unparalleled multi-million-dollar sound stage designed to cater to any performer’s whim. Coliseum-style seating surrounds a focal dance floor, where one can marvel at the four-story LED screens and projection walls that will display customized light and image shows distinctly tailored for each performance."

What the description above fails to point out is the several thousand square foot pool deck that opens up out the back of the club. Not just a pool deck really, but an outside club experience fully optioned with additional bars, a DJ stand and cabanas each with its own glass front elevated hot tub. One of which some not to be named silicon partners decided to utilize fairly early in the evening. Above are some decidedly marginal cell phone pictures.

CES 2011: Blackberry PlayBook Quick Video

This quick video shows the Blackberry PlayBook in all its multi-tasking glory. The Blackberry rep demonstrates the graphical prowess while it's also playing a Flash video. Of course this is all after my associate and I put thousands of fingerprints on it within the first minute or two. I will have the Precious.

CES 2011-Tegra 2 Electric Boogaloo

I've been trying to make it to CES for a couple years. I'm no tech superstar but developed a mild addiction to consumer electronics, namely in the wireless realm due to the decade plus I spent at a large tier one wireless carrier.

When I found out both my brother and friend were attending I decided to pull the trigger. This post will namely cover my experience on the floor with a separate posting diving into the rest of my Vegas adventures.

The main focus of this years show seemed to be 3D televisions, 4G and dual-core smartphones and tablets, tablets tablets. I'll start with the handset I found to be most impressive. Not necessarily because the handset's features were anything more hardcore than the myriad of other superphones being shown but because of how well Motorola has extended the use via a few very cool peripherals. The Motorola ATRIX is a smartphone running Google's Android OS. It is slated for launch on the AT&T network and will be a "4G" HSPA+ device. At launch it will run Android version 2.2, also known as Froyo.

Motorola has implemented its Blur skin which may upset those looking for a stock Android experience but it's fairly minimal in its obtrusiveness and doesn't run nearly as deep as HTC's Sense UI.

Motorola ATRIX 4G feature breakdown-

Screen- 4" qHD capacitive multitouch display with a dense 540 x 960 pixels

Processor- 1Ghz dual core NVIDEA Tegra 2 with 1GB DDR2 RAM

Cameras- Front facing .3MP/Rear Facing 5MP

Battery- 1930mAh

The UI was very snappy and the screen proved very receptive to touch input. If this is any indication of how AT&T is going to respond to loosing its iPhone exclusive I'm hopeful they won't feel the pain too much.