January 15, 2021
by Tyler Williams
CES - 2021 Final Thoughts
One of my favorite things about CES is the common appreciation of techonology from the past. Realizing that we've come a long way is hard to appreciate when there's a new phone or computer coming out every few months. Sometimes the leaps in features can be daunting.
It is sometimes nice to reminisce about the large, yet slow computers, the early digital music players (the original iPod) and the occasional nod to early digital cameras. Yet, we all still love analog features in film and audio. It is also slightly remarkable, yet ironic to see things emulating the past with software. Think of the early Instagram filtering.
The beloved Canon PowerShot 600 from 1996 even got a quick shout out. The original price was about $1200. With inflation, this thing would be around $2000 today. Wow! That's a lot for 1 MB (megabyte) of built in storage. Your average phone probably has about 64GB (gigabytes) of storage, which is, 64,000 MB's.
Some blasts from the past for you...
- Further history of digital cameras can be found here.
- Also, a few years ago Stephen Hackett produced a nice little video about the history of the of the iPod Classic.
The concept of having lower costs for the consumer is probably always considered a "breakthrough" when it comes to CES. It's smaller, lighter, faster and ultimately you are getting more bang for your buck - this year compared to last. That's comforting yet discouraging at the same time. Every time you purchase a piece of tech, it is often quickly outdated by a future, more affordable thing.
Overall, CES had an underlying spirit of hope regarding the pandemic and how we're all in this "socially distanced life" together. We are all using our tech to the best of our abilities. And, the online meetings are annoying but somehow better than nothing. There's comfort in knowing you're not alone. Even if you have to force yourself to see that for what it is.
Have a great weekend!
Peace,
Tyler
P.S. Here's a link to the best of CES 2021 according to CNET.
