CES: Green, Fast, And All Things iPod

Last night's press preview revealed three predominant themes: First, a good number of manufacturers are seeing the benefit of providing more energy efficient / eco-friendly technology. Second, gamers continue to drive the mass market some of the most cutting-edge advances in desktop hardware. And finally, if they couldn't think of anything else, manufacturers put an iPod port on their gear, spiffed up the design, and called it a new product.On the green side, there was Eton, which has long made hand-crank radios (NPR contributers probably have at least one). They've expended their line with new radios and other devices that are self-powered. A couple vendors showed solar-powered charging stations for cell phones and virtually any other device that runs off low DC voltage. I don't know that saving the world one watt at a time is practical, but they looked cool.

Gamers have long been the driving force for blazingly fast video. Now they appear to be driving the market for solid state hard drives. At least two vendors showed gaming systems with these devices for the express purpose of speeding up access to storage.

What really took floor space at the press unveiling was all things iPod. Watertight speakers, audiophile systems, alarm clocks, and docking stations of every shape and size. The Apple ecosystem is indeed huge at this show.