The International Consumer Electronics Show (C.E.S. 2010) is going on right now in Las Vegas.  Today the 6th grade took to YouTube to learn about some of the cool new gadgets that have been released or demonstrated.

In looking at these new devices, we had conversations about the idea of technological evolution vs. revolution.  There is some amount of opinion when it comes to using these labels with tech – and we had some great debates.

  • Evolution - a natural next step for a device.  (E.g., more megapixels in a camera)
  • Revolution - a completely new gadget that has never been seen before and does something totally new. (E.g., the first satellite)

Our favorite new device of the day: Microsoft’s Project Natal

Cooper pointed out that Natal is a lot like the Wii, but you don’t need sensors. Rebecca stated that we could use the control abilities of Natal to control other computers.  According to students, Natal was the best contender for a technological revolution.

Another big impact was made by Google’s Nexus One (clearly evolutionary):

The Nexus One is, according to Josh, just an iPhone clone.   Peter argued that it is a revolution for Google, and Kelly said that it is cool because you don’t have to have AT&T to use the Nexus One.

Finally, we looked at a multi-touch Levono netbook:

Students were split on whether a swiveling-touchscreen was enough to be a revolution.  Ben said that the fact that it will only be $500 might cause a consumer revolution, but the tech itself isn’t new.

The laptop example was especially interesting because the review mentions Apple in the ad.  We talked briefly about 2 of the biggest tech rumors so far this year – the Nexus One (which was true) and the Apple iSlate.  There are over 7 million hits on Google for “iSlate” and Apple hasn’t spent anything on advertising yet.  The Levono review is essentially free advertising for Apple, as the laptop is compared to their products.  Students noticed that the Nexus One ad didn’t mention the iPhone, and Natal didn’t mention the Wii.