150-Inch Plasma TV Among The Wonders At Consumers Electronics Show
Posted January 8, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
What if they built an HDTV so big you couldn’t get it in your house? Well, they have and you probably can’t. It’s the latest monster to be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, a place where the up-and-coming technology of the future always reaches the world first.
Japanese giant Matsushita Electric Industrial, which makes Panasonic products, has unveiled a 150-inch giant screen plasma TV (top left). How big is that? It’s the size of nine 50-inch televisions, measures 12½ feet diagonally and boasts an 8.84 million pixel image resolution.
The company won’t say exactly how much you’ll have to fork over for this thing, but if you have to ask, you can’t afford it. The firm’s previous record holder, a 103-inch screen, went for $70,000. So unless you do the math – and win the lottery – chances are pretty good it won’t be ending up in your living room anytime soon.
Still, if you have your heart set on one, they’ll actually be on the market in 2009. But the exact customer base for the biggest of big screen TVs isn’t completely clear – although the picture certainly will be.
Also being unveiled at the big show – a Motorola phone containing vibrating buttons that only appear when you turn the device on and a video phone that not only lets you take footage but edit it on the handset itself. And it’s no small wonder. The phone can store an amazing 24 hours of video.
Then there’s the latest version of a fridge that allows you to power everything from digital photo frames to your iPod, or watch a movie, all while getting a beer. It may be sophisticated, but you’ll still have to get the beverage yourself. It costs US$1,999 and is both a cool and cooler addition to your kitchen.
But of all the unlikely new products that have emerged at the CES, perhaps this one tops them all for sheer ‘who really needs this?’ silliness. It’s a plastic holster that holds a Taser – and your MP3 player. The product comes with its own 1-gigabyte player in colours like “red hot” or “fashion pink.” It will set you back US$72.99.
But if that must-have fashion accessory doesn’t turn you on, you might also want to pick up the latest weapon to go along with it. It’s a leopard print version of the electric felon-stopper, and it’s yours for just US$379.99. “[It] provides a personal protection option for women who want fashion with a bite,” explains company CEO Rick Smith.
And it only seems appropriate for a Taser – at the price, it even looks stunning.
