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Xbox 360 a PC World ’06 Innovation… but it’s an incomplete list

PC World announced their 2006 PC World Innovations Awards yesterday. Happy to see the Xbox 360 there on the list, along with the LifeBook P1510D from Fujitsu, Sling Media Slingbox and the Creative Zen Vision (I love these devices, and the customer support form the companies is top  notch). The LifeBook P1510D uses Windows XP Tablet PC OS and allows both pen and touch-screen input.


I was surprised to see that the Panasonic Toughbooks, with their incredible extended battery life, and the Toshiba Qosmio laptop products with intstant on (for playback of audio and video) weren’t included. Intel announced at IDF last fall that they were working with Matsushita (Panasonic’s parent corp) on the co-development of notebook batteries to provide batteries that will power a laptop up to 12 hours. I also heard that Toshiba has announced new Qosmio notebooks at CES, but I have yet to see them. On a laptop, I have seen batteries that provide power for cross-country flights (at around 4-5 hours): by CES 2007 I imaging that the 7-8 hours will be touted.


And where are the wide screen monitors? Dell and Sony (and others) have incredible offerings, providing more real estate that is perfect for Windows Vista (with the side bar), monitors that are on par or better than the highly acclaimed Apple 23″ Cinema HD Display, but at half the price. The now sub $1000 level for 24″ monitors is an amazing feat, when you consider the rich 1920 x 1200 WUXGA widescreen glass and the added bonuses of built-in memory card readers and audio jacks.


IMHO, there’s more that should be on the list of innovations, but I have to get through the rest of the evening.


Note on HD DVD consumer players: And as has been noted in the press, Toshiba announced that the first HD DVD players will be launched in the States this March. OK, perhaps I will have to consider a new addition to the AV system, depending upon how the movie library shapes up at launch.