By Andrew Liszewski

It may not have made headlines like 3D TVs or tablets did at CES this year, but SanDisk, who thankfully skipped a booth for a quiet back-hall private meeting room this year, introduced their new 128GB compact flash cards which for the time being claim the ‘king of the castle’ crown. Not only do their Extreme Pro CF cards feature gargantuan capacities, but they’re also now the fastest CF cards on the market with up to 100 megabytes per second write speeds thanks in part to their UDMA-7 interface. The kicker? (You knew this was coming.) Available in the latter part of Q1 2011 for $1,499.99.

[ PR - SanDisk Announces World's Fastest High-Capacity CompactFlash Card ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Looking like some giant, creepy, glowing eyeball plucked from one of Michael Bay’s Transformers abominations, CTA Digital’s PlayStation Move compatible bowling ball accessory makes playing motion-based bowling games on the PS3 extra embarrassing. You may remember the company’s first bowling game accessory was released for the Wii a couple of years ago, and now that the other consoles have caught up in terms of motion-based gaming, we can expect to see a lot more accessories like this that were once Wii exclusives. Hooray right? Available sometime in the end of Q1, pricing TBA.

[ CTA Digital ]

By Andrew Liszewski

A while ago Polaroid appointed Lady Gaga their Creative Director and at CES this year we’re finally starting to see the fruits of that collaboration. One of the big reveals at their booth, by Lady Gaga herself, was the Polaroid GL30 seen behind glass above. Like the original Polaroids the GL30 is able to spit out actual printed photos thanks to the company’s instant next generation ZINK technology. And while at first glance its design appears to be a retro homage to the Polaroid cameras of yesteryear, it’s size is probably more a result of needing somewhere to store that ZINK printer.

But as a result of its overall size one of the GL30′s other striking features is an incredibly generously-sized LCD display which makes sharing photos with a group of friends a bit more feasible. And taking a cue from the popularity of the iPhone’s Hipstamatic app, the GL30 also includes a number of filters and borders to make your prints look unique… just like everyone else’s. Available later this year, pricing TBA.

[ PR - Polaroid and Lady Gaga Announce Grey Label ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Are you a fan of the Mini Cooper and moderate levels of flash memory? You’re not alone because a Chinese company has gone to a lot of trouble to license the Mini brand and create surprisingly detailed USB flash drives. The retracting USB port is hidden inside the Mini’s trunk and can extended via a sliding switch on the underside of the vehicle, but besides that these things were surprisingly detailed. And when plugged into your PC the headlights even light up. Available in 1, 2, 4 and 8GB capacities, though I’m not sure if they have a distributor in North America just yet. (There’s a reason they were at CES after all.)

[ Mini Cooper Flash Drives ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’ve already made my disdain for large wallets well-known, but another approach to minimizing the amount of crap in your pockets is to minimize the number of cards you have to carry. Dynamics Inc.’s MultiAccount credit cards do that by conglomerating several accounts onto a single card, allowing you to select which one you want to use at the time of purchase. The selected account has a small blinking light next to it so you know which one’s active, and the pertinent details are written to the magnetic stripe on the back automatically so you can swipe it like a normal credit card.

The cards, which are apparently already in use in the U.S., have a built-in battery that’s good for about 4 years of regular use, but if you spend too much time showing it off to friends, it will automatically let the bank or credit provider know the batteries are low and the card needs to be replaced. The company also had a few other cards on display that are still ‘coming soon’ like the Dynamic Credit Card pictured above which has a small e-ink display for displaying a unique security code that has to be entered at the time of every purchase.

[ Dynamics' MultiAccount Credit Cards ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Hasbro’s new Scrabble Flash was a popular gift over the holiday season, and if you had a chance to play the multi-interactive LCD cube game you already have a good idea of what the Sifteo gaming platform is all about. It’s Scrabble Flash taken to a whole new level. The most obvious improvement are the cubes themselves which each feature a full color and clickable LCD display, a gyro/motion sensor so they know how they’re oriented and the ability to store multiple games at one time. The cubes wirelessly interact with each other allowing gaming elements to be spread across all of the LCD displays which allows for more creative games than just spelling out words.

During our hands-on we got to play a sort of Bejewelled clone where matching pieces across multiple cubes would all disappear, and the individual colored elements could be sifted around by just picking up and rotating the cube. Another example had a character traversing a maze which extended in different directions depending on which side of the cube you decided to place the next one.

The Sifteo system is definitely pretty unique and original, and if they manage to inspire and excite game developers it has a lot of potential. Though they can only be used with a running computer nearby which facilitates their wireless communications and presumably some of inter-cube processing. And while the charger included with the base kit features 6 slots, when available later this year Sifteo will only come with 3 cubes for $149. With additional cubes running $45 each.

[ Sifteo Gaming System ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Your regular copper cable-based HDMI cables are probably more than sufficient for most consumers. But for professional applications, and of course those home-theater video/audiophiles, a Chinese company called the Rainbow Fish Corporation will soon have a fiber optic-based alternative available. The advantages to using fiber optics over copper are of course the lack of any electromagnetic interference which also requires less shielding, hence a thinner cable, and dramatically increased transmission distance. A rep from the company claims you can send an HDMI signal down a 900 foot fiber optic cable without any loss in quality. And without the need for a repeater.

But there’s always a trade-off, though thankfully this time it’s a minor one. Unlike standard copper HDMI cables which you can just plug in and have work, fiber optic-based HDMI cables require a power source, which in this case is pulled from a USB port. You’ll find that most modern hi-def TVs have at least one USB port on the back, but if not you can always add an AC to USB adapter to your TV’s power strip. The Rainbow Fish fiber optic HDMI cables will be available in a few months, with pricing info to be announced later.

[ Rainbow Fish Fiber Optic HDMI Cables ]

By Andrew Liszewski

They have no plans to put it into production at the moment, but at the ‘Future 3D Technology Demo’ section of their CES booth, Sony had this fully-working glasses-free 3D Blu-ray player on display. While 3D was still the prevalent theme of the show this year, there was actually quite a bit of glasses-free 3D technology on display. But I’m sorry to report that the 3D demos playing on this weren’t exactly mind-blowing, though I suspect it was the content to blame since it didn’t look like genuine 3D footage. Sony had other glasses-free 3D technology on display at their booth that looked quite impressive.

By Andrew Liszewski

Since the original iPhone version must not be selling so well, Mattel has come to the rescue with this real-life version of Angry Birds where players build and destroy structures just like in the digital version. Players take turns drawing cards which feature structures they have to build out of the included blocks, pieces and pigs. Then it’s the other players job to topple those creations by launching the disgruntled birds at the structures using a miniature working catapult. Available in May for just $14.99 it includes three angry birds, four pigs and 14 structure pieces.

[ Mattel ]