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Practical Electronics Shine at 2009’s CES

Function trumped flash at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which wrapped up Sunday.

Concerns over consumers’ willingness to shell out big bucks for the latest and greatest technology cast a bit of a pall over the show,which saw some 130,000 attendees and 2,700 exhibiting companies, many from Orange County.

The over-the-top fantasy element that marked past shows,such as last year’s 150-inch flat TV on display,fell by the wayside in favor of more practical devices this time around.

One word heard a lot around the trade show floor was “recession-friendly,” as companies look to sell penny-pinching consumers gear that helps save money, time and hassle.

Some local companies showed off gadgets that reflected consumers’ desire to beef up their home entertainment systems as a cheaper alternative to going out for an evening.

Irvine-based Linksys LLC, a unit of Cisco Systems Inc., announced a wireless home audio system that allows users to synchronize music streaming in different rooms of a home.

Linksys also announced a media hub for the home that collects and organizes digital photos, videos and songs that are spread among various devices.

Anaheim’s Premier Mounts, a maker of wall mounting devices for flat TVs, announced what it called the “world’s thinnest” mount that allows a TV to hang less than half an inch from the wall, like a picture.

ViewSonic Corp., based just across the county line in Walnut, showed off a flat TV that has a built-in DVD player in a slim package.

It also debuted flat monitors that are capable of playing 3-D content with the help of high-end graphics cards using special glasses by Santa Clara-based NVidia Corp.

The 3-D monitors go for about $350, a premium of roughly $150 more than regular ones.

The company is hoping to tap into a growing trend for using 3-D content in entertainment, classrooms and engineering, said Sean Gunduz, senior product manager at ViewSonic.

“We believe we’ll be able to sell a few thousand of these a month,” Gunduz said.

Fountain Valley’s D-Link Systems Inc., a maker of home networking gear that’s a unit of Taiwan’s D-Link Corp., showed off an all-in-one router that also acts as a digital picture frame and external storage device.

D-Link also had a network video recorder, which is sort of like a digital video recorder for content downloaded from a network instead of cable TV.

Irvine-based startup Memeo Inc. demonstrated the newest version of its photo sharing software, which has a user-friendly interface that allows consumers to drag photos and videos into a “sharing circle” to distribute them to friends and family.

“The idea is similar to e-mail in that it delivers high-resolution content,” said spokesman Robert Phillips. “But with e-mail you can’t send hundreds of items at one time.”

Irvine chipmaker Broadcom Corp. demonstrated its latest Bluetooth chips, which now transmit data faster and have a longer wireless “reach.”

The company also announced chips for routers and television set-top boxes. It also played up its “video over Wi-Fi” technology that allows makers of consumer electronics to deliver content that’s downloaded onto a PC (such as Apple Inc.’s iTunes and Netflix movies) to a big-screen digital TV.

Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., a unit of Japan’s Toshiba Corp. with operations in Irvine, announced a bunch of laptops.

The company is pushing a line geared toward big consumers of media, including video game enthusiasts that need high-end graphics capabilities, wide screens and sizable speakers.

Others are designed for the road warrior,they are thin, have a built-in Webcam and weigh less than five pounds.

Of course, not all of CES’ gadgets were practical.

Some products on display often left attendees scratching their heads over what the true definition of consumer electronics is.

Some of the most out-there CES gear included personal, programmable saunas, high-tech massage chairs, tiny robots and a pair of goggles for watching TV on the go.

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