New Mobile Electronic Devices for 2004

By
Arthur Tham
January 7, 2006, 7:59 AM ET
2 min read

Jan. 8, 2004 -- It's been more than two decades since the first Sony Walkman's more or less defined mobile electronics. Now that phrase extends to phones, cameras, audio and video devices and even our cars.

And the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas promises to give visitors more than a taste in all these portable electronics areas.

Here are some of the new products and development that are expected to be unveiled at this year's CES.

Portable and Automotive Navigational Systems

Cobra Electronics will unveil its SKYNAV line of portable mobile navigation systems for automobiles. The Cobra SKYNAV 3000 includes a 20GB hard drive with North America maps and a 5.1 inch screen. It accepts beamed addresses from handheld comptuers or PDAs.

Magellan will demonstrate its RoadMate 700, a portable vehicle navigation system with built-in mapping for the U.S. The company will also show off its SporTrak Color, a handheld GPS and mapping device.

Weather risk management company WeatherData will demonstrate its Storm Hawk handheld weather forecasting and navigation system. The device overlays weather information on a GPS-guided map.

Automobile Protection and Monitoring Systems

Genius PVM will launch its EziTraK Vehicle Protection System. The system can remotely lock and immobilize a vehicle via GSM (a cellular phone communication network) and track a vehicle with GPS. Its black box recorder tracks speed, position, time and date for up to 255 hours.

Davis Instruments will demonstrate its CarChip E/X, a black box chip that plugs into the onboard diagnostic (OBD) system II connector found in most cars. The device records up to 300 hours driver performance data, including acceleration, deceleration, speed, start and stop time, distance traveled and idle time. It also monitors engine diagnostic trouble codes.

Car Entertainment Systems

Sirius Satellite Radio will announce new products and technologies in video, data and wireless transmission. The company, which recently surpassed 200,000 subscribers, will also have announcements for new partners and programming.

Emerson Mobile will display its 17-inch widescreen, ceiling-mount monitor. The Emerson MT-2700 is an Active Matrix TFT-LCD monitor that has dual RCA audio/video inputs and a built-in IR transmitter for wireless headphones.