As a member of the press, I get a sneak preview of some new innovative products that are set to be released early this year. I thought I'd cover a few of the more intriguing products for a typical consumer based on what I've seen so far.

New Robots!

First off, we have WowWee, a leading robotic toy manufacturer. Most famous for their Robosapien line of humanoid robots, WowWee announced 5 new products in addition to their latest Robosapein product, the RS Media.

These products include the Flytech Dragonfly, RoboQuad, RoboPanda, RoboBoa, and a realistic, talking and singing Elvis head. The Dragonfly is the world's first remote controlled indoor flying insect that flies with the same ergonomics as a real dragonfly. Set to hit the stores this Spring and retailing at under $50, the dragonfly is sure to be a hit.

Of course, you also have to check out the signing Elvis head and sing-along with your favorite Elvis tunes.

To learn more about other WowWee products, be sure to visit our RoboCommunity website, the Official community for WowWee.

Streaming High Definition Content
Do you have a bunch of PCs with all sorts of music, videos, photos on all of them? Wouldn't it be nice if you could easily access them all in one place. Well, there are several products that allow you to do this, but Netgear just announced the first HDMI Digital Media streaming device that can stream High Definition content, music, digital pictures and more to any TV in your house. Netgear's Digital Entertainer HD discovers content on your home network, organizes and makes it accessible on your TV through a proprietary interface.

If your network has access to a TV tuner card in a PC, it can also be used to view, record, and pause TV shows, much like a regular DVR. Available sometime in first quarter 2007, the Netgear Digital Entertainer
HD (EVA8000) will retail at $349. I envision that this will be a hot product this year.

Flying Helicopters
Similar to WowWee, Interactive Toy Concepts is showing off their line of indoor remote-controlled helicopters that fly and hover in the air. Their first helicopter product was announced at last year's CES and is available now at Radioshack for $70. Even more intriguing this year is a new, larger version of the helicopter which has an attached video camera which sends video back to the handset controller that you can view, capture and download to your PC for later playback. For indoor use only, this product will be available later this year at a retail price of $199.

 

A Huge TV for kids

This is a little bit silly, but I thought I'd include it anyway. Hannspree has announced the world's first 42" LCD TV that's shaped like a firetruck. It stands about 5 feet tall from what I could tell and obviously the intended audience is for kids.

I can't imagine that at over $10,000 how many of these that they will sell. I was a little annoyed by the Hannspree logo right under the TV viewing area on the front which was really distracting to me in big white letters. Anyway, it's definitely a unique idea and worth a mention.

There is so much happening and this is just a taste. More to come as the show continues.