Tag Archives | Last Gadget Standing

Last Gadget Standing: The Results Are In!

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 9, 2011 at 8:19 am

The suspense is over! Yesterday morning, a standing-room-only throng of CES attendees attended the tenth annual Last Gadget Standing event (co-sponsored by Technologizer and LGS creator Robin Raskin’s Living in Digital Times), and witnessed demos–from the straightforward to the wild and crazy–from the ten finalists. Then they voted for their favorite gizmos by clapping, cheering, whistling, hooting, and hollering.

The Last Gadget Standing–as determined by applause-o-meter at the event is Acer’s Iconia, a notebook with two 14-inch screens and a touchscreen interface. And the People’s Choice winner–determined by an online poll–is Barnes & Noble’s Nookcolor “reader’s tablet.”

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Last Gadget Standing: It's Time to Vote

Posted by Harry McCracken on January 5, 2011 at 8:46 pm

A two-screened laptop. A color e-reader. A camera that does 3D. A scanner to go. A state-of-the-art Android phone. A next-generation integrated chip. A camcorder you wear. A watch with GPS. Blocks with brains of their own. And earphones that customize themselves for your particular ears.

Ten innovative products with nothing in common except one thing: They’re our Last Gadget Standing finalists. And now it’s time to figure out which one will be, indeed, the Last Gadget Standing.

If you’re in Las Vegas for CES, please come to our live event at 10:30am on Saturday, where you can see live demos of all ten products and vote for your favorite. That event will determine the Last Gadget Standing. But if you’re not in Vegas…vote anyway! This online poll that will determine the winner of our People’s Choice award.

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Will Last Gadget Standing Jump the Shark?

Posted by Robin Raskin on December 30, 2010 at 8:15 am

Let’s see, we’ve had Elvis impersonators, roving robots, Dr. Evil, mad scientists….could Last Gadget Standing get even kookier? I’m afraid so.

Next week’s tenth-anniversary edition could be it. In addition to me, Harry McCracken, and your judging team, the event will be hosted by Jon Hein and special guest Gary “Baba Booey” Dell’Abate from The Wrap up Show on the Howard Stern channel on SiriusXM Radio. Hein’s tech claim to fame came is the creation of Jump the Shark, devoted to the moments where there’s only one way to go: downhill. (Just ask Fonzie).

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Last Gadget Standing: The Ten Finalists

Posted by Harry McCracken on December 28, 2010 at 4:44 pm

Dozens of companies that will be demonstrating their products at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show nominated themselves for the Last Gadget Standing competition. We judges whittled the contenders down to 25 semi-finalists. And now we’ve cut down that list to ten finalists who will get to show their stuff at our event at CES in Las Vegas next week. One of them will be…the last gadget standing.

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Help Us Whittle Down Our Last Gadget Standing Contestants

Posted by Robin Raskin on December 19, 2010 at 4:15 pm

Top 25 Believe me, picking products that epitomize emerging technologies at CES ain’t easy. Come to think of it, even getting a cab isn’t easy at CES. But we Last Gadget Standing judges have spent the last few weeks sorting through a fabulous selection of products. I figure our judges have each easily seen at least a couple of hundred new products this year year alone. And when they get a little jaded or overstimulated we turn to you for crowdsourced intelligence.

We’ve choose eighteen products we think you should keep your eye on. (We also have more products–including ones from Fujitsu, Intel, Nvidia, and other companies–that we can’t even talk about until January 5th, when the press day at CES begins.)

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Wait, Wait! I Want to Be the Last Gadget Standing!

Posted by Robin Raskin on November 29, 2010 at 12:34 pm

Attention, hardware makers! We’ve extended the deadline to nominate products for Last Gadget Standing, our yearly competition to find the single coolest gizmo on display at the Consumer Electronics Show. Maybe it’s the tryptophan; maybe we’re feeling your holiday pressure. Either way, we’ve decided to give you a few more days to get your gadgets in ship shape and show the crowds your stuff.

On January 8th, at our Last Gadget Standing event at CES, we’ll have a surprise host who’s going to have you splitting your sides with laughter (and he doesn’t even need an app for that).

So if you’ve been sitting on the fence, this would be the chance to write a few words about your product and why it deserves to be Last Gadget Standing. It’s sort of our very own Black Friday! Register by December 7th (the Day of Infamy by the way). May the best gadget win.

To apply, go here.

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Shhhh! CES 2011 Promises A Slew of New Announcements

Posted by Robin Raskin on November 11, 2010 at 6:11 pm

Normally the electronics industry is about as mum about what they’ve been up to as Lindsay Lohan on a Saturday night, but this year seems very top secret. We’ve already received 6 requests for non-disclosed products to be part of CES’s Last Gadget Standing. That means that we won’t be able to tell you anything about them until the bitter end… the day that CES opens. What to do? What to do? All I can say is … stay tuned from some very different kinds of gadget beasts at the show this year. Maybe they’ve all taken a class in Apple Mystique 101?

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A Tip of the Hat to Tech Ingenuity

Posted by Robin Raskin on November 10, 2010 at 8:53 am

Make your own custom fit earphones.

Each year, for the past 10, I brace myself for The Last Gadget Standing, an event at International CES that admires the spirit of creativity and the fact that CES attendees not only appreciate cool technology, but that they can pick the winners from the losers.

As the competition starts to heat up I’ll point to a few of my faves and faves yet to come.

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The Best Gadgets of 2010: Your Nominations Needed

Posted by Harry McCracken on November 5, 2010 at 12:04 pm

In a couple of months at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Technologizer will cohost the 2011 edition of Last Gadget Standing, the awards ceremony that’s been a CES highlight for ten years. The goal is to find and celebrate the single coolest gadget at the show–we define “gadget” as any device that’s small enough to carry without too much trouble–and we need your help to identify contenders.

As usual, the CES show floors will be dense with stuff, including thousands of products introduced since the last CES. So start chiming in with nominations, please: What are the coolest, most interesting most innovative gadgets of 2011? Feel free to name either the ones you think have changed the industry the most, or the ones that have simply made your life better.

As we LGS judges draw up our list of contenders, we’ll draw on your recommendations. Thanks in advance, and let the debate begin!

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Ten Years of Predicting the Products That Are Built to Change the World

Posted by Robin Raskin on October 21, 2010 at 9:41 am

For ten years we’ve been firm in the belief that the consumer always knows best. Trends come and go, but good products stand the test of time. And since consumers vote with their pocketbooks, they know what it takes to make a product succeed.

In 2011, for the tenth time we’ll gather at International CES in Las Vegas to present ten finalists who have the right stuff.

How do we get from here to there? It’s all happening at LastGadgetStanding.com. We’re inviting the best of the best tech experts to join us for this gala year. Harry McCracken of Technologizer will be cohosting the events. His insights and good taste will set a new bar.

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