Dad,

I have been watching some of the reporting from abc.com about the Computer Electronics Show. I like to see what is out there, though I still have the 20 inch television with the A/V cables that hang out of the front auxilary jacks. What I notice about almost all of the new products is not so much what they offer, but what they don’t offer: wires.

I remember one Christmas when you bought me a radio controlled car. I was super excited, as I had desperately wanted one for months. I had come to learn the difference between “remote” controlled and “radio” controlled. A vehicle could be “remote” controlled and still have a cord, and I was not at all interested in that. I wanted freedom. I wanted to roam, to experience life with no tether. I wanted “radio” controlled. After we took that thing back to Radio Shack about six times I was a lot less interested in dealing with it, but my fascination never waned.

This Christmas my wife gave me one of those little radio controlled helicopters. I love it, but it is exactly the reason that I stear clear of shopping malls. I can’t resist a good wireless toy.

And that is what the CES is all abou this year. Wireless toys. Most of the highlighted stuff is home entertainment based, but home entertainment takes the cake every year. It’s why no one goes to the movies anymore. The real shift is coming from the little antennae on everything. Or the lack of antennae; the coolest thing I saw was the SD card, Eye-Fi, that sends data wirelessly from your camera or SD compatible device and has up to 2 gigs of memory.

Its a hundred bucks, but could be the cheapest thing at the show and well worth the pleasure of sending your pictures to the computer while it still hangs on the coat rack.

Overall, the CES doesn’t usually give me much to hope for in terms of my own quality of life. But leaving the wires out is something I have always looked forward to.

Bryan.