Today I went to the Digital Lifestyle expo at the Javits Convention Center.  It was an interesting experience.  The show emphasized three broad themes: home entertainment, cell phones and gaming.  I got to check out HD DVD (makes movie watching much better) and saw a variety of companies (Alienware, HipServ [yay! Gatineau-based]) offering solutions to store all your digital media (pictures, movies, TV) and stream it throughout your house.  Here are some highlights:

Intel had an exhibit where you could sit in a mock F1 car and race around a track; the graphics were flawless (no doubt due to the sheer power of Intel's chips...).  By the way, when you see all these gaming computers, the trends are the exact opposite of elsewhere.  Instead of trying to create ever-smaller computers, these guys are building giant towers that are a few feet tall: Alienware dual cores, HP Blackbird, Dell XPSes.

HP was showing what happens to old computers.  They'll now take your old computer and recycle it for you.  What happens to the old parts? They become new computer parts, shoe soles, fence posts and roofing products amongst other things.  For more info, click here.

Guess who had the biggest installation.  Microsoft? HP? Dell? Nope, the U.S. Army with their Virtual Army Experience.  You can go in and play mock Army training games.  As they describe it, you can "test drive" the Army (without the pain of basic training or brain damage from an IED):

Here's an interesting product.  Reactrix has an interactive advertising solution.  It's a projector that shoots a scene onto a floor.  As people step on the floor, the image can change.  These kids were chasing dirty clothes around (it was an ad for a washing machine).  I have to say I enjoyed it.