The word-of-mouth killer product of CES
VIC GUNDOTRA GADGET ALERT!!!
I asked dozens of people “what did you see at CES that you’d spend your own money on?” I also asked “what was the coolest thing you saw?”
Most people stammered on both answers, but yesterday I started hearing about the Celestron SkyScout so Buzz, Shel, and I went over to the Sands to check it out.
It wins my award for the single coolest thing I saw at the show. By far. I’m not alone, either. Shel and Buzz were both speechless when they saw it.
What is it?
Well, for that I asked the inventor, Mike Lemp about it. Here’s a picture of Mike with Shel holding a SkyScout.
Mike and his team has been working on this for five years. It is a revolutionary product. One that you’ll want the first time you play with it. I’m buying one.
So, what is it?
It’s a $400 box with a lens that you look through.
It comes out in April. Order it on Amazon. But do it soon. Amazon has sold dozens and the hype hasn’t yet started on this thing.
So, why am I spending my 400 bones on this thing?
Here’s why.
You look through this device at the night-time sky and it tells you what you’re looking at. Oh, it doesn’t need to be night, either.
Celestron is a famous maker of telescopes (I sold a truckload of their product in the Silicon Valley camera store I used to manage and they always made great products).
It has GPS, gravity, and magnetic field sensors to detect where it’s going.
But it just gets better from there. You can tell it “show me the cool stuff in the sky right now.” It’ll take you on a tour and show you how to point the device with a series of LED’s in the viewfinder.
But it gets cooler than that. It has an audio guide that tells you what you’re looking at and gives you some facts about it.
Oh, wait, there’s more! You hook it up to your computer via USB and it does even more! (Sorry, Windows only for now).
This is going to revolutionize astronomy. It is simply the coolest thing I’ve seen lately (and I’ve seen some pretty cool stuff walking around CES).
What do you think? I can’t wait to go out with Patrick on a dark night and play around.
Powered By 
January 7th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
kewl, now beam me up scotty !!
January 7th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
Wow. Wait till my kids get to play with this. I trained my 3 year old girl to be able to identify several pominent stars… imagine what she could do with this! Thanks for the tip Robert.
January 7th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
“Oh, wait, there’s more! You hook it up to your computer via USB and it does even more! (Sorry, Windows only for now).”
Why are you apologizing for ANY product only working under Windows? If a company, for whatever reason, implements on Windows first and then another later or even chooses to function for Windows only on purpose, why should anyone apologize for that? And why should we, as Microsoft employees, apologize on behalf of another company that does this?
While I too would like to see products that co-exist with each other across the board without compatibility issues, the fact of life is, with out some sort of draconian rule forcing that upon us, it will never happen.
The world can’t agree on the shape of power outlets from country to country much less the voltage. Phone numbers have different sequences. People speak different languages. I see nothing wrong with there being software/hardware that only works on a single platform. Besides, it is only going to work on that one platform until it’s usefulness has run it’s course or until time and technology obsoletes it.
No apologies.
Chris
ps……it sounds like a super cool product! :)
January 7th, 2006 at 10:49 pm
[...] I usually don’t get excited about gadgets, but the SkyScout is a telescope that tells you what you’re looking at which sounds pretty cool to me. [...]
January 7th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
[...] Via Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger, “The word-of-mouth killer product of CES“: “ [...]
January 7th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
You might like to see a clip that dl.tv did in their friday - CES show, Jim Louderback helps Patrick Norton demo this product, download the dl.tv CES - 2 from friday, and about 35minutes in, they take a look at it.
January 7th, 2006 at 11:23 pm
[...] Scoble says: This is going to revolutionize astronomy. It is simply the coolest thing I’ve seen lately (and I’ve seen some pretty cool stuff walking around CES). [...]
January 7th, 2006 at 11:58 pm
can u link exchange with me ?? !!!
January 8th, 2006 at 12:37 am
Yeah, the fever pitch was on late Nov. to mid-Dec when they hit the press, quite nice, looks like it lived up to the hype, great reports from the press, with a respected name and all. Get a Bigha Starseeker chair to go with it. :) http://www.bigha.com/seeker/index.php
Overall theme seemed Dual Core and HDTV. Amazingly of all tho, InPhase’s 300 gig holographic unit seemingly is not vaporware, still forever before it sees light of day. Still doubtful.
Also whenever it be avail, we will be placing an order (or many) for Pioneer’s BRD-101A Blu-ray burner. That’s the one sell already. And the Sony Reader, native PDF support and RSS. I want that. And Phillips Entertaible was a wow’er. And the Panasonic AG-HVX200 film tone camera, wowwiwwwe.
January 8th, 2006 at 12:50 am
Chris,
Microsoft has a LOT to apologize for, like illegal anti-competitive behavior that resulted in 5 years of stagnation in browser development to the detriment of consumers.
You gotta start someplace.
January 8th, 2006 at 1:08 am
Ice cubes in hell or something. I actually agree with Scoble for once — this product looks fantastic.
Hopefully they allow for 3rd party content! Like the free museum tours for iPod, I’d like to see independents create specialized tours of the stars.
January 8th, 2006 at 1:22 am
It uses magnetic sensors to get its direction and gyroscopes to get its inclination? If so, its really kewl.
When I started reading (here) I thought it mapped the nightsky image to a ‘possible’ nightsky from a database.
Anyone care to point me to sites with similar tech (I read something similar in robotics once, can’t find it now) or more on this???
January 8th, 2006 at 2:10 am
Things in the Sky
The SkyScout is a revolutionary, one of a kind, patented handheld device that instantly identifies and/or locates any celestial object visible to the naked eye, providing educational and entertaining information, both …
January 8th, 2006 at 3:00 am
SkyScout
How cool is this? The SkyScout is a $400 gadget that when pointed at the sky tells you what you are looking at. Just point it at the sky and using GPS and some gizmos to calculate orientation will identify
January 8th, 2006 at 3:14 am
The things that I’m most excited about coming out of CES are the soooper doooper new Motorola phones that will come with a built-in “Google icon”! Wow! And this is just the start of what is an important “global alliance”. In the long-term, the phones won’t only have the “icon”. Eventually they will have built-in Google “technology” - aka a special UI component called a “text field”.
OK, I’m not really excited about that. I admit it. Actually, the word-of-mouth killer product to come out of CES is clearly the Google Pack. At last, people will be able to install Adobe Reader on their PCs! For free! Imagine that!
January 8th, 2006 at 3:32 am
I can’t wait to go out with Patrick on a dark night and play around.
Best unintentional homo-erotic comment evar.
January 8th, 2006 at 3:33 am
Can you affford a super cooled newtonian reflector..
January 8th, 2006 at 6:26 am
I’m glad all real astronomy buffs will see through this thing as a silly expensive gimmick.
If it even has a real lens you can see the sky through, you’re not going to be able to see anything at night anyway. Even with a pair of decently high powered binoculars you need a tripod to spot anything due to total lack of stabilization in your arms. Chances are, if you’re using this device, you’re probably not even going to know how to set up a tripod and a pair of binoculars, much less a full telescope.
I thought Starry Night was a bit insane at $70+ to tell you what was in the night sky, but this thing takes the cake. I can already imagine Starry Night will have many, many benefits over this thing, e.g.: SN gives you exact positioning measurements for your telescope to point at a night sky object, or can interface with your (insanely expensive, but awesome) computerized telescope base…
Sorry, I have to rant on. It saddens me to see people so taken back by a product that wont result in you actually looking at the real stars with some real lenses. Instead, you’ll stand outside in your light polluted neighborhood where you can vaguely make out Orion’s belt on a moonless night (good luck seeing it with a full moon) and point it at the sky and say, “ooh, nifty, supposedly over there in the sky mars is making a transit of the seven sisters, whatever that means!” for an hour and then, when you go back inside bored out of your mind, you realize that dropping $400 on a toy was kind of stupid.
I knew it was a dud when it was only priced at $400. If this was an actual functioning set of binoculars or even a low powered telescope (obviously it wouldn’t be hand-held) that was actually useful for looking at night sky objects, its price would be in the upward range of a thousand dollars, if not thousands of dollars. “Cheap” quality products to not exist in astronomy. No device can do everything this device tries to misguide you into thinking it does (I like how on their website they don’t actually clarify, ever, whether or not you’re looking at the real sky, or can ever see anything in the real sky) for that cheap.
If you want a good astronomy experience, by a pair of high-powered binoculars, a tripod (and a tripod attatchment for the binocs), and a sky atlas and/or a book on stargazing. (I have “Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars” by Moore and it’s prety good.)
Surprisingly perhaps (to you), that set up above might cost you $100 at most, and that’s if you splurge. You’ll have a more satisfying experience star gazing because you’ll have to find the objects on your own (not difficult!) and spend some time outside looking at the actual objects, instead of some rendering of them. (If this doesn’t sound fun to you, then perhaps astronomy isn’t for you.)
Check this webpage for information : http://www.stargazing.net/david/binoculars/
If you want to get all “snazzy and technical” then buy Starry Night, you can print of sky maps for when you go outside (extremely useful) and it has all sorts of snazzy data on it, probably way more than the SkyScout does. It also as a “low light” mode if you bring Starry Night outside with you on your laptop so that it wont mess up your eye’s adjustment to the night. (Tints the screen red, pretty nifty, works well.)
But then again, if you want to drop $400 on a device like this, you’re more than welcome to. I’d rather pay $100 and be technical with my stargazing (and actually be able to see the real night sky objects while I’m at it), but that’s just me.
January 8th, 2006 at 6:39 am
[...] I posted this as a comment over on Scobleizer’s post about how “awesome” the Celestron SkyScout is. For those uninformed, this device alleges that you can hold it with one hand*, look through a large hole in the back of the unit**, and it will identify anything in the night sky that you point at*** and tell you all about it via nifty disembodied voices. Other claims? You can download new data about potential stargazing events, and there’s a “Tonight’s Must-See List” that directs which way you should point the device to see interesting night sky objects.**** [...]
January 8th, 2006 at 7:00 am
Robert, ask them to ship to Norway ASAP! Amazon.com will not let me order! Hey, I’ve got the money!
January 8th, 2006 at 7:01 am
[...] Scoble has posted about the SkyScout, a hit product for this year’s CES. I will definitely be looking at one of these soon. [...]
January 8th, 2006 at 7:53 am
觀星的終極秘密æ¦å™¨ï¼šSkyScout
這是剛剛從 Robert Scoble çš„æ–‡ç« å¾—çŸ¥çš„æ–°çŽ©æ„…
January 8th, 2006 at 8:51 am
[...] And speaking of space, Robert Scoble thinks the Celeston SkyScout (pictured above and to right) was “hands down the coolest thing” he saw at CES 2006. This device when pointed up at the sky will instantly identify the object or choose an object from its 6,000 object database to guide the user. [...]
January 8th, 2006 at 10:37 am
I have to admit, that is hellaciously cool. And the tech could be licensed for a whole lot of other things, I suspect, such as law enforcement (point it at a license plate, and in real-time it looks up driver info, speed, etc.)
January 8th, 2006 at 11:04 am
$400 is quite a bit overpriced for a device like this.
January 8th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Brad — as a fellow amateur astronomer, you’re right of course. But come on, we weirdos that actually get a kick out of dim fuzzy blobs are a *tiny* minority. An innovative device like this might encourage more people to get into the hobby or at least have a new appreciation for the wonders of the universe — and science in general. I’m all for it. I’m deeply sceptical it will impress anyone who’s already an astronomer, but there are millions of others who might get a great kick out of it. Way to go Celestron!
January 8th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
[...] In today’s update from CES, Robert Scoble makes reference to a new product from Celestron called the Sky Scout. In reading a response from Brad Root, I felt like I was hearing something familiar, and realized it was my own words about “dumbing people down” with technology. [...]
January 8th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Keith :
I don’t think it does image recognition. Well no one seems to be interested in the technology.
Are there geeks or managers here ? :)
January 8th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
anyone here know if this thing works in the Southern Hemisphere skys as well as the Northern?
Cheers
Nathan
January 8th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
met: I’m not speaking of image recognition. What i mean is that the positioning system, ID’ing of objects based on relative position to other entities, integration with GPS, LCD overlay, info on demand are all brought together in a way that I think could be expanded to several different areas of tech. It would definitely need image recognition for that particular application, but that is another technology to license; however, what the thing already has built in can be a launching point for several other applications.
January 8th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
NAB more my event, but the HD era really made this CES shine, it’s beyond just the usual gadgets and tinkertoys, real rich developments for the next consumer tech wave, HD mainly with Dual Core as a side dish.
Most impressive to me, I guess, would be the Panasonic AG-HVX200. Not just another HD camera, but one to which has the warm film tone. Plus it has P2 solid state, lot of people are down on it (Philip Hodgetts, et. al.), but I think it’s the future, even if P2 is a tad more expensive now. And Cine-like Gamma is talking my language. :)
January 8th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
Well also Sony’s XDCAM HD cams…
January 8th, 2006 at 4:48 pm
Sky Scout
The hype around this thing is spreading across the net, even Robert Scoble is talking about it.
But what’s it really do? OK sure it’s a very fancy piece of technology, and the idea itself has potential. But seriously if you want to spend $400 and …
January 8th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
[...] Celestron SkyScout is just the coolest thing that happened at CES. Simply put it is astronomy-simplified for everyone … kids and adults alike. I am backordering one from Amazon now. See Scoble’s note on the same here. [...]
January 8th, 2006 at 7:48 pm
[...] It would have been great to have the Skyscout on hand (via Scoble)! [...]
January 9th, 2006 at 8:23 am
[...] as Robert Scooble wrote it must be a genious, really innovative product. [...]
January 9th, 2006 at 9:15 am
[...] Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger » The word-of-mouth killer product of CES (tags: ces 2006 gadget astronomy) [...]
January 9th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
[...] Anyway, now that I’m back home and online, that brings me to this post where Robert mentions cool products from the CES show this past week out in Vegas. He was raving about the SkyScout, a handheld that tells you what it is you are pointing to up in the sky. [...]
January 9th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
[...] Nyt viikonloppuna Las Vegasissa loppuneen Consumer Electronics Shown yksi kohutuimpia innovaatioita oli maineikkaan kaukoputkivalmistaja Celestronin SkyScout, laite joka tunnistaa ja paikallistaa yli 6 000(!) taivaankappaletta. Tässä on vihdoin laite joka tekee taivaan tähystelystä helpompaa ja hauskempaa. Kun laitteen napsauttaa päälle, se ottaa huomioon henkilön sijainnin ja informoi mitä juuri sillä hetkellä kannattaa taivaalta bongata. Tähtiintuijottelijan tarvitsee vain kohdistaa tämä digivideokameran kokoinen laite johonkin taivaankappaleeseen ja laitteen kommenttiraita pärähtää käyntiin “Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in our solar system…” SkyScout pystyy myös paikallistamaan halutun kohteen käyttäjää ohjaavien nuolien avulla. [...]
January 9th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
Whoa…What an awesome product, technology at it’s best . Innovative is all that i can say!
January 11th, 2006 at 9:32 am
Check out stellarium, a similar application. It’s not as cool but you can have a similar experience for free using stellarium, an open source application that turns your PC into a planetarium. It works like GoogleMaps/ Google Local. You select your Geolocation and your time and it will then show you what stars, planets and constellations are overhead. You can take your PC outside at night and easily map the stars in the sky with those on your PC screen. I have found it to be incredibly accurate. The guys that created this deserve some attention and thanks. It is the best open source end user application I have found. Here’s the link to the site: http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/
January 11th, 2006 at 11:39 am
SkyScout is now available for pre-order
http://www.astronomics.com/Celestron-SkyScout
February 1st, 2006 at 1:02 pm
View Here!!!!!!
February 9th, 2006 at 9:39 am
Personally, I never use more than a single link in the comment I post because doing so can trigger spam catchers if the user has that plugin activated, whereas a single link will not.
July 17th, 2006 at 8:01 am
This product seems to be delayed. It has not shipped yet.