Columnist Susan Snyder: We feel lost amid CES gadgetry

Friday, Jan. 9, 2004 | 5:22 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

WEEKEND EDITION January 10 - 11, 2004

The doors of the Las Vegas Convention Center opened and I beheld the wonders of the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show.

So this is what Hell looks like.

I'd better start being good.

There are early adopters. There are late adopters. And there is me. If the food processor had more than three buttons it would still be in the box. You could age a pound of cheddar in the amount of time it took me to unpack my laptop computer.

The gadget freaks in my life were aghast when they learned I had a pass to the world's largest consumer technology trade show. With thousands of the latest and greatest doodads on display, CES attracts about 110,000 industry professionals from across the globe.

That's a whole mess of nerds and, for people like me, 1.3 million square feet of wasted floor space.

But according to the Consumer Electronics Association, I'm one of the electronics "consumers to watch." For the second year, the association sponsored the Technology is a Girl's Best Friend contest among CES exhibitors.

Judges rated the entrants' electronics on the benefits for female users. Two winning products were chosen for each of eight categories, and the items were displayed at the show.

I would tell you what some of them were, but I don't know. Consider the first couple of lines on the sign posted next to a palm-size silver thing with a teeny keypad:

"Hiptop Color Device: Wireless device for data and voice communications. It is designed for fast, multi-modal communications and for fun on the go."

OK. But can it simultaneously dust and clean up cat puke?

There's a reason I'm ignorant. Women often are left out of the loop when it comes to information about the newest electronics, said Anne-Taylor Griffith, spokeswoman for the Tech Girl promotion.

"Women spent $55 billion on electronics in 2003," she said. "These aren't just boys' toys."

According to her association's most recent study, 62 percent of the women polled are interested in DVD players and digital cameras. High-definition TV and digital camcorders are a close second.

The survey also says 67 percent of women are satisfied with their consumer electronics shopping experiences.

Some might say that last figure is skewed. After all, shopping isn't a problem. We'll shop. But taking the darned thing out of the package is iffy.

Griffith said men tend to be attracted by what's fastest, has the most data storage or the highest resolution.

Women don't care how fast it is. We just want it to be wireless, portable and good for something. Makes choosing a PDA sound a lot like choosing a spouse.

But who wants to do that again?

"Women want something that is technologically relevant and will be easy to use," Griffith said. "They do a lot of research ahead of time. When a woman walks into the store, she's pretty much made up her mind of what she wants."

And we want it ready to go. People in charge of programming and potty-training the next generation don't want a $600 gadget that needs attention.

Just do the thing, whatever it is. And turn yourself off when you're done.