Picturing CES, continued
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Linux wasn't everywhere at CES, but it was close, making it impossible to see Everything with Linux in it. But we tried. read more
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With over-the-air television broadcasts switching from analog to digital in just over a year, converter boxes are expected to be among the hot devices on display at next week's CES.
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Gadgets have always taken center stage at the Consumer Electronics Show, but this year more than ever, even the coolest devices seem to be mere means to an end -- access to content and services whenever and wherever you want them.For years the underlying trend at CES, held in Las Vegas from Monday through Thursday, has been convergence, the increasing connection among communications, consumer electronics and computer industries. This year the stakes have been raised, with new mobile services, devices that connect to wireless broadband networks, and deals between content and entertainment companies and computer vendors.With the addition of Web 2.0 services and content into the traditional convergence mix, expect the term Convergence 2.0, which pops up occasionally, to be used more frequently in the future.The diverse array of gadgets and standards at the show can be a barrier to convergence, however. Industry executives acknowledge that despite -- or because of -- the various connectivity technologies on the market, making products work together is still a complicated and daunting task for consumers.As usual,&#160;Bill Gates set the tone with the initial CES keynote&#160;Sunday, although this year was the Microsoft co-founder&#39;s final appearance at the show. Gates and Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division President Robbie Bach unveiled new partnerships for Microsoft&#39;s MSN, Xbox Live, and Mediaroom IPTV services.They also announced that NBC will use Silverlight technology for video playback and on-demand access to events. In addition, Microsoft is working with TNT, Showtime, and CNN to provide IPTV-based services, and announced deals with MGM and ABC to bring content to Xbox Live.&quot;XBox Live is attracting virtually all the content people because of the volume we&#39;ve got there and they see this group of very engaged users spending a lot of hours and finding new media in that environment,&quot; said&#160;Gates, in an exclusive interview&#160;with the IDG News Service. &quot;Our announcement with NBC on the Olympics is about our innovations in this Silverlight, where you can view interactive content, multiple video streams.&quot;Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang underscored&#160;the importance of mobile services in his Monday keynote, introducing a new look for the company&#39;s Go mobile Web interface, and new technology to let third-party developers build mobile widgets for the mobile platform.One sign that the concept of convergence has been juiced up: the head of the largest chip maker in the world spent most of his keynote time talking about future &quot;personalized&quot; Web experiences. &quot;Increasingly, computing and communications are coming together, bringing a new level of capability and intelligence to the Internet experience,&quot; said Intel CEO Paul Otellini in a Tuesday keynote. &quot;The personal Internet of tomorrow will serve you, delivering the information you want, when you want it, how you want, wherever you are.&quot;Otellini demonstrated the Canmore system-on-a-chip platform, due out in the second half of the year, which enables high-resolution imaging and broadcast TV for consumer electronics devices. The chip includes the Intel Architecture processor, and an audio-visual unit that supports 1080p high-resolution imaging and surround sound.Qualcomm, meanwhile showed off a prototype of what it called a Windows-mobile based &quot;pocketable&quot; computer running on its recently released 7201 chip. The screen, at 800 pixels wide, is designed to view Web sites designed for regular PCs, rather than versions altered for ultramobile PCs. Connectivity features include HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), GPS (Global Positioning Service), Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.Small computing devices are often ultramobile PCs (UMPCs), a term marketed by Microsoft, but vendors use a variety of terms.Intel was showing off prototypes of UMPCs based on its upcoming Menlow chips. A Lenovo device was running Red Flag Linux OS, and sported a 4.8-inch touch screen as well as a camera. Other devices at the booth included small handheld PCs with touchscreens, from Toshiba and Clarion.For all the UMPC prototypes being showed here, though, industry insiders were quick to acknowledge that the market has not taken off as quickly as had been expected. One reason UMPC sales have not increased dramatically, at least in the U.S., is that wireless bandwidth for mobile devices up to now has been slow, they say.&quot;A true ultramobile experience is being able to put a device in a handbag, go have a picnic in the park, pull out your mobile device and easily surf the Web, said Alp Sezen, a sales director for Via Technologies based in Fremont, California. &quot;Right now, you can&#39;t get that experience.&quot;&quot;It will take a year or two for the mobile wireless experience to get better,&quot; he said. &quot;Wi-Max, and the opening up of Verizon&#39;s EV-DO network in the third quarter this year will help give a better experience for ultramobile users.&quot;Sprint Nextel and its hardware partners, meanwhile, said they are on track with WiMax plans for the second quarter. Nokia and Samsung officials said they will have devices that will operate with WiMax in the second quarter, and Motorola said it is working on a device that will operate over Sprint&#39;s EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) cellular network, Wi-Fi and WiMax.For short-range wireless connectivity, devices incorporating the new 11n Wi-Fi standard were also on display. Netgear, for example, unveiled a two-radio 5GHz 802.11n for less than $130. The company also released an 11n router with five Gigabit Ethernet ports.One development that might end up making things easier for consumers puzzled by all vast array of gadgets and standards -- not all of which are interoperable -- was the decision by Warner Bros. to go with Blu-ray Disc, rather than HD DVD, for high-definition movies. The announcement, on the eve of the show, sparked thoughts that the high-definition format war may be over.Of course, Akio Ozaka, head of Toshiba America Consumer Products,&#160;put up a brave front&#160;at a news conference. But Philips Consumer Electronics also threw its full support behind Blu-ray, adding a Blu-ray DVD player, the BDP7200 DVD to its product lineup.(Additional reporting by Martyn Williams, Dan Nystedt, Elizabeth Montalbano, Agam Shah, and Nancy Gohring in Las Vegas.)&#160;
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"We're building an entertainment experience, not just a computing experience," executive says at CES.
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Digital images that are billions of pixels in size are now becoming commonplace.
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Japan's answer to CES features a Blu-ray camcorder from Hitachi, Toshiba's plans for big-screen SED TVs, and more.
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In addition to a slew of new hard drives, LaCie has launched a new high-def 24-inch LCD monitor at CES.
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What it's doing with the PS3 processor CES Toshiba used the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to explain why it plans to incorporate the PlayStation 3's Cell processor into future LCD TV products.â¦
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Overwhelmed by the tsunami of  news coming out of CES? Don't worry: We put together this short summary of the highlights from Day 1 of the gadget-lovers' tradeshow.
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The Consumer Electronics Show is on in full force in Las Vegas. Here are just some of Wednesday's highlights from the giant gadget show.
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At CES 2008, home entertainment will be dominated by a move towards various forms of wireless connectivity -- and, of course, enormous TVs. This year, LCD technology appears to have definitively won out over plasma and rear-projection, even for very large displays.
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Kaleidescape had its wares on display at CES and we took a gander at the hardware and its user interface.
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The theme of this year's CES could very well be "Leaving the Format War Behind," as already Sunday morning, the emphasis from manufacturers has been centered around device connectivity and streaming service.
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The content distributor announced its plans to make Internet video available for mobile platforms at CES, marking yet another option for consumers in an already crowded field.
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We don't generally cover boom-box car stereo or video, but it's impossible not to marvel at the custom vehicles here at CES. Here are some of the standouts.
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The annual electronics extravaganza gets under way in Las Vegas. We'll have the latest reports, photos, and videos for you all right here on CNET.
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Mirroring the device's global popularity, LG's Viewty camera phone seems to be a hot item in the Korean manufacturer's booth at CES today.