While most attendees pick up badges and badge holders for the show, bloggers were introduced to a somewhat...different experience.  To get their badge holders (i.e. the things you put your badge into) you had to go onto a great journey.  Here you can see bloggers making th etrek away from the show into the dark reaches of South Hall to get the official badge HOLDER for the badges they already have. That said, bloggers do get to enjoy all the goodies of being the press.  ...

I like toys. I admit it. When I was 15, I would go to the store to buy a Transformer and claim I was buying it for "my little brother" for a gift. Here at CES, there are lots of toys such as these cool World War II era toy tanks. I've only had time to barely scratch the surface of what's at CES.  Stay tuned.

Intel had one of the most impressive displays at CES and one of the more impressive showcases was the myriad of real-world uses of the Intel Mobile Core Duo processor. In one example, a eco-PC using it along with the 950gm Express chipset achieved an impressive PC experience while using less than 60 watts of power (i.e. less than a common light bulb). In addition to being able to be used for eco-friendly PCs, they can be used in extremely small form factor PCs. The PC that the Intel...

  The Samsung booth has some really amazing video cameras coming out.  The one that really caught my eye -- the SC-HMX20C.  First, it's quite small. Far smaller than my current camcorder (it weighs less than 1 pound).  Secondly, it uses flash memory for storing video and will accept external flash memory modules.  And third, it records at 1080p.  One advantage it has that other high-definition cameras do not have is that it records natively at 1920x1080 as op...

By now you have probably heard that this year is the last year Bill Gates will be giving a keynote. He's going to devote his full time efforts to his foundation. You can see his awesome keynote (parts are hilarious) over at Neowin.net here . The nice thing about trade shows is that they force companies to pick the things that really matter to show off.  Booth space is always at a premium and so only certain things can make the cut. Based on what I saw at the Microsoft booth the key i...

One of the big trends at this year's show is that people want to customize their gadgets and computers to a level unheard of just a few years ago. One of the things Stardock has been showing off to partners is MyColors 2.0 .  With licensed content from the NBA, NHL, NCAA, GM, with more on the way, the library of MyColors themes is growing quickly. Stardock plans to begin making MyColors generally available later this month. MyColors Theme Manager MyColors 2.0 is set to be pr...

To prove I'm not narrow minded about Microsoft Sync, I would be willing to take this Sync-equipped car off their hands because that's just the kind of guy I am this week.

Okay, that's pretty cool.

Almost everything I saw from Microsoft at the show was pretty impressive. But Sync was underwhelming. Sync is Microsoft's technology for integrating technology into cars. It's a great idea. But the execution is the problem.  The Sync issues are similar to the issues I have with Windows Mobile. Over-engineering, design by committee and inelegant. Their demo of voice recognition really highlights the klunkiness of the system. (paraphrased) Person: Phone Car: Phone ready ...

For those people who have been wanting to jump into high definition video viewing on their fancy new HD televisions but didn't want to have to pick between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray can pick up LG's new "Super Blu" (BH200). It's a bit pricey at $999 but for those who want to jump in now but don't want to be the owner of Betamax v2, it's the first dual player of its kind. LG also had a ton of really other cool things to show that I wish I could give them all adequate attention.  A wireles...

Garmin had several new GPS devices to show off.  For those who have been thinking of picking up geo caching or getting a GPS for their car but wanted to wait a little longer, you need wait no longer. nuvi 880 The 880 adds speech recognition for navigation on the road. It makes use of MSN Direct services for getting the latest data from the net. Thanks to its use of MSN Direct, it gains features such as traffic conditions, fuel prices, weather reports, movie listings, local events...

It took over 2 hours to get to CES today. The size of the show this year seems to, but doesn't necessarily, dwarf previous years.  So I just got to the show and have just finished visiting the Microsoft and LG booths. There's some really cool stuff being shown. I'll write more about it when I get to the press room er I mean, blogger room. Incidentally, bloggers are definitely not treated at the same level as press (our badges are white, press is read).  Which is ironic since many if...

At CES there are companies from all around the world. And the respect people have for intellectual property seems to depend on the culture.  There's nothing quite like walking the show floor only to see your stuff on some computer's screen without permission. The above photo doesn't really show it well but Chinese Computer Manufacturer "Lime Computer" was showing their full screen weather application on their PCs. It's cool but it's using Stardock's copyrighted weather images. ...

One trend that is dear to my heart is the furthering of customization of PCs.  At CES, we're seeing a lot of customized cases. Various cases seen at CES Alienware has a very impressive set of cases including the one pictured above. While I personally would probably not personalize my case (my case is under my desk) it is pretty cool to see how far the quality has come and like the idea of PC users being able to customize their PCs far more than previously.

What is the ideal ultra-portable? What is the minimum functionality for a device that you could truly use on the road? Here are my specs: Must be able to run Windows Vista or whatever is the current desktop Microsoft OS. NOT Windows Mobile. The keyboard has to be big enough to be able to touch type comfortably. It should have a trackpoint (little eraser thing that Thinkpads have) so that i don't require an extra mouse or lose space to a touch pad. Lots of ports and support for 3...