CES
by Greg Kumparak on January 29, 2009

CES 2009 is long since over, but details of the Palm Pre are still trickling out. Take this latest video from MobileDivide, for example – it’s largely a recap of stuff we’ve known for a while, but it packs in two little morsels that had previously gone unnoticed:

by Doug Aamoth on January 13, 2009

We’re all officially home; safe and sound, tired and broken. Another year of not eating all day following by drinking all night, backpacks never leaving our shoulders, our fingers still involuntarily typing even though our notebooks have been shut down for hours.

All in all, it was a good CES this year.

by Matt Burns on January 9, 2009

The hottest ticket in Las Vegas last night was the inaugural 3D broadcast by RealD which featured the BCS Championship game and we were there. After chilling with some big wigs and interviewing Mark Cuban, we settled down in the comfy Paris Las Vegas theater for what we were told was the next big thing. We quickly found out that was a lie; a dirty, nasty lie.

by Greg Kumparak on January 9, 2009

Here it is, folks – our video of the Palm Pre in its factory-made flesh, mere inches away from our lens. We intended for this to go live at the same time as our primary hands on, but the winds just wouldn’t blow in our favor. We shot the video, brought it back for editing.. and then things broke, USB drives were lost, and the video was 1 minute too long for YouTube (which we found out after roughly half an hour of uploading). But we shot 11 minutes of Pre footage, and darn it, we’re going to put it up. Enjoy.

by Greg Kumparak on January 8, 2009

Have you been drooling over the Slacker for BlackBerry app that made its demo-debut all the way back in September of ‘08? At long last, it’s available to satisfy your streamin’-radio needs, packed with preprogrammed genre stations, custom stations, album art and reviews, song skipping, and the fancypants caching that makes it oh-so-special. The base version of the application is free, but subscription add-on services are available if you want the bells and whistles.

by Matt Burns on January 7, 2009

Eco is the new buzzword and there is no escaping at CES this year. There isn’t a CE manufacturer out there that wants to be caught dumping toxic materials into consumers livingrooms; Sony is no different. Updated HCFL backlights helps drop LCD power consumption by almost 40%, an ambient light sensor adjusts the backlight appropriately and a motion sensor turns off the set after a period of inactivity. Three LCDs, ranging in size between 40, 46, and 52, are going to be available this summer for a yet to be announced price.

Gallery after the link.

by Matt Burns on January 7, 2009


Sony has a little camcorder aimed at the Internet crowd. The Webbie captures HD MPEG-4 video and 5 MP photos. It has a 5x optical zoom and special software that makes uploads speedy. Content is recorded on Sony’s Memory Stick PRO Duo media. The MHS-CM1 Webbie will be available for order tomorrow for $200 and the vertically-styled MHS-PM1 will drop in April for $170.

by Matt Burns on January 7, 2009


CES brings big changes to Sony’s camcorder offerings. High-def camcorders are getting big HDDs and there are a bunch to choose from with ranging pricing. Non-HD camcorders are getting the same hard-drive treatment too and will start at attractive MSRPs. Don’t want a built-in HDD? Cool, Sony has new HD flash models too. Oh, and there are new DVD models too. Full details after the jump.

by Matt Burns on January 7, 2009

Sony’s 2009 CES booth is showing off some sick, like sickly sick, thin sets. Primarily are these OLED Proof of Technology models that are dead sexy even to me. Chances are none of these will ever see a Euro snob loft. They are just concepts and there is nothing wrong with that. That thin TV, it’s .9 millimeter thick – or is that thin? Hmmm.

Apparently Sony has more OLED news at the CES keynote tomorrow evening. Interesting…Photo gallery after the jump.

by Matt Burns on January 7, 2009

My, oh my. The Sony VAIO P is a popular netbook. After using some Peter Ha-taught ninja skills, I made my way through the crowd to this tiny netbook. Overall, the netbook feels Sony solid. The nub was a tad finicky but it works. The resolution though is astoundingly high on the small screen. I love small font but at the default setting it was too small for me. Thankfully the P Series does support external displays. It’s small, it carries the standard high Sony price, but it does seem nice. If you can get used to the mouse nub and small font, that is.

Photo gallery after the jump.

by Ivan Beres on January 7, 2009

These new HDTVs from Samsung will consume 40% less energy than TVs of same size. That’s good because watching TV will kill Earth slower, allowing us to look the “LEDs produce darker blacks that appear endlessly deep to the eye” for a bit longer.

Update: Live pics after the jump.

by Matt Burns on January 7, 2009

By raise of hands, who else thinks that all these anorexically thin HDTVs are dumb? LG’s latest set measures only 6.5mm thick and Sony’s isn’t that much more thick. (pictured)

Who the hell cares Though? Why is HDTV’s latest cockfight over TV thickness? This also applies to Blu-ray/DVD players too, btw.

by Matt Burns on January 7, 2009

Poor Toshiba. While every other major CE player is introducing 4th and 5th gen Blu-ray players, Toshiba is still ignoring the winning format. The company does, however, have some nice flat screens coming out in 2009 with widgets powered by Intel and Yahoo that’s going to work nicely with Windows Media Center. The rest of the mundane are simply too mundane to be worth your time. Oh, how about CELL TVs?

by Matt Burns on January 7, 2009

Monster Cable: hate ‘em or love ‘em, they are a driving force in the CE world. Their 2009 lineup, at least according to its wares spread out in front, doesn’t look to innovate. A few headphones we’ve already seen and reviewed, a couple of new power centers, and HP branded HDMI cables that are sure to carry a high MSRP. Hopefully the head monster, Noel Lee, will have something special for us. And later to rag on.

by Ivan Beres on January 7, 2009

Good news, YouTube freaks. Eye-Fi is going to demo the all new video-upload-to-youtube feature at CES. According to the Video End-User Research: 2008, you guys use your camera to shoot videos quite often. It’s the same as before, just with video and in HD.

by Greg Kumparak on January 7, 2009

Unless you’re down to hobble your own crazy homebrew set-up, tinkering with wireless audio systems is a damned expensive hobby. Everytime I read about these products, I imagine some rich old dude tango’ing himself around his mansion with a rose in his teeth and an air-partner in his arms.

Linksys’ just announced “Wireless Home Audio System” is an obvious attempt at a shot across Sonos‘ bow – we’ll have to wait until we get our hands on it to see if Sonos has any reason to be wary.

by Greg Kumparak on January 6, 2009

CES can be a lot of fun, but it’s a whole friggin’ lot of work, too. Meetings, press announcements, booth tours, darting back and forth from hall to hall, show floor to hotel, and a whole lot of trekking around the show floor in search of diamonds in the rough. Media attendees probably walk more in the four days of CES than most people walk in a month – all while wearing a backpack stuffed to the brim with every single tool we might need.

If you were to take a peek into one of these mystical blogging tool chests, what might you find? Find out after the jump.

by Dave Freeman on January 6, 2009

D-Link announced two new products today, something they are calling a “networked video recorder,” or NVR, system. This is intended mainly for small business surveillance, however I’m sure there would be some crossover to the home market.

by Nicholas Deleon on January 5, 2009

This is dedicated to my friends (and enemies!) who’ll be spending this week, know colloquially as Hell Week, in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, or CES. While I feel for y’all—I was scheduled to attend until three weeks ago, when an angel descended from Heaven and told me, sweetly, I didn’t have to go—I can’t help but feel that the show is largely a waste of everyone’s time. And, if Max Weber has taught us anything, it’s that “time is money.”

by Nicholas Deleon on January 5, 2009

Rough times for Sony. Even though it revealed a corporate gutting last month, a new report in the (UK) Times today says that even more could be on the way, ones that could see the abolishment of “several major divisions.” Sony has denied these allegations, as is its wont.

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