This Deluxe Virtual CrunchRide (the first of many) was lurking on my SD card until I found it earlier today.

Also, if you’ve ever wanted to see video skew in action, this is a good place.

We were actually really nice to people at CES, mostly because we were mostly drunk, but Ben Hoffman did the hard work of calling CE people out on their bull.

via BBG

The size of the mouse is good, but there are so many pieces and materials to the thing that it’s difficult to call it solid. It didn’t creak under the pressure of my hand or anything, but it didn’t reassure me either. The luminous thumb wheel also sports a big round button on it, which was easy to press. The wheel itself was not very intuitive, but if you’re used to having on on your MX Revolution or even your cell phone, it won’t come as quite as much of a surprise. The buttons in front of the thumb-wheel were difficult to hit, even though they stick out a quarter of an inch from the body of the mouse. The wheel really dominates that side of the thing and I don’t think I could get much use out of the little buttons. I can just imagine reaching my thumb forward to hit that front button and accidentally rolling the wheel, which as you can imagine may have a million different consequences.

To my hand, it felt like a prototype — an untested design that needs real change as well as minor refinements like button shape. Silverstone and NZXT are in the same boat, then: there’s nothing wrong with their stuff fundamentally, but they lack the constant criticism and advice of the gamers that helped design the G9, the Mamba, and the Ikari. One of these days they’ll catch up, but in the meantime I’d stick with the big guys.

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. The crap-hole economy meant the event wasn’t too crowded and there wasn’t as much meaningless fluff. There was fluff, to be sure, just not as much. Speaking of fluff, here are some of our more memorable posts for your perusal…

LIVE CES 2009 Palm keynote

CES Video: Interview with Dr. Dre

Hands-on with the Sony VAIO P

Those are MY hands on the Blu-Ray thing, Engadget, just for the record

Eyes-on the 3D BCS Championship game

CES Video: Hands on with the MSI X320 netbook, plus pricing and availability info

Video: Hands on with LG’s prototype watchphone

Video: Peter Ha praises the Palm Pre on G4’s Attack of the Show

Interview with Mark Cuban and Bud Mayo

CES 2009: BeerTubes.com beer tube video review

CrunchFail: Doug and Greg crash and burn at Rock Band challenge

Look out, Microsoft Surface – the iTable might just trump you in every way

LG and GotWind’s solar+wind “SkyCharger” at CES

Exclusive hands-on with Asus’ prototype Eee Keyboard

Palm Pre Hands On: The Movie

Like this video? View more here…

Seven new CD receivers, three new HD radio options, and most of their higher end receivers are getting at least bluetooth connectivity.

Of particular note is their flagship model, the KD-R900. This receiver unit has the obligatory bluetooth, but also two USB connections, and iPhone integration built in. You can actually control your iPhone from the receiver, and it also features hands free calling via a microphone built into the head unit. You can also use HD radio, satellite radio, and play MP3/WMA cd’s in it. This will be available for installation into your Honda in March with an MSRP of $269.95.

Here’s a quick glance at IOGEAR’s Wireless USB-to-VGA kit. It’s got an MSRP of $229 but the rep said it can be found in retail stores like Best Buy for closer to $199.

It consists of an ultra wideband (UWB) USB adapter that plugs into your computer and a VGA receiver that mounts behind your TV. Video quality looked great and the kit is capable of tossing around resolutions up to 720p.

There’s also an audio kit coming out at the end of February that’ll run for $129 on its own and will also be bundled with the above kit for $349. IOGEAR played a movie trailer for us and the bass sounded deep and rich while the highs thankfully didn’t succumb to the tinny sound you’d find in most wireless speaker solutions.

Wireless USB to VGA Kit [IOGEAR.com]

Here’s Mattel’s “Barbie Digital Nail Printer” due out in August for an undetermined price. You stick your fingernail into an inkjet printer, line it up using the included software (there’s a little camera inside the printer that shows your nail on-screen), pick your design, and hit print.

I couldn’t feel a thing and my nail looked better than it’s ever looked before – thanks Barbie Digital Nail Printer! Seriously, though, if you have younger daughters in your family, get ready to buy this for them. It’s gonna be a hard gadget to resist for any Barbie fan.

Greg and I got a chance to flail about on ION’s premium Rock Band drum set (see previous coverage here) in the final hours of CES. Greg played Bad Reputation as though he’d been secretly having an affair with Joan Jett for years and I paid homage to my home city of Boston by tearing through Where’d You Go? by the Bosstones.

Overall, Greg came away from the experience a bit more giddy than I did. He’d buy three sets, he said, while I might buy one if it cost about $100 less. I liked the kick pedal a lot and the cymbals were pretty cool, but I felt that the actual drums didn’t pop as much as I would have liked. Greg’s arms move too fast for him to feel anything while he’s playing, though.

All in all if you’ve been waiting on this kit, you’d probably like it but if you get a chance to test one out first, you might want to do it just to make sure you like how it feels.

Drum Rocker XBOX 360 [ionaudio.com]

Long day at work? Rock Band in a truck. Pre-wedding jitters? Rock Band in a truck. Hanging out in a big open field before a Phish concert? Rock Band in a truck + grilled cheese sandwiches.

Want to get people to your CES booth? Rock Band in a truck. That’s what audio gear company Maxxsonics had going on with this gigantic rig outfitted with multiple speakers, LCD monitors, and flashing lights that seemed to scream, “You there! Attention! We’re playing Rock Band!”

Although CES is generously provided with outlets for our charging needs, I decided that the power that comes out of them, like everything else in Vegas, is dirty. So Doug and I headed over to the SkyCharger, a big solar- and wind-powered charging facility housed in a tent outside the central hall. There are dozens of tiny lockers in which charging cables of different types are hidden. You take a key out like a normal storage locker, plug your phone in, lock it back up and go get lunch.

They’ve got a set of solar panels up there providing up to 880 watts, and a wind thing that does up to 1000. Not a lot of wind between the casinos here in Vegas, but there’s plenty of sun. Doug and I saw both our phones go up about 30% in less than half an hour, so it’s not just a trickle of power. It stores power in a big set of batteries as well, so your phone won’t die if a cloud passes overhead.

The setup was branded as LG, but they magnanimously provided chargers for most kinds of phones. Probably because they didn’t build it; it’s made by GotWind, a UK company whose founder we spoke to. He’s hoping to expand the service to, for example, city parks or other areas where a quick charge would be appreciated, as long as security can be assured. It also would be a nice addition to a third world village, where power is hard to come by.

Who would have thought that one of the coolest things we’ve seen at CES would be hidden in a 10×10 booth at the very back of the South Hall? Like a diamond in the rough, there sat the PQ Labs iTablet.

They’ve essentially taken the idea behind the Microsoft Surface and have done it better in every way. It’s cheaper, it’s gorgeous, and perhaps most notably, it’s not a hulking monster.

Two of the most notable features of the Surface are its multitouch capabilities and the availability of a development SDK, both of which PQ Labs has matched (or, in the case of the SDK, plan to match soon). The number of fingers detected by the multitouch sensor is limited only by the individual software designer’s desire – the hardware itself supports as many simultaneous prods as you can throw at it.

Contrary to its iCliche name, the iTable runs Windows XP rather than on OS X or some proprietary system. The last bit is good news for developers – if you’ve already got an app ready to go, you don’t need to rewrite it from scratch for compatibility. Just call in the proper APIs for mapping input, and you’re good to go. They’re pitching this pretty hard as a “big iPhone” (hence the name) – it’s probably not the best way to market it (as it’s not, you know, a cellphone), but it really does feel similar to the iPhone; the feel of the glass, the way multitouch behaves, it’s all very similar.

The iTable product comes in a variety of flavors, depending how complete of a system you’re looking for. The cheapest way to get in on the fun is the Multi-Touch G², a 32″ LCD overlay that goes for $2,399. Beyond that is where the “Table” part of the “iTable” name comes in – a few grand more (the $5000-$7000 was thrown around in conversation) nets you a table with the sensors incorporated into the display, and roughly $10,000 gets you the aforementioned table with a beast of a computer pre-configured ready to go. It may seem pricey, but with the 30″ surface going for $12,500, it’s relatively cheap.

The company is a recent startup, so they don’t quite have the resources to throw around that Microsoft does. As such, they operating without a warehouse, so these things are being built per order and they’re currently only selling units to businesses. You know, PQ Labs, CrunchGear is a business – hook it up!

CES was alive that day, my friends. The show-goers were itching for something new, something more, something raw. Enough gadgets, enough booths, enough walking. What we all needed was some good, old-fashioned rock and/or roll.

The cards were stacked against us from the start — that’s how we like it, though. Lead guitarist Peter Ha was kept from competition by “a yucky tummy,” leaving Greg on drums and Doug on vocals. SanDisk had made various outrageous feather boas, leather vests, wigs, and cowboy hats available to the eight competing bands, but team CrunchGear opted for a stripped down, two-person set. We didn’t need costumes. We’d say it all with our steely-blue eyes, our gyrating hips, and one or more of Greg’s flailing arms.

“Up next, you know ‘em, you love ‘em, CrunchGeeeeeearrrr,” said the announcer. “Whoa, there are only two of you! What are you guys gonna play?” I grabbed the mic and held it up to my mouth for a split-second, surveying the crowd. What could these two rag-tag, plainclothes bloggers be able to bring to such a fierce competition? Whatever it was, it’d have to be big…

The song started. A few in the crowd began to bob their heads in anticipation while wondering how one individual would be able to sustain lightning-quick lyrics that’d always been shared amongst three of the most influential hip-hop pioneers in the music world.

I took a big breath. Greg had his sticks at the ready, his gangly arms and legs about to unleash a hypnotic “stomp… pop… a… stomp, stomp, pop… stomp… pop… a… stomp, stomp, pop…” At the same time, the mannerisms I’d been portraying as those of a quiet, unassuming, Rock Band novice suddenly sprang to life.

“A just plug me in just like I was Eddie Harris! You’re eatin’ crazy cheese like you would think I’m from Paris! You know I get fly (what?!), you think I get high (what?!), you know that I’m gone and I’m a tell you all whyyyy!!!”

The mic may have very well been inside my mouth. By the third verse, I was beginning to feel faint. There’s a reason there are three Beastie Boys – that’s no happy accident. But fainting wasn’t an option. I looked over at Greg. It seemed like his arms and legs had doubled in length, whipping the drums as though his extremities were made entirely of Fruit by the Foot.

“I’m the illest gadget blogger from here to Gar-deee-knyaaah!” We were almost done. Half the crowd had bolted, no doubt scared by the spectacle of a giant Shrek-like Scandinavian and a quadruple-jointed drummer tearing the stage apart with beat-stomping and word-tumbling.

We’d made it to the second round. It was clear that the crowd wasn’t quite sold on our legitimacy as semi-professional musicians. We needed something with some vocals, something to show off our range. They’d expect another hip hop explosion, but we had other plans.

Back on the stage again, I’d turned my back to the crowd. “Is he not ready?” they all wondered. “What’s he doing?” The song started. This time Greg took the lead with a heart pounding four-four beat laid over a pulsating bass line emanating from a series of zeros and ones trapped inside a gaming console.

My back still to the crowd, I’d begun thrusting my fist in the air alongside Greg’s kick and snare.

Pow… pow… pow… pow… pow… pow… pow… pow…

I whipped around and grabbed the mic.

“Hey little sister, what have you done?”

Pow… pow… pow… pow…

“Hey little sister, who’s the only one?”

Pow… pow… pow… pow…

“Hey little sister, who’s your superman? Hey little sister, who’s the one you want? Hey little sister, SHOTGUN!”

I’d thrown my fist back into the air, making eye contact with a middle-aged Asian woman in the third row. Her previously-sensible red sweater was now causing her to sweat profusely… or was it me? “It’s a… nice day for a… whoouuuiiite weddaaaaahng!” I outstretched my hand towards her, watching her explode into a pool of exhausted rock fanaticism as I curled my lip and raised my right eyebrow. “It’s a… nice day to… staaaaaaaaaart aaagaaaaaaaiiiiiin!”

When the smoke had cleared, Peter, Devin, and Matt where too awestruck to cheer. Peter’s mouth gaped open as if he’d actually thrown up, which he’d been threatening to do all day. Devin had tears in his eyes. Matt had taken off his hat and was holding it solemnly over his heart.

The announcer was back on stage, goading the crowd into cheering for their favorite band. It was us against a five-person mish-mash of PC Magazine and various other publications. Our tiny-but-growing fan base was no match for their army of strong-voiced, loudly-clapping supporters.

Alas, CrunchGear had been knocked out of the competition. Our would-be third and final song was the ultimate secret weapon, and it’s probably best for all involved that we didn’t perform it. Perhaps we’ll perform it next year or perhaps it’ll never grace the ears of wheelie briefcase-toting conventioneers. Whatever the case, this year’s competition is over. We may have lost on stage, but we won a few fans, shared a few laughs, and started a few pants-fires.

SanDisk Battle of the Bloggers [SanDisk.com]

The silicone case has handles like a sippy cup and a protector for the screen (and maybe for the wheel, I can’t remember). The kid just holds it with both hands and it’s really thick silicone so it just bounces or rolls when you drop it. Apparently one iPod survived being thrown from a moving car in the thing. No iPod Touch version yet or anything like that, but if you’re a digitally minded parent with an old-style iPod, this thing might be worth your while.

Now! The contest! I have a pair of Nerve Pipes which I’ve customized to have CrunchGear colors (silver/grey and orange, if you must know). I know you want to show your CG stripes in public, so here’s how you win ‘em: just leave a comment telling us what your favorite CES gadget is so far. That’s all! We’ll pick a winner semi-randomly at the end of the weekend. And that’s a lot of “end”s in one sentence.

Update: Contest closed! I’ll announce the winner tomorrow, after I get over this hangover.

You may remember that Razer was one of the die-hard ball-mouse proponents. They were making ball mice for ages after everyone else had moved to optical, because they felt the technology wasn’t good enough for gaming input. Now most of their mice are optical, but they’re transitioning now to the 3rd (and a half) generation laser sensor. And this whole time they’ve been weighing whether to try wireless; actually, it’d be more accurate to say they’ve been trying it for years and only just recently decided that the device they could put together was good enough. And now they have what they feel is the best mouse in the world, and a first in several categories.

You can see the tour of the Mamba in the video, but it’s worth mentioning here that the grip is very comfortable and they’ve tweaked the shape of the Death Adder to make it more comfortable, as well as repositioning the thumb buttons, adding some extras at the tip, and coating said buttons in the grippy finish, which I love. The base is also the charger, but you can detach the cable (appears to be a modified mini-USB interface) and put it in the mouse, so it’ll charge while you’re using it. There is no performance difference, they say, between wired and wireless; they were only satisfied with the product once the wireless firmware could support the same 1000Hz polling rate as their wired software. And now they say they’ve squashed most of the bugs and we’re going to get a really solid product.

I like Razer’s design philosophy, and I like their mice. I’m really looking forward to putting the Mamba through its paces in a month or two.

Is that video choppy for anyone else?

They also showed off the new “Carcharias” headset, which is the headset that will be coming in the Megalodon package; the package will include a little amp/mixer that they’re still QAing. They were really light and very comfortable, I can see myself wearing them for way longer than the Piranhas, which, though they sounded great, tended to crush my head a bit. I didn’t get to use them for anything, but I’m hoping they sound as good as their cousins.

Anyhow, these are definitely winners from what I can tell, and I’ll have a full review of them as soon as they’re available — should be a couple weeks.

If you’re not familiar with “Survivorman,” shame on you. Survival expert Les Stroud has stranded himself for a week in a ton of godforsaken (but beautiful) places with nothing but a multitool and a bunch of camera gear (unlike that other guy). The result is an extremely good show called “Survivorman.” Les was here at CES to talk up Sony’s equipment, which he’s used exclusively on his shows and which he believes is the best stuff on the market for the kind of dirty, dangerous guerilla filming he has to do.

Les does all his own shooting and is doing a lot of editing as well. We talked about what he needs out of his equipment, what could be improved, and what you can expect to face if you decide you want to film yourself surviving in a rainforest for a week.

Devin interviewed Les courtesy of Sony, and Doug attempted to wrangle the camera’s autofocus, which was having trouble with the low light and neutral color scheme of the Sony green room. Thanks to Les and Sony for taking the time to meet with us!

Earlier today we got a bit of face time with HP’s 13-pound prototype laptop dubbed Firefly. This large monstrosity packs a heap of goods like an Intel quad-core proc, secondary screen, dual graphics cards and ‘5.1 sound’. The Firefly has four speakers plus a subwoofer that is placed under the wrist rest. Strange, I know. Sound quality was pretty good but the bass coming out of the wrist rest was weird.

This beast is Phil McKinney’s (HP’s Personal Systems CTO) and he actually lugs it around with him. He noted that he has to use an extra large bag from Timbuk2 just to get it around.

The powerbrick or as Phil calls it the UPS is quite large and is actually the same one that comes with the Firebird desktop.

HP didn’t say this outright but they alluded to the fact that they could place the trackpad on the left side for those that are left-handed. It currently sits on the right side.

Notice the silver grills? Yeah, that’s what’s keeping the laptop cool and bumping your music. There are two fans that sit underneath and the rig is actually air-cooled believe it or not. Phil even said he’s had it on his lap and doesn’t suffer from overheating.

There’s no chance of it hitting the market, but the HP team will undoubtedly pull certain pieces of it for future products. I’m not sure I could lug around a 13-pound laptop, anyway.

This Beertube was given to us by a charming young lady at the Burger Braisserie in the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. We reviewed it by emptying it of beer. There’s a little bit of salty language in there, be warned.

These laptops are basically going after the MacBook market, much as the many touchscreen iFauxs we’ve been seeing (Storm, Instinct, etc.) have been going after the iPhone market. In a few months the netbook market will collapse – folks that already have them, well, have them and folks who don’t want them will never buy them – so it’s important for these guys to bring out some laptops that appeal to a general audience, recapturing the delicate space between business laptop – rugged, ugly – and desktop replacement – big, ugly.

Expect more like these in the next few months as laptop makers decide to start making money again.

There’s no real news here, just a couple pictures of the little objects you can cause to be made.