On CES Saturday, there traditionally is a 5 km run where delegates compete with Las Vegas residents. You'd figure that with such a hospitable climate and a collective gambling addiction, no one here would run. Was I proven wrong. Let it be said: Las Vegas runners rock!

After a week of chilling cold, followed yesterday by rain, the turnout at the 8 AM start was no more than a few hundred. The weather gods however had mercy on us athletes and got us perfect running conditions with even a ray of sunshine here and there.

Yes, your Silicon Valley Sleuth did compete, and to everyone's amazement (not the least his own) succeeded in crossing the finish line before the 1 hour cut off time.

Results should be up on the web shortly.

This is the final post to vnunet.com's CES blog – for this year at least. But have no fear. The Silicon Valley Sleuth blog continues. With my boarding pass for the airplane to San Francisco burning in my pocket, I'll be getting ready for more blogging from Mac World in San Francsico next week (Steve Jobs keynote on Tuesday!).

I hope you enjoyed our coverage. Drop us a line if you have any comments.

January 8, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

HP head honcho Carly Fiorina this morning addressed the crowds at CES. As we flock to Las Vegas to be both educated and entertained, we expect more than just your average keynote. Bill Gates flew in Conan O'Brien. Craig Barrett got us a surprise visit by Steven Tyler and Robert Redford. Fiorina didn't break rank.

No Fiorina keynote without mentioning Dreamworks, the company that seems to be HP's single most important reference customer. But we were rewarded for sitting though the n-th PR pitch about how HP saved the moviemaker from certain disaster with an exclusive preview of the upcoming movie "Madagascar".

The main characters (a neurotic giraffe, an overconfident lion, a zebra with a midlife crisis and huggable but wise hippo)  find themselves being deported from a New York city zoo to Kenya. The picture shows them in their shipping crates on the deck of a ship, shortly before they fall overboard.

Fiorina among things, unveiled a Gwen Stefani branded digital camera that will be available in stores some time before the summer. The singer from the band No Doubt recently launched a solo album Love, Angel, Music, Baby.

Gwen did join Fiorino on stage, but didn't sing live – thank God we might add. We've heard that her looks are better than her tone of voice.

Fiorina however didn't leave us empty handed. When talking about custom iPod tatoos (some sort of pre-designed sticker that you past on your music player to customise it), the HP CEO said that the Vanessa Carlton skin was one of the best selling ones. Although that remark seemed no more but an excuse to introduce the singer, we gladly took the bait.

What else did Fiorina talk about? Check out vnunet.com.

January 8, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)

This iTunes mobile phone is not a iTunes mobile phone. That's what Ron Garriques, an executive vice president for Motorola, should have told delegates during his keynote yesterday at CES. But he didn't.

Motorola has signed a deal with Apple to bring the iTunes software to its mobile phones, allowing users to synchronize their the music on the phone with their computers. A demo of the phone was highly anticipated. The device is slated for release this year.

Instead of the real thing, Garriques demonstrated a mobile phone that had all the functionalities of an iTunes mobile phone, but in reality was a mock-up, build for the single purpose of the CES demo. The phone instead was a Motorola E398.

Motorola wasn't the only one displaying products that only seem to exist in the minds of revenue seeking executive who are all too eager to send out a press release.

As I strolled by the Microsoft booth, I asked the guys from the SPOT group to show me the new alarm clocks that Bill Gates talked about in his keynote on Wednesday. Turns out that there is not a single working model of the alarm clock to be found. The images Gates showed were really all but images, the work of some clever Photoshop artists.

SPOT is a technology that uses broadcast radio signals to transmit data. The technology was unveiled in November 2002, with the first SPOT watches hitting the market last year. A SPOT watch allows a consumer to get data such as news, stock quotes and the weather forecast on his wrist.

Prince Potemkin pulled the same stunt back in 1787, erecting fake villages to suggest wealth and progress when Catherina the Great came and visited the Crimea. This gave us the expression "Potemkin Villages". I hereby recommend that in technology from now on we call this a "Motorola Mock-Up".

January 8, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

As we previously predicted on this blog, CES attracts its fair share of celebrities, ready for the average delegate to meet, greet, touch and hug.

Wandering over the expo floor in the south hall, my attention was drawn to the booth of a company called Xavix.

Now, when I write south hall, I really should write one of the four south halls, next to the central and north halls. And we shouldn't leave out the satellite locations at the Hilton, Renaissance and Alexis Park. Of some of those locations I don't even know where they are, and I fear I won't find out either.

But back to the south hall. There in plain sight was Jackie Chan, the movie actor who is best known for the fact that he has none to very few lines in the movies he plays in.

It turns out that Chan has signed a deal with Xavix, a gaming company, to lend his name to one of their gaming products. Players stand on a floor mat with sensors and do some crazy stuff. But no complaining here. at least this computer games requires you to be physically active.

Come to me! Bring me your dollars


Let's see what the manual says. In case of a blue screen... pull the power plug.

Xavix makes for intelligent gaming. in this game, the player has to take as many steps as possible on a sensor floor mat within 10 seconds.
 

January 8, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Everybody who is somebody in the electronics industry is in Vegas for CES. That must of course mean that there are 120,000 somebodies in this sector, but it also gives you a shot a meeting some interesting people.

I just ran into Michael Roberston on the show floor. Robertson is the CEO of Linspire, formerly know as Lindows. They sell Linux for the desktop, and recently signed a major deal with Walmart. The world's largest retailer has started selling a Linspire equipped laptop on its website for $499.

The web only deal can lead to more, Robertson told me. "If it goes well, they'll start  selling it in their stores as well." And so far he is very happy with how sales are going.

Some observers have complained that the hardware for the laptop is slow and lacking. Besides, consumers in the US and Europe are so used to running Windows that they don't want to switch to Linux. "You shouldn't look at it that way. People who buy it get a machine to do email or word processing. When I ran mp3.com, all I had was a laptop."

vnunet.com did an interview with Robertson last September. Click here to read it, and find out what Linspire has to do with mp3.com

This photo is NOT taken at CES - it's a stock photo provided by Linspire. Robertson had to run off to a meeting before I had a chance to take out my camera.

January 8, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

There were loads of tech products not yet in the UK but due to hit soon.

Among the thousands of products on show in the tent, there were cameras with built-in mp3 players; mp3 players with voice command for finding a song (“What’s this?” I asked. “Oh, that lets you talk to your mp3 player,” came the reply. “OK, that wouldn’t make me look stupid on the train.”); some neat, non-Microsoft Media Center personal video recorders; small size but decent capacity juke boxes with colour screens that also connect directly to your digital camera; and a couple of interesting Voice over IP products due to hit the UK in February.

The real story with many of them was tech convergence, where different product functions were merging. It’s tough to know how well they work until we get a chance to test them properly, but we’ll let you know through the pages of Personal Computer World once we get our hands on them.

January 8, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mobile phones have seen buckets of innovation over the past few years, but judging by what with we’ve so far, there’ll be no let up this year. TV on your mobile is newish, and Sanyo has been showing off their service, running via Sprint.

But of more interest was the real mobile TV, and Sanyo hopes to launch a range of phones in Japan at the back end of this year that have an antenna for phone reception and an antenna for receiving TV. It’s called Palm Top Digital TV, and images can be viewed in landscape or portrait mode.

Also on the stand was a concept 3G Mobile Phone with Wireless Lan, and these smart looking phones have a double rotating hinge. Again, images can be viewed in landscape and portrait, depending on whether you are using it to make calls, take photos or play games.

Sanyo had no idea if it would release the phone on show, but reckoned most of the features will end up in other phones on the market.

January 7, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Motorola CEO Ed Zander had to cancel his keynote that was scheduled for Thursday afternoon due to a death in the family.

We truly regret that Zander couldn't make it. He after all is credited with turning Motorola around and making it an exiting company once again. That's a far better job than he did at Sun Microsystems, where he was Chief Operating Officer. There is was mostly know as the best dressed man in the company.

We wouldn’t be surprised if the snow boarding ramp (see the previous post) was his idea. We were looking forward to seeing him make a few runs actually.

January 7, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just because Las Vegas is in the middle of a desert and during the summer tortures visitors with 120 F (49 C) temperatures, doesn’t mean that delegates at CES don't freeze their butts off this week. Enough reason for Motorola to attract some attention to its mobile phones by building a enormous ski ramp on the parking lot outside the Las Vegas convention centre and hire a few snowboarders to jump off it.

We're not sure what the link is between a mobile phone and sliding off an icy ramp. Except that the landing in Vegas can be as painful as when you receive the invoice from your mobile operator.

January 7, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (3)

FCC Chairman Michael Powell's lighter side For a guy who is constantly upsetting either consumers, device manufacturers or the telecommunications industry, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Michael Powell appears to be remarkably well at ease speaking in public. After all, the guy has a job that ranges from regulating wireless spectrum to seeing after public decency standards for broadcasting companies.

Asked why the US is lagging behind in the adoption and speed of broadband internet connections, Powell replied: "Speed is relative. I hate to get Einstein on you."

He also noted that the US has an advantage because it offers both cable and wireless and DSL connections. "I'm a believer in  the Lego network. We used to believe in one network, all red bricks, all laid by the red Lego master. But there are blue and yellow Legos too."

President & CEO of the  Consumer Electronics Association Gary Shapiro (left) interviewing FCC Chairman Michael Powell (right).

January 7, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

As they admitted during their acoustic set, it’s not the type of crowd the Black Crows usually play to. It was, they said, the politest crowd, which whooped occasionally and clapped enthusiastically when required to. Underwear, unfortunately, never came close to being thrown (OK, so the headline lies, but it got your interest and there were definitely some nodding heads as youth was revisited!)

You couldn’t help thinking how the mighty have fallen, especially as it was a pretty decent set. That, or the allure of the Olympus dollar was too much to resist.

Olympus was certainly buzzing. Handing out leaflets at the end, “It’s Cheap Trick tomorrow”, a rep said.

January 7, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Blu Ray Disc Association has made it clear that it will not entertain any convergence with rival standard HD-DVD for the next generation of optical media. That, the group said, would be a rear view mirror approach, and mean diluting the Blu Ray technology.

So expect a standards war as the two slug it out for supremacy in the high definition market. HD is the big issue at CES, with companies scrambling to get bigger and better products into the market to tap into consumer interest over here.

Which is all the more galling if you live in the UK with no immediate prospect of high definition TV channels broadcasting into your homes.

January 7, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

After Bill Gates started a new tradition at CES by saying pretty much nothing new, Intel CEO Craig Barrett followed his lead.

The most interesting part of his keynote was when the Intel CEO was joined on stage by Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, and the two sang "Walk this way." The audience was warned that Barrett can't sing, and he proved his point. Kudos however for trying.

Barrett enters the stage wearing a cowboy hat. The Intel CEO is an adamant horse rider.

Barrett joins Tyler for the chorus of "Walk this way"

Barrett holding up a WiMax radio that he believes will enable the next wireless revolution.

January 6, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (3)

The demo gods were definitely upset with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates during tonight's opening keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Three demos showed minor to major glitches, with the Xbox even resorting to the all-embarrassing blue-screen-of-death.

In addition to the Xbox goof-up, the demo of a new digital camera by Nikon had to be delayed twice. The camera uses a WiFi connection to send pictures to a computer.

Lastly, a demo of the MSN Remote service failed after the system lost its internet connection. The demo would have shown how users can remotely program their Media Center Edition PC to record a TV show.

Microsoft for the second year in a row choose to hire a comedian to co-host Gates' CES keynote presentation. A smart move we might say, because Gates isn't the most gifted speaker. The host of the TV show "Late Night" Conan O'Brien took no prisoners, welcoming Gates with the words: "Welcome to the show that you pretty much paid for."

When the Nikon camera demo went wrong, O'Brien grumbled: "Who runs this company?"

O'Brien points to similarities between Gates and Milhouse from The Simpsons

O'Brien and Gates showing off their Star Trek tattoos

That's what happens when you go out in Vegas! Gates waking up next to an Apple Powerbook.

January 6, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (71)

With the Bill Gtes keynote only two hours away, lines outside the Hilton hotel are growing. Gates is scheduled to speak in the hotel's theatre at 6:30 PM. The front of the line apparently started forming as early 1 PM. Now that's what we call devotion. The poor souls will be mighty disappointed when the realise that a small army of press and VIPs will be let in before they get a shot a the front row seats.

January 6, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

With less than 24 hours to go before the showfloor of the Consumer Electronics Show opens to the public, lots of work remains to be done.

January 5, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yep, it's Las Vegas so you just know the celebs would be here at CES - most of them official guests of exhibitors. It's a full range of people famous in the US and pretty much unknown everywhere else.

Marshal arts king Jackie Chan is top of the tree, but they've also roped in Ike Turner, who is performing at the Gibson Guitar party, where he'll honour Les Paul. Les Paul follows, but they don't say who he is honouring.

For the male who likes to drool, the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders are here too, and they are clearly expected to be a main attraction, because they down for two two-hour autograph sessions.

We'll keep any eye out for wandering celebs and post any pictures we get.   

January 5, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)

In an effort to give technology a wider, female appeal, the nominees have been announced in the CEA’s TechGirl Awards.

The female market is also high on the mind of Kodak, with its new EasyShare One 4 megapixel digital wifi camera, which will hit the streets in June. For more on that and a raft of other Kodak product announcements, look out for our news story on www.pcw.co.uk.

Finally, we all know that when it comes to technology, teenagers are big money spinners, so the show has its very own advisor for reaching that age group. CEA’s 17-year-old teen spokesperson Jessica Curran is on site and will be advising delegates on Generation Tech, their needs and how to plug into that market. 

January 5, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)

CES is gearing up for its opening day on Thursday, with the promise that 50,000 new products will be introduced over the coming days. A staggering number so large that many of us thought we'd misheard.

As you would expect, there is a mountain of press releases, ranging from those product launches through to the light hearted oddities. These include the Consumer Electronics Association's seven-step guide to conduct when using a camera phone (don’t use the camera where photographic equipment is banned, don’t use them in public areas considered private, such as the toilet, don’t video or take pictures while you’re driving).

We also got a 15-point ‘Creative uses of your digital camera or camera phone’. Here we were advised to photograph our cars when we park them in the local multi-storey to avoid traipsing from floor to floor in search of them later; taking pictures of dinner guests that you then use as place cards; and my favourite: photograph the meal presentation when you’re at the restaurant so that you can get it right when recreating it at home.

January 5, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Samsung Electronics just unveiled the largest plasma TV ever, with a whopping 80 inch diameter. Lets just say we put in a request for a review model, and a new apartment to fit it in.

January 5, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sony is spinning the buzz machine around its Portable Playstation (PSP). The company is showing off the device during an off-site event. But some-one forgot to invite us.

To take revenge, we dogged a few security guards and sneaked onto the Sony booth on the – officially closed – expo floor. There is obviously a PSP going to be displayed, but the actual unit wasn't there yet.

January 5, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (3)

For those of you attending CES, make sure you don't end up on the wrong side of town at the Internext tradeshow for the adult industry (yes, that means porn). The show conveniently overlaps with a part of CES, enabling technology folks to explore new market opportunities.

January 4, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

As regular visitors to Las Vegas know, the gambling bonanza starts the moment you exit the airplane, with slot machines strategically placed throughout the terminals. But for the Consumer Electronics Show that will begin this Thursday, the city of lights has a new perk: free WiFi internet access on all 1.7 million square feet (158,000 square meters) of Macaran International Airport.

Your Silicon Valley Sleuth could hardly control his excitement and took the service for a test-ride the moment he landed in Las Vegas this morning. But don't get your hopes up: the services doesn't support SSL encrypted pages, so forget about using Gmail or posting to the vnunet.com CES blog.

January 4, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Will a combination of "God's machine" and Intel's worse nightmare create a portable video revolution? That's what TiVo and AMD are aiming for with today's combined launch of TiVoToGo and AMD's Alchemy chip.

While the AMD chip saves battery power by allowing for low power (0.5 Watt) processing of video images, the new TiVo service enables users to effortlessly transfer video content from the digital video recorder to a computer or portable device.

Although TiVo has been struggling to reach profitability, users generally love the product. Michale Powell, chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has called the device "God's machine".

The AMD chip competes with Intel's Xscale processor.

TiVo chief executive Mike Ramsay will speak at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Veags this Friday. The company is expected to announce partnerships with companies that are developing new products designed to work with TiVoToGo.

There's no word about AMD joining its new ally on stage.

January 3, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Intel CEO Craig Barrett is due to present the opening keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show , which is billed as focusing on how "digital transformations" in the home and office are changing our lives.

Few would accuse the chip giant's head honcho of not practising what he preaches in terms of digital transformation. This is, after all, the man known for his love of the great outdoors, who talks of "a passion to be a forest ranger". He has transformed the thousands of acres which make up his huge ranch in Bitterwood Valley , Montana with pervasive always-on Wi-Fi. So you know he's not kidding when he argues that our lifestyles will change so that we can "easily experience digital content anytime, anywhere and on any device".

The question that remains is when this level of connectivity filters down to the rest of us.

January 3, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Timing a press conference 75 minutes before before a Bill Gates keynote is certain PR suicide, but for Sony it could also turn out to be a brilliant move. At least that's what the Japanese company seems to be betting on by scheduling the unveiling of new details about its PlayStation Portable (PSP) console a mere 1:15 hours prior to the "pre-show" keynote by Bill Gates. Gates is set to deliver his keynote at 6:30 PM (2:30 AM in the UK) this Wednesday at CES in Las Vegas.

CES officially kicks off on Thrusday with Intel CEO Craig Barrett delivering the opening keynote.

The launch of the PSP isn't expected until the end of the first quarter of 2005, disappointing users in Asia who were previously promised a 2004 launch but still on schedule for the European and US markets.

Releasing significant details about the PSP can potentially embarrass Microsoft. The company has succesfull entered the console gaming market, but doesn't have a portable version of its Xbox in its product roadmap.

Further more, Gates last year made somewhat of a fool of himself when he failed to impress delegates at CES.

January 3, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

After Intel in October abandoned a "liquid crystal on silicon" (LCoS) development project, a company called SpatiaLight is set on rubbing in Intel's misstep a little more at CES in Las Vegas.

SpatiaLight will display its LCoS technology in solutions by several manufacturers including LG Electronics USA and Konka Group.

LCoS is technology for projecting an image onto a screen that competes with existing technologies such as LCD (a far better, and more complicated explanation can be found here). Because it uses silicon, the technology can piggyback ride Moore's Law, promising a 50 pct price drop every 18 months.

CES last year was the venue where Intel talked up its push into the arena of LCoS based televisions, promising $1800 high definition LCoS television sets. But after a year filled with missteps, the project was axed last October because Intel feared that the market wouldn't be able to deliver the desired return on investment.

January 1, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)