Las Vegas (NV) - Friday, Google took the spotlight - some would say, they stole it. Trying to go one up on Steve Jobs (who pays his own company’s respect to CES by scheduling MacWorld in San Francisco so close to it), Google’s Larry Page basked in the spotlight of speculation that his company was planning to unveil something more than it actually did. The theme of this year’s show was becoming quite clear : Everyone, it seems - or, more accurately, everyone with a marquis name - wants to be a content provider. But what was interesting about Friday was that so much speculation had been devoted to Google’s rumored interest in being a consumer electronics device company in its own right - in effect, a content manager that when Page revealed the truth, for many, it was something of a letdown. The fact that it was a letdown should perhaps be a signal to those who would become content providers, and didn’t try to let that news be masked by loftier rumors.
Meanwhile, in the real world, we saw some notebook computers that started sporting extreme, very-high-tech equipment. Toshiba’s new line of Qosmios, for example, manage the feat of supporting Dolby Surround Sound. Yes, we’re talking about a notebook computer with two speakers ; and if you can’t believe it yourself, well, your ears would have to have been there. The Qosmio also claimed to be the first notebook to support HD DVD, but we saw some others elsewhere at CES, including one from HP. Microsoft tried to resolve the problem of the Xbox 360 not having a high-def DVD, by enabling one to be attached to it externally. Maybe not the same thing as premiering the technology. (Hey, Microsoft...How does it feel to be playing catch-up with the competition ?) Here now are the stories that made our CES news headlines Friday, 6 January 2006 :
Highlights From Day Three Of CES 2006
- First HD DVD players may be significantly cheaper than Blu-ray rivals
The Blu-ray and HD DVD camps used the day before the official opening of this year’s CES to exchange gentle slaps in an effort to attract the interest and support from journalists. While Blu-ray proponents put an armada of players on display, it was Toshiba that scored at the end of the day. - Intel’s Paul Otellini unveils Core Duo processor, not Core Solo
The president and CEO of Intel gave a formal name to the company’s Yonah architecture this evening - the successor to the Pentium M. Core Duo is now a reality, and so is Intel’s entry into the high-stakes world of streaming media download services, as Viiv takes on a life of its own. - A-Data presents SD cards with capacity display
Memory specialist A-Data today showed us its BCD-SD card, which has a little LCD that shows its own remaining capacity. - Panasonic’s display wall blurs boundaries between show and content
Panasonic picked a very demonstrative way of showing off its latest plasma displays. - Buffalo intros new NAS, media, dual-band WLAN gear
Buffalo Technology announced a herd of new products this morning at CES, including its first US dual-band WLAN products, new Terastation NASes, a 240 Mbps MIMO line based on Airgo’s third-generation chipset, and a $100 digital media adapter. - EWC players raise MIMO ante to 300 Mbps
Today’s announcement by Atheros of its 300 Mbps MIMO chipset shows once again that the consumer wireless LAN market is mainly a numbers game. - Targus targets ladies with new carrying cases
Case and accessory maker Targus launched a new line of fashionable laptop and notebook carrying cases for women at CES. - ASUS moves into notebooks, cordless phones, with a little help from Lamborghini
Designed with input from the automaker, the Lamborghini series is clearly positioned to compete with Acer’s Ferrari series. - Sanyo unveils a consumer solid-state high-definition camcorder
The company is showing off its Xacti HD1, which it claims to be the world’s first HD compact digital media camera. - Uniden and Microsoft unveil cordless Windows Live Messenger phone
Uniden and Microsoft are teaming up to offer a cordless phone that integrates with Windows Live Messenger. - HP jumps into WWAN with new Compaq notebook
HP announced at CES today that it will immediately begin offering wireless WAN capable mobile computers, beginning with the HP Compaq nc6140. - Xbox 360 wireless connection to HDTV to be demonstrated
Pulse-Link said it will be demonstrating HD gaming on a Xbox 360 while the device is wirelessly connected to a HDTV. - Nero recording software adds support for HD DVD and Blu-ray
Nero announced that its new "Nero 7 Ultra Edition" software will support playback and recording of HD DVD and Blu-ray media discs. - DVD players not quite dead yet
Denon announced the DVD-5910CI as new flagship for its DVD player family. - Xbox 360 to get external HD DVD player
Microsoft announced that it will be offering an optional external HD DVD drive for its Xbox 360 gaming console later this year. - Sony unveils VAIO SZ notebooks
Its new models will each have a 13.3" screen and biometric fingerprint sensor. - Maxtor announces OneTouch external hard drive series up to 1 Tb
The new OneTouch III family ships with either one hard drive up to 500 Gb, or two 7200 rpm drives for a maximum capacity of 1000 Gb. - Samsung’s programmable high-tech refrigerator
At Samsung’s booth, the coolest piece we discovered - literally - was the RM255BARB refrigerator. - Toshiba unveils 4 Gb micro drives measuring 0.85"
The company’s miniature drive has an approximate size of three stapled US quarters, and hosts 4 Gb of storage. - Lenovo Announces Dual Core, WWAN ThinkPads
Lenovo today entered the dual core processor technology fray, adding itself to the growing number of mobile computer manufacturers offering a range of built-in wireless WAN hardware options.
