And yet, CES is a necessary evil. Like it or not, the show is what the industry needs to ensure that the average non-Apple company can actually get some attention in a world dominated by the iPhone maker.

In some ways, the technology industry has become a sad place. Apple’s success has tossed all other companies in its growing shadow, and those firms can only hope to come out when the iPhone maker isn’t looking. Each year around this year, such an event happens.

CES is the opportunity that small vendors and even large companies like LG, Dish, and so many others, need to finally communicate their products to customers. For once, those companies can sit in front of a packed audience and show off their plans for the years. Better yet, they can get in touch with journalists, hold one-to-one meetings, and (hopefully) excite them into thinking that their latest inventions are the next big things in technology.

All of the rest of the year, things are much different for those companies. They’ll send out a press release here and there and typically receive a story or two. If they’re lucky, the average consumer will pay attention long enough to find out when the product will launch and how much it costs. If they’re really lucky, those companies might even be able to get the consumer out of their home and into the store to try the product out. And if they’re really, really lucky, those folks might just buy the respective device.

That’s the world that Apple, Microsoft, and Google has created. The big three are garnering all of the attention in the technology industry, and just about anything they have to say is newsworthy. All other companies are hoping to fill in the ever-smaller gaps that line up around them.

CES, though, levels the playing field. Apple is nowhere to be seen at the show, and Google and Microsoft hardly have a presence. CES, therefore, is open to smaller or less important companies that want to share off their wares while the giants are off working on products that will steal the world’s attention all the other days of the year.

That’s precisely why CES should not – and cannot – be shuttered. As big and annoying as it is, the show serves a very important purpose in the technology industry. And without CES, it’s hard to see how companies will be able to get their products out there and into our increasingly busy lives.

So, perhaps we should have a little patience with CES. Sure, it’s not what it used to be and there are increasingly boring aspects to it, but it’s an important event, nonetheless. And we can’t discount that.

Find all of our CES 2013 news at our CES Hub!

The touchscreen works well, though we’ve still got mixed feelings about the usability of reaching over the keyboard and stabbing at the display. We’re also left thinking that Sony’s decision to carry over the ultrabook branding to the T15 Touch might be a bit ambitious; it’s not exactly a light machine, though in return you get plenty of connections (USB 3.0, both HDMI and VGA, and an ethernet socket) and an integrated optical drive.

The T14 Touch makes far more sense, ditching the separate numeric keypad but still retaining a solid-feeling ‘board and a sizable trackpad. Sony’s choice of materials can’t be faulted, either; the soft-touch composite strip that runs along the upper outer edge of the lid – where the antenna are – is a particularly nice compromise between tactile feel and wireless performance.

Unfortunately, the T14 Touch doesn’t share its bigger sibling’s 1080p Full HD display; instead, it makes do with a more humdrum 1366 x 768 panel. Sony isn’t saying when the new VAIOs will go on sale, nor for what price.

This device is given the CloudMobile name because of its ability to work with Acer’s version of the cloud as we were given introduction to at CES 2012. This device is set to bring a depth of less than a centimeter and a lovely “Sleeve DNA design” which includes comfortable wrapping contours, soft and smooth for a great experience in the hand. This device also features a stainless steel reciever on the front, a fabulous Dolby speaker plate on the back, and “tiny perforation” that bring a tactile experience to such tiny details as the volume button.

This smartphone has an extremely narrow bezel to make the device appear to slim down throughout, the display appearing large in its grand 4.3-inch size, fully laminated and HD. This device device is set to be shown at MWC but will be available throughout the world in the third quarter of 2012. There’s currently no word on whether this includes the United States or not, but given that we have had Acer tablets on US carriers as recently as last year, chances are good!

Have a peek at the phone above and get pumped up for Barcelona, following SlashGear each day through our [MWC 2012 portal]

iPhone apps

First have a peek at the mobile application. Though we do not have a fully working model here in person, we’ve got all the functionality built-in to this setup anyway. First you’ll get a glimpse of the smartphone-based out-of-car controls, then we’ll step into the vehicle for another connection. Here you’ll get a taste of what connecting your car directly to your iPhone for a fully immersive and interactive experience in intelligent console computing feels like.

Built-in Facebook app

Next have a peek at a couple of apps that will be working with mbrace2 aside from the smartphone experience. First you’ll get a peek at Facebook, fully operational with your in-car dial and able to update your status on the fly. Pay special attention to how smooth the operation already is even though we’re still in a bit of a pre-release phase here. This is but one of a collection of apps you’ll have built-in with mbrace2.

Built-in Google Local Search app

Next there’s Google Local Search, this also built-in to mbrace2 and ready for some search and map action. The unique thing about this build of Google’s search and mapping system is that no other group currently has street view and panoramic view from the vehicle. This will prove quite valuable to you when you’re hunting for that one tiny sandwich shop amongst hundreds of buildings in your own gigantic city.

mbrace2 Control Module

Finally take a look at the mbrace2 Control Module. It’s through this that you’ll have the connectivity for everything you’ve seen above, be it the iPhone-connected interface or the built-in applications. This bit is built-in to the car and you’ll never physically see it, but it’s a comfort to know what it looks like nonetheless. This technology is built by Continental and has its own chip, internal Bluetooth connectivity, cellular connections, and GPS connector antenna.

This whole technology suite will be hitting Mercedes-Benz vehicles in spring of 2012. Look for it at your local dealer’s lot relatively soon!

We got the opportunity to take a ride in the vehicle as a Mercedes-Benz assistant helped us along. Your humble narrator was shown how the front screen and the control scheme worked together to create a fully immersive experience for the driver. You’ll see in the video how menus sat on carrousels, selections were made with a push forward on the atmosphere in front of one’s hand, and at no point was there any doubt that the car was attempting to think with the person controlling it. Though the controls weren’t exactly simply to work with, as the sensor technology wasn’t perfect, this certainly stuck with us as one of the most amazing shows of power at the convention.

While the dashboard shows off menus that included media, social, and places, each of them able to control what you’re hearing and seeing around you, who you’re contacting from the vehicle, and mapping where you want to go, it was the windshield that really showed off the state of the future. In the windshield you were able to see not only the turn-by-turn directions you’d pushed up from the dashboard so that you could experience them in a less distracting way, but landmarks were pointed out and were able to be collected as you drove. Incoming calls appeared on the display as images of the people calling, and all of this could be pulled down into your dashboard for safe keeping.

Have a look at what’s going to be possible someday, courtesy of Mercedes-Benz, and let us know what you think. I certainly wouldn’t mind having something like this working in my vehicle in the next few years. Unfortunately there may be a few legal hurdles to cross before allowing on-windshield displays, even IF they’re perfectly excellent like this one was. Mercedes-Benz, bring us the future right now!

With AllJoyn, most of the work is done by developers before you, the user, ever gets it in your hands – this is part of what makes AllJoyn so excellent – you barely even need to know it’s there! The next thing that makes AllJoyn so enticing is its ability to connect devices together without a middle-man – you’ll see several different examples of ways this is happening in the videos below. Then there’s the support developers get from Qualcomm when developing with AllJoyn – there’s nothing like having an ultra-pro group of technical specialists there to help you when you’re working with a new technology, especially when you’re a developer on the rise.

Namco’s Pacman Kart

First peek at a presentation of Pacman Kart from Namco working on a pair of Sony Ericsson Xperia Play smartphones. Here you’ll hear how when both devices are connected to one another directly with AllJoyn – pay special attention to the end of the video where we speak on how these devices could be connected with their Wi-fi radios or their built-in bluetooth, AllJoyn not needing you to choose between them – it just works!

Phunware on a tablet connected to smart TV

Next take a look at a set of apps created by Phunware to work on a Qualcomm-powered tablet (an HTC Jetstream for those of you wondering) communicating with a Qualcomm-powered smart tv (powered by an S3 chip). You’ll find that the connection between the tablet and the television is in-sync because AllJoyn is communicating between the two devices with the radios built-in to either. The first example has an interactive trivia game controlled by the tablet. The next example has video playing on the television while related links and images appear on the tablet. The final example has a karaoke game that uses the tablet as a microphone, able then to play the song back with the voice you recorded the song in on the television immediately after you sang it.

JamJoyn music

JamJoyn is shown next, this an application custom-made for AllJoyn in which music is able to be controlled by several different devices all working with the same stereo. The devices used here are the HTC Thunderbolt and the HTC Nexus One (both running Snapdragon processors, of course) working with a Jawbone JAMBOX, each of them able to control the music by switching tracks, adding to a single playlist, and more. In this use case you’ll find the list of songs sitting below a control panel on both devices – the JAMBOX is connected to the Thunderbolt with an audio output cord, but both devices can control the jams.

Whiteboard

AllJoyn shows its power again with an app by the name of Whiteboard in which regardless of how many devices you’ve got open with the same canvas, anyone can draw and the canvas will be modified accordingly. Imagine the use of such a tool in an educational setting – especially in an art class! You could have a set of tablets all showing off the same piece of artwork with each one able to modify the rest – brilliant!

Fight Game: Heroes

We also got the chance to play the brand new mobile game Fight Game Heroes connected with AllJoyn on Qualcomm MSM8960 developer platform tablets. It was your humble narrator versus Cory Gunther and, believe it or not, I get knocked out in no time flat. Have a peek and see how versatile this system is on a couple of tablets made for developers only!

We’ll certainly continue to keep you updated on Qualcomm’s work with AllJoyn and will continue to bring you use-case scenarios as they appear on the mass market. Exciting stuff coming from a group that brings you not just the processor, but a network of finely tuned hardware in every device they work with. Developers get your thinking caps out!

Whether that was worth it depends on how appealing a robot with a huge speaker for its pelvis and a low-storage PMP tucked inside is to you, and whether those feelings changed having seen the ‘bot dancing with the Canadian jig wastrel. Folding, Transformer-style, to an 8-inch high speaker block, or opening up to cycle between a number of preset dance moves controlled by remote, the mRobo is expected to ship in the fall.

Meanwhile, a Bieber-branded edition of the Tosy robot is apparently being considered, high praise indeed. Britney Spears will no doubt be livid; sources claim she was also under consideration, but Tosy eventually bagged the Biebs.

Quality

This bag is as nice as the TUMI bag I’d otherwise be toting, and has a discreet enough look that it could very well pass for any of the highest class packs on the market. At $179.99 it certainly better look nice, and with its built-in ability to hold embroidery, it’s all the better. What you’re seeing here is, on the left, Powerbag’s own example bag with embroidering, then on the right, our bag with stitching done by our own source. The quality is there, and it’s definitely done nothing but favors by the build of the bag.

Compartments

There are so many pockets on this bag that, if you’ve got more devices, books, writing utensils, and snacks than I did this week, I’ll simply suggest you carry less. This week I fit in 5 smartphones, three granola bars, three gatorades, a Lumix GF1 camera, several lenses, a monopod, camera lamp, MacBook cord (the long one), charging cords for three more USB devices, business cards box, MacBook Pro 15-inch, and MacBook Air 11-inch. All of this fits in this pack with room to spare. There’s even a little tiny pocket right at the top so you can put pocket change or, in my case, a pillbox sort of container where I store all my SD cards for the camera.

Battery

The battery hasn’t failed me yet. There’s nothing too fantastically magic about it, that making it all the more brilliant: one 6000 mAh battery you snap in to the plastic (covered up when not switching) compartment which then has a few built-in cords and a USB port for charging whatever else you want. You’ll be able to charge your iPhone/iPad and microUSB device at the same time, or instead of your microUSB device you can use the other end of the built-in cord to charge a mini-USB device. Made primarily for smartphones, certainly not for laptops, but nice to have!

Wrap-Up

The back flap where you’ve got the main bit folding down and another flat compartment in the back of that allows you to get through the airport in no time flat – I know, I guarantee it because I’ve done it, and the whole pack is made for not only travel, but day-to-day activities as well. The battery makes this bag not the lightest pack in the world, but having it is worth the added tiny bit of bulk. This bag is available at mypowerbag.com for the cool price of, again, $179.99, and if you order today, if I’m not mistaken, you get ground shipping free! Neato!

NOTICE also that this bag was given to your humble narrator to review, and a bunch more people at CES 2012 were given the same or similar bags to take a peek at as well. The deal was that we’d get the bag in exchange for heading down to the powerbag stand to get the battery – and it was well worth it. Friendly folks all around and the bag is, legitimately, pretty darn nice.

There’s also a 17.3-inch Full HD LED-backlit display, and a backlit keyboard for those late-night gaming sessions. Samsung is readying both 2D and 3D models, and there’ll be both AMD and NVIDIA graphics options too.

A 5,900mAh battery probably can’t be expected to last all too long if you’re hammering the Series 7 for gaming purposes, but the onboard optical drive and that expansive display means it’ll probably be a solid multimedia notebook too. Samsung expects it to land at the equivalent of $2,228 for the 2D version and around $200 more for the 3D version in Korea, though US pricing is tipped to be from $1,799.

[via Sammyhub]

The Rampage IV Formula uses a full ATX board to inlclude all the bells and whistles: second-generation Intel Core i7 support on the LGA 2011 standard, quad-channel DDR3 2400 RAM DIMM slots with a maximum of 32GB of memory, and support for up to four (count ‘em, four) Nvidia or ATI cards in SLI or CrossFireX configurations. As far as ports go, you get four USB 3.0 with an extra six USB 2.0 ports, the standard 5.1 audio interface, gigabit Ethernet, and two eSATA ports. For those of you who can’t let go of your IBM Model M Keyboard, a standard PS/2 jack lets you plug in older accessories. One USB port supports the new ROG Connect standard exclusive to Asus’ gaming boards, which allows you to manually adjust overclock settings from a second computer.

The Rampage IV Gene uses the smaller mATX standard for those who want to game on more compact hardware. This one only includes three PCI-e 16X slots, so the insanity of SLI or Crossfire is somewhat tempered. Otherwise you get the same processor and memory options, with two of the USB 3.0 ports on the back swapped out for USB 2.0. There’s only one eSATA port, but ROG Connect is still present in full force. Both boards feature an aggressive red-on-black color scheme, which manages to convey a serious vibe without some of the more ridiculous lights and props that we’ve seen on “1337 GAMR BOARDS!!!!!” lately.

Asus didn’t mention a price or release date for either motherboard, but you won’t have to wait long to find out – both should be available in the next week.

These batteries are able to power up your MacBook, your iPad, your iPhone, and whatever other USB-powered devices you’ve got on hand. They’re made specifically for every different Apple mobile product under the sun, again moving in a way so very similar to the design language of the Mac that they’re using the same white font for the device itself. This name in batteries has been around long enough to be winning awards for best-in-show back in 2010, and with “military grade” lithium ion batteries on the inside with 1,000 charges in the barrel and a built-in short circuit, temperature, and overcharging set of protections, why not?

Inside each box you’re going to get the battery itself, a 12-15V DC auto/airline adapter to connect to Apple’s unit, and an AC power supply 100-240V to charge the battery itself. You get some printed documentation as well, and the only drawback here seems to be that you’ll need your own MacBook MagSafe cord to actually connect to your MacBook – but you’ve got that, right? Of course you do! All four HyperJuice external batteries are currently available straight from their site for between $169.95 and $449.95 – buy em up!

Keynotes

While this is my first full Consumer Electronics Show visit, it’s not my first time to an event similar to this: namely Mobile World Congress, aka MWC, the european event centered around the mobile world, this event taking place in February again this year. At Mobile World Congress, CTIA (another similar event in the Spring), and others, the keynote speech is one of three primary places you’ll get news in-person at the greater event. When we sat in the audience this year, it was either myself, Cory Gunther, and Vincent Nguyen, or just myself and Cory who sat side-by-side and knocked out story after story on the speakings of the people standing on stage presenting as fast as humanly possible whilst retaining the amount of high-quality writing and photography we require.

As you’ll see through the portals listed above, it ended up being in quite a few cases me being the writer – typing most of the time as the people spoke sentences, then deciding when each section was starting and ending so as to create articles that flowed well and presented a main subject with relevant details surrounding it. That’s only part of the story, of course, with Cory then handling the post after I’d saved it, editing and fixing up the articles with photos and video either he or Vince captured on the spot, posting these stories then inside a few minutes after they’d really “broken.” After a keynote was complete, we each time literally got up and ran out of the arena we were in to get to the next one, again and again through the first couple of days of CES.

Meetings

Because we’ve got a record of turning hands-on experiences into lovely posts for all of you out there in consumerland. We speak with these manufacturers, carriers, and developers as far in advance as we can, then we’ve got scheduled meeting places where we get our own quiet look at the devices that require just a bit more attention than the ones we see out on the floor. That’s not to say that the items we just see out on the floor aren’t as high quality as the ones we see behind closed doors – of course not – but different groups want to get closer to certain users, like yourselves, so they invite us in to get up in there. Below you’ll see footage from an ASUS meeting we had, and above is your humble narrator guiding the future in a Mercedes concept demonstration we’ll have posted later this week.

The Floor

The dreaded death-race of a massive event that is The Floor. This is where we get all the real oddities, not just smaller groups, but everyone we can that did not have an event or a meeting scheduled that has an excellent device or service. You’ll find that many of our posts from the floor hit the airwaves later in the week and even continue to pop up early this week, as once we’re on the floor, it’s all about collecting before we run out of time in Las Vegas. Gotta go home sometime!

Side Events

There are fabulously excellent side events that, similar to meetings, allow us to get a closer look at devices without the hordes of CES attendees smashing down upon us. These events are why there often times aren’t devices for hands-on looks after keynote speeches during the week, as the amount of people that attend the keynotes would require masses of units to satisfy them all. This way, these events can spread out the love. One of these events is Pepcom, they each time naming their show in accordance with the event it surrounds, this time calling it “Digital Experience.” Late last year we attended another Pepcom by the name of Holiday Spectacular 2011, a good time had by all! There’s also an event with a similar format by the name of Showstoppers where this year we had an interview table where we sat down and spoke to some of the more interesting attendees of the events and had a chat with each of them about their products.

There are also less formal events, several of which we weren’t able to get to simply because of the massive bulk of material we had to cover, Verizon‘s “Off the Record” event, for example. Individual manufacturers will also have side events that are a mix of product presentation and party – Toshiba had a lovely one at the TAO early in the week. It’s important for a person in my position to get snacks at each of these events, as well as water or juice, simply because quite often there won’t be time to stop for a meal.

How one handles all of this

There’s no hardship in being here, and I wouldn’t dare complain about writing for a full week about technology, gadgets, and services that bring our planet further and further into a fun, digital age. That said, my body doesn’t have the easiest time getting up around 6AM, typing and running until 2AM, sleeping for 4 hours and doing it again the next day. We did get to eat a couple of meals though, and the ultimate savior was three things: granola bars in the morning, Gatorade throughout the day, and one tiny packet of Airborne. That stuff is miraculous.

Again, please feel free to ask any other questions you’ve got about what we / I did during the week, how and why we did it.

Audio specialist SuperTooth rings this device in with one less knob than its predecessor and a few more buttons, making your whole experience slightly more intuitive. One thing we’re excited about on this model is the lack of a bright “breathing” set of lights, the last Disco’s system getting just a BIT annoying as it sat on standby for months on end. The good bits are all here, working with your bluetooth-enabled devices to bring you high-fidelity sound with a teeny, tiny footprint in your living space.

This SuperTooth Disco 2 unit is set to be connecting to your bluetooth devices with A2DP and will be will work plugged into the wall or with its own built-in rechargeable battery, just like the first winner of a device. This speaker is set to be released at the end of the first quarter here in early spring or late winter for the cool price of just $99. We’ll be reviewing the heck out of one before you know it!

This device is still likely several months off from actual review units or a full release, but full waterproofing on a speaker that’ll connect to any of your bluetooth-enabled devices is fun to consider! It’s also got both a built-in mic so you can use this monster as a speakerphone whenever the situation calls for it. The speaker is also shock and dust-proof incase you drop it down the side of a short cliff – though I’m sure they don’t suggest whipping it into a canyon just for testing.

The Turtle Shell’s current iteration comes with a flexible cord that lets you attach it easily to any variety of items in your traveling arsenal, the prospect of slapping it on a BMX bike seeming to me to be the most awesome possibility. The device will be able to run on 10-hours with Hi-fidelity sound with 240 hours of standby on a single charge, and gets charged up with a simple mini-USB jack.

The bluetooth range on this beast is 33 feet, you can connect it to your headphone-jack-having device with its simple 3.5mm jack as well, and both release date and pricing are not yet official. Expect this device in late summer at the earliest for something around $130 – blue please!

The 9.7-inch Android 4.0.1 slate runs at 1024 x 768, just like Apple’s tablet (and, for that matter, the HP TouchPad), with ICS running on a 1GHz single-core Cortex processor paired with 1GB of RAM. That’s obviously slower than many of the dual- and quad-core slates we’re seeing, but the amount of memory is healthy and the price should assuage too much spec-envy.

8GB of internal memory – with a card slot to add to it – along with WiFi b/g/n round out the main hardware, though Coby apparently hasn’t finalized the exact specifications; for instance, this particular Kyros could still grow a rear camera. The biggest issue is likely to be the absence of official Android Market – and Google apps – support, with third-party titles being distributed via GetJar and other stores.

More details and fresh photos at Android Community.

The Galaxy Note is what Samsung is placing in its own category, saying that it’s not exactly a tablet, yet not exactly a smartphone either. What it does amount to is a pretty neat little in-between complete with Gingerbread, a built-in stylus, and the promise of Ice Cream Sandwich early on in 2012. There’s currently a white as well as a black version, both to be released soon. Another device we’ve got to look forward to soon is the ASUS Padfone, this device having now gone through a couple of iterations since its first announcement and set to be officially unveiled for release at MWC 2012.

For readers there wasn’t one whole heck of a lot of differentiation to be made between the masses, but the Kyobo Mirasol eReader did catch our eye with its unique method of lighting, it’s logo reflecting the butterfly-like feature of the display. There was also the Jetbook Color eReader, a CES award winner, whose maker we got to sit down with and have a talk about.

As for the Windows 8 world, groups like Qualcomm and their S4 chip showed off what WILL be possible in just a few weeks or months. We’ve already also had a look at a developer tablet running Windows 8 inside 2011, but will be looking forward to the full real deal in early 2012.

The team at Acer came to the show swinging, it’s early Sunday showing of their newest Android-based Acer Iconia Tab showing us what it means to rock with a fabulously high definition display and the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core chip inside. They also re-showed a slightly less impressive tablet/laptop combo by the name of Iconia Tab W500, this showing us that they’ve more than likely got better concepts in the works for Windows 8, or we can hope! Toshiba brought with them a couple of slight upgrades from their already released line, one being the smaller version of the Thrive we’ve already reviewed in the Toshiba Thrive 7, bringing then the lovely thin and fully functional Toshiba Excite x10 as well for a real contender in 2012.

Then it was Asus all the way – bringing the fire with not one, not two, but three new tablets that all had a bump over not only their own previous models, but the competition as well. Not to be mistaken for one-another, Asus brought forth two 7-inch MeMO devices, one designated 171, the other called 370t. The first one, the Asus MeMO 171, is rolling out with a Qualcomm 8260 1.2GHz dual-core processor and Honeycomb, also bringing with it a built-in stylus for note-taking glory. The other device, the Asus MeMO 370t, is the real gem of the show as it’s got an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor, comes out with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and costs a mere $249. That’s an industry changer, if you did not know.

NVIDIA then stole the show again with Asus’ upgraded Transformer Prime 700 series, complete with a massive display, updated casing, and a bump in the front-facing camera for fun. NVIDIA showed that the Prime (in either its first or second iteration) was capable of using the Tegra 3 processor to the fullest, running Skyrim via Splashtop, moving on to play the first multiplayer mobile shooter in a brand new upgraded version of Shadowgun for Tegra, and displaying the fact that it will be first with Ice Cream Sandwich, officially.

Look like a good showing to you? If you could have any one of these devices in your hands right now, which one would it be? Better yet, when these devices are released to the market, which one are you most likely to buy?

BONUS: Don’t forget the Fujitsu Arrows Tablet, complete with waterproofing, and the Pantech Element, an AT&T-bound tiny tablet with waterproofing as well!

This device has another name, that being the LePhone S2, this harkening back to all of our memories of the LePhone as the smartphone world developed over the past few years, Lenovo along with it. The S2 has a 3.8-inch display at WVGA resolution, runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and has an 8-megapixel camera on the back. That’s no joke for a device that also has one of the best single-core processors out there: the Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.5GHz MSM8255.

This device will be released in two iterations, one with 512MB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, the other with 1GHz RAM and 16GB internal storage. With a release in China exclusively, at least at the start, we can’t help but wonder when Lenovo will make their move with smartphones here in the USA. Will it be with the Medfield-toting K800, or will it be with this little gem?

Several odd bits hold this device back from any kind of potential winning it was going to do in this market: first of all, it was launched much, much before Windows 8 came around. With Windows 8 touch-friendly interface right around the corner, tablet makers are taking care to make sure their devices work with this brand new system. This Acer device does have a hearty construction, but the second big folly is that it’s got three features in direct opposition to the features most people love about the Transformer Prime: the Tab does not fold down into a laptop, it does not have a trackpad (relying instead on a Lenovo-esque nubbin,) and it’s running an operating system that was never meant to be working with a touchscreen.

This device is already out on the market in several sectors for the absolutely ludicrous price of $848 with the keyboard dock included, though you can certainly find it cheaper if you look hard enough. Check out our hands-on video courtesy of Acer, and make sure you note their much more updated line of devices that will, indeed, be sticking with the times as far as working with a more mobile-friendly set of hardware and software. Check out the Acer Iconia Tab 2012 refresh on the Android side of things to see the ideal setup before Windows 8 comes to the consumer market in bulk.

This system has just been launched this past week with real-time local information as well as integration with your contacts, music, and all of it from the one “My Dashboard” page. You’ll be able to connect with iPhone as well, it having an initial offer of Scout.me integration, the site offering you the ability to plan with friends via Facebook and Twitter and organize and save your favorite spots for later viewing. All of this is then synced to your device where your in-car display will be able to access it whenever you’re plugged in to the system.

Telenav announced that their initial partnership will be with Ford for its SYNC system, and as you’ll be able to see in the hands-on video, the whole system is already working quite slick. Voice guidance is also offered through your stereo, and text prompts are there too if you’re not a fan of being told where to go. All of this is available on the mobile end this week, but as for how soon we’ll see it in cars, there’s no solid date as of yet – soon though!

Grab the phone-based application from the iTunes App Store for your iPhone, check out http://www.scout.me/ as it enters its Beta stages, and grab the Android app in the near future!

This application works with data from Rovi, it providing users with an extensive, descriptive set of megadata on the shows they’ve got access to. Inside is more than 2.5 million program descriptions, shows as they pop up, and searchable data on TV series and celebrities that goes back to 1960, and more! Have a peek at how this app will work on your tablet, for example.

The Rovi group supports digital broadcasting throughout North America, incase you were wondering, they providing the data to whoever so chooses to license it. Connected to your Toshiba L7200 of L6200, both of them equipped with wi-fi connectivity, this setup is able to “access, discover, organize, and recommend” the internet-based content you want to watch as well. Streaming data including video, music, and photos can be stored on your local network and streamed without effort, a few taps and you’re good to go!

Smartphones

We certainly saw our fair share of smartphones on the floor this time around, the major bulk of them running either Windows Phone Mango or a modified version of Android Gingerbread or Ice Cream Sandwich. One of the more interesting devices was Huawei’s Ascend P1 S, it being the new thinnest phone on earth, and its slightly fatter brother the P1, both of them strikingly thin. Next there were a couple of excellent value propositions, it would seem, from Pantech, they showing off two of the six new devices running on AT&T’s LTE network that’ll be up to speed by late this year – the Pantech Element is a waterproof tablet that, when you buy it, you basically get the Pantech Burst smartphone for free. Sony Experia came correct with their new set of Xperia devices with big specs and gigantic cameras: the Xperia ion having a 12 megapixel camera and the Xperia S being the one teased for so long. For Android phones the winner would have to be the Lenovo Racer-A, aka the first device to be running Intel’s Medfield chip – winning not just because it looks like a quality phone, but because it does indeed hold that record. Intel’s entry into the mobile market is likely going to have the longest lasting effect on the mobile industry while all these other phones get replaced – that’s for sure.

As for Windows Phones I’ll have to call a tie until we can review these devices extensively because they’re both so lovely: the Nokia Lumia 900 and the HTC Titan II. Both of these devices are bringing Windows Phone into the future, fighting head to head with the top guns at last.

BONUS: Since Samsung is insistent on saying this device is neither a smartphone or a tablet, here it is in the middle: the AT&T version of the Samsung Galaxy Note. All of its awesome features remain in-tact, it having a Snapdragon processor instead of an Exynos, and it comes in white as well as black, your choice!

- contributed by Chris “Burnsy” Burns

Tablets

As with smartphones, we’ve got a lot to be excited about in the hardware side of things, not least of all with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 2 for strength and touchability. As for future-looking devices, the newest iteration of the ASUS Padfone looked oddly enticing. There were also some lovely reader refreshes like the Kyobo Mirasol eReader with its unique form of lighting, it replicating the light bouncing off a butterfly. Windows 8 made a bit of a showing with groups like Qualcomm and their S4 chip showing the possibilities of a Windows 8 mobile world. Acer came back with a new iteration of the Acer Iconia Tab complete with a Tegra 3 quad-core chip. Toshiba made a showing with two devices you might find rather familiar, the smaller version of the Thrive in the Toshiba Thrive 7 and the Toshiba Excite x10, the latter being the one to keep an eye on through 2012.

Then there’s the big guns, both of them winners, both of them coming from no less than Asus and toting, again, the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor. First there was the undeniably inexpensively priced $249 7-inch quad-core Ice Cream Sandwich toting Asus MeMO 370t, a value we’re sure one whole heck of a lot of people will not be able to resist. Then there was the big showing of not only the Transformer Prime, but the Transformer Prime 700 series with its upgraded display and hardware. We saw the Prime running Skyrim via Splashtop, playing the first multiplayer mobile shooter in a new version of Shadowgun for Tegra, and all of it on Ice Cream Sandwich as the Transformer is now the world’s first Google-licensed Ice Cream Sandwich tablet.

- contributed by Chris “Burnsy” Burns

Headphones / Earbuds

As always, there was a surplus of new headphones this year. Of them, our top three were InSound by Cygnett, the 5-minute Eeers Sonofit earbuds, and the HD700 from Sennheiser. The InSound had very decent ‘active’ noise cancellation and are extremely comfortable. Though easily portable, they are still not built as well as the Sennheisers. The HD 700 instead implements ‘passive’ noise cancellation, and offers a much cleaner, crisper sound. But at CES, people look for innovation – and that’s why Eers by Sonofit were the best headphones. With Eers, anyone can create a pair of custom-fit earbuds within minutes, all of it for a cool $300 USD.

BONUS: don’t forget the conceptual Parrot Zik by Starck and the wild contributions by Skullcandy in the Mix Master headphones.

- contributed by Sam Koutroulakis

Speakers

Though there were certainly one whole heck of a lot of speakers out there, we’ve decided to concentrate on the smaller world of portable speakers for all you mobile people out there. For that, there are a few gems that stick out. First there’s the SuperTooth Disco 2, an upgrade from the already great Disco 1 model, now with plenty of color and a vertical form factor. As for green representations, we had a talk with the makers of Eink who now bring us the Eton Rukus Solar powered boombox, so green it’s accented with the color green, imagine that! As for the tiniest speaker worth a peek at outside a smartphone, that was clearly the Harman JBL on-tour Micro, complete with Iron Man color scheme! The winner of our hearts in this category would have to be the high-blasting Altec Lansing 5000 series all-in-one speakers, these certainly commanding the hoards when it comes to all-in-one power.

- contributed by Chris “Burnsy” Burns

Laptops

Ultrabooks were the hot ticket for the computer side of CES this year, with every major brand introducing new models at or just before the show. While Toshiba’s Windows 8 prototype wowed us with software and the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga showed off some amazing innovation in form factor, the top prize goes to Dell’s more humble XPS 13. Far from Dell’s usual utilitarian design, the XPS 13 Ultrabook is downright stunning, with a combination aluminum-carbon fiber frame that’s 15% smaller than the MacBook Air. It manages to cram a 13-inch screen into a 12-inch body, and with 300 nits of brightness it should be a joy to use. With a Core i5 or i7 processor, an SSD drive, 4GB of RAM and eight hours of rated battery life, the XPS 13 will be a major contender when it becomes available.

- contributed by Michael Crider

Cameras

There were a few cameras at CES that caught our eye. Canon’s revived PowerShot Digital ELPH 520HS crams some amazingly powerful glass into its tiny body, and Liquid Image’s Xtreme Sports Cams brings some great new features into a growing market. But the obvious winner for the show wasn’t even announced at CES: Nikon’s new flagship, the D4. This monster DSLR sets the standard for its line going forward, with insane ISO capabilities and forward-looking support for QXD. But the real innovation is a major upgrade in video capabilities, with dynamic cropping on the sensor for “zoomed” shots even on prime lenses, and the ability to actively monitor audio and stream video over HDMI. The D4 may well be the benchmark when it comes to DSLR video recording, a segment that has nowhere to go but up. At $6,000 it’s a little on the pricey side, but pro photographers will pay any price for the best – and when it comes to high-definition video in a comfortable DSLR format, the Nikon D4 will give it to them.

- contributed by Michael Crider

Televisions

Televisions were one of the hottest categories at CES this year, but not because of size. Previous shows were all about who can get the biggest panel out, but this year image quality ruled. LG and Samsung both introduced 55-inch OLED TVs with incredibly thin, light bodies, stunning black levels and color reproduction that’s the best we’ve ever seen. The best television of CES is Samsung’s Super OLED HDTV – we’re giving it the top spot because the image displayed was just slightly more vivid than LG’s. It’s a close match, however, and LG has the edge (ba-dum TISH) on style thanks to its 4mm, 16-pound body. Sharp’s battery powered AQUOS Freestyle gets a third place nod, because it’s a handy idea that the market is ready for.

- contributed by Michael Crider

Automotive Concept

There were two stand-out contenders at CES 2012 for automotive concepts, Audi and Mercedes. While our main hands-on write-ups of these two titans are going to be published early next week, I can tell you this now: Audi brought some heavy fire with a setup called Audi connect that included all of their innovations of 2011 including voice commands and Google Earth integration and made it explode with a touch-sensitive dial and a setup newly powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 quad-core chipset. Mercedes, on the other hand, had several concepts including a very similar in-car screen setup, this time connected to an iPhone, a couple of gesture-activated door demonstrations, and a box inside which a completely gesture-intensive console was shown. Both companies will have massively impressive vehicles in the very near future, that’s for certain.

- contributed by Chris “Burnsy” Burns

Accessories

Here at CES a large focus is also on accessories for all the electronics announced, and while we saw plenty of impressive designs like the new Wrapsol anti-slip pads we’ve decided on one. Cygnett is known for constructing well built, quality cases for phones and tablets, not to mention their durable tablet stands. Since the mobile phone market has exploded everyone has a few cases to offer but Cygnett’s offerings were one of the most memorable. With simple designs that are actually easy to both get on AND off while still protecting the product they were our clear winner.

For a video rundown on a few cases from Cygnett including their new Icon Art series by artist Nathan Jurevicius be sure to check out our Insider Talk with Cygnett Creative Director Sophie Swann.

- Contributed by Cory Gunther

Mobile Carrier

When caught up in the mass of tech news here at CES, we often forget that a team’s mobile collaboration is only as good as the signal they’re running on. There isn’t one, but more like two obstacles a team requires of its carrier to perform at maximum efficiency. The first is consistency; a reliable data signal that will always be there when needed. The second is actual data strength. Processing videos and uploading images over a fast connection is essential if you plan on delivering the best CES coverage. And for both requirements, Verizon 4G LTE was unbeatable for CES 2012. With speeds of up to 14Mbps on the showroom floor and a consistent signal throughout the Las Vegas Convention Center, other carriers couldn’t come close.

- contributed by Sam Koutroulakis

Our most used gear

When the topic of most used gear comes up it could mean anything based on what you did at CES. Some might just answer — my shoes. Obviously we used cameras just about every possible minute. Here at SlashGear we were busy looking for wall power outlets and churning out stories to share with our readers and have as a team came up with a final conclusion. When it comes to outright sheer production MacBook’s rule. When it comes to mobile production it’s actually the complete opposite and Android rules, with only one iPhone on our team with a whole hoard of Galaxy Nexus for the rest.

Apple’s Macbook Pro and Air gave our team most of the tools needed (not counting a few heavy cameras) and our Macs outnumbers PC laptops 6-to-1. When we change over to the mobile aspect it was completely the opposite and we had 2 iPhones compared to about 10 Android smartphones, and 4 LTE Android tablets. With large screens, big batteries and awesome wired/wireless tethering options with Verizon 4G LTE our Android phones were the clear choice — and winner.

- Contributed by Cory Gunther

CES 2012′s Top Innovation: No One

While there certainly have been some interesting bits here and there at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, nothing made us absolutely drop our collective jaws. You could take the winners from the categories above and choose your favorite, sure, but nothing blew us away to the point of saying it absolutely won the show. It seemed as though most companies came to the show as a matter of requirement rather than because they wanted to show off their biggest and best. Instead we’re hoping for quite a few individual showings throughout the year from manufacturers as it continues to be the thing to do when you want the most individual attention.

When Vincent Nguyen, SlashGear’s Editor in Chief, was asked what he thought represented CES this year, his response was simple “nothing.”

The fact that this isn’t the only time we’ve heard this response from not just our own staff, but many of the people we spoke with throughout the convention may well be the first indication that bigger shows like CES are on their way out – what do you think?

It’s in an interview conducted this past week, Osterloh revealed that Microsoft is “working on a Windows Phone product that will be coming out soon” in regards to Skype. The original promise for this combination of Windows Phone and video chat via SKype came back last year with Joe Belfiore, Director of Windows Phone, said the service would be coming in late 2011 to the platform. From what we’re hearing now, the real deal Skype application may well be made for Windows Phone Apollo, whenever that comes out.

We’ve got a big event coming up next month in Barcelona with Mobile World Congress and Nokia has just dropped their full line of USA product for Windows Phone Mango here in the United States. Let’s call this a possible early spring release? Or at least a late winter announcement. Get ready to chat, Windows Phone lovers! — Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

For those of you that do not know, Mix Master Mike is one of the most notoriously fantastic DJs on the planet, emerging on a global scale when joining the Beastie Boys as their resident spin master on such gems as Hello Nasty and their newest album Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. What these headphones are is a DJ-friendly set of features like dual-cable inputs (one on either phone), one-touch mute, single-channel cue control from your pair of articulated earcups, and 50mm speakers. Your plugs are gold plated of course, as all plugs should be, and you’ve got interchangeable cables with a mic.

These headphones are light, have a 20-20K Hz frequency response, and can flip out and forward so you can jam with them as off-ear speakers as well. These phones will run you $299.99 and come in a couple of different color combinations online: Black and Kidrobot. The second pair are basically the same colors as the first, but come with the the “Dunny” outline pattern on the top, Kidrobot’s specialty. Good luck finding the ultra-wacky color scheme we’ve got here in Las Vegas!

As you’ll notice right away, the capacitive buttons do light up as they do with many Android devices, but here with the white casing it creates an effect to be envied – glowtastic! Then there’s the same awesome specifications you’ve all heard and know: a 5.3-inch Super AMOLED HS display at 1280 x 800 pixels, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.5GHz dual-core processor inside, and LTE speeds on AT&T. This device carries its own stylus which works marvelously with the device’s own S-Memo application or for whatever other set of pen-positive apps you might desire to use.

Then there’s the fact that we’ve already reviewed this device – or the international edition, that is, as it was released in a slightly different iteration in late 2011. We’ve been waiting patiently for the device to drop here in the states since it was first revealed several months ago, and the moment of truth is nearly here – just ever so close that it’s difficult not to head down to AT&T right now to camp out. If only I didn’t live in the tundra up here in Minnesota. I need that snow-colored Note!

Samsung actually showed off the transparent display technology back in March 2011, suggesting at the time that it could be used for advertising. Unfortunately that application proved too mundane to catch the public’s attention in quite the way Samsung hoped for, hence the return of the tech last week and the far more exciting prospect of your double-glazing telling you your latest Tweets, Facebook friend requests and Google+ Hangouts.

As well as giving internet updates and letting you work on your latest report for work while simultaneously keeping an eye on the kids in the garden, the smart window can create its own virtual privacy shades. Although during the day, it’s ambient light that works as the backlight, two traditional edge-lighting sources are also fitted for nighttime use.

Tech-wise, the 22-inch panel runs at 1680 x 1050 resolution and has a 500:1 contrast ratio. Regular LCDs are only 5-percent transparent, whereas Samsung’s new panels increase that to 15-20-percent. Unfortunately there’s still no word on pricing or domestic availability.

This solution, as used by LG in the Revolution here in the video, is using Horizon Type 2 hypervisor, this a solution that requires vertualization to layer your second environment on top of your already existing Android base. What you see working here allows you to have two completely separate environments on your device: one for “home” and one for “work,” for example. This solution gives you the ability to have things such as security of your work data and files while you work with your personal set of apps, files, folders, and even items so simple as wallpapers.

It also allows carriers to very possibly do away with the massive wait that we all go through when a new version of the software comes out and we must work to create a compatible version of it for each individual device. That, and it gives the manufacturers in this Android world the ability separate their software from their hardware (in more ways than one) so that they can concentrate on one or the other, however they wish.

Have a peek at this award-winning project courtesy of LG’s Tony Janssen right here on a device that came out earlier last year, the LG Revolution, also reviewed by us in full.

The Toshiba L7200 series will blow your eyeballs out of their sockets with Edge-lit LED brightness on an X-Gen panel, it, again, bringing you an unhindered picture with its ultra-narrow bezel. This television has a 240Hz refresh rate, and on-board Wi-fi to keep you connected to your favorite streaming services. Along the back you’ll find a generous 4 HDMI input ports, and SmartCentral will be your user interface guide. You’ll control the TV with a full QWERTY wi-fi enabled keyboard that’s included in the box – this keyboard was not available at the time of the hands-on, but I assure you, it exists.

Inside this beast you’ll find a dual-core processor for hefty handling of the programs you want to interact with, it assisting in accelerating your CQ Video Engine for superior graphics when you’re streaming from the web. Then for those of you that love the third dimension, this TV includes what Toshiba is calling “trivector” 2D to 3D conversion on the fly. Also, again, you’ll need no glasses to see this 3D effect, it showing up to your human eyes with no additional assistance.

We’re entering a really strange age for television, that’s for sure, and Toshiba isn’t going to be left behind – not by a long shot.

BONUS very BRIEF video for your enjoyment:

In “normal” mode, the Nikon1Dx rapid-fire shutter sounds rather similar to my 1D Mark IV. It’s loud and intriguing while the Canon 1Dx is slightly toned down from its predecessor. With pictures captured in largest jpeg format, we were told the Canon tipped 412 images before hitting the buffer while Nikon managed just half of that.

Nikon D4 D-SLR

Canon 1DX D-SLR

We aren’t certain of the buffer pipeline, and the factor of CF, as both storage compartments are locked and sealed. The reps have no knowledge of what cards are being used for the demo, but with a Dual Digic 5 image processor dedicated for image processing and a Digic 4 for AF and metering as opposed to a single EXPEED 3, despite higher pixel count, the 1Dx is clearly a winner here.

The new cameras will certainly be the benchmark for London 2012 Summer Olympics sport photographers.

This solution for businesses includes such enterprise features as RAID 1 and video surveillance IP camera support. You can replace your hard drives for disaster recovery on your own with this newest move by Iomega, and there’s an app called Iomega Link that’ll allow you to manage your network on your iPhone or iPad remotely. This product has VMWare and XenServer certification for virtual desktop implementation, and the ix2 NAS works with your Windows Active Directory Service as well – iSCSI storage is also included here.

There are one whole heck of a lot of options when it comes to purchasing different components for this solution. There’s first a $199.99 completely diskless model. That’s as inexpensive you can get for starting this environment up for yourself. Then there’s partially-populated (with one drive) models available at $249.99 for 1TB, $349.99 for 2TB, and $449.99 for 3TB. For a completely populated (two drive) model, you’ll be dropping $419.99 for 2TB, $579.99 for 4TB, and $769.99 for 6TB. This setup is also planned for late February for a general release.

This solution works with Iomega’s QuikProtect software, this working with a built-in iTunes server, the ability to work with your files through Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr. In addition, you can work instantly with your new mac’s Time Machine feature to do instant storage with no effort at all. Torrent support is included as well, this for your soon to be gigantic collection of downloads that are, again, available to access from any of your home-based machines.

The Iomega EZ Media & Backup Center comes DLNA certified for you to be streaming video, audio, and photos across your network. You can stream to multimedia players, digital picture frames, game consoles, and of course mobile devices and your desktop and laptop machines. The models this device will be coming in will be 1TB will cost SRP $219.99, 2TB will be $299.99, and the 3TB will cost $399.99, and all of this should be available in February of 2012. Sound like the solution for you?

Neither A&T nor Nokia would be drawn on exactly how much the Lumia 900 will cost when it eventually goes on sale. Going by previous LTE smartphones, however, $199.99 with a new, two-year agreement and mandatory 4G data plan would on the fact of it seem most likely.

Still, AT&T is working hard to push LTE down through the price range. The Pantech Burst and Samsung Exhilarate didn’t exactly grab attention like the Lumia did, but AT&T has promised them for $50 apiece (again, with contract). 2012 may well end up being the year for relatively affordable LTE devices after all.

Will any of those be bearing the Nokia logo, however? The Finnish company has been ambitious with its Lumia 800 pricing in Europe, undercutting Android and iOS rivals and negotiating decent subsidies with networks to make the Windows Phone more affordable. As an exclusive on AT&T, however – something both companies have repeated ad-nauseum – there’s always the suspicion that the carrier will use that rarity to milk subscribers of a little extra cash.

That would potentially be death to Nokia’s chances in the US market, however. It may still be the number one mobile phone company in the world, but Nokia’s standing in the US is embryonic at best; if AT&T slaps a $200 tag on the Lumia 900 it’ll lose a huge chunk of potential audience who might be willing to give Windows Phone a punt. Offer it for $100, however, and all of a sudden there’s a lot more appeal. Do the unthinkable and opt for free-on-contract – just as the 800 is sold in many European countries – and you could have a real success on your hands.

Nokia has long made a point of highlighting its supply chain and experience in producing hardware, which combine to help the company drive down prices. Stephen Elop has even recently namechecked that as a reason why selling off its smartphone division to Microsoft simply wouldn’t make sense.

Now it’s time for Nokia to put its potency to work. It has one chance to storm the US market and convince analysts, investors, geeks and consumers that it has caught up with its rivals, and a bulging marketing budget isn’t enough, on its own, to do that. Price the AT&T Lumia 900 right, and Nokia could take its first step on a comeback campaign it’s been paying lip-service to for months.

Nokia Lumia 900 hands-on:

Physically, the new stand-alone and Blu-ray versions (NSZ-GP7 and NSZ-GP9, respectively) aren’t all that distinctive. The Blu-ray player is a large white box, and the stand-alone is a dimpled grey. It’s a shift from the original version, but by no means a radical one. The real news is the newly-redesigned remote, which takes some ques from HTPC remotes and the Boxee Box remote. One side looks like a standard TV/cable remote with thew addition of a touchpad, and the full QWERTY keyboard is moved to the other side. Both sides have backlit keys for easy access in a theater-style setup, and an integrated microphone lets you use Voice Search and Voice actions from the couch. Demonstrations of voice functions were very convincing.

The Blu-ray player is a pretty impressive specimen, cramming all of Google TV’s functions into a case not much bigger than standard models on retail shelves today. It includes full 3D support at 1080p, so it’s worth a look even if you want the latest 3D tech. The Blu-ray player also includes the remote, and as far as functions and interface goes, it’s nearly identical to the stand-alone and integrated units.

Speaking of the interface, it’s refreshingly spare on manufacturer customization. Aside from a few links to Sony’ music and media stores, it’s pure Google TV (Android) 3.2, with the new Android Market GTV section well-integrated. Sony’s Google TV hardware was the first to receive the major update, and after hearing that LG plans to do some heavy modification of the open-source hardware, we’re thrilled to see that Sony is keeping it simple.

There was no detailed specification information for the new Google TV units, so we don’t know if it’s running on the older x86 hardware or the newer ARM systems coming from Marvell and MediaTek. Since these models aren’t due to hit the market for a few months at least, we’d guess the latter. No pricing information was offered.

For those of you interested in following the entirety of our CES 2012 content, both at the event and outside of the event but relating to the timeline, head to our tag [CES 2012]. Everyone interested in exploring what we’ve scooped up here live at the events in Las Vegas as they unfolded and in-person, head to our portal by the name of [CES Live]. Both tags will continue to be filled out over the weekend and, if you’re lucky, into the oncoming week. As with all events that have so many products in them that there’s no physical way for everyone to cover them all, so too do we want to give you all we’ve got.

We’ve also got additional comprehensive wrap-up posts on the way, including our favorite picks, the best-of for the entirety of CES 2012 separated by category, and opinion columns both here and over at Android Community regarding what we’ve seen over the last week. This very moment I must leave you with one question:

What was YOUR favorite device, product, or moment from CES 2012 that you’ve happened upon thus far?

Programming the camera with different identities basically involves shooting a frame of them and then adding them to the ELPH’s register. You can name them, as well as give them a date of birth – used to ID babies and young children – and in future shots the camera automatically identifies their face and floats their name underneath

You can apparently store up to six angles or expressions of any one person, too, so as to improve the ELPH’s ability to accurately spot the right person. It’s an impressive system, considering the new ELPH cameras come in at under $300 apiece.

More on the Canon ELPH 520HS in our hands-on.

[via Gizmodo]

The new transceiver allows the USB 3.0 AOC to shoot multimedia over distances of 100 meters. VIA says that this AOC is fully compliant with SuperSpeed USB electrical specifications. The usages for USB 3.0 ports grow significantly with the much longer distances the new AOC allows. VIA Labs says that the port can now be used to power digital signage, surveillance, and zero client applications.

The new optical solution allows the 100m or 330-foot distance thanks to using light rather than electronic pulses. The light is highly resistant to EMI and doesn’t radiate EMI of its own. That lack of EMI will make the optical USB cabling solution appealing in places where EMI is a big issue such as medical imaging.

[via VIA-Labs]

That is cool, but most of us aren’t using Blackberry devices anymore. One of the most key features of the system is that it supports the HTML5 framework for nice visuals. The screen in the center console of the car has a layout that is said to look like the Blackberry Playbook. I would assume the screens and NFC tech would be customizable by automakers that adopt the new system. Since this was a RIM demo, they obviously wanted the screen to promote their products. The screens in the headrests were Playbooks.

The system supports high-quality audio for music and phone calls. With full duplex stereo and spatial recognitions with dual 48KHz channels for different voices and surround sound, style audio. The coolest part of the system is the reconfigurable instrument cluster. As a guy who likes to road race cars, that dash is very appealing to me. I love the screen with a single large tach in the center and the outline of what appears to be the Nurburgring in Germany on the left to show car position. That cluster is part of the QNX bag of tricks. Check out the video below to see the demo for yourself.

[via InformationWeek]

It’s a simple concept that Sharp has paired with features that make it truly useful. A carrying handle and kickstand make it easy to move and set up, and support from Sharp’s remote hardware make it easy enough to get content to the screen from close range. The base station connects to the television via its own private WiFi connection, and can handle video from standard HDMI or RGB inputs.

The larger 32-inch, 42-inch and 60-inch models retain the low weight, handles and kickstands that make the smaller Freestyle so handy, but don’t have batteries and require the standard AC connection. It isn’t an ideal solution, since the battery is only rated for two hours – but that should be enough to find a power outlet. Sharp doesn’t have any plans to release the Freestyle televisions in North America at the moment, but they’ll be available in Japan soon, and enough consumer interest could lead them to expand their markets.

First of all, the Shine’s image is displaying a full 720p resolution at 300 lumens. That doesn’t get anywhere near full-sized projectors, bu for pico projectors it’s hard to beat, with most alternatives at around the 800×600 range. The image can be displayed at up to 150 inches before losing definition. A mini-HDMI port expands to full size and a proprietary port becomes a full set of AV inputs, via a couple of included adapters.

The Shine can handle video from an attached USB drive via an input on the left side. A tiny speaker will provide some audio in a pinch, but outputting it via a headphone port is a better option. In the demonstration that Velocity Micro provided to us, the projector kept up with 720p content without a hitch. The interface is a little basic, but once the video gets going it’s shocking how good the picture is from such a small projector.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the Shine’s spec sheet is that it draws just 30 watts – for a pico projector displaying 300 lumens, that’s downright illuminating. Having a frame that’s only 4 inches long and 9 ounces doesn’t hurt either. Velocity Micro plans to bring out the Shine in the second quarter for around $400, with red and grey colors available at launch.

The peak of success thus far for netbooks was basically the entire year of 2008, as Miller notes, but as the decline continues to run since then, single digits to low double digits as the past year progressed, the emerging market still has a lot of wanting to take advantage of. What Intel needs to do here is make the success found in the $199 price point of this past Christmas turn into a continued success through the next year. To make an affordable small, compact internet connected device and let people know why they would want or not want to own one:

“We don’t want people to be confused on ‘should I buy a netbook or should I buy a laptop.’” – Miller

The value still exists in the netbook as a secondary device, so says Intel.

“If you’re a consumer heading into Best Buy and you don’t know what you need, we want to have options for both.” – Miller

As tablets released over the past few weeks and even just this week have changed the landscape for tablets, so too does Intel plan on changing the mobile environment on the whole with not just changes to single specifications in hardware, but in the full package. John Wallace spoke on this, saying that it’s the details, but not just the details, all of the details together that matter most.

“There’s potential to differentiate with a unified story.” – Wallace

You bet – and we expect many more manufacturers than just Intel to announce their intent to push a full package to the public rather than just the next big single specification. A fabulous column you should all take a look at once you’re done reading the above is one written by Chris Davies and entitled Context, not cores, is the tablet industry’s challenge.

What Intel has expressed quite clearly this year at CES 2012 is that though the tablet market is still currently and essentially crushed by the one top seller, the market for the tablet form factor is still in its infancy. What’ll be happening in the next year to three years is that there will be a vast expansion into other sizes and shapes, but again and more importantly, with different abilities on their chips. The differentiation will be in the complete package, not just in the individual specifications that current devices still push hard.

Intel’s top minds see an opportunity in the very near future for Windows 8 to take a strong position in the market. In addition to this, their representation on the Lenovo smartphone we saw by the name of Racer-A is already making waves in the chip-sensitive world as it is the first to feature such a combo. As each year delivers a new process, 32 nanometers here in 2012, 22 nm in 2013, and 14 nm in 2014, Intel’s expansion through both smaller and more uniquely constructed SoCs will bring the mobile world to a whole new level of diverse.