Up Close: Microsoft's Surface prototype
Microsoft's Surface experimental touch interface was on display at CES and the hordes of gawkers made it hard to get up close. The company was demoing working with photos and drawing using the Surface UI, which could be integrated into a table or placed on a wall. When will consumers actually see such technology? Not anytime soon.
Panasonic, Sony show off 2.0 Blu-ray players
Both Sony and Panasonic are showing off their next-gen Blu-ray players that support Profile 2.0, but only Panasonic has its product nearly ready.
The Blu-ray Disc Association has promised that 2008 will be the year for interactivity coming to the format, and the hardware vendors supporting the standard are pushing forward with player upgrades to support it.
Ericsson: 'The jury is still out on WiMAX'
In a meeting with BetaNews Tuesday, Ericsson said that HSPA is a more compelling wireless broadband solution than WiMAX, which it believes has yet to be proven in the marketplace.
Ericsson launched its embedded module business last year to compete with Qualcomm, which had dominated the industry for wireless broadband chips. The Swedish company, part of the GSMA, is backing High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology, which rivals both existing EV-DO services and WiMAX.
Up Close: Lenovo's new consumer IdeaPads
BetaNews met up with Lenovo at CES for some hands-on time with the new consumer-oriented IdeaPad notebooks. The new models come in three models, but share Lenovo's focus on quality construction and top-notch keyboards that ThinkPads have long been known for.
Lenovo's 11-inch IdeaPad has an aluminum casing, while the 15-inch model is built with ABS plastic. The 15-inch IdeaPad includes a 1.3-megapixel camera that does facial scanning for authenticating users.
Blu-ray: Early adopters knew what they were getting into
Blu-ray may have taken a commanding lead in the next-generation format war, but the group has a big problem looming: early supporters of the format will be left out in the cold when the Blu-ray Disc Association introduces BD Profile 2.0
Unlike HD DVD, which mandated features such as local storage, a second video and audio decoder for picture-in-picture, and a network connection from the very beginning, the companies behind Blu-ray took a different approach. Initial hardware players lacked these capabilities in order to keep costs down.
Up Close: TiVo adds video transfers from the PC
Although TiVo didn't have any new hardware to show off at CES, the company was demoing its upcoming video features, which include the ability to transfer downloaded content from a PC to the TiVo. This means TiVo users can subscribe to video podcasts or download DivX movies and have them sync automatically to the device for watching on the TV.
First up, TiVo will release a new TiVo Desktop client -- version 2.6 -- in March to enable the functionality. Beta testing is expected to begin in February. TiVo Desktop will transcode the video into the MPEG-2 format used by the set-top box. High-definition content is fully supported.
100 million copies sold, but Vista mostly absent at CES
Ahead of Bill Gates' keynote Sunday night, Microsoft said that 100 million copies of Vista have been sold, but the new OS has little presence here at CES.
In a meeting with BetaNews Monday, Aaron Coldiron, senior marketing manager for Windows Vista, acknowledged that Microsoft has done little to offer a compelling story for its flagship operating system, but promised changes were afoot.
Microsoft stands behind HD DVD for Xbox 360
Microsoft's director of global marketing for the Xbox 360, Albert Penello, told BetaNews this morning that the company will continue to push an HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360, but acknowledged the external nature would enable it to ship a Blu-ray drive if Sony's format became the new high-definition standard.
Penello also said that despite the rumors, Microsoft has never planned to ship an Xbox console with an integrated HD DVD drive, but the decision has nothing to do with the uncertainty in the format war. Because neither standard was finalized when the Xbox 360 shipped, Microsoft opted to use DVDs.
Update: Paramount denies plans to drop HD DVD
Paramount has officially denied rumors that it will break its exclusivity with HD DVD and switch to Blu-ray. The studio said in a statement that its current plan is to continue supporting the format.
The Financial Times claimed that Paramount will use a "get-out clause" in its exclusivity agreement with HD DVD to follow Warner in jumping ship to Blu-ray. The paper cited "people familiar with the situation," and offered little evidence.
Warner Bros. says it fulfilled obligations to Toshiba, HD DVD
Following the Blu-ray press conference Monday afternoon, BetaNews briefly spoke with Warner Bros. President Ron Sanders about the studio's decision to go Blu-ray and a potential lawsuit from Toshiba.
BetaNews: Warner Bros. is involved in the DVD Forum and was involved in the development of HD DVD. You also were one of the first studios to utilize Microsoft's VC1 codec. Toshiba has hinted that you may have violated contractual obligations to them over HD DVD. Are you concerned they might file a lawsuit over this? Do you have a contract in place to support HD DVD?
Live from the Blu-ray press conference
BetaNews reports from the Blu-ray press conference, where the BDA talks up its expected win over HD DVD. But is the format war really over?
5:05pm PT: Press conference is beginning. Blu-ray Disc Association's Andy Parsons is speaking. Parsons heads up the BDA and comes from Pioneer. Other participants include Fox, Lionsgate, Disney and Warner Bros.
Motorola introduces ROKR E8 phone with iPhone-like touch screen
Motorola is showing off a new lineup of ROKR devices at CES, with the E8 mobile phone kicking off the next-generation of music phones from the company. While the original ROKR was iTunes compatible, the E8 focuses on MP3 and supports Windows Media files.
The E8 features a "ModeShift" button to quick change between the device's phone and music interfaces, a new "FastScroll" navigation wheel developed by Motorola to quickly browse songs, and a 2.0-inch QVGA display. The device includes 2GB of internal memory for storying files, and sports a microSD slot for expanding storage.
Panasonic develops 32GB SD card with Class 6 speed
It may be hard to spot on the hectic CES show floor, but Panasonic is showing off its new prototype SDHC card that holds a whopping 32GB of data. Although it won't be available immediately, the memory card is the world's first at that size.
The card, which surely won't come cheap, is being pitched as the solution for recording high-definition content. 32GB equates to about 8 hours of of 1440 x 1080i video and and five hours and 20 minutes of 1920 x 1080p full HD video. The Class 6 specification means the SDHC card can transfer data at 20MB/sec.
HD DVD cancels CES press conference after Warner's snub
In a shocking response to news today that Warner Bros. would make its high-definition movie releases only available on Blu-ray, the HD DVD Promotional Group has canceled its Sunday press conference at CES, and its meetings with the press.
The HD DVD Promotional Group, alongside Toshiba and Microsoft, had planned a cocktail party and press conference to tout the success and improvements in both the HD DVD format and hardware players, which saw heavy sales during the holidays thanks to falling prices.
Hitachi debuts 500GB laptop drives, but you can't buy them
If 320GB isn't enough storage for your mobile computing needs, Hitachi has a new option that offers a whopping 500GB of space, but with one caveat: it's bigger than standard laptop hard drives.
Hard disk manufacturers have been working hard to develop new technologies to pack ever more data into the smaller hard drives used in notebooks. While standard desktop drives are hitting the long-awaited 1 terabyte milestone, more consumers are opting for laptops instead, demanding similar storage capacities.
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