Scott Fulton, BetaNews: Every year at CES time, we revisit the topic of when or whether the United States will finally catch up with the rest of the world in mobile wireless broadband. Why do we keep butting up against the same roadblocks year after year?

For our #2 trend on the countdown, we ask whether this time, the telcos and service providers at CES are finally getting the formula down for the next great evolution of services. To start, I'd like to bring in former Gartner analyst, and our CES analyst here all week, Sharon Fisher.

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Scott Fulton, BetaNews: If you've been following our CES 2008 coverage since the few days before our team arrived in Las Vegas, you probably found yourself asking an interesting question: Has BetaNews forgotten how to count?

After all, we had a Top 10 countdown, and we ended up at #4. Well, we do have a bit of an excuse for you: First of all, we had some material already planned about the high-definition format war. That material became quickly outdated after the events of last weekend, and with the crowd at CES starting to see Blu-ray as the front-runner, if not the outright leader, for the first time.

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While last year's CES had multiple electronics makers touting the world's largest display, Panasonic took no chances this year, showcasing a 150-inch plasma TV. The screen has been the talk of the show, measuring 11 feet long with a resolution of 2000x4000 pixels. Although it's just a prototype, the television highlights the ability for manufacturers to build bigger screens at lower prices.

View more images from Panasonic's booth

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Maybe they are busy prepping for CES, but Microsoft only plans to issue two patches for the first Patch Tuesday of the new year. Both patches will deal with code execution vulnerabilities in the Windows Vista operating system. One will be rated "critical," while the other received an "important" rating from the Redmond company.

The critical patch affects not only Vista, but all versions of the Windows operating system, while the important patch is also intended for Windows 2000, XP, and 2003. FrSIRT may provide some idea as to what these patches may be: it currently lists a critical buffer overflow vulnerability in Microsoft DirectX, and a "moderate risk" flaw in the Windows CFileFind class.

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Toshiba made available today its 9th generation M700 tablet PC, the current highest-end tablet PC offered by the company, and the first to offer multi-touch capability.

Besides being the first convertible laptop from Toshiba to feature a multi-touch backlit LED display, it is also the only tablet currently available in retail to incorporate a swappable Ultra SlimBay for an internal optical drive, second hard drive, or just to lighten the overall package.

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LG said Monday that its second try at a dual-format next generation disc player is now available at retailers.

Unlike the company's previous player, this unit has been certified by both HD DVD and Blu-ray, and will be upgradeable to the new BD Profile 1.1 when those discs become available next year. Like its predecessor, the BH200 will retail for $999 and support up to 1080p resolution. LG's announcement follows that of Samsung, whose player will sell for $200 less when it becomes available later this month.

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Time Warner subsidiary GameTap is searching for people who love to play games to join its beta program. Sign up through this exclusive invitation before the spots fill up.

No matter whether you prefer action games such as Tomb Raider: Anniversary and Clive Barker's Jericho, adventures games such as Sam & Max: Season Two and Overlord, fighting games such as Street Fighter Alpha 3 and King of Fighters 2003, or puzzle games like Bust-A-Move and Columns, GameTap has them all playable for free.

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Despite rumors of delays, the Korean electronics maker says its dual-format player is still on track for a release this month. The BD-UP5000 will also ship with a lower price than originally announced. Samsung said that it will lower the price to $799, $200 cheaper than its original listing. According to a spokesperson, the player has begun shipping and will appear on retailers' shelves soon.

Even with Samsung's assurances, the Amazon.com list page for the product still says the player will be released on January 15, 2008.

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The US House of Representatives late Wednesday approved a measure by a vote of 409-2, to expand the responsibilities of ISPs to reign in child pornography on their servers.

Under the new law, Internet service providers will be required to preserve child pornography images as evidence, and report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children the online screen names and locations of suspected child predators, along with the times when the images in question were accessed.

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Media conglomerate News Corp said Wednesday that its film and television arm had purchased religious site Beliefnet, which is the most popular religion site in the US. Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, it is believed that News Corp paid in the tens of millions for the site. Topics on the site are not just Christian-centric: subjects on other religions are covered, including Judaism, Hinduism, and others.

Beliefnet will likely remain a separate entity and would not be integrated with other News Corp web properties. However, the site may look to integrate somewhat with MySpace in the future, Fox Digital president Dan Fawcett told the Wall Street Journal. The site would also adopt advertising technology that was developed by Fox Interactive for MySpace, he said.

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Cisco confirmed late Tuesday that Padmasree Warrior would take a position with the company as its chief technology officer, just one day after she left Motorola following the exit of CEO Ed Zander. Warrior would be a good fit for Cisco as it moves into becoming more of a consumer company, but holds a good deal of enterprise and networking knowledge which is still very much the company's primary business.

"I am eager to bring to Cisco my technical expertise, over 20 years of experience in many aspects of the communications industry, a global bent of mind and an energizing leadership style," she said in a blog post announcing her hiring. She also said the company's drive to build new paradigms in communications drew her to the company. Warrior would report to CEO John Chambers.

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Microsoft late Monday expanded its beta test of Windows XP Service Pack 3 to subscribers of its MSDN and TechNet programs, releasing what is being called a "near-final release candidate." The move is likely harbinger of a public beta, as the latest SP3 code will be in the hands of far more than the 15,000 who originally were given access in mid-November.

Noted Microsoft pundit Mary Jo Foley says the public release of an XP SP3 beta could come as early as next week, when a public test build of Windows Vista SP1 is said to be slated for release. A final version of both service packs are currently scheduled for the first half of next year, "based on customer feedback." Vista SP1 will likely arrive sooner than XP SP3, possibly in February.

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Corel said Thursday that its WinDVD playback software had received certification from the Blu-ray Disc Association to playback discs that use the Profile 1.1 standard.

With the certification, WinDVD would become the first non-hardware playback option available on the market capable of supporting the updated standard. The first discs based on 1.1 are expected to hit the market in early 2008, as will the version of WinDVD with the capability.

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Sales of Sony's new PlayStation Portable in Japan have topped 1 million in just two months, hitting the milestone two weeks sooner than the original PSP did three years ago. The updated model is smaller and lighter than its predecessor, and is available in pink to attract female gamers.

Sony's handheld has been struggling to compete with Nintendo's DS, which has become the fastest-selling gaming device in history. Nintendo released two new DS bundles last week to further shore up holiday sales, and expects to sell 28 million units for the fiscal year ending in March. Sony, meanwhile, is forecasting sales of 10 million PSPs over the same time period.

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It costs more than an iPhone, but an updated version of Nokia's second-generation Internet tablet has arrived on store shelves just in time for the holidays at a price of $479. The Nokia N810. boasts both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and a nearly 4 1/4-inch display with 800x480 resolution.

A version of Linux dubbed OS 2008 powers the N810 and includes a Mozilla-based browser with Ajax capabilities, Abobe Flash, as well as Skype and Real's Rhapsody service. The previous N800 tablet can be updated with the new software as well. Although its Internet tablets have only seen minor success in the marketplace, Nokia is hoping third party developers will create applications that make the device more enticing to consumers.

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