It could be here in five months; it could be here sooner. But even before the Palm Pre has a firm release date, there are a few datapoints and checkpoints you need to keep an eye on.

Dollars and demand. In the wake of CES, the pricing and supply picture is becoming clearer. At this point it's believed that the Pre will be priced at under $200 with a two-year Sprint contract and at either $399 or $499 without it. That's steep, sure, but not at all out of line for a high-end handset from Sprint (or anyone else).

It was a week with more than the usual chaos, but it left us all with a different perspective on the CE industry than we had going in. Angela, Jackie, and Tim share their thoughts on "green," on Pre, widgets, and 3-D football.

"Tomorrowland," that wonderfully boastful exhibit that was the hallmark of Disneyland since it first opened, let folks ride on a treadmill as animatronic scenes of our electronic, robotic, servo-motorized future dazzled them like Christmas displays in downtown retail store windows.

Last year's Consumer Electronics Show was marked by decisive, pronounced changes in direction for the electronics industry. This year, the battle lines are being completely redrawn.

The single most pronounced aspect of CES 2009 was that, in nearly every industry category, the momentum had shifted in a completely different direction. The leaders and the followers, in many respects, had shifted direction -- in some cases, very surprisingly and almost impossibly. Here's some key examples:

All three Chinese telecommunications companies received 3G licenses last week from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and each has a different standard of choice.

China Mobile, the largest mobile phone operator in China, will build and operate a TD-SCDMA 3G network. The 3G standard is a Chinese development that differs from W-CDMA in that it uses Time Division Duplexing, a method of separating uplink and downlink signals and dynamically allocating spectrum to each. Over the weekend, the company told the Beijing News that its plan for the network includes a 58.8 billion yuan investment ($8.6b/ €6.43b) on some 60,000 TS-SCDMA base stations and have coverage in 238 cities.

A world of choice and opportunity in televised media was offered up last week at CES, with the Internet enabling new channels and greater viewer choices. Of course, that world won't get here on its own.

If you ask ordinary Americans what bothers them most about the ongoing DTV transition, it's the notion that there doesn't seem to be a clear resolution to the problem of attaching another old-style dongle-like device to their televisions. It's not so much that older analog TVs have to be retrofitted; that much they can handle. It's that the cable, satellite, and now the phone/fiberoptic companies as well are all compelling or forcing customers to attach an even bigger set-top box (STB) to their existing displays, even if those displays are brand-new 1080p HDTV receivers.

CBS' TV.com, a site formerly providing information about television programming has begun its transition to a video site, and is expected to announce some critical distribution deals today.

Numerous reports have surfaced that CBS has signed content distribution deals with PBS, Showtime, MGM, Sony, and Endemol USA (the company responsible for Deal or No Deal, and 1 vs. 100) that will bring a multitude of new shows to TV.com's streaming video library.

Download Windows 7 Beta from Fileforum now (or at least try).

After adding some server horsepower to the Windows 7 beta download over the weekend, some testers did manage to receive working copies. That's not to say everything's working perfectly just yet.

As part of a bigger push into the United States, Nokia launched the E63, 7510 and 1006 phones at CES this week, while also giving a North American showing of the N97.

In a demo at the Nokia booth on Sunday, Jacqueline Evory, manager of communications devices, described the E63 phone as a less costly consumer edition of Nokia's messaging-oriented E71 business phone. The E63 was available in overseas markets before getting to the US, and Nokia will now sell the phone unlocked for North America.

Newly bought out by Best Buy, Web-based music maven Napster is now looking into delivering location-based services such as notifying Best Buy customers on their cell phones about local concerts, said Napster's CEO, speaking at CES last night.

Addressing an audience at a CES mobile forum, Napster CEO Brad Duea pointed to a study by JupiterMedia analysts showing that, of all location-based services they'd most like to use, music -- at 11 percent -- is topped only by weather, at 14 percent.

At CES 2009, EchoStar previewed a new 1 TB HD DVR with an integrated Slingbox. Combining TV and IP technologies, the DVR will include a touchpad remote control, RF support, and brand new, tile-based user interface.

"We've never had anything like this before," , said Tony Kozlowski, senior product manager, showing off the new EchoStar SlingLoaded 922 HD DVR in the EchoStar booth at CES on Sunday afternoon for Betanews.

One of Intel's software stacks will run the Yahoo-powered Widget Channel, whereas the other will operate tru2way technology for applications that work across environments from different cable providers.

Both software stacks will run on top of a media processor, Intel officials said, speaking with Betanews on Sunday in the Intel booth at CES.

Some CES attendees who had the opportunity to watch the Oklahoma Sooners get creamed during a BCS game Thursday -- always a glorious experience (though not for Scott) -- were also the first to watch a live 3D college football game.

But live 3D sports has been promised since 2004, and has been trickling in since then.

FreedomVOICE's Newber iPhone application has been in beta since September, but getting listed in the App store has its difficulties.

Last September, FreedomVOICE opened the beta of its Newber iPhone application that adds a virtual second line and the ability to manage calls and route them through PBX, landline, or even other cellular handsets.

And you thought breaking the $400 netbook price barrier was a milestone? Okay, maybe it was, but what would you want for...say, $89?

The above image speaks for itself. Chinese electronics manufacturer Menq is set up in the North hall of CES, nestled among explosively loud car audio displays and lesser-known PND makers, showing off its EasyPC netbook line that easily snags the title of "cheapest netbook available" both in cost and quality, of course.

Amidst all the announcements about widgets this week was one ominous note: a survey from Strategy Analytics saying that consumers it surveyed weren't all that hot on widgets.

Well, they're right -- and wrong. As Disraeli (or Mark Twain, depending on your preference) used to say, there's three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics. And the way you design a survey can make a big difference in the sorts of answers you get.