Isaiah's Tech

I don't know if you remember but back at CES, JVC presented a prototype that claimed to be the world's thinnest 32-inch LCD display. Well, this TV is just 6.4mm thick, which will definitely claim the world's thinnest LCD display title - for now. The display also weighs just 12.5 pounds (world's lightest as well), and has: 400 nits of brightness and a 4,000:1 contrast ratio. This TV is said to be available in Japan this August for around $2,500 USD. JVC did not mention if this will get a release overseas, so we'll just have to be patient.

Like I said, JVC's LCD TV could be dethroned soon because LG is claiming to be working on 5.9mm thin 32-inch displays of their own.

[Crunch Gear]

Here's another Asus netbook to look forward to - if you're into the whole netbook thing. The Asus Eee PC T91 is a netbook with a touchscreen display and it was seen back in January at CES. Asus has just revealed that it will be available in the UK in "late May or early June" for £449 ($675 USD). The spec sheet has not been confirmed yet, but it will definitely rock Intel's Atom CPU, but it's not specified which one - at CES it used the Z520. Other specs possibly include 1GB of RAM, optional GPS, and a TV tuner. Since it is a touchscreen netbook it will have Asus' Eee PC Touch UI. You can take a look at the demonstration of the UI below, thanks to Slash Gear.

Update of July 12th: Asus has officially announced that the Asus Eee PC T91 will be available on July 15th.



[Slash Gear]

The GiiNii Movit Mini Tablet PC was shown off at CES, but I didn't blog about it because I might've skipped over it. Well, here it is for you all now!! The Movit Mini that was expected to launch mid-2009 is being pushed back to an expected October 1st release date. The Mini will have a 4.3-inch resistive touchscreen with a 480 x 272 resolution, Bluetooth, WiFi, an integrated webcam for Skype, built-in mic / speaker, only 256MB of onboard memory, a microSD slot, and will run on Android. No word on if it will come with Cupcake, but it should. As of right now there has been no word on a price, but they did mention that it will be "less than the iPod Touch" so hopefully they don't forget their promises.

The Movit Max, on the other hand, will have a 7-inch screen and is expected to release on January 1st, 2010.

[Engadget, Engadget (specs)]

Apparently, the most advanced TV-to-date, the Toshiba Cell is said to still be on schedule for a late 2009 release. The Toshiba Cell will have the Cell processor inside of it which is the same processor used inside of the PS3. "The Cell TV is a combination of a standalone box and television, which allows multiple feeds on one screen - up to eight HD feeds at once - or can transmit these feeds to various sets around your house." This TV looks really impressive - it has face recognition for movies - enough said. It was shown off at CES and also at a recent Toshiba product launch outside of London. The Toshiba Cell may be impressive, but the spec sheet has yet to be revealed. Don't expect this TV to be cheap, so save up some money if you're looking to buy one of these bad boys.

[Tech Radar]

We got our first look at this baby at CES and it's now available - and for just $749 USD. The HP Pavilion Dv2 notebook will have: a 12.1-inch screen with a 1,280 x 800 resolution, AMD's new Neo 1.6GHz processor, ATI's Mobility Radeon HD3410 graphics card, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB HDD, and a DVD drive. If the earlier specs from CES are true, it will weigh just 3.8 pounds while managing to be just an inch thick. It will also come with other options, such as: Bluetooth, an HDMI port, an integrated webcam, up to 500GB of HDD storage, 802.11n, WiFi and WWAN support, and a Blu-ray drive. This notebook looks like a good piece of plastic from HP, don't forget that it's now available for a base price of just $749 USD. Oh yes, since this is a notebook and not a netbook it will be running on Windows Vista 64-bit.

[Crunch Gear]

Earlier this year at CES, Samsung unveiled more from their AQUOS line-up. These new, different 3 models: 40-inch (LC-40AE6), 46-inch (LC-46AE6), and 52-inch (LC-52AE6) will be sporting a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution. It also has a digital tuner, 120Hz technology, 15,000:1 contrast ratio, 450 nits of brightness, and 176-degree viewing angles. These LCD HDTVs will be available starting next month in Japan. The 40-inch model will be available on April 10 for ¥200,000 ($2,076 USD) and the other 2 larger models will be released on May 15. The 46-inch will be going for ¥260,000 ($2,698 USD) and the 52-inch will be going for ¥390,000 ($4,048 USD). Keep in mind that there is no word on whether it will be released to the US.

[Engadget]

Google Street View has just captured a man walking around in the streets of America with a rifle. I don't really know what else to say, but there's the picture above for you. Only in America.

I talked about the recent PS4 leaks (here) and Sony has denied the rumours again. Yes, i know it's kind of old that every rumour about Sony just has to be denied all the time, but what can i do.

You must remember the Philips 21:9 Cinema HDTV. This 56-inch ultra-widescreen monster will unfortunately not be making it's way to the United States. This also means that it will not reach the Canadian market either. This TV, that i talked about here and here, is also the TV that removes the 'black bars' on those widescreen DVDs. It seems that Philips might actually dislike the US market. This TV was also nowhere to be seen at CES, which was in Vegas. Philips do you have something to confess?

This morning if you used Google search, you might have noticed that every search result displayed the, "This site may harm your computer" tag. Luckily, it was fixed this morning at 11:50 a.m. EST. The whole Internet was going crazy, so it seemed like pretty big news. Now imagine if the whole Internet was infected by malware. I think that would cause a disaster worse than our current economic crisis or the upcoming end of the world (scheduled for December 21, 2012).

Google Street View (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5143274/google-street-view-completes-tour-of-real-america-with-dude-carrying-rifle
Sony Denies the PS4 Leaks: http://gamingfront.net/story-165-.html
Philips 56-inch Cinema HDTV (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/31/philips-56-inch-cinema-21-9-hdtv-not-for-americans/
Google Marks the Internet as Harmful (and picture): http://lifehacker.com/5143489/google-marked-every-site-as-harmful-this-morning

There are no more CES press conferences for me to watch and summarize, so it's off to my regular blogs about random news. Whether you have heard of it or not Twitter had an overwhelming growth in 2008. In 2008, Twitter even beat Facebook in growth (percentage-wise). If you don't know what Twitter is, let me tell you what the gist of it is, using Wikipedia's help, since i don't know too much about Twitter myself. "Twitter is a free social networking site and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates [tweets], which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length." It sounds like 'statuses' on Facebook. I, personally, don't use it myself and i also don't really understand why people use it. Anyways in 2008, according to Mashable, Twitter grew a whopping 752%. Twitter started the year with only about 500,000 visitors monthly and by the time it was December that number spiked up to 4.43 million visitors a month. On another note, Facebook finally surpassed Myspace in US traffic, just barely. In the beginning of 2008, Myspace had about 34 million more visitors monthly, but by the end of the year it was a different story. By the time it was December, Myspace had about 59,544,152 visitors and Facebook had 59,675,502 [Edited by: Anonymous]. Close victory for Facebook and congratulations. There are 2 charts above, showing the growth of Twitter and the battle between Facebook and Myspace. In the second graph; Myspace is red and Facebook is blue.

My last two topics will talk about Microsoft. First off, the Windows 7 beta that, originally, had a 2.5 million download limit and was released on Friday, January 9, 2009, have now been changed to having an unlimited download cap. This Windows 7 beta download was only going to be released on the Friday on a first come first serve basis, but Microsoft extended the download until January 24th. So, basically, the Windows 7 beta download is available until January 24 for everyone.

At CES, Microsoft had the infamous RROD in Halo Wars, but they weren't done with failing yet. As they were showing off their Surface Computers, an error occurred. It's not as good as the Red Ring of Death, but it's a decent fail. Looks like Microsoft had a bit of bad luck at CES. It's okay, i still liked their press conference.




Twitter on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
Twitter's Massive Growth (and charts): http://mashable.com/2009/01/09/twitter-growth-2008/
Windows 7 Beta Download (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5128738/windows-7-open-beta-download-limit-lifted-until-january-24
Microsoft Surface Fail (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5128355/as-seen-at-ces-microsoft-surface-fail

This is Palm press conference summary. John starts out talking about the "right phone and the right platform." He must be talking about the Palm Pre and it's new OS.

Ed Colligan, the President and CEO of Palm takes the stage. He talks about the "roots of Palm." He mentions that Palm has mobile in their DNA, since that's all they're focused on. It started off with the Palm Pilot that, once, changed the way people managed their life on-the-go. But, for this new phone they had to start from the ground-up. He introduces the Palm WebOS. They, finally, show the Palm Pre and they also list all of the features on their new phone. It has Bluetooth, an 8GB storage, a "fast processor", GPS and Wi-fi. The phone itself has a 3.1 inch touch screen (with multi-touch capability) with a 320 x 480 resolution. On the phone it has a gesture area (more on that later), a center button, an accelerometer, a proximity sensor and an ambient light (whatever that is). On the side of the phone is the volume. On to the back, you get a 3 megapixel camera with an LED flash and a speaker. The back of the phone has a removable back case, by consumer demand (Take that iPhone). On the right side you get your MicroUSB. On the top of the phone, you get your regular 3.5mm headphones, a ringer switch and a power button. The phone itself has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and is ergonomically curved. Shortly after explaining this, he exits the stage.

Matias Duarte comes on the stage. He explains the OS of the phone and it's software. The gesture area of the phone seems amazing. Wow, this OS is very advanced but, at the same time, it was still simple, if that makes any sense. WebOS is nothing like you've seen before. The new gesture area is a very, very, very good concept. Oh my God. I want this phone, but not for it's design, which is still good-looking. But, instead i would get it for the Pre's OS, which looks amazing if you see it in action. It has superb productivity. They show the new WebOS's feature, called Synergy. Synergy manages your contact information, calendars and your e-mail. It connects everything. Everyone reading this blog post right now should watch a video about the software to understand why i am drooling over this OS right now. The different windows or tasks on WebOS are called 'cards.' Matias exits the stage, soon after.

John appears back on stage. He shows the Palm Pre's wireless charger, which uses Inductive technology to charge your phone. He reviews the key things about the Palm was it's Synergy, universal search, unobtrusive notifications, cards, and the break-though user experience.

Ed Colligan comes back on stage and says that the Pre is "the one phone you can use through your entire life." He also mentions that Sprint will be the carrier for the Palm Pre. He introduces the CEO of Sprint to the stage.

Dan Hesse is now on stage. He mentions some features of the phone like the gestures and the cards. He says that this is the "right product on the right network" Furthermore, he mentions Gizmodo's article on the 3G networks in the US, regarding: Sprint, At&t and Verizon. Gizmodo said that Sprint had the fastest download speed. Dan mentions that their 3G service in the US is 4 times as large as At&t's and that Sprint is also the most dependable. He says that you can go to sprint.com for more information on pre-registering for the Palm Pre. Before he leaves the stage he congratulates Palm. They mention that the Pre will be available in the first half of 2009. They show a lot of their partners, which include many big names, like: Google, Yahoo, Facebook, AOL, Amazon and Pandora, to name a few.

Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook gets on stage. She talks about Facebook's success and shows a couple of graphs and a timeline of their history. She welcomes the Palm Pre.

Ed comes back on stage and he recaps 3 things from the presentation. The new WebOS, of course, the Palm Pre, which is, "the phone that thinks ahead" and their partners.

John comes back and thanks the audience for being there. It was a fairly long press conference, seeing how it was 67 minutes and they only talked about the Palm Pre. But, it was extremely great news from Palm. It will be good to see how they do, in the near future.

Palm Press Conference video: http://www.g4tv.com/ces2009/press_conf_detail.aspx?video_key=35970
Palm Pre picture: http://www.pcworld.com/article/156710/new_3g_palm_pre_enters_smart_phone_war.html
Palm Pre picture (2): http://www.popsci.com/node/30803

My first press conference of the day will be Blu-ray and this may or may not be my last press conference, since i am still debating on whether or not to watch Intel's and Palm's press conferences. Anyways, let's start it up.

The chairman of Blu-ray is the first to take the stage. He talks about first looking back on the history of Blu-ray and then he will talk about the future. The hardware sales in the US are 10.7 million since June 2006 and this is including the PS3. This fact alone tells us that Blu-ray is actually doing better than DVD when it started out. Blu-ray's adoption rate is picking up rapidly, it grew about 300% from 2007 - 2008. Blu-ray's growth in it's first 2.5 year's actually tops both DVD's and the TV's growth in it's early 3 years. There are nearly 1100 Blu-ray titles available. Blu-ray, during the holiday season, grew "significantly." There have been 30 million Blu-ray discs sold in the US market to date. Blu-ray is beyond just the HD experience because BD-Live also takes advantage of bringing the Internet and that media to your home. He mentions that BD-Live is the new and, current, killer application for Blu-ray hardware. The future is 3D. They think that Blu-ray is the package media platform for the 3D market. Blu-ray, as a company, is trying to combine the best HD with the best 3D for the ultimate experience.

Someone new comes to stage and he introduces 3 professional panel members to talk all about Blu-ray. I will just refer to all the 3 panels members as 'they,' since i don't know any of their names. The mention that 2008 was a critical year for Blu-ray and that there will be a steady and stable increase in the Blu-ray demand over the year 2009. The remain optimistic for Blu-ray to succeed, just like it has been doing. They feel that the PS3 was affected by crisis, but also that everyone has been affected in some way. They announce that Blu-ray is around to stay and that it will take over DVD's. One of the panel members mentions that, even amidst the economic crisis, he expects to see a 500% - 600% increase in Blu-ray output in 2009. They mention that Blu-ray will continue to outperform DVD's first year's in growth. They touch up on the subject that Digital downloading will surpass all other techonlogy, such as Blu-ray and DVD. They say that HD quality digital downloads are not near the quality of Blu-ray because Blu-ray is the future, due to it's many, many features.

The chairman comes back and he shows a slideshow of the 18 new Blu-ray players at CES and mentions that 11 of them have BD-Live. The slide doesn't contain any pictures, just their model numbers. He mentions that Blu-ray will be more successful than Digital downloading, just like paper has been more successful in the office. He make the comparison between Blu-ray and Digital downloading, to Paper and the 'Paperless Office.' He mentions that although many people years ago believed that the paperless office would soon take over, it never actually ended up happening. This is due to the satisfactory of physically owning the Blu-ray disc. He throws in another reason, that if your Hard drive fails and you don't back up your software correctly, you would've just lost huge money. After that, a question and answer takes place. There was a good question based on what they are using Blu-ray's 50GB capacity on the discs for. I thought this was interesting because i, too, wanted to know why the Blu-ray discs have such a huge capacity. Bigger is better though. Most of the questions that were asked never actually related to Blu-ray because a lot of questions that were asked were regarding the studio's decisions and not Blu-ray's.

Blu-ray Press Conference video here: http://www.g4tv.com/ces2009/press_conf_detail.aspx?video_key=35874
Blu-ray Logo: http://www.ridgelabs.com/
Samsung Blu-ray Player picture: http://i.gizmodo.com/5124091/samsung-bd+p3600p4600-super+slim-wall+friendly-blu+ray-decks
Dark Knight Blu-ray picture: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8824255&publicUserId=5556675

Someone is talking and i have no clue who it is. I lied, it's Tom Hanks. He talks and is actually pretty funny. He introduces Howard Stringer.

Howard, alongside, Tom Hanks show a prototype of certain wearable glasses that you can watch a movie in and still manage to see the real world due to the transparency settings. Soon after, Tom Hanks leaves the stage. Time for some serious and real news now. Howard admits that Sony is not recession proof. So far this is all the information i have after 15 minutes of talking. Anyways, Howard mentions 7 goals: embrace the fusion of industries, adopt a service-enhanced philosophy, products must be multi-functional, support open technologies, advance the new shared experience, create new value chains (involving better user experience) and go green. In 2011, Sony estimates that 90% of products will connect wirelessly to the web and each other. He mentions a couple of thing's that Sony accomplished last year. The world's first Bravia with 240Hz technology, the slimmest LCD measuring at 9.9mm thin and launching a Bravia with internet capabilities. He mentions that Total Sony Experience. He shows off the world's first camera with Wi-Fi capabilities, the new CyberShot. It will have a one touch upload and the pictures are even uploadable to your Bravias. He also mentions that it has an extraordianary reasonable price and the crowd started to laugh. I could tell that this was not the reaction he wanted and he immediately cleared his throat twice to shut the crowd up. Ooo. Anyways, by using Wi-Fi, Sony has developed a new bedside companion with news, sports, weather, alarms and so much more. It will also be touchscreen and is for the next-generation. He says, "Wouldn't you like to wake up to Big Ben?... the clock i mean." The crowd chuckled a bit. Time for some OLED! They are working on a 20 - 30 inch model. He shows the "Flex OLED" screen (above picture) that has amazing clarity on a small screen. While the Beyonce music video was playing on the Flex OLED, he bent the screen more, just to showcase it. Howard mentions that Sony sells the most HD products and he continues, mentioning Blu-rays 2008 sales of 28 million. He reports that Sony sells half of all Blu-ray players. He gives the stage up to Pixar.

John Lasseter, from Pixar, enters that stage and talks about Blu-ray. He says that when you have it you can't go back. He shows a clip of their movie Wall-e featuring Blu-ray. He mentions that Blu-ray is not just about quality, but that it also has BD-live which is connected to the Internet. He shows a new Sleeping Beauty integrated with BD-live. The menu screen will show a scenery and the background, weather area, of where you are currently located by default and you can change it by clicking anywhere on the map. In the future, Pixar will use 3D and Blu-ray in their movies. John ends off his presentation by showing an exclusive preview of Pixar's next movie called Up. He mentions that they are working on Toy Story 3 and 3D version's of Toy Story 1 and 2.

Howard comes back on stage and mentions a bit more about Blu-ray. The Playstation 3 helped Blu-ray win the war between HD-DVD. He says that there is a 61.3 million install base of the PS3 and the PSP. Shortly after, he introduces someone really familiar to me.

Mr. Kaz Hirai takes the stage. He quickly says that there have been 330 million content downloads over the PSN (Playstation Network). There are 17 million accounts and 2.1 million in the most recent months on PSN. The Playstation 3 is a great example of getting a community together. This is because of LittleBigPlanet, a game that has 1.3 million players. He mentions that the original game came with 50 levels, but now there are user-generated content and up to 300,000 levels currently! He backtracks to 2 years ago and mentions that in April 2007 they launched Sony Online Entertainment. Well now, they are working on a game called Free Realms, which is an MMO. It will launch on the PC first and then shortly after, it will hit the PS3. Kaz reports that MTV is partnering with them to help with their movies, and such, on their Playstation Store. He shows Life with Playstation, which is kind of like Google Earth, but just a bit more basic. I don't know the features of Life with Playstation, but he only showcased different parts of the world and certain temperatures. Kaz talks about Playstation Home and says that in the first month, 3.4 million users doiwnloaded Home. There have been 1 million dollars worth of products sold on Playstation Home ever since it's been released [on Open Beta]. Kaz mentions that Electronic Arts is going to help them develop certain things on Home.

Howard Stringer comes back on stage and is joined by Dr. Oz. Sony Pictures will be producing this guy's show on TV in Fall 2009. I don't know what this guy has to do with anything at Sony's keynote. But, i did find it amusing that he talked about being fat. LOL America, maybe you should listen to this guy.

After Dr. Oz's talk, Howard Stringer is on stage with another person, Reggie Jackson, who is in MLB's Hall-of-Fame. He talks about his baseball career and that he is excited about future technology. Playstation 3 will be in the new New York stadium that they are building. Reggie Jackson leaves the stage. Howard tells the crowd that the Eco-Bravia won CES 2009's Innovation Design and Engineering award in the eco-design category. He talks about recycling, just like everyone did. He shows a couple of new products now. The Dye Sensitized Solar Cell, which can create energy from light in your room and he said that there is more information about it at Sony's booth after the keynote. He also shows the Sugar-based Bio Battery and the concept Greenheart phone, which is made of recycled products. He shows 3d video's to the audience, which G4 skips, since there really would be no point in us at home to see this. After that, someone from Dreamworks Animation talks, but i didn't really pay too much attention to him.

Before Howard finished his presentation, he mentioned: PlayNow Plus, a Sony Ericcson phone (I forget the model), the Vaio P (above picture) and Sony Music.

Gosh, Sony, what's with the 74-minute+ keynote? It's alright, i forgive you guys. Anyways, this weekend will be pretty tough for me. Tomorrow, i'm gonna finish blogging about everything CES and then i need to get cracking on my homework, which i have quite a bit to do.

Sony Keynote video: http://www.g4tv.com/ces2009/press_conf_detail.aspx?video_key=35871
OLED picture: http://hight3ch.com/post/flexible-color-oled-screen/
LittleBigPlanet picture: http://www.notcot.org/post/10302/
Sony Vaio P picture: http://www.zone-numerique.com/news_4222_CES_2009_Sony_Vaio_P_le_netbook_original_enfin_devoile.htm

Let's start it off quickly. Luckily, this is only a 34-minute press conference.

The first 2 people on stage, Josh Garvin and Chris Reese, present the first game, Resistance Retribution, which is exclusive for the PSP. This game will be have a Resistance Connect (more about that later). This game, Resistance Retribution is a 3rd-person shooter that will be available in the Spring. This game will bridge the gap between the original Resistance and Resistance 2, which are on the Playstation 3. Resistance Retribution happens a couple of weeks after the first game in the series, Resistance: Fall of Man. After all of this, they showed a story trailer video that takes place in Europe in the year, 1951. Since i do not own a Playstation 3, i haven't played any Resistance titles, so i can't comment much on it. I do know that in the trailer there were a bunch of zombies. What is Resistance Connect? Well, it will basically connect Resistance Retribution to your Playstation 3, using 2 important modes. The first mode is called Infection. You use a USB cable to connect your PSP to your PS3 and this will infect your PSP to unlock new features in the game. The second mode is called Retribution Plus. In this mode, you can play the game using your PS3 controller, instead of playing it on the PSP. This will be useful if you want to play Resistance Retribution on your TV or something. Both Josh and Chris explain the instructions on how to connect the PSP to your PS3 and stuff. They showed a video, but it was pretty dark, since i was watching it online, thanks to G4. Anyways, they both exit the stage..

Brian Fleming enters the stage. He is going to talk about the game called inFamous. He shows an intro video to start up his presentation. The video tells us that there was a 6-block radius blast that kills [almost] everyone except for the main character. After the blast, he realizes that he has special powers. He can shoot electricity. In the video he, pretty much, blows everything up. He blows a train, a car and, also, a truck up. There was a lot of chaos and destruction going on in the video. It was dominated with blue and red colours. Blue being the electricity and red being all of the fire. Brian talks about this game giving you the experience of becoming a superhero. Yay! What your actions are in the game will depict the end-result or your different problems / missions. He shows another video about inFamous and there is, again, a lot of destruction taking place. He exits.

Hermen Hulst enters and he is going to talk about Killzone 2. He shows many videos about Killzone 2 throughout his presentation. The first video of Killzone 2 was to refresh your memory about what this game is about. The detail that they have put into this game looks amazing. Killzone 2 will be a 1st-person shooter, so that it will leave you with more interactivity. He then shows another video, regarding the bullet impact and such. The next video is about the environment. Another video (I told you there are a lot of), regarding the overwhelming graphics that you may not notice while you're caught up in the gameplay. The next video shows more gameplay footage and it brings everything together. It was pretty intense stuff, i just really hope it lives up to all of the hype that it is receiving. I see a glimpse of the slideshow and it says that the single-player campaign will be a mere 10 hours. I don't know if that's long, but i know that, for me, that would take only a day of playing. The last video shows a preview to the introduction Killzone 2 video. He says his thanks and goodbyes.

That concludes the short Playstation 3 press conference.

Playstation 3 Press Conference video: http://www.g4tv.com/ces2009/press_conf_detail.aspx?video_key=35873
Resistance Retribution picture: http://www.teamteabag.com/2008/07/15/e3-resitance-retribution-coming-to-psp/
inFamous picture: http://www.thesimexchange.com/news-item.php?id=25400
Killzone 2 picture: http://www.platformnation.com/2008/12/05/killzone-2-finally-has-a-date/

Today is me and my girlfriend's 6 month anniversary, so i went to her place today and we watched 'Hancock' and 'The Bucket List.' I thought they were both pretty good movies. Anyways, so yeah, me and my girlfriend, Nikki, have been together for 6 months now and it's truly been so-amazing. I'm not gonna write a whole note about it here because i told her all she needed to know in-person today =). I love you.

The picture above is the new Panasonic TC-P54Z1 Viera Plasma. It has a 54 inch screen and supports 1080p. Oh yeah, it's also only 1 inch thick.

So, Engadget finally got it's hands on the new Dell Adamo at CES. They mention that, judging from their eyesight, they're guessing that it was under an inch thick. The name Adamo, will be what the series will be called and this is the first notebook in this new Dell series. I watched the video (here) and noticed that the Dell Adamo was very shiny. Very shiny. Engadget mentions that "it's built really, really, well -- and it's a total smudge magnet, with a super-glossy display and a shiny black panel like the Studio XPS series on the lid." See, i told you it was shiny.

Some Killzone 2 release dates have been announced. Mainland Europe will get Killzone 2 on Februrary 25, this year. If you live in the UK, your first crack at the game will be on February 27, which is the same release date that the US is getting.

Time to watch some more CES press conferences, i love them. It's Sony for the first 2 press conferences of the day / night.

Panasonic Viera Plasma (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5124090/panasonic-tc+p54z1-viera-plasma-54-inches-across-1-inch-deep
Dell Adamo (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/09/dell-adamo-hands-on/
Killzone 2 Release Date: http://gamzsonev3.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/killzone-2-gets-a-february-27th-release-date-in-the-uk/

So, i watched about 30 minutes of G4tv's live stream of their views of the best products at CES. I was originally going to blog about it live, but i really just felt like listening for a change. I also already missed 15 minutes of it, so there wasn't really a point. It was interesting to see the hosts in-sights on all different kinds of products and, in the end, i learned a lot more. Since, i didn't write down any notes while i was watching the live stream, i'm just going to pull some information from g4tv's official site. Some of their winners in the Mainstream Technology were: the Sony Walkman X Series, the Neo FreeRunner Android Phone and the Nextar GPS. In the Media Technology the winners were: the SlingPlayer Mobile / DISH Network Sling ViP 922, the Linksys Wireless Home Audio System and the LG LHX 55" Slim Wireless HDTV. In the last category, the Maximum Technology category, the winners were: the Boxee Software, the Checkolite Lamp Speakers and the Pogoplug. I'll just do a brief summary about each product quickly, since G4tv is still currently uploading the rest of the press conferences that took place today.

At Microsoft's press conference one of the speakers mentioned that Halo Wars was going to be released on February 28. This is, apparently, a mistake and is still going to be released on, the scheduled, March 3. All that aside, Microsoft wanted to show off their Real-Time Strategy game, Halo Wars, at this year's CES. They made it a memory all right. Apparently, the Xbox 360 showcasing Halo Wars at CES came down with the RROD (Red Ring of Death) virus. Microsoft commented and said that this was, most likely, due to an overheating problem, since they [the Xbox's] were left on for a significant amount of time. Still, epic.

G4TV's Best of CES (and pictures): http://www.g4tv.com/ces2009/bestofthebest/index.html
Halo Wars RROD: http://www.gamertagradio.com/vbportal/forums/showthread.php?t=9140

This news is not a press conference summary, but after this, i will watch some more press conferences, so don't worry. I don't know which ones i'm going to watch yet though.

"Palm unveiled the Palm Pre handheld during its press conference at CES 2009." It has the new Web OS and is a touchscreen slider phone. It will be available in the first half of 2009. The Palm Pre will have a 3.1 inch screen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 3-megapixel camera, LED flash, GPS, Bluetooth, 8GB of space, Wi-Fi and a MicroSD slot. G4TV says that "this is, by far, the best-looking handheld Palm has released in a very long time." I don't know much about the new Web OS, so i will be pulling this information directly from G4tv's article. "Web OS has a feature called Synergy, which synchronizes contacts and calendars from multiple sources." It sounds like good news from Palm and they may be busting the gates open with this one. This phone may cause the Palm to get more fanbase, so that's always good. I hope to see more of Palm and this OS in the future.

Last, but not least, Google has released a new Pre-Beta to their browser, Google Chrome. It has a whole bunch of new features, such as: a new version of WebKit (most likely faster than before), AutoComplete, SafeBrowsing, an update to the V8 Javascript engine, a new network code and it also has a bunch of other features. If you are interested, you can view the link below, to read more information, regarding this Google Chrome 2.0 Pre-Beta.

The Palm Pre (and picture): http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/692277/Palm_Unveils_The_Palm_Pre_And_Web_OS_At_CES_2009.html?utm_source=g4tv&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=TheFeed
Google Chrome 2.0 Pre-Beta: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/01/google-chrome-20-pre-beta.html

So, here it is, the lengthy 80-minute press conference from Microsoft at CES 2009.

Gary Shapiro, who is the head of CES takes the stage first. He talks about the show and that it was a "tough 2008." He mentions a couple of keynoters. He introduces Steve Ballmer and he mentioned that he scored an 800/800 on the math part of the SAT's. Impressive. They show a quick video about some Windows products, before Ballmer comes.

Steve Ballmer finally takes the stage. He mentions that Bill Gates used to do Microsoft's keynotes at events like CES, but he is now devoting his time to help people around the world, especially in Africa. Ballmer and the crowd applaud for Gates and his efforts. He talks about our digital lives and that they will only continue to get richer even in the midst of the current recession. Ballmer mentions the 3 different screens that everyone uses everyday: the PC, phone and the TV. He tells us that only a billion people in the world have a PC. This leaves 5 billion other people without a PC and this is why they are trying to make things more affordable. Ballmer says that the TV has been the center of family entertainment and that we should expect the TV to be more "sophisticaed and connected." In the future, the PC and the TV's different worlds will combine and that their current boundary will "dissolve," since they are going to be more connected. He plays a video featuring a bunch of products using Windows: Samsung X360, Dell Studio Hybrid, Toshiba Portege  R600, Minew S10, Acer Aspire 8930g, Sony Vaio TT, Asus U6V Bamboo, Lenovo IdeaPad Y650, Toshiba Qosimo X305, HP Touchsmart PC, Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds, HP Firebird with Voodoo DNA, Sony Xperia X1, HTC Touch HD (!!), Samsung Omnia and the HTC Touch Pro (see above picture). All of these aforementioned products have either Windows Mobile, Windows Live or Windows Vista pre-installed. Steve talks about Windows 7 and that it is putting in all the right ingredients, reliability and speed into it to get it right. He officially announces that MSDN and TechNet customers can now download the Windows 7 beta for free and that on Friday, it will be available to everyone else. Ballmer also had another 3 announcements. One was that Windows Live Essentials now had a worldwide availabiility. The other 2 announcements could've been summed up into 1, but he split it up. There were 2 partnerships: 1 with Facebook and the other with Dell. The partnership with Dell is that they are now going to pre-install Windows Live Essentials on their PC's. In 2008, 11 different Windows Mobile-running phones sold over 1 million units. He then introduces Charlotte Jones.

Charlotte Jones introduces the new Windows 7 first. Jones is actually the first female to actually present something at a press conference at this year's CES, i think. She shows off some new Windows 7 features. They aren't entirely new, but new to the modern Vista user. She shows that in the bottom right corner, you can use the "Aero Peek" feature to see through all of your open windows. She shows the split screen-window feature thing, pinning windows onto the taskbar. She also shows the crowd "jumplists." This is where you can click on an application on the taskbar and it will give you a couple of different options, in just a single-click. I don't know how else to explain that, without a demonstration. She shows a new feature called "Homegroup" to setup a network at home. Windows 7 will have touchscreen's in mind and is "in it's DNA." This is so that it is easier for their partners to create touch-screen based programs. She encourages the crowd to go and check out Windows 7 and touch-screens at their booths after the press conference. She mentions the new browser for the mobile phone and Internet Explorer 8 (and it's integrated language translator, still a fail browser). She shows a Silverlight slideshow of pictures from Windows Live, with a click of a button. She shows new features in Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Messenger. Messenger now has a Windows Video user tile where you can record a 4-second dynamic display picture. With this new feature, you can also create emoticons, so that when you make a smiley face, your display picture will show your video clip that may include your own smiley face. This is recorded by your webcam. She shows us her smiley face, sad face and a wink-y face. She even throws in a kiss emoticon (Yay!). The crowd went nuts. After she exits the stage, a band comes on stage, known as Tripod.

They sing a fairly comical song, regarding games. I've never heard of them, but yeah... After they finished, Robbie Bach took the stage.

Bach mentions connected entertainment. There will be a new Microsoft Sync for Ford vehicles. The Zune was successful in 2008, expanding Zune's network to 2 million. Windows Media Center's users also increased to 10 million. There is a 250% increase in Microsoft's MediaRoom. He mentions a feature called MediaRoom Anytime, which is kind of like video on demand, i guess. Finally, some Xbox news. Xbox had a spectacular year and also the best year ever in terms of sales. The 360 sold 28 million units worldwide. The Xbox live users increased to 17 million members, which was a 70% growth from 2007. He pushes this further and mentions that in the last 3 months, they added 3 million new members. He talks about the future, 2009. He mentions that Halo sold 25 million copies and that the average Halo player played an average of 150 hours (which is not a lot, in my book). Anyways, in 2009, there will be 2 new Halo releases: Halo Wars, which is a Real-Time Strategy that will be released on February 28, with a demo coming out on February 5. The other Halo release this year will be Halo 3: ODST, which is like the original Halo series and it will be released in Fall, with a bunch of new features. He backtracks to Xbox live again and mentions that after launching the New Xbox Experience, their growth has expanded. In the Spring, Xbox Live will be launching PrimeTime, to create scheduled programs and events. He shows a demo of 1 vs 100, which is a winner-take-all question and answer game. He shows Netflix and mentions that you can control your queue of Netflix movies with your mobile phone. They will be launching Kodu, a game creator that reminds me of LittleBigPlanet. A 12-year old girl by the name of Sparrow, comes on stage and shows the crowd how to design a game on Kodu. She beats Robbie at a game, that seemed to be easier for her to win. Sparrow exits the stage and, soon after, Robbie Bach says his thanks and also exits the stage

Steve Ballmer mentions that displays will be everywhere and will be cheaper / affordable. All the other devices will become a single-platform. He invites Janet Galore with him on stage.

Janet Galore (the second female now) shows us a couple of prototypes. One being a touchscreen tablet-like gadget. She shows off a simulation of different parts and all different systems of our bodies. When she finishes with that, she moves on to the Surface Computer, which is incredible. I have actually seen these protoypes on Youtube. It was an amazing display and even involved the interactivity of a phone, the 'tablet-like gadget' from earlier and even a model of the brain. After that, she fashioned a very flexible protoype display, which was less than a mm thick. This was also amazing and i'm excited to see what our future has in store for us.

Steve Ballmer shows up on stage again and mentions that he is optimistic about the future. He says his goodbyes.

Tripod does another song. This one was fairly un-entertaining. That concludes the long, but informative press conference from Microsoft at this year's CES.

Microsoft press conference video: http://wm.istreamplanet.com/customers/ms/750_ms_ces_090107.asx
Windows logo: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/07/20/developers-alarm-200-hotkeys-to-boost-your-productivity/
HTC Touch Pro picture: http://www.itechnews.net/tag/htc-touch/
Windows 7 picture: http://eideard.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/
Xbox Live Logo: http://www.theaveragegamer.com/tag/xbox-live/
Surface computer picture: http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2007/05/microsoft_surface_computer_set_to_wow.html

Before i do my blog about Microsoft's press conference at CES 2009, i am going to talk about my religion class today. I was about 15 minutes late and at first, we were copying down a note. After some discussion, my teacher split us up into about 5 groups. The groups were split up and we were given 'cookies.' There was a group of: 7 (with 2 cookies), 5 (with 4 cookies), 4 (with 6 cookies), 3 (with 12 cookies) and, my group of, 2 (with 96 cookies). I was in the group of 2 with another member of my class, Gordon Pun. We were the "moderator's" of the game. The object of this little game was that the other groups would come to us and try to persuade us to give them some cookies. The teacher explained to me and Gordon that we could do whatever we want them to do, since we were, sort of, like dictators. We could make them run around the class doing something silly, if they really wanted the cookies. The object of the game was to try to have the most cookies in the end.

The game started and the group of 3 came up to us and we told them that if they wanted 5 cookies each, they would all have to put a quarter on the floor and push it, with their nose, across the classroom. They refused to do it, so we told them to go away. The group of 4 came up to us and mentioned that their 'country' is burning down and that they needed cookies to feed the homeless. We gave in and we were going to give them 6 cookies, but then, one of their group members said, "Come on, just give us 10." So, me and Gordon decided to give them 4 cookies instead, since they were pushing their luck. The group of 5 came up to us and mentioned that they only had 4 cookies and there was one of them with no food, so we gave them one cookie. The big group of 7 came up to us and we told them that if they wanted 10 cookies, they would have to make a dance / cheer for us. So, they went back to their seats and developed a cheer. The first group of 3 came back to us and after a lengthy conversation, one of them finally agreed to push the quarter, the length of the classroom with their nose for a mere 5 cookies. So, Rishi did it and the whole class was laughing. It was all for fun and games though, not in a bad manner. When Rishi finished, he went to stand up and celebrate. As he was going to stand up, he hit his head on the TV / VCR in the corner of the room and the class laughed even harder than before. As the game was about to end, the group of 7, showed us their cheer and we handed them their 10 cookies.

After the game, our teacher mentioned that this related to the note we copied at the beginning of class. Why? Because 20% of the world's population owns 82% of the world's currency, in this case, this was our group, using cookies. Furthermore, she explained that we must share what we have, and such. That was definitely the most fun i've ever had in a Religion class. Anyways, let's get back to the good old Microsoft press conference.

CES here i come.

Cookie picture: http://memyselfandhi.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/breaking-news-death-thoughts-eating-cookies/

This is going to be my last blog post of the night. It is going to be Sony's press conference, which i am extremely excited for. Hopefully, they will take a couple of cheap shots at Microsoft's Xbox 360.

So, the introduction starts off pretty entertaining. So far, it looks to be the most interesting to me. They start off with a Jeopardy-like theme. They are celebrating Jeopardy's 25th anniversary. I don't know why, but they must have a reason. The speaker mentions that "Sony is an entertainment powerhouse." He plays Sony Bravia's new commercial, which introduces the world's first MotionFlow 240Hz technology for TV's. He introduces a lot of people that work for Sony. He finally introduces Stan Glasgow. He starts off by summarizing the sales from last year and talks about his struggle, last year, to remain optimistic. He is going to talk about 2 primary areas: in-home and out-of-home. He is going to start with the out-of-home lineup.

He first mentions the X-Series OLED walkman with a 3 inch touchscreen, Wi-fi and noise cancellation. He tells the crowd about the popular [but delayed] Sony Xperia: X1. The Sony Ericsson w508 is reportedly customizable, with up to 8 colours. He introduces the Cybershot c510 phone, which has a 3.2 megapixel camera, face detection and 3G. So far, this has been a great presentation because his speech flows extremely well and there is a good balance between speech and visuals. He introduces a couple of digital photo frames. The DPF-X1000 + V1000. They will both feature a 10 inch SVGA resolution, widescreen LCD, 1-2GB memory and Bluetooth. You can even display it on your Bravia TV with an HDMI. He introduces 2 magnificent camcorders, the Handycam: HDR-520v and the HDR-CX100. First off, the HDR-CX100 will be HD-capable and have 8GB of space. The HDR-520v, on the other hand, is much more heavy on the specs. It will have a whopping 240GB of space, 101 hours of HD, 12 megapixel stills, GPS and Geotagging. Both of these camcorders will be available in March. He introduces new 'Webbie' HD cameras with pmb software, mpeg-4 for easy transfer, 5x optical zoom, 20x digital zoom, a 2.5 LCD that will have a rotation swivel of up to 270 degrees. This 'Webbie' will be available "tonight" [now] on sonystyle.com. So, what's been stirring up all of the controversy lately? The Vaio P-series, of course. It was finally and officially unveiled. He held one in his hand, as he listed the many specs. It will weigh a mere 1.4 pounds, sport an 8 inch screen, 3G-capabilities, has 802.11n wireless, Bluetooth, GPS (if you're in US or Canada, you won't even need an active internet connection), the Xross media bar, a webcam and all of this will fit in your purse or jacket pocket. You will be able to pre-order it tomorrow on sonystyle.com.

Phew, that was a lot of information, but luckily, i was able to get it all down, thanks to visuals. Stan will now talk about in-home products. He quickly mentions that the sales of Blu-ray grow 300% every year. He mentions, but doesn't go into detail about, the Playstation 3, Playstation: Home, Playstation Network and the Playstation Portable (PSP). He does, however, mention some news about the OLED TV's. A journalist mentioned that they are "the most coveted TV on the market." Sony OLED TV protoypes are just 0.9 mm thin (!!) with an 11 inch display. Furthermore, he mentions that there are upcoming 21 and 27 inch models with a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, super top emission technology (I don't know what that is) and, of course, fast response times. He mentions recycling their products. The "Eco" Bravia will reduce power consumption by 40% (just like everyone else) and will exceed energy star 3.0 requirements (which is also like everyone else). But, this is where Sony sets itself apart from it's competition. The Bravia's will have the technology called HCFL (Hot Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) (more about that in a later blog post), a light sensor, an eco switch, which will reduce your watt consumption to 0W in standby, and will have a presence sensor. The presence sensor will detect if anyone is moving in the room. If the TV detects that no one is moving in the room, the TV will be shut off. This is good for anyone that sleeps in front of the TV or when you leave the TV room and forget to turn it off. These Bravia's will be available in 3 sizes: 40, 46 and 52 inches. He talks about Bravia: Internet Video partnering with the likes of: Amazon, Youtube and Slacker, for streaming videos. Bravia: Internet Video will be integrated in the upcoming XBR9 Sony Bravia TV's that will also have the world's first MotionFlow 240Hz technology, accompanied by Bravia's Internet Widgets, with the help of Yahoo! The XBR9 will be available in the Spring-time.

Sir Howard will be presenting tomorrow morning's Sony keynote.

Stan Glasgow really sells their Sony products. I'm always against buying Sony products, except for the Playstation 3 because i feel that all of their products are overpriced (Don't get me wrong, the PS3 is still a bit too expensive). But, Stan is really persuasive and is really enthusiastic when he speaks. Samsung could learn a thing or two from this Sony press conference, so that they can improve for next year. Unfortunately, there were no talks of the Playstation 3 in this press conference. This was my favourite press conference of the day and i just loved the combination of the visuals and the speech.

Special thanks to G4 for all of the streaming and uploading of the press conference videos.

Sony Press conference video: http://www.g4tv.com/ces2009/press_conf_detail.aspx?video_key=35869
Sony Cybershot C510 picture: http://www.cellphones.ca/news/post004647/
Sony Xperia X1 picture: http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/10/sonyericsson-xperia-x1-qwerty-with-windows-mobile/
Sony Bravia picture: http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/sony-brings-yahoo-widgets-to-1080p-zbr9-z-series-hdtvs/

Samsung, finally! I've been waiting for G4 to fix the link for a while now, but it's all good. I still love G4 and their Podcasts =).

David Steel is the MC for today. Although, another asian man took the stage first. I couldn't understand his name, but that doesn't matter. This guy gives a lot of background information on Samsung. I mean, a lot of background information. I'm just waiting for the products. His accent is reminding me of Russell Peter's: Red, White and Brown stand-up comedy. Anyways, he gives the stage to another person, Patrick Barry, Yahoo's Vice President.

He mentions that Samsung is a leader in consumer electronics. He does a lot of talking, just like the asian guy. He mentions a new UI (User Interface) for future Samsung products. It looks like Yahoo is working with Samsung here, obviously. The asian guy comes back and talks some more... These presentations definitely needs more visuals. Like LG, Samsung will also feature the new wireless-HD technology. A video starts to play. A beautifully-developed video, regarding a TV. There will be a unified UI that will be seen in digital camera's and camcorders. They show another video, regarding some touch-screen UI's. The asian guy talks about how eco-friendly they are now... I'm starting to lose focus, but apparently, it will get better during the last half of the conference, which is coming up soon. Another video starts to play. It's a video about different consumer's mentioning some positives about some Samsung products.

Looks like it's time to start showing their products. Here we go, this is what we've all been waiting for. There's only 15 minutes left in the press conference, so this better be jam-packed with products. The Samsung Luxia LED TV. The 8000, 7000 and 6000 models i talked about here. He mentions that the Luxia series is 40% more energy efficient than original LCD TV's. They are mercury-free and also lead-free, which is beneficial to the environment. The 7000-display is shown live. It has a beautiful display, it looks friggin' amazing. I can't wait until they show the 8000. The 7000 will have a web-based experience and therefore, will be powered by various Yahoo widgets. Samsung created their own wall-mounts because the normal 2-inch mounts make the TV looks 'fatter' than they appear. Their wall-mounts set your TV only 0.6 inches away from your wall and it makes it look like your TV is "hanging like a picture." Here's the LED-backlit 8000 coming up. It delivers 240Hz refresh rate, which is 4x the traditional rate, apparently. It eliminates blur and he also mentions that it is beautiful. I can agree with that.

The Series-8 (?) display is only an inch thick and is also highly energy effiecient, of course. For gamers, there are 3D monitors for a new 'gaming experience.' This guy talks too fast and i can't keep up with how much information he is spewing out. The BDP-4600 has BD-live support and a bunch of other features. Breaking news. It will eject a disc in a second!!! OMG, really? Yes, you heard that right, it will only take a mere second to eject your disc. Did he seriously have to mention that? He continues to give so much useful information right after each other, but i still can't keep up and i've already mentioned that. Anyways, he shows a camcorder with 64GB of space. It is called the HMX-H106, i believe. Before the conference is over, he also mentions the P3 mp3 player (above), which will be only 0.39 inches thick. Sorry, that i couldn't get down all of the specs, but if you saw the press conference, i think you'd understand. I think it was a very inefficient conference for a typical blogger that actually tried to type some of the specs out. I'm not the fastest typer out there, but i feel that i type faster than the average user. The Samsung press conference in the end, was the one i was looking forward to, but it seems that, so far, the LG presentation has been the most entertaining. LG had slides and Samsung just had way too much talking.

Samsung press conference: http://www.g4tv.com/ces2009/press_conf_detail.aspx?video_key=35866
Samsung P3 mp3 player picture: http://www.trustedreviews.com/mp3/news/2009/01/08/CES-2009--Samsung-Shows-Haptic-MP3-Player/p1
Samsung Logo picture: http://www.oyster.ie/About_Us/Oyster_Telecom/Oyster_Telecom.html
Samsung TV picture (8000, 7000 or 6000 model): http://www.tvsnob.com/archives/023837.php