Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft big boss Steve Ballmer is just now taking the stage here in Las Vegas to kick off CES 2010. What’s he gonna do and say? Here, I’ll tell you. UPDATING THROUGH THE KEYNOTE

Update: The keynote began with a testimony on the benefits of technology from SNL’s Seth Myers. He thanks technology for all of the wondrous humiliations he can now participate in, such as worldwide publication of Halloween images, buying tobacco-store Indians on eBay, and having his grandma tell him he looks too fat or too thin from 1200 miles away.

Seth Myers as drunken smurf:

Says Ballmer: “We Bing and we Bing and we Bing. Bing! Bing! Bing!”

Steve doesn’t have a whole lot of breaking news today. The company has already confirmed that the Xbox 360 motion-sensing technology codenamed Natal would be available in time for the holidays. Also, that that sexy Windows Phone the HTC HD2 will be coming to the US, via T-Mobile, sometime this spring.

He does have one trick up his sleeve, one that people have been buzzing about. But mostly, Steve and Robbie Bach, the head of the Entertainment & Devices division, will be talking about 2009.

And why not? 2009 was the year of Microsoft, and Ballmer & Bach are going to confirm it with facts from NPD and others, citing for instance that Windows 7 boosted PC sales in a huge way, with 50% growth over the previous holiday sales season. (Ballmer won’t get too detailed though, as the real numbers are set to come out during their quarterly earnings report on January 28.)

They will brag about how awesome Xbox is, how in its 10 year existence, it has accounted for $20 billion in retail sales (games and hardware) and accrued 39 million Xbox Live members worldwide.

Ballmer will say that Bing, with 11 million users, is already a success (though there’s no market share data to speak of yet), and that HP will use it as the default search engine and homepage on browsers in systems shipping in 42 countries.

They will talk about Ford Sync, and a new in-car experience they’ve developed with Kia. The 2011 Kia Sorrento will feature a service like Sync, called UVO. It may not look like Sync, but it will be similarly functional.

Finally, Steve will show off a bunch of sweet Windows 7 machines, many we’ve already seen, such as the Sony Vaio L touchscreen all-in-one, the Lenovo A300 and the Asus NX90.

Update: They were going to show off a TV with a PC built in, but the technical difficulties that delayed the show apparently screwed up the computer. To quote Steve: “It blew the tube.” Didn’t know they had tubes, but I get the picture. There it is, lurking in the back:

At some point during the hardware fondling, he’s going to hold aloft a pretty sweet “slate” device from HP. This is not speculation, it is confirmed. It’s not the Courier of bloggy lore. But it is a product with great battery life and a Windows 7 touch experience, not a prototype but a product that Microsoft says HP will be releasing. [Microsoft]

Microsoft’s CES keynote has been marked by disaster: first the power went out, knocking the PCs on stage into recovery mode, and now the PR for Ballmer’s speech has posted early. The big news is no news — that HP slate device is a Windows 7 PC, not the rumored Courier tablet. We’re sure HP and Microsoft will have some interesting things to say about it, but a lot of hearts are breaking out there. Other big items: Project Natal will launch around the holidays in 2010, the HTC HD2 will hit T-Mobile as expected, and the Mediaroom 2.0 IPTVs service will bring on-demand programming to PCs and phones. The full PR is after the break, but we’ll post highlights here if we see anything else as we comb through.

[Thanks, Andrew]

Continue reading Microsoft CES keynote PR leaks early: HP slate device is just a PC, Natal in holiday 2010

Microsoft CES keynote PR leaks early: HP slate device is just a PC, Natal in holiday 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We have been hearing about dualscreen laptops (and readers) for too long now, but it’s MSI to be the first to show off a real working unit. And it’s everything we have ever dreamed of — well kind of. Though MSI is calling this dual 10-inch screen device an e-reader, it’s really a netbook with two screens since it’s got an Atom Z Series processor and Windows 7 Home Premium. But it’s how the two screens work together that we can’t get out of our minds. Hit the break for some more impressions and to see this crazy thing on video.

Continue reading MSI dualscreen e-reader hands-on (update: video!)

MSI dualscreen e-reader hands-on (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LAS VEGAS — Pop star Taylor Swift kicked off Sony’s press conference Wednesday night, loosely establishing the theme of the event: 3-D video.

“I feel like my fans are all very cutting edge, so when it comes to technology I’m very interested in what’s the newest and best,” Swift said on stage. “My tour starts next month in Australia and Japan and I’m looking forward to documenting all that footage using 3-D.”

After Swift played a song with her band and her silver, glitter-adorned guitar, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer took the mic to close her performance with a surprisingly self-deprecating (and honest) statement.

“Maybe you’ll call us cool again, who knows,” Stringer said regarding having Swift as a guest. Kanye West was not present in the audience for comment.

In its press conference, Sony made a large number of product announcements, ranging from new VAIO notebooks to Cybershot digital cameras, and from memory cards with bigger storage to a touchscreen picture frame called the Dash. But 3-D televisions were the highlight item, as well as content partnerships Sony established with ESPN, Discovery and IMAX to create 3-D content. Of all the video manufacturers at CES, Sony appears to be the most serious about 3-D.

“We intend to take the lead in 3-D,” Stringer said. “Sony is the only company fully immersed in every link of the 3-D value chain.”

The major product announced was Sony’s first commercial 3-D TV series, the Bravia LX900 (below). Ranging from 22 to 60 inches, the 3-D TVs incorporate a frame sequential display, active-shutter glasses and Sony’s high frame-rate technology to produce high-definition 3-D images.

Sony claims its 240-Hz frame-rate technology reduces the mixing of images of 3-D content assigned to the left and right eyes. The company also says its Bravia Engine 3 digital-video processing technology uses enhanced algorithms to reduce noise, enhance image detail and optimize contrast so scenes look sharp and lifelike.

Sony did not specify a shipping date or a price for the 3-D TVs — which seems to be a trend among manufacturers announcing similar products. That means so far, this is still vaporware.

In addition to showing off the 3-D TVs, Sony announced it was the official sponsor of 3-D video for ESPN — so when 3-D TVs actually ship, Sony will be the company providing the 3-D technology for sport events televised on the channel. Sony also said it was partnering with Discovery and IMAX to create a new 3-D channel.

Dashing all hopes of Wired ever calling Sony cool again, the company announced a high-definition pocket camcorder called the Bloggie (right).

“Yes, you heard me right — Bloggie,” said Brennan Mullin, Sony Electronics’ senior vice president of the personal imaging and audio business, to a snickering audience.

Sporting a pistol-grip design, the Bloggie shoots 1920-by-1080 MP4 video and 5-megapixel still photos. The camera is called Bloggie because it includes software to share your content on social media sites including YouTube, Dailymotion and Photobucket (but not Blogger, ironically). Shipping today, the Bloggie starts at $170.

Gadget Lab will follow up soon with the other products Sony announced tonight. Stay tuned.

See Also:

• Toshiba Introduces Web-Connected, 3D-Capable Cell TV
• ESPN To Launch 3D Network In June – USATODAY.com
• Wired Explains: How 3-D Television Works

Photos: Jon Snyder/Wired.com, Sony

Sony has just announced yet another mad plethora of HandyCams, this time spreading its back-illuminated Exmor R sensor throughout the whole range. With it comes the ability to expand storage via Memory Stick, SD or SDHC cards, much improved “quick AF” functionality, as well as a six-blade aperture producing a more appealing “bokeh” — quite an advanced consideration when talking about humble consumer recorders. The flagship XR550V (250GB HDD) and CX550V (64GB SSD) models also feature a wide-angle G lens, 12 megapixel stills, assignable manual control dial, and dedicated mic and headphone inputs. On the professional front, the company is offering the AX2000 and HXR-NX5U, with both recording AVCHD at rates up to 24MBps and producing 1080p footage. A 20x optical zoom is also nice, but for the $3,500 price of the cheaper AX2000, we’d expect nothing less. Check out the source links below for further details, including full pricing and availability.

Sony finally lets you use SD memory on HandyCams, freshens up pro shooters with SSDs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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