Hasta La Gadget!

LG announced a new noise-cancellation technology called “DSE” at its CES press conference today. DSE uses dual-microphone noise cancellation and digital signal processing to kill off background noise coming through the microphone on phone calls. According to LG president and CEO Dr. Woo Paik, LG will be adding this technology into many of their phones during the second half of 2009.

Dual-microphone noise cancellation is a popular approach in many noise-cancelling Bluetooth headsets. Motorola has been shipping phones and headsets with their own noise cancelling technology, called CrystalTalk, for more than a year now. But more noise cancellation is better, especially in a popular phone brand.

For PCMag’s full CES coverage, go to http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,2806,2235882,00.asp.

Whether you’re attending CES in Vegas this week or are just curious about what to expect from our coverage, you need to be prepared. Here’s our guide to everything from press conferences to strip clubs.

For the Readers at Home:
CES is taking place now through the weekend in Las Vegas. We’re rolling in with a large crew, as usual, ready to attack the press conferences and booths like locusts on crops. If you’re watching from home:

Press Conferences
These are the times that you can expect big news to drop. We have loads of embargoed news releases that we’re allowed to post right when these start, so even in the cases when we aren’t doing liveblogs, check in for all the news from each particular company.

Wednesday
8am PST/11am EST – LG
9am PST/12pm EST – Monster Cable
9am PST/12pm EST – Netgear
10am PST/1pm EST – Toshiba
11am PST/2pm EST – Audiovox
12pm PST/3pm EST – Sharp
1pm PST/4pm EST – Cisco
2pm PST/5pm EST – Samsung
3pm PST/6pm EST – Panasonic
4:15pm PST/7:15pm EST – Sony
5pm PST/8pm EST – Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer keynote speech

Thursday
8:30am PST/11:30 EST – Sony’s Howard Stringer keynote
11am PST/2pm EST – Palm
1pm PST/4pm EST – SanDisk
2pm PST/5pm EST – WirelessHD
4pm PST/7pm EST – Blu-ray Disc Association

We have all sorts of other interviews and meetings schedule as well, so news will be dropping all throughout the week in addition to these times. But really, you should be setting your alarm for all of these so you don’t miss a single iPod dock or digital picture frame. (Actually, if you stick to Giz, you’ll miss ALL the boring ones.)

Volume of Posts
CES causes us to go into severe posting overload, doubling the number of posts we do each day. If you’re the type of person who refreshes the site every 5 minutes while you try to avoid the soul-crushing dullness that is your job, this is good news for you. If you’re the type of person who logs on once each day to catch up, well, you might want to check twice per day.

Luckily, our new design allows for more posts on the front page than before, but you may need to go back to page 2 in the morning to stay caught up. Because you seriously don’t want to miss when Chen inevitably posts that infernal video of me dancing again, that bastard.

For those going to be at CES:
You poor bastards. Well, we’ve been going for a few years now, so we’ll humbly offer up advice on surviving the show and the city based on our experiences.

Hotels
The Gizmodo crew has stayed in the Imperial Palace in years past due to the fact that it costs about $15 dollars a night and is about to fall down. It’s worked out fine since the location is great, right on the strip with a monorail stop that will get you right to the conference center. This year, however, we’ve upgraded to the Wynn, which is somehow cheaper than the IP (seems like a bad sign for both of them, doesn’t it?). But really, most of these casino hotels are the same unless you’re some kind of high roller, which I’m assuming you definitely aren’t. As long as you’re near a monorail stop, getting to the LVCC is a piece of cake.

Buffets
Every casino has a buffet, and it’s usually an awesome way to eat an unhealthy amount of food without breaking the bank. The standouts are definitely the Bellagio’s and the MGM Grand’s, both of which offer up super high quality food (the MGM had a mashed potato bar last year, but I think they’ve since removed it for some bullshit reason).

If you’re stuck in Vegas until Sunday, hit up the buffet at Harrah’s, which offers an all-you-can-drink champagne brunch. It’s only right to fly out of Vegas completely hammered, isn’t it?

Restaurants
In addition to buffets, nearly every casino has a restaurant helmed by a celebrity chef. They run the gamut price-wise, but if you choose carefully you can spend way less for a great meal than you would at these chef’s NYC or other locations. For example, Thomas Keller’s Bouchon in the Venetian has entrée’s in the $25 range, which meals at his NYC and SF restaurants run $250+ per person. Wolfgang Puck also has like half a dozen restaurants at various hotels, with prices all along the scale.

If you’re looking to go all out, Joel Robuchon has two restaurants in the MGM right next to each other. L’atelier De Joel Robuchon will run you $125 per person, if you’re a cheapskate, while the even fancier Joel Robuchon can run you upwards of $385 per person before tax, tip and booze. It’s the best and most expensive place in the city, and is where we will be eating on Friday night. Brian just doesn’t know it yet.

Gambling
All the casino floors are basically the same, and it’s about choosing if you’d rather lose money in an Epcot-like approximation of New York, Paris, Venice, Rome or just in a general tacky room with no windows.

If you’re looking for cheap tables, hit up O’Shea’s. They have beer pong tables and the food court features Taco Bell rather than Thomas Keller, so you know what you’re getting into here.

Gizmodo’s favorite blackjack pit is the Dealertainers pit at the Imperial Palace, as it’s the only place on the strip that you can play with the worst celebrity impersonators ever as your dealers. If you haven’t played blackjack with a Filipino J. Lo impersonator, you haven’t truly experienced Vegas.

Hanging Out
We’re planning a Gizmodo reader meetup in Vegas on Thursday night. The details are still being ironed out—and we will likely be dead tired by then—but prepare yourself for a great opportunity to get hammered with us. It’s more fun than it sounds, I promise! But a word of warning: No matter what Mark Wilson claims, he’s not an accredited masseuse. Don’t believe his lies.

Weather
Vegas is in the desert, so look for the days to be warm and the nights to be pretty cold. It should be in the low 50s in the daytime, but temperatures will drop at night, so bring some warm clothes in addition to your party guy floral print shirts and short shorts.

Pranks
They might seem like a good idea at the time, but you’ll really want to make sure they are before going through with any pranks. Just trust us on this one.

AVN
AVN, the porn convention, takes place at the Venetian over the weekend at the end of CES. It’s insane. The date for registration has passed, but there is on-site press registration (as well as a day open to the public, full of all the creeps that you can imagine would go to a porn convention). What to expect? Well, there are booths for various porn production companies featuring porn stars hanging out in skimpy outfits. (No nudity allowed, however—see the next section for that.) On the fringes, there are loads of booths for various products, from terrifying sex toys to Egyptian cotton sheets.

It’s worth experiencing at least once, although it will fill your soul with an infinite sadness, so be warned.

Strip Clubs
Just get in a cab and ask to be taken to Treasures. They’ll know where to go.

Depression
This year’s CES promises to be one of the most sad CESes in recent memory thanks to the current recession. I mean, all of these companies are going to be reeking of desperation, as they’re perfectly aware of how few people are interested in spending $2,500 on a non-essential TV when they can barely afford to feed their families.

Luckily, you’re in Vegas, so you’ll be able to drink the sadness away out on the street. Just try to prepare yourself emotionally for what promises to be a downer of a week. But hey, at least there will be some open bars, right? We’ll make the most of it together. [CES 2009 Full Coverage]

LAS VEGAS — Other computer manufacturers might think the Tablet PC is dead, but Asus has its own ideas.

At a press conference here at CES 2009, Asus showed a prototype version of the EeePC T91, a convertible tablet-style notebook. Its 8.9-inch swiveling screen folds up to expose a keyboard, like any other notebook or netbook — but it can rotate around and folds back over the keys, turning the device into a tablet.

You know you want one.

Unlike other tablets, it is touch-sensitive, meaning you can use your
finger (or fingers) to tap on icons, select text, and perform other
mouse actions. You can also use an included stylus, if you prefer.

Also unlike other tablets, the T91 will weigh just 2.1 pounds. It will
run on Intel’s Atom Z520 processor, which means that the T91 will be
relatively underpowered, like other netbooks.

It will likely be running a version of Linux, like other Eee PCs, and pricing will be low — in line with other netbooks, Asus representatives are saying.

Bonus features include a TV tuner and GPS.

A related model, the T101, will have similar features (minus the TV tuner and GPS) but a larger, 10.1" swivel screen.

The T91 will be available around March 2009, and the T101 will follow shortly thereafter.

The company, which singlehandedly invented the ultra-cheap, ultra-light
netbook category with the Eee PC, is betting on multitouch as the next
big thing. And why not? Apple’s iPhone has shown that a well-executed
touch-screen interface can do a lot to make a computer so fun and easy
to use that people cease to think of it as a computer.

In addition to its multitouch-capable tablets, Asus also showed off a prototype of a strange, two-brained computer with a secondary, 4.3-inch display embedded just below the keyboard.

In this prototype (no actual product is planned yet, Asus says), the mini display is also the computer’s touchpad. And it has its own processor, which you can use without booting up the main computer — so you can listen to music, check your calendar or check your email, all from this tiny, parasitic iPhone-like display embedded in the base of your notebook. The advantage that offers is that it will be instantly on (no boot time required) and it won’t use much power.

The touchscreen computer can also be used to select a movie from your hard drive or DVD drive and then display it on the big screen, again without using the computer’s main processor or going through a lengthy boot process.

Whether anyone will actually go for these strange hybrids is another question. But one thing’s clear: Asus is not afraid of mixing things up a little.

Photos: Dylan Tweney / Wired.com

LAS VEGAS — WowWee’s humanoid robots–the RoboSapien and the FemiSapien–are a geek favorite.

At CES 2009, the company showed its latest robot, the Joebot. The Joebot is an interactive robot and "personality", says WowWee. It has voice command control and can respond to key phrases via sound sensors. The Joebot can also be manipulated using the Robosapien’s remote controller.

As for the personality part? Well, the Joebot can beatbox, dance, and interact in modes such as ‘Guard’ and
‘Battle.’ In the ‘Battle mode’, for instance, it wanders around while tracking and blasting objects with the LEDs in his hands. But the overall look is awfully similar to the RoboSapien, which came out in 2004.

The Joebot, which is set to be released in fall, will be priced at $150.

WowWee also has a prototype robot called Spyball in the works. Spyball is Rovio-lite,
a stripped down remote control robot with a built-in camera that can
roll into any room. The $100 Spyball is also expected later this year.

Also see:
FemiSapien Robot Goes on Sale

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

LAS VEGAS — Lenovo’s dual-screen ThinkPad w700ds, which was announced yesterday ahead of CES 2009, is the plus size model of the mobile computing world. The 11-pound notebook is much fuller compared to its skinnier, anorexic peers thanks to the pop-out second screen.

As this picture from the event floor shows, the $3600 ThinkPad has a 17-inch primary screen and a 10.6-inch secondary screen that slides out to the right.

The notebook is perfect for business users who prefer dual monitors, says Lenovo. But isn’t it too clunky to be a "mobile" workstation?

Also see:
Lenovo Introduces New Dual-Screen Notebook, Slim Desktop

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com