Hasta La Gadget!

Get ready for an orgy of electronics industry news, speculation and hype.

Despite the downturn in the economy and disappointing holiday sales
figures, the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show is still going to be a
massive gadget fest.

Yes, attendance will be somewhat smaller than last year — and no doubt many manufacturers will be touting simpler, cheaper gadgets along with their massive TVs and unaffordably expensive and complicated stereo systems. But CES is still the biggest American electronics trade show, and it’s not about to disappear — not this year anyway.

VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi interviewed the Consumer Electronics
Association’s executive director, Gary Shapiro, to get the lowdown on CES 2009. Here’s what he reports:

• An estimated 130,000 people will attend the show (down 8% from last year’s 141,000)
• 2,700 companies will be exhibiting their wares (the same number as last year)
• The footprint of the show is down 5%, to 1.7 million square feet
• Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will deliver a keynote, instead of Bill Gates
• 300 new companies will be there
• Sanyo, Cisco and Philips will not be exhibiting on the show floor
• DTV, 3-D displays, and wireless HD video will all be big
• OLED displays will also generate a lot of buzz
• Companies are still shelling out for celebrity appearances, including Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Akon

Despite the somewhat reduced numbers, it’s a safe bet that CES 2009 will produce a huge torrent of gadget news from January 6 to January 11 — and Gadget Lab will be there.

In fact, Wired.com is sending a team of 9 to the show, including a video crew, a photographer, and the entire Gadget Lab news staff. Bookmark our "CES 2009" category to get the latest gadget news from the show floor as well as the keynotes, press conferences and parties.

And if you haven’t done so already, subscribe to the Gadget Lab Twitter feed. We’ll make sure to keep it humming with interesting CES tidbits throughout next week.

CES preview: what to expect at the big, not-so-gloomy tech trade show [VentureBeat]

Photo: Rob Beschizza / Wired.com

Never satisfied with offering only a Blu-ray disc player (see 2007’s BH100 Blu-ray + HD DVD combo and 2008’s Netflix-streaming BD300), LG is upping the ante for ’09, promising support for YouTube and CinemaNow videos on its next gen decks. Along with the now-standard Netflix, owners can browse CinemaNow pay-per-view offerings (or other stores powered by the service) abd thumb through YouTube’s catalog directly from the device. Unmentioned in the PR fluff is additional info like price and more detailed specs, but expect all to become (hopefully) clear January 7 in Las Vegas.

Filed under: CES, HDTV, Home Entertainment

LG plugs YouTube, CinemaNow into next year’s Blu-ray players originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not content with just making soap opera hair look like watery strands of gold, LG is also planning to trump last year’s round of ultrathin LCD TVs by bringing the planet’s slimmest LED-backlit LCD TV to Las Vegas. Expected to garner fingerprints from every nationality at CES 2009, the LH95 will check in at just 24.8-millimeters thick (0.976-inches) and boast a 2,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and the outfit’s 240Hz TrueMotion Drive dejudder technology. No word on a price or release date (or panel size, oddly enough), but hopefully we’ll find out more in just under a fortnight.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Filed under: Displays, HDTV

LG to debut world’s slimmest LED-backlit LCD TV (LH95) at CES originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 05:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Take that sucky economy! Italian company Angelis Labor is set to show an uber-expensive turntable at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month.

Called the Gabriel, the device has been manufactured in an Italian Ferrari parts manufacturing factory, says the company, and can cost between $27,000 and $64,000.

The Gabriel is a magnetic
suspension record player constructed by overlapping bronze over
aluminum and can be customized with up to four arms.

The turntable system is composed of three parts- the table and base for one to four arms, the 13-inch arm, and the cartridge. Even the company calls it "admittedly over-the-top."

For that price tag, too bad it isn’t made of gold.

The Gabriel [Product Page]

LG’s announced its W2486L LED BLU display, which will be on hand for all to see at CES next week. The LED backlit 24-incher is super slim — at about 20mm (about .79-inches) thick — with a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. It boasts an automatic brightness control feature, a 2ms response rate, and LG claims it consumes about 50 percent less power than like-minded CCFL models. No pricing or availability info as of yet, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled for this puppy in Las Vegas.

[Via HD TV Space]

Filed under: Displays

LG announces CES-bound W2486L LED BLU 24-inch display originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Dec 2008 13:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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