Hasta La Gadget!

It’s not a proper CES until we get our Microsoft keynote. Since the departure of Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer’s presence has become something of a beloved tradition for the tradeshow. Whatever you might think of the guy, one thing’s for sure: Microsoft’s CEO sure knows how to put on a show.

We’re going to be on hand for the event at the Hilton in Las Vegas. The lights go down at 6:30 PT (9:30 ET) tonight. Expect our live coverage to start shortly before that.

So what do we expect from tonight’s main event? First, it stands to reason that there will be a lot of time devoted to Windows 7‘s successes. After all, Microsoft boasted about Vista until it was blue in the face, and we all know how that turned out.

Microsoft Office 2010 will almost certainly get some face time as well; the company has been doing the hard sell on business software this week. Oh, yeah, and can you say “Bing?” You’d better believe Steve Ballmer can. Over and over again. Here’s hoping he entertains us with a round of that number-one single, “Bing Goes the Internet.”

Project Natal, Microsoft’s forthcoming gesture-based controller, will probably get some face time. The prototype has progressed a good deal since it first debuted back at E3.

Some sources are predicting that Microsoft will attempt to nab some of Apple’s thunder with the announcement of a tablet. According to Yahoo’s MIA CEO Carol Bartz explains her “scheduling conflict” on stage with Ballmer via a big deal between the companies to help the once-great Internet giant’s struggling search division.

Find out the answers to all this and more at 6:30 PM PT time tonight, after the jump.

Your car’s dash just got a tad bit more interesting with the introduction of Pandora music streaming in Pioneer’s latest navigation unit. The double-DIN in-dash device exploits your iPhone’s cellular connection to glean tunes from the ether and comes with a 6.1-inch display, Bluetooth, 3D video accelerator, and 4GB of built-in memory expandable by MicroSD. Coming out in March for $1,200, this is slated to be a direct challenge to satellite and old school radio services, and for more on the greater market impact of its introduction, you can see the WSJ coverage below. For the full specs of this new flagship device, as well as a new AVIC-U220 add-on nav unit, hit the source link below.

Pioneer AVIC-X920BT brings Pandora streaming music to your satnav via the iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lenovo has just announced the LePhone for the Chinese WCDMA market, available in May this year. Notable features include a vibrant 3.7-inch 800×480 capacitive touchscreen (not OLED, sadly), 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon, 3.5mm headphone jack, a camera on both the front and back (3 megapixels for the latter), A-GPS, WiFi (but no WAPI, strangely), removable battery and a proprietary 9-pin dock connector. Lovers of physical keyboards may be interested in the optional external keyboard — the way the phone snaps onto it is very similar to the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid‘s. On the software front the LePhone will have Android 1.6 (yeah, we know) which is somewhat enhanced with accelerometer-based gesture control (read: tilting) and, dare we say, a few design cues from the iPhone OS — the voice-call interface shown in the presentation video is a perfect example. There will also be a carrier-specific application store which Lenovo couldn’t demo at the event. Similarly, details on prices, carriers and plans of international launch were missing. Presentation and hands-on videos after the break.

Continue reading Lenovo announces LePhone Android device for China (update: hands-on video!)

Lenovo announces LePhone Android device for China (update: hands-on video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading New Sony Blu-ray players do 3D, WiFi, iPhone remote, more

New Sony Blu-ray players do 3D, WiFi, iPhone remote, more originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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And you thought that just because you are the home theater in a box type that you wouldn’t get to enjoy 3D — Sony announced a trio of Blu-ray home theater systems that feature wireless speakers and the same internet streaming features BRAVIA Internet Video, DNLA and the iPhone app remote that the stand-alone Blu-ray from Sony do. And the top of the line BDV-HZ970W (pictured above) also supports 3D Blu-ray Discs. The other two new systems, the BDV-E770W and BDV-E570, have most of the same features, but both lack 3D and the BDV-E570 doesn’t do DLNA. Check out the full release after the break if you are still left asking for more.

Continue reading Sony has some new Blu-ray home theater systems and yes, one does 3D

Sony has some new Blu-ray home theater systems and yes, one does 3D originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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