2011 Consumer Electronics Show: Smart appliances keep users connected to home

Verizon promises 10 high-speed gadgets by mid-year
The venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, said the devices would come from vendors including HTC Corp, LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics. It showed off the gadgets, the first of which will start selling in March, at an event at the Consumer Electronics Show but declined comment on prices for the devices themselves or for using them on its network. It highlighted applications such as mobile Video Chat from Skype and multi-player Video Games from Electronic Arts, whic...

Samsung seeks 15 percent TV sales jump
Las Vegas (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co is targeting 15 percent growth in 2011 sales of flat-screen TVs to 45 million units, and hopes to more than double shipments of pricier LED sets. The world's largest maker of TVs aims to quadruple sales of 3D TV sets to around 8 million-9 million units this year, while aggressively promoting Internet-enabled TVs to goose up margins as severe price competition keeps profits razor-thin. Shaken by their failure to inspire consumers in a Recession with a...

LG Electronics Further Expands Access to Content-on-Demand With New Blu-ray Disc Players and Home Theater Systems
LAS VEGAS, Jan. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Continuing its leadership in digital media with vast online content options, LG Electronics today introduced its 2011 line-up of Network Blu-ray Disc Players and Home Theater Systems at the International Consumer Electronics Show (Booth #8205). Demonstrating its focus on providing consumers with convenient access to nearly endless content options, six of LG's 2011 Network Blu-ray Players and home theater systems are 3D capable and incorporate LG SmartTV. &...

Greenpeace ranks tech products on eco-soundness
Many of the technology companies showcasing their wares at the International Consumer Electronics Show this week are playing up green features like lower Power Consumption or the use of recycled materials. But calling something Environmentally Friendly doesn't necessarily make it so. That's why Greenpeace International takes it upon itself each year to analyze purportedly green products from leading electronics manufacturers. The Amsterdam environmental organization will release the results o...

Time Warner Cable dials into Sony TVs at Consumer Electronics Show
Cut the cord? Time Warner Cable doesn't think so. The cable operator signed an exclusive deal with Sony Corp. that would let Sony TV and Blu-ray users pipe in the cable company's offerings, via the Internet. The agreement, announced Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, would let Time Warner Cable subscribers tap into the cable company's on-demand content without an advanced digital video recorder or set-top box. The companies did not disclose pricing and timing ...

CES Debuts New Tablets, 4G Technology
“Every year, gadget makers throw everything at the wall to see what sticks,” wrote CBC News about the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which starts today in Las Vegas and runs through January 9.  “Countless products have been showcased during CES’ 43 years, but a relatively small handful has become hits.” The Consumer Electronics Association, a trade association that promotes the growth of the consumer technology industry, produces CES, which attracts 2,5...

New LG SmartTV Upgrader Makes Every TV a Smart TV
LAS VEGAS, Jan. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Electronics introduced its new LG SmartTV Upgrader (ST600), an easy solution for transforming any TV into a Smart TV, today at the International Consumer Electronics Show (Booth #8205). The Upgrader gives any television with an HDMI input the ability to access endless amounts of content including movies, sports, television programming, music and premium applications, all through an easy to navigate user interface*. The LG SmartTV Upgrader also offers a ...

Consumer Electronics Show displays super phones
(01-06) 04:00 PST Las Vegas - -- Several major technology companies used the eve of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to begin showing off their "super phones," a new generation of ultra-fast smart phones that they hope will live up to the ambitious prefix. LG Electronics Inc., Motorola Mobility Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. all highlighted new Mobile Devices propelled by zippy processors, most with the ability to run on the 4G networks that carriers are rolling out...

Consumer Electronic Show 2011-All Tablets
For Television the HD started consumers off which evolved into LED and now the 3 D television models have evolved for home entertainment.  3 D televisions introduced last year became a hit with LG, Toshiba, Samsung and Panasonic and this year the quality has improved.  As some consumers remember the transition from the black and white to color televisions forty years ago, the new era is that of three dimensional or 3 D. In 2011 newer 3 D -which stands for three dimensional televisions ...

Rivals to the iPad Say This Is the Year
By JOSHUA BRUSTEIN NYT Welcome to the year of the tablet. Again. Last year was supposed to be the year manufacturers would wow consumers with offerings of all sorts of Tablet Computers. Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, took the stage in January at the International Consumer Electronics Show, the industry’s premier trade show, and displayed three devices that he said would be on sale in the months ahead. Dozens of smaller companies laid out their own tablet plans at the show....

Always connected lifestyle on display at CES
Smarter devices, homes and cars for the always connected lifestyle are taking center stage as the annual Consumer Electronics Show kicks off here on Thursday. Slick new Smartphones, ultra-thin Laptops, Tablet Computers to rival Apple's iPad and Web-connected and 3D television sets are expected to grab the most attention during the four-day event at the Las Vegas Convention Center. But the show floor will also feature more smart home appliances such as ovens which can download recipes and vehic...

CES 2011: A Glimpse of the Cutting Edge
The Consumer Electronics Show, a showcase of everything new in the world of gadgets, opens in Las Vegas. Texting, Wi-Fi and Webcams are just some of the new features for this futuristic crop of home appliances. This year's Consumer Electronic Show is all about the tablets. Grateful to be alive, Patricia Machuca bares the scars and bruises left behind after a horrific crash nearly took not just her life, but those of her twin babies and her husband pictured n the photo above this past weekend. Th...

At CES 2011 Keynote, Microsoft CEO Takes The Stage Amid Tablet Crush
One year ago, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer took the stage at the tech industry's premier gadget show to showcase a Windows Tablet Computer to an audience that had yet to meet the iPad. This year, with tablets marking the Hottest items at the show and Windows lagging far behind Apple Inc.'s popular iPad, the stakes are higher. Slipping is Microsoft's status as a technology oracle, which has landed it a standing appointment delivering the trade show's night-before keynote each year. Beyond ...

Apple Restricts Employee Vacation Days in Advance of Spankin New iProduct
AppleInsider has it on good authority that the company has been quietly restricting some retail employees' Vacation days for three weeks starting later this month, and you know what fully staffed Apple Stores means?! Waiting in line for a futuristic-looking iProduct that will revolutionize your life and then seem obsolete and shabby two years hence! Steve Jobs has already achieved his annual goal of upstaging the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas with today's announcement about the openin...

Tech firms look to tap tablet's potential
Las Vegas — — Just nine months ago, when Apple introduced the iPad, skeptics voiced doubts about its longevity. Even the product's name was the subject of jokes. Now, the $16 billion market that the iPad controls has electronics-makers eager to introduce their own tablets, hoping the device will become a ubiquitous household gadget. Nowhere is this urgency more apparent than at the Consumer Electronics Show. The annual show is expected to draw 2,700 companies showing off 20,000 ne...

Connectivity Means When Your Phone Talks To Your TV
Audio for this story from Morning Edition will be available at approx. 9:00 a.m. ET According to my pedometer, I clocked five miles on Wednesday navigating my way from Press Conferences, product demos and luxury hotel convention centers looking for the big themes at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.  All that walking led me to more Internet connected devices than I've ever seen at CES and some of them are talking to one another. Sony CEO Howard Stringer began a press preview by p...

Sony's Howard Stringer: I took my name off the BBC list
Howard Stringer, the charismatic 68-year-old chairman of Sony Corp., on Thursday dismissed speculation that he was a Candidate to head up the BBC. "I told them to take my name off the list," Stringer half-jokingly told reporters during a meeting with reporters at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. "And it’s still on the list. I don’t know why." After nearly six years heading up the sprawling Japanese media and technology company, many are wondering what the Emm...

Skype to acquire Qik; expands video features
SAN FRANCISCO —Skype is widening its sights on the burgeoning video-calling market. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Thursday, the Internet phone service: •Unfurled a premium video service, Skype's Group Video Calling, that for $8.99 a month lets consumers and companies put up to 10 people on the same call from anywhere. •Announced the acquisition of Qik, whose expertise in mobile video-streaming and storage is expected to polish areas where Skype was lacking. ...

Skype to buy mobile video company Qik
Internet calling and messaging service Skype SA said Thursday it agreed to buy Qik, a provider of mobile video software and services, for an undisclosed sum. Redwood City, Calif.-based Qik lets people capture, store and share video over Mobile Devices, the Web and desktop computers. The deal is expected to close this month. The Qik service is available on more than 200 Mobile Phones running the Android, iPhone, Symbian, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile platforms, Skype said. About 124 million peopl...

Skype buys smartphone video star Qik
A view of the Skype Internet phone program. Skype on Thursday closed a deal... Skype on Thursday closed a deal to buy Qik, a California startup that specializes in letting people use Smartphones to stream video to Internet-linked friends in real time. Skype chief executive Tony Bates announced the deal on the opening day of the big Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas but wouldn't reveal financial details. The acquisition comes with surging popularity of Video Chat using smartphones, tablets...

Google dazzles with Android tablet preview
Las Vegas (CNNMoney) -- Google showed off a preview of its hotly awaited, tablet-optimized Android 3.0 -- nicknamed Honeycomb -- in a demo on Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show. Android-based tablets have been a big focus at the massive CES show this year, and companies including Motorola Mobility (MMI) and Toshiba had said they would wait to unleash their new tablets until Honeycomb was released. Email Print Comment The tablet-oriented Honeycomb is meant to improve upon previous Android...

Home entertainment market shrinking slows as Blu-ray and digital help make up for DVD decline
"Down less" is the new "up" for Hollywood's home entertainment business. Total revenue from DVD, Blu-ray and digital sales and rentals of movies and television shows in the U.S. declined 3% to $18.8 billion in 2010, according to new data from industry trade organization Digital Entertainment Group. Although the drops, particularly of DVD sales, are worrisome for the Entertainment Industry, studio executives can at least take some comfort in the fact that the...

Arm Holdings up on Microsoft deal
Shares in chipmaker ARM Holdings have risen 8.2% after Microsoft said its new Windows Operating System would be able to run on chips designed by Arm. The chips are usually found in Mobile Phones and the deal is significant as previously Windows has been connected with Intel-designed chips. Arm shares had initially jumped 12.6% in early trading to 531p. "While expected, we view this as a very positive [deal] long-term for Arm," UBS analysts said in a note. Microsoft chief executive Stev...

Great Gadget Photos: CES 2011
Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer gives his Keynote Speech for the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show. CES is the world's largest annual consumer technology trade show. It features 2,700 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to about 126,000 attendees. Click to see more of the gadgets on display at CES. See what you will want to buy in the coming year. Please wait. Your gallery will be ready in 5 seconds....

Booming TV market a boon for app makers, tech firms
Nearly 350 million Web-enabled TVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles and other devices will be sold worldwide by 2015, four times the number from last year, according to new research from Parks Associates. That blossoming market is going to be a boon for app developers because of the growing consumer demand for access to online video, streaming music, photos, Social Networking, personalized news, games and other content on their TVs. And, of course, that will have implications for tech companies...