CES: Sony's tablet not aiming to be an iPad killer

LAS VEGAS--The tablet Sony has plans to release stands out at CES because it's actually not here, but mostly because Sony appears to stand alone in that it isn't positioning it as an iPad killer.

The company briefly noted that it's got a tablet in the works during yesterday's press conference.

"We'd really like to take the No. 2 position (in the tablet market) by 2012," Kunimasa Suzuki, deputy president of Sony, said at a roundtable discussion with company executives here today. Unlike the gobs of Android-powered tablets introduced this week, Sony sounded … Read more

CES: Lenovo's 21.5-inch IdeaCentre B320 all-in-one focuses on TV watching

LAS VEGAS--While the Lenovo IdeaCentre B320 doesn't offer quite as many entertainment features as the larger, more expensive IdeaCentre B520, the 21.5-inch B320 offers a more specialized take, focusing on enabling you to watch TV content on your PC.

The B320 comes with a TV tuner, which isn't particularly innovative, but it also supports a feature Lenovo is calling Hardware TV. Essentially it allows you to watch TV on your all-in-one without having to boot the system up first.

You get the same features you normally expect from a TV tuner-equipped PC, including recording and picture-in-picture (PIP) … Read more

CES: Citi swiping Dynamics' 'smart' credit cards

LAS VEGAS--Dynamics' high-tech update on the old-fashioned credit card, which we covered from Demo in September, has landed a real customer.

At CES here, the company announced that Citigroup will be launching a trial of a credit card that lets users pay with either their regular credit account or with reward points they've accumulated. The user will press a button on the credit card to select a method of payment. That will activate the card's built-in electronics and rewrite the magnetic strip on the back so standard credit card-reading machines will use the chosen account. Updated with … Read more

Hands-on with the Marvell HyperDuo hybrid storage controller

LAS VEGAS--Marvell announced its new storage controller this week that combines a regular hard-disk drive (HDD) and a solid-state drive (SSD) to create a hybrid storage solution designed to offer SSD-like performance while retaining the capacity benefits of traditional hard drives.

Intrigued by the idea, I visited the company's demonstration today and found it indeed intriguing and at the same time practical.

At the demo, Marvel used a controller card, powered by its HyperDuo chip, that has two SATA 6Gbps ports. This card is similar to any PCIe SATA controller cards you find on the market. The difference is, … Read more

CES: Audi keynote full of sound, little fury

LAS VEGAS--Audi chairman Rupert Stadler delivered a keynote address at CES on Thursday morning, marking the company's first major presence at the consumer electronics event. But although he had plenty of flashy things to show, there were no new concrete announcements.

Actor James Cromwell took the stage first to talk about his role in the movie "I, Robot" and whether the autonomous cars portrayed were pure science fiction or something we could expect to see in our lifetimes.

After Cromwell's short speech, CEA head Robert Shapiro and Rupert Stadler drove onto the stage in the Audi e-tron Spyder, … Read more

CES: Samsung TVs demo Time Warner, Comcast apps for box-free cable

Cable card has long promised, and largely failed to deliver, cable TV programming without the need for a cable box. Now, judging from a demo we saw at the Samsung booth, cable TV providers are willing to work directly with TV makers to deliver content box-free.

The demo consisted of each providers' dedicated apps in the Samsung App menus. Selecting an app brought up a standard program guide grid (pictured), offering the full selection of each provider's lineup. Selecting a show from the grid caused it to begin playing live on the TV, just like you'd expect from … Read more

CES: 3D-capable, multigraphics-chip Lenovo IdeaCentre B520 coming to U.S. in June

LAS VEGAS--Lenovo just demonstrated a sharp-looking, powerful new home entertainment-oriented all-in-one PC for us, and while it wasn't the most seamless presentation we've ever seen, the IdeaCentre B520 has potential. The 23.6-inch B520 comes with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs, as well the option for multiple Nvidia graphics chips, a Blu-ray drive, and HDMI output and input, among other specs.

But unlike the Acer Aspire Z5673, Lenovo is actually bringing its Nvidia 3D Vision-capable all-in-one to the U.S. We watched a few movies and played some games on the IdeaCentre B520 during … Read more

Verizon at CES: No iPhone yet, but 10 first-wave 4G LTE devices

As expected, Verizon unveiled its first 4G devices today--and it used grand language to do so.

"The speed of thought is now the speed of action," a voice boomed over the speakers at the beginning of Verizon's CES press conference. "For the first time, mobile is in real time."

Earlier in the day, Verizon used its keynote to hail its new 4G LTE broadband infrastructure. At the press conference a few hours later, partners including Alcatel-Lucent, HTC, and LG Electronics talked up the endless possibilities of LTE. Then Verizon trotted out new devices that are ready for the network.

But first, let's get this out of the way: Verizon did not announce that it would be carrying Apple's iPhone!

With rock music blaring in the background, Verizon execs stood before a table displaying the first suite of 4G LTE consumer devices: four smartphones, two tablets, two mobile hot spots, and two notebooks, all coming in the first half of the year, and some as early as March.

"It's not just about doing things faster, it's about doing things you couldn't do before," said Marni Walden, chief marketing officer.

The devices that got stage time (details on pricing and rate plans were not announced today) include:… Read more

CES: Aluratek device turns your TV into a Web-surfing PC

LAS VEGAS--A new gadget from Aluratek takes the idea of an Internet-enabled TV and ramps it up a few notches.

Being demonstrated this week at the Consumer Electronics Show, the new device lets you use your TV as a full computer with the ability to surf any Web site. The device is so new that it doesn't yet have an official name. The working title is Plug PC, but that may change based in part on the response it gets from the crowds at CES.

How does it work? Plug PC contains an embedded copy of Ubuntu Linux. Just … Read more