ces

LAS VEGAS--One of the big complaints from consumers who buy General Motors cars that run on E85 ethanol is the lack of places to fill up.

GM CEO Rick Wagoner, in a meeting with reporters at the Consumer Electronics Show taking place in Las Vegas this week, says he has received hundreds of e-mails from customers who have bought such cars and are frustrated they can't find ethanol stations.

When GM started selling its flex-fuel cars, there were about 600 stations that sold ethanol in the U.S. Now there are about 1,400 stations.

But there are 170,… Read more

Asus introduced several smartphones for the North American market at CES 2008, including the GPS-enabled Asus P527. In addition to the built-in SiRFIII GPS chip, the device has a preloaded application called Travelog that lets you record and share your travel pictures, routes, and more with your friends and family. There's also a program called Location Carrier that can send your position to others via text message.

Aside from the GPS capabilities, the quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; EDGE/GPRS) phone runs Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition and features a 2-megapixel camera, 128MB Flash/64MB SDRAM, a microSD … Read more

For some, the passive sound isolation provided by many sets of in-ear headphones just doesn't cut it. But active noise cancellation is a bit difficult to find in an ultracompact package, such as that offered by earbuds. In fact, I can only think of two sets off the top of my head: the JVC HA-NCX77 and the Sony MDR-NC22. Now, I can add one more to my memory bank, Audio-Technica's new ATH-ANC3 QuietPoint earbuds. Unlike many noise-canceling headphones that only succeed in blocking out low frequency sound, the ATH-ANC3 uses a patented technology that matches environmental noise with … Read more

The iRiver B20 may be new, but it looks awfully familiar. In fact, it looks eerily like the first-generation Clix--not that that's a bad thing. The most obvious cosmetic difference is the telescoping antenna attached to the back of the device for receiving DMB content (no word on whether the antenna will attach to the models sold in the U.S.). I'm actually kind of fond of the antenna: it makes the B20 look even more like a cute, mini TV. The other major difference between this player and the Clix is the microSD card slot, which allows … Read more

CES is an overwhelming collection of screens, beckoning to thousands of attendees as the bright portals to our entertainment, information, and one another anywhere in the world. Whether designed for the home, office, car, or on the go, those screens range in size, quality, resolution, and function.

In previous CES years, the focus of most display makers was size. It seemed that each year we saw progressively larger screens, far beyond a size reasonable for the average consumer. Display makers jockeyed for size-based bragging rights. This year, the focus evolved to screen quality, whether it's 1080p, reduced motion blur, … Read more

While there's no doubt Warner Bros.' decision to support Blu-ray exclusively is a major setback to the HD DVD camp, retailers say it's too soon to declare "game over."

Circuit City CEO Philip J. Schoonover, who has had precious little to be happy about of late, said the move is a sign that the battle is starting to shake out.

"We're very excited to see progress of any type," Schoonover said. "We see this as progress."

The head of consumer electronics merchandising at Target said the move "probably moves things … Read more

So yes, there are iPhone-related products at CES 2008 primarily focused covers and protective skins and audio speakers. Two products that really caught my eye in terms of form and function are B&W's Zepplin (yes, a Zeplin, like the Hindenpeter of Family Guy fame - hope this one doesn't burst into flames) and THX/Razer's Mako speakers. Both are definitely against the grain from a Bose or a Altec Lansing iPod docking audio system. I've never liked the Bose docks - the sound is too grainy or metallic, and the Altec Lansing product at … Read more

There's a well-worn axiom in journalism that finding three examples of the same thing in short order officially constitutes a trend. With that in mind, take a look at this prototype Dell XPS laptop being shown under glass at the Dell booth. It's a 16-inch laptop, called the XPS 630i, and the unusual size displays images in a true 16:9 screen ratio (like your HDTV), rather than the 16:10 screen ratio found in most 14.1-, 15.4- and 17-inch laptop displays.

While Dell is the only PC maker showing off a 16-inch prototype to the … Read more

Laptop gamers have always had plenty of high-end 17-inch desktop replacement systems to choose from, so we were excited to see that one of Alienware's pushed this year at CES was the Area-51 m15x, a rare 15-inch gaming laptop.

Watch the Alienware Area-51 m15x video on CNET TV.

With this new model, initially announced in December but available starting later in January, Alienware has updated its iconic look, keeping the classic alien-head motif on the back of the lid, but cleaning up the design with a simple, flat look called "Ripley," which removes not only the ridges … Read more