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LAS VEGAS--After the dust settled after a busy CES 2012, I got a chance to visit the T-Mobile Sparq.

Compared with the superphones we saw, the modest Sparq ain't much, but it is an affordable offering for folks looking for a keyboarded messaging phone that doesn't require a two-year contract. Take a look at photos for all the specs.

LAS VEGAS--One of my favorite parts of CES is getting beyond the shiny new smartphones and tracking down the quirky mobile accessories that hide in far corners of the enormous show floor.

Sadly, I had to wait until the last day of CES to start exploring, so I was very fortunate to bump into the founders of CaseInity at the CNET stage (I guess they figured it was a likely place to find CNET editors lurking about).

Based in Philadelphia, CaseInity is developing a unique and very convenient case for the iPhone 4 and 4S called Cord-on-Board. Beyond just protecting … Read more

It's Friday the 13th & we are wrapping up CES 2012. Today on the show we discuss the Best of CES winners and losers and discuss some CES disappointments and surprises.

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LAS VEGAS--Sporting booths and displays suitable for a full-fledged car show, major automakers showed off their varying connected car strategies at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show.

But the automaker displays at CES only held a smattering of cars, the space primarily being taken up by standalone dashboards and kiosks showing in-car navigation, audio, phone, and app screens. I never doubted the benefits of data feeds in cars, as integrating Google search with a navigation system is far better than relying on some static, outdated points-of-interest database.

Knowing the glacial pace of automotive development, what surprised me was how quickly automakers … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Later this month, runners will be able to pop a set of earbuds into their noggins and do a whole lot more than rock out to their favorite songs.

The new earbuds will monitor a range of biometric data, including heart rate and VO2 max, a key fitness measure for performance athletes, and shoot that information off to their smartphones.

The sensor chips were developed by Valencell, a Raleigh, N.C., startup. It's licensing the technology to earbud makers and the first set will debut later this month, said Valencell founder and chief executive Steven LeBoeuf at the … Read more

LAS VEGAS--The show floor at the Consumer Electronics Show is astonishingly crowded.

Walking around, you're bombarded from all sides by booming speakers, action-packed videos playing on screens of all sizes, and people eagerly hoping you'll allow them to give you a demo of whatever product they're representing.

The walkways are packed with people. And at times I find myself experiencing pedestrian rage when the person in front of me stops dead in their tracks to read a text message on their phone. And judging from the looks of frustration on many of the people around me, I … Read more

LAS VEGAS--As its luxury competitors showed off new connected-car features and integrated apps, Mercedes-Benz lagged, until now.

At CES 2012 Mercedes-Benz revealed a full-featured new telematics system, Mbrace2, which gives drivers access to a number of useful and popular apps in the dashboard. This new system will first see production in the updated 2013 SL-Class, then roll out to other 2013 models.

Mercedes-Benz enhanced its traditional onscreen interface with a carousel menu structure, and one of those carousel items leads to the apps. These include Facebook, Yelp, a news reader, Morningstar Finance, Google search, Google Street View, and Panoramio. Most … Read more

LAS VEGAS--We've heard of headphones delivering new highs before, but never quite like this.

At the Polk Audio booth here at the Consumer Electronics Show, the manufacturer has set up one of the more brazen gimmicks at a show filled with brazen gimmicks: a trampoline gymnast who zooms toward the high convention-center ceiling with every jump. Of course, she's wearing Polk's new Ultrafit sports headphones, which--big surprise--stayed put despite her vigorous bounces.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--Audi delivered remarkable technology with its A7 model last year, and now the company is bringing even more advanced features to the low end of its lineup, in the new A3.

Although Audi did not have a new A3 on display at CES 2012, the company did bring its dashboard. The completely functional head unit in this dashboard showed off Audi's latest cabin technology. More importantly, it showed that Audi won't reserve this technology for its high-end models.

One of the top features, which also made the A7 such a standout, is the dedicated data connection into … Read more