LAS VEGAS--Few tech industry professionals truly relish the annual trip here each January for the ritual that has become CES, the largest and most important event on the tech calendar. But this year, for the first time in awhile, they were able to get back to complaining about long cab lines and bad food rather than layoffs and budget cuts during their week in the desert.

"Double the energy and enthusiasm at CES compared with last two years," said NPD Group analyst Samir Bhavnani on his Twitter account Friday, summing up a week that lacked a signature announcement … Read more

For me, the essence of the four days I spent at CES can be boiled down to four booths with two competing personal computing dynamics: two of those booths represent the PC's future, two do not.

Here's the quickest way to make the point. Google's Android is the future and Microsoft Windows--let me put this delicately--is the present. More specifically: Motorola-Nvidia (Android) are on one side, and Microsoft-Intel (Windows) are on the other.

Motorola-Nvidia: The Motorola and Nvidia booths shouted future. Lots of Android tablets, high-end Android smartphones, and a very interesting Motorola technology called Atrix 4G. (… Read more

As expected, CES 2011 was a tablet paradise. The majority of our pre-CES tablet predictions came true, including the debut of the 7-inch Dell Streak, and new arrivals from Acer, Asus, LG, MSI, and more.

Admittedly, some of our predictions were off. HP did not unveil a tablet running the WebOS platform acquired from Palm. The company is, however, announcing something big involving WebOS next month.

We also didn't see a 10-inch version of the Galaxy Tab from Samsung. Instead, the manufacturer offered up 4G and Wi-Fi-only versions of the Tab, along with a smaller Galaxy Player and an intriguing slide-out Windows tablet.

Outside of our predictions there were a few pleasant surprises.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--Earlier this week Acer introduced its 10-inch Iconis A500 tablet, but Acer also gave a sneak peek of 7- and 4.8-inch tablets.

Neither tablet has a name as of yet, and neither was functioning when we saw them. Acer is planning to release them, however no date was specified. No other information concerning operating system or processor was officially released.

One thing we did notice was that the 4.8-inch tablet's screen had a crazy aspect ratio, but Acer was unable to confirm exactly what it is.

Take a look at the pics to get an idea … Read more

Knowing I was going to Las Vegas for CES, my friends said, "Have fun!" The truth is, friends, fun, whether or not the kind that stays in Las Vegas, is not the first thing one can expect from covering CES. It's always a lot of work.

I did have fun seeing my colleagues all in one place, however, especially those from the East Coast, whom I don't get to see very often. Now that we've all returned home or are on the way back, here are the things in the networking and storage categories that are sticking with me from the show.

In the networking department, faster is the main theme, and this is true for both wireless and powerline networking. Powerline networking is now pumped up to support 500Mbps by adhering to the latest IEEE 1901 standard  (up from the 200Mbps of the HomePlug AV standard). There were several 500Mbps powerline products announced at CES this year, such as the Trendnet TPL 401E and Netgear's XAVB5004.

Networking vendors also introduced the first hybrid wireless routers that have built-in support for powerline technology, such as the WNXR200 from Netgear.

Wireless networking this year is seeing many vendors moving to the three-stream standard that offers a throughput speed of up to 450Mbps (as opposed to the 300Mbps of the popularly used dual-stream standard). Examples of these are Netgear with the WNDR4000, Trendnet with the TEW-692GR, and D-Link with its HD Media routers.

On the client side, the three-stream wireless standard is supported by Intel's Centrino N-5300 and Centrino N-6300 Wi-Fi adapters. These two Wi-Fi chipsets, also known as Intel's Ultimate N Wi-Fi Link family, can handle all standards of Wi-Fi, including the three-stream standard. Trendnet also released the first 450Mbps gaming adapter. In the future, networking vendors will also release USB adapters that support this higher speed.

D-Link's HD Media routers, by the way, are the first that sport an SD card reader, and some of them are also the first with built-in USB 3.0 to support faster network storage performance.

Speaking of USB 3.0, most storage vendors have now moved to this standard for their external drives. This is a natural move, as USB 3.0 offers a speed that's easily 10 times that of USB 2.0 and is backward-compatible with all previous versions of USB standards. External drives are now also getting tinier, and many of them now are also based on solid-state drives. Examples of these are the GoFlex Slim from Seagate, Verbatim's Titan XS, and the i-Disk Rex 100 from Pretec.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--I had some hands-on experience with the Mobion Fuel Cell Generator in December and decided to bring it with me to CES 2011 with the intention of using it as the only charger for my iPhone 4 and seeing how this green technology would work out.

In case you're anxious, it worked out OK, though not perfectly.

Prior to the trip, MTI Micro, the device's maker, told me that while the generator itself would pose no problem, the fuel cell cartridge, which contains the fuel liquid, has not been approved to be included with carry-on luggage so … Read more

LAS VEGAS--I reviewed the Clear 4G+ Mobile Series S USB modem right before the holidays, and people have been asking me how it performs outside of the San Francisco Bay Area (CNET's home base). CES 2011 seemed like the perfect opportunity to find out.

Las Vegas during CES is congested, both in terms of traffic and cellular signals. There are hundreds of thousands of people here in the city, each with at least one Internet-connected handheld device. These devices connect to the Net via 3G, 4G, or GPRS (or Edge) signal. If you want to know how a cell … Read more

LAS VEGAS--MSI was fairly coy about sending out pics of its Android-based tablet, the WinPad 100A. Luckily, the device was on display at the company's CES booth.

The WinPad 100A has a 10.1-inch capacitive touch screen and runs on Android 2.3. It wasn't clear whether the device will be upgradable to Honeycomb when the new OS launches, however.

Other specs and details include an ARM processor, a USB port, Mini-USB, HDMI, an SD card reader, a front-facing camera on the upper-left side, and a headphone jack.

Additionally, the device includes a G-Sensor gravity-detecting device, a GPS … Read more

LAS VEGAS--As predicted, CES 2011 was a feast of tablets. They came in small, medium, and extra large. Some even came in pairs. The most promising of the bunch included the BlackBerry PlayBook, Toshiba's 10-inch Android Tablet, the Samsung Sliding PC, and the Motorola Xoom.

Within the tablet category, the Motorola Xoom rose to the top by promising what we felt was the most anticipated mobile OS (Android Honeycomb), on impressively spec'd hardware (dual-core, 4G-compatible, HDMI out, front- and back-facing cameras), in a 10-inch format that can literally and figuratively measure up against the iPad.

Like any product … Read more