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Scenes from CES 2011: Day one (photos)

CNET has been covering CES 2011 for two days now, but yesterday was the day the masses arrived. Most of us can't find 3G coverage in Vegas any longer, but we were able to find the best of the best on the first official show day.

Jennifer Guevin
Jennifer Guevin was a managing editor at CNET, overseeing the ever-helpful How To section, special packages and front-page programming. As a writer, she gravitated toward science, quirky geek culture stories, robots and food. In real life, she mostly just gravitates toward food.
Jennifer Guevin
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1 of 20 James Martin/CNET

Verizon keynote address

LAS VEGAS--Day one of the Consumer Electronics Show kicked off with a joint keynote address by the Consumer Electronics Association (which puts on the massive show), and Verizon.

Here, Mike Cleron (right), principal software engineer at Google, joins Verizon President and Chief Operating Officer Lowell McAdam (left) and Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha during the address.

For his portion of the talk, McAdam focused less on actual devices and more on the power of Verizon's new 4G network. But a few shiny gadgets did get trotted out...

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2 of 20 Josh P. Miller/CNET

Motorola Xoom

...including the Motorola Xoom, shown here. The tablet is the first to run Google's tablet-optimized Honeycomb version of Android. It is due out in the first quarter of 2011 and will be available, naturally, on Verizon.

You can see more hands-on photos of the Xoom here, as well as some photos of the Xoom being demoed running Honeycomb here.

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3 of 20 Josh P. Miller/CNET

Motorola Droid Bionic

Another device to get some good face time during Verizon's keynote was the Motorola Droid Bionic, one of the first phones to use Verizon's 4G LTE network and one of the more popular devices to come out of this year's show.

You can check out CNET editor Nicole Lee's hands-on with the dual-core Bionic here.

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4 of 20 Dell

Dell takes another pass at the Dell Streak

Not to be out-tableted, Dell used its press conference on Thursday to reveal its Streak 7 tablet. This is the followup to the Streak, an Android-powered mobile device released last year that straddled the line between smartphone and tablet.

During its talk, Dell dubbed the new 7-inch Android tablet "the ultimate social-networking device."

The Dell Streak 7 is expected to become available through T-Mobile retail stores and T-Mobile.com and through Dell in the weeks to come, though pricing has yet to be announced.

Dell also used its time to introduce the XPS 17 laptop, which runs on Intel's new Sandy Bridge CPUs; the 3D-ready XPS 8300 desktop; the Android-powered Venue smartphone, with its full Flash 10.1 implementation and 8-megapixel camera; and the new Alienware M17x 3D, which boasts full HD 3D and an advanced wireless connectivity for real-time gaming with zero lag time. Dell called the M17x the "most powerful product to be introduced in the universe." Yep. They went there.

For a more complete summary of Dell's address, click here.

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5 of 20 Josh Miller/CNET

G-Slate

T-Mobile talked up its 4G network and, while it didn't introduce any new phones during its Thursday event, it did say it plans to unveil 25 4G devices this year.

Jong-Seok Park, CEO of LG (left), and Philipp Humm, CEO and president of T-Mobile, show off their Honeycomb-powered G-Slates during T-Mobile's press conference.

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6 of 20 Wayne Cunningham/CNET

Audi's musical keynote

Audi's Rupert Stadler takes the stage for his Thursday morning address at CES.

The company's keynote sounded great, but didn't offer much in the way of news.

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7 of 20 Sarah Tew

Verizon's extensive 4G LTE device lineup

Later in the day, Verizon held a second event, this time a Verizon-specific press conference, where it unveiled a table full of its first 4G devices--10 in total--expected to make it to store shelves by the middle of this year.

Among them was the LG Revolution smartphone (see CNET's hands-on photos here) and the HTC Thunderbolt, HTC's first 4G LTE smartphone. Click here for a summary of all the 4G-ready devices Verizon touted during the talk.

Here, Verizon CMO Marni Walden (center) stands with two of Verizon's partners behind the table of devices introduced Thursday.

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8 of 20 James Martin/CNET

Dancing ladybugs

In what was doubtless the most entertaining--though perhaps not the newsiest--press event of the day, Samsung blew our minds with dancing ladybugs, flowers, circus performers, and children of the future.

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9 of 20 James Martin/CNET

Zoll

A sort of child emcee for the night was a furry-headed pre-teen, who apparently represented a child from 2020 and talked of his experience with the TV entertainment experience, and how vastly different things were from 2010.

He went by the name of "Zoll," but we thought he bore a striking resemblance to Sonic the Hedgehog's sidekick Tails.

You can see more of Samsung's dance-a-thon press conference in this slideshow.

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10 of 20 Sarah Tew

Lady GaGa

Of course, the day wasn't all about press conferences. Thursday was also the day the convention opened its doors to the public, so there was plenty to see out and about on the show floor.

Lady GaGa made an appearance on behalf of Polaroid, showing off the Polarez GL20, a pair of sunglasses with a built in camera, and the Polaprinter GL10, a mobile instant printer.

In this photo, she's talking about how phones are the cameras of the future.

More photos from Lady GaGa's CES appearance are here.

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11 of 20 Tim Hornyak/CNET

iRobot's AVA

iRobot CEO Colin Angle stands here with AVA, a tablet-controlled robot that can map out environments, project your presence into remote locations, and turn virtually any app into a mobile platform. Here, AVA is outfitted with an iPad.
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12 of 20 Antuan Goodwin/CNET

GoPro's 3D Hero case

GoPro's 3D Hero case is the high-tech version of taping a pair of cameras together for stereoscopic vision.

The case maintains GoPro's waterproof, shock-resistant design, but also includes the 3D Hero link cable. This connection joins the two HD Hero cameras by their BUS connections and allows one camera to take full control of the second, automatically syncing video capture and settings with the touch of a button.

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13 of 20 Screenshot by Jennifer Guevin/CNET; video by Rafe Needleman/CNET

AR.Drone dogfight

The AR.Drone, a favorite toy in the hallowed halls of CNET, is back at CES this year. And the demo of a dogfighting game was going really well--until the legendarily poor Wi-Fi environment at the convention got in the way.

Wi-Fi meltdowns aside, the AR.Drone team was there to show off some fun racing and dogfighting games that can be played with the remote-control flyers. You can read more about the demo and see a short video of one dogfight in our blog here.

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14 of 20 Screenshot by Jennifer Guevin/CNET; video by Erica Ogg/CNET

Eyeball motion controller

Waterloo Labs shows off a prototype of its motion-control technology powered by your eyes.

The electrodes on this fellow's skin are attached to a motherboard that's communicating with the TV.

We have more details on how the technology works, plus a video of it in action, in our blog here.

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15 of 20 Samsung

Microsoft Surface

Meet the next generation of Microsoft Surface. Largely untouched since it was first introduced in 2007, the technology has resurfaced (sorry, I couldn't resist) at this year's CES.

The upgraded table-top, multitouch computer is set to ship later this year. This new version has 10 inches of additional screen real estate, more powerful internals, and is significantly thinner than its predecessor.

The new unit is four inches thick and is made out of an LCD panel that's been optically bonded to Corning's Gorilla Glass, a material that has appeared prominently in many of this year's high-profile devices. It can be placed horizontally on stands or counter tops, or (for the first time) on vertical surfaces for use as a kiosk.

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16 of 20 Martin LaMonica/CNET

ThinkEco modlet

ThinkEco's "modlet" is a smart outlet and lets people schedule when to turn off electronic gear when they're not at home.

The plug is equipped with Zibgee radio that can communicate with a PC through a USB key. The system can track how much energy electronics use and make suggestions about what devices could be turned off at specific times based on usage data.

The company says it's preparing an iPhone app that could be used to control the system, as well as a power strip, both of which should be available later this year.

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17 of 20 Wayne Cunningham/CNET

Continental's AutoLinq

Continental's AutoLinq is an Android-based automotive head unit offering many apps. During a demonstration, a Continental representative showed an app that can alert parents if a teenage driver is consistently exceeding the speed limit, and something called geo-fencing, a system whereby parents can receive a text message if their child goes farther from home than allowed.

Other apps included navigation with real-time traffic, music from Pandora, and a vehicle diagnostic system that analyzes error codes and gives drivers more detailed information than the traditional check engine light.

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18 of 20 Elizabeth Armstrong Moore/CNET

UWaterG2 waterproof MP3 player

The UWaterG2, touted as the world's smallest waterproof MP3 player. The device itself isn't new to this CES, but the company is announcing that this year the device is getting an upgrade, from 2GB of memory to 4GB and 8GB. It also now comes with this adorable little "life jacket" to keep it afloat.
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19 of 20 Elizabeth Armstrong Moore/CNET

Jooyn bike generator

For bicycle enthusiasts, this rear bike light from Jooyn is also a mini generator that can power the company's bike lights, sound system, and controller up to 18 volts/1 amp. Each light includes a USB port for powering other devices at around 5V/1A, and the generator doubles as a rear light that flashes during rotation.
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20 of 20 Tom Krazit/CNET

Samsung Google TV

Samsung quietly showed off a few new, then-unannounced Google TV devices at its booth.

The company's Google TV Blu-Ray player and set-top box were running side-by-side in one part of its booth, which was otherwise dominated by TVs running Samsung's own Internet TV software.

Samsung characterized the devices as "an experiment" but later confirmed its new partnership with Google TV today.

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