First Look at the Consumer Electronic Show

[ Music ] ^M00:00:03 >> Hey there, I'm Kara Tsuboi with CNET News.com and welcome to the Consumer Electronics Show 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. While I can't exactly be your guide for Sin City I can help you navigate the miles of convention space and help figure out what's going on with these gazillion different vendors at their booths. Come with me, this is gonna be a fun week. This year like in 10 of the last 15, Bill Gates is delivering the keynote address to kick off the show, but it comes with some bittersweet news. >> I'm talking about the fact that this is my last keynote and it's the middle of this year, in July that I move from being a full-time employee at Microsoft to working full-time at the foundation as you heard. And so, this will be the first time since I was 17 that I won't have my full-time Microsoft job. >> Just as Gates chose to use CES as his platform for a big announcement, companies have been debuting big ground breaking products here for decades. >> In the early 70s the VCR was shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, showed up in stores a few years later. >> And anticipation of big announcements, the more than 4,000 members of the press attended the exclusive industry conferences all day, Sunday. >> I'm here to talk about television. >> LG Electronics showed several TV models including the sexy red bedroom TV with a side-loading DVD player. >> As we talk to the consumers it became evident that the furniture they put in their family room and their living room clearly is not the same furniture they put in their bedrooms. >> And a new portable TV broadcasting system for cell phones and GPS devices. >> Imagine being able to watch your favorite shows and the sports events and up-to-the-minute local news, weather and to track your information in anywhere at anytime you want. >> This new mobile pedestrian hand-held devices won't hit the market for another year, but in the words of LG's CEO and president. >> LG. Life's good. Thank you. >> The Pioneer folks were jazzed about their portable hybrid navigation systems. >> With a simple touch of a button, you can say, I wanna listen to artist Justin Timberlake. >> And also tease the audience with some prototype TVs. One, that's only 41 pounds and 9 mm thin. The hottest ticket in town on Sunday, however was not to the latest trip to the salacious, but to the Toshiba press conference. >> Please make sure you have this display or you will not be let in. >> The reason being Warner Brother's recent news that was now exclusively released of high-def DVDs on Blu-ray, Sony's format, not Toshiba's HD DVD. >> Obviously the events of the last few days have shifted the focus of my comments to some degree. But frankly, what I wanted to say to you is still very true. We firmly believe that HD DVD is the best format for the consumers. >> The show rooms don't officially open to the public until Monday morning. >> So, there'll be about 140,000 people here from more than 130 countries. This is truly an international consumer electronics show and it's probably the biggest we've ever had. There will be about 1.85 million square feet of exhibits' space. That's more than 30 football fields. So, it's a big show. >> And for safe bet that some crews will be working around the clock until everything is ready for display. >> It's been pretty hectic. We have a lot of people coming in from out of town. Getting people organized including booths and stuff like that. We are rearranging people every minute has been crazy. >> No, no, no. What's really crazy is Bill Gates' surprise celebrity guest he brought onstage to close his keynote. >> That's right. I've got one of the Guitar Hero III gods himself, Slash from Velvet Revolver. ^M00:04:12 [ Music ] ^M00:04:16 >> Hey, anything goes at CES Las Vegas. Rock on Bill. I'm Kara Tsuboi reporting for CNET News.com. ^M00:04:25 [ Music ]