CES - Must-see products

LAS VEGAS--Along with the roll-out of its typical home theater products, Sony has also announced a new wireless audio-streaming platform known as HomeShare. Sony kicked off the launch with five new products that use HomeShare, as well as an iPhone/Android app that can be used to control all of the HomeShare devices on your network.

While Sony has tried its hand at wireless music streaming before (Altus and its related platform, S-Air), HomeShare is an interesting, surprisingly nonproprietary new take. It's built around the DLNA standard, which means that HomeShare products can stream digital music from any DLNA-compliant … Read more

LAS VEGAS--One of the most anticipated smartphones coming into CES 2011 had to be the HTC Thunderbolt.

Unveiled today at Verizon's press conference, the Thunderbolt is HTC's first LTE device and has been described as "blazingly fast." However, we had to find out for ourselves and luckily we got some hands-on time with it.

In short, the HTC Thunderbolt is fast. Granted, there aren't too many people on Verizon's LTE network right now, but we were impressed at just how fast it pulled up CNET's full site and played video. On other devices … Read more

Turtle Beach is at CES 2011 to show off the company's spotlight product, the PX5. A successor to the X41 headset, the PX5 improves on the original design in many ways, most notably being the first headset to bring wireless surround sound and chat to the PS3. Two on-board wireless radios (Bluetooth and 2.4Ghz) allow for the headset to play nicely with both Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles, and the Bluetooth capability can even be utilized as a cell phone headset or wireless speakers for AD2P music playback.

But perhaps the most impressive feature of the PX5 is … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Dynamics' high-tech update on the old-fashioned credit card, which we covered from Demo in September, has landed a real customer.

At CES here, the company announced that Citigroup will be launching a trial of a credit card that lets users pay with either their regular credit account or with reward points they've accumulated. The user will press a button on the credit card to select a method of payment. That will activate the card's built-in electronics and rewrite the magnetic strip on the back so standard credit card-reading machines will use the chosen account. Updated with … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Marvell announced its new storage controller this week that combines a regular hard-disk drive (HDD) and a solid-state drive (SSD) to create a hybrid storage solution designed to offer SSD-like performance while retaining the capacity benefits of traditional hard drives.

Intrigued by the idea, I visited the company's demonstration today and found it indeed intriguing and at the same time practical.

At the demo, Marvel used a controller card, powered by its HyperDuo chip, that has two SATA 6Gbps ports. This card is similar to any PCIe SATA controller cards you find on the market. The difference is, … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Lenovo just demonstrated a sharp-looking, powerful new home entertainment-oriented all-in-one PC for us, and while it wasn't the most seamless presentation we've ever seen, the IdeaCentre B520 has potential. The 23.6-inch B520 comes with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs, as well the option for multiple Nvidia graphics chips, a Blu-ray drive, and HDMI output and input, among other specs.

But unlike the Acer Aspire Z5673, Lenovo is actually bringing its Nvidia 3D Vision-capable all-in-one to the U.S. We watched a few movies and played some games on the IdeaCentre B520 during … Read more

LAS VEGAS--We managed to get a hands-on with the LG Revolution, which was just announced for Verizon's 4G LTE network.

While we initially thought it was a rejiggered LG Optimus 2X, it's actually not at all like it. It doesn't have the dual-core Tegra 2 processor of the Optimus 2X, and neither does it have the 8-megapixel camera on the back, only a 5-megapixel one. It also feels a tad thicker and rounder than the Optimus 2X, which we'll have a hands-on post about later.

Still, it's a great-looking device. The 4.3-inch display is … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Verizon has just announced the LG Revolution (VS910), LG's first smartphone to work on Verizon's burgeoning LTE network. We initially thought it was a CDMA cousin of the LG Optimus 2X, but it isn't. It doesn't have the Optimus 2X's dual core Tegra 2 processor, or its 8-megapixel rear camera; it has a 5-megapixel lens instead.

It does have a 4.3-inch TFT touch screen, a 1GHz processor, Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G/LTE mobile hot spot capabilities, DLNA, HDMI, and DVIX compatibility, Bluetooth 2.1, a microSD card slot that can take up to … Read more

LAS VEGAS--For General Electric, the energy business is going digital.

The company's booth at the Consumer Electronics Show showcases different home energy products, nearly all of which are connected on a home information network and the Internet.

Using home automation to better manage energy, security, and improve entertainment is a theme here at CES where companies from different areas are touting connected devices beyond just PCs and even TVs.

GE is showing off its smart appliances which use Zigbee to communicate with a smart meter and Nucleus, a phone charger-size gadget which acts as a networking hub for connected … Read more