CES Day 0: Webware wrapup
CES is a hardware show, but there's a good mix of Webware here as well. So many new gadgets are network-enabled, after all. The trade show officially opens Thursday, but many companies made announcements on Media Day, Wednesday. These are some of the Webware highlights:
In Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote, he pushed the convergence of the "three screens," the PC, TV, and phone. Their medium for interaction, of course, in the Net. He also announced the non-beta versions of the three products under the Web-based Windows Live brand: Live Messenger, Photo Gallery, and Live Mail. And a Facebook deal allows people to have their Windows Live network notified when they post updates or photos to Facebook.
Verizon Wireless and Microsoft signed a deal that will see the Microsoft search engine become the default on Verizon cell phones for the next five years.
Several TV manufactures were showing their support for the new Yahoo Connected TV, the company's new widget strategy for living rooms. TVs that display the widgets will start coming out in March. In addition to the vanilla stuff like news tickets, weather, and sports, there will be widgets to watch eBay auctions, see Flickr feeds, and track Twitter. MySpace announced an ambitious widget for the program.
Dish Network announced the DuoDVR SlingLoaded ViP922, a satellite DVR that allows you to view its content using Sling software on PCs and Macs. Verizon will offer a similar feature for some of its Fios TV customers.
Pogoplug lets you easily mount any hard drive on the Internet, as well as on your home network. It's useful for sharing media files with friends.
LG announced a slew of home entertainment products that display streamed Internet content, like a Blu-ray player and a TV. Netgear showed off an Internet TV player.
Cisco Systems announced Eos, a Web service for media companies that helps them build social networks for their viewers.
See the full report from CES at ces.cnet.com.
Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe.
