Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz
(Credit: Yahoo)Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has abruptly canceled her scheduled keynote speech at CES, arguably the biggest event on the technology calendar.
Tech Trader Daily noticed Tuesday that Bartz's name had disappeared from the list of keynote speakers for the 2010 CES, almost a month to the day that the Consumer Electronics Association announced her plans to attend the show. A representative of the CEA later confirmed that Bartz was no longer in the mix, and announced plans to have Qualcomm's Paul Jacobs keynote the event.
A Yahoo representative cited "changes in her calendar" that would prevent Bartz from showing up at CES but declined to provide any further details. Bartz was recently forced to cancel appearances on Yahoo's third-quarter earnings call and an interview at the Web 2.0 conference due to the flu.
Carol Bartz will bring Yahoo back to the CES keynote stage this January, the Consumer Electronics Association announced Tuesday.
Yahoo has given CES keynotes in the past but skipped last year, presenting instead a press conference on its Yahoo Connected TV project. Bartz will speak on Thursday January 7, 2010 in Las Vegas, when she might have a different set of businesses to present to the crowd.
CES has been morphing into a hybrid show for years, traditionally a consumer electronics showcase but increasingly bringing in the likes of Yahoo, Ford, and entertainment companies. Yahoo stuck to the consumer electronics script in its last couple of keynotes, including one gaffe-prone affair in 2006 where Tom Cruise rescued then-CEO Terry Semel.
But the leader of Yahoo's Connected TV group announced plans to leave this week, prompting speculation that Bartz is thinking about adding that group to the list of properties she'd like to shed. Instead, Yahoo may be planning to use its CES slot as a promotional vehicle for its media properties, which are ... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog
Slacker Radio brings BlackBerry a neat caching trick
(Credit:
Slacker)
This week at CES, Slacker made good on its word and released a version of its mobile, streaming, Internet Radio app for BlackBerry.
Slacker Radio for BlackBerry, a free over-the-air download for BlackBerrys running version 4.3 and above, gratifies with crisp album art, intuitive navigation, and all the customized streaming stations you could want.
What impressed us most is Slacker's newly added feature--right now just for ...
Read the full post at CNET's CES 2009 blog.
Palm's plan for application development on the new Palm Pre will help determine its fate.
(Credit: Palm)Defying expectations, Day 1 of CES was not dull. Palm stole the show with a new and important product. And last night, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made an interesting announcement about Windows.
Here are the Webware-related CES highlights from the first official day of the conference:
- The Palm announcement at CES--a new OS and new hardware--was everything people had been hoping for, and more. Palm WebOS looks solid, and the UI looks fun and easy. The device, the Pre, is pretty slick, with both the pebble-in-the-stream smoothness of the iPhone and a slide-out keyboard. One thing that's less clear: how will developers get their apps into the hands of users, and how will Palm (and Sprint, the Pre's launch carrier) ensure reliability of the apps? Also, can Palm still attract developers? Shortly after Palm's press conference, I spoke with CNET News' Ina Fried about the announcement.
- Ballmer also spoke with Fried and said the tech economy is in the middle of a "reset."
- LG revealed even more about its impressive suite of stream-enabled audio-visual gear. Panasonic announced Internet content for its plasma TVs.
- Wednesday night, I got a look at a demo (video link) of Yahoo Connected TV, a new platform that will enable viewers of new televisions to pop little content widgets up over their programs.
- My favorite Internet toy, the Chumby, got grown-up supervision through a partnership with Samsung.
- Is Skype the recession-proof phone company? The VoIP provider is doing well right now.
- In the "we'll just pretend that Palm didn't just steal our thunder" department, INQ claims it's the world's first real social mobile company
- Scariest news of the show: Ford trucks are getting LogMeIn remote PC access. Can't wait to meet one of these barreling down the interstate.
Previously: Webware wrapup for CES Day 0.
Hoover's lays out mobile apps for business pros
(Credit:
Hoover's)
If knowledge is power, then salespeople in the field and roving business execs can now wield their share of it thanks to two new mobile apps. Hoover's Mobile and Hoover's MobileSP tap into the Hoover's business directory to bring instant company and employee information to sales, financial, media professionals, and just about anyone else drenched in B2B.
The free Hoover's Mobile for ...
Read the full post at CNET's CES 2009 blog.
3DVU announces Way2Go 3D mobile mapping
(Credit:
3DVU)
For the hopelessly turned around, 3DVU announced Way2Go at CES this week, a mobile app and online mapping service that will let you put personalized 3D routes on your mobile phone.
Subscribers to the new Way2Go service will be able to create up to 30 3D aerial picture routes online, which they'll then be able to access from their cell phones through a downloadable viewer. GPS tracking ...
Read the full post at CNET's CES 2009 blog.
INQ claims to be the world's first real social mobile company
(Credit:
INQ Mobile)
The idea of a "social networking phone" seems redundant at first--don't all phones have an ability to connect to a social network of some kind? But INQ Mobile, a company based in the U.K., claims that it is the first to really bring social networks in the form of Facebook, MySpace, et al. to those of ...
Read the full post at CNET's CES 2009 blog.
The remote PC access product LogMeIn is getting into trucks. A branded version of the software, "LogMeIn for Ford Work Solutions" will be included in the new F-150 trucks (and a few other models) equipped with the optional Ford Works Solutions suite, a collection of options that includes Internet access, a dashboard monitor, and a wireless keyboard and pointing device.
Remote desktop.
(Credit: Ford)LogMeIn spokespeople, in a CES announcement, said they envision construction contractors and other mobile workers using the remote access product to work on billing and other office documents without requiring them to carry a laptop in their vehicle.
I'm a LogMeIn user and can vouch for the product. For remote networking software, it is extremely simple to set up and use, and its performance is fast enough over a wireless connection. It works on both Windows machines and Macs, and cross-platform as well (you can control a Mac from a Windows desktop, and vice versa).
No news as to whether the feature will be disabled for the driver while the vehicle is in motion, or if LogMeIn running on a desktop PC or Mac will be able to tap into the truck's on-board Windows-based computer.
Ford CEO Alan Mulally will be giving an afternoon keynote at CES today. CNET News and Car Tech will have a full report.
Boxee, one of the more promising media applications out there today, is announcing the launch of a few new content sources today at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Boxee now has added support for content from Joost and MTV Music. Joost is bringing its usual assortment of video content to the table, while MTV provides a huge amount of music videos. In the United Kingdom, Boxee has also added the BBC's popular iPlayer to its arsenal of content.
In addition, Boxee will be totally opening up its Mac, Linux, and Apple TV alphas to anyone who wants to sign up. The Windows version, however, will not be entering an open alpha, but rather an invite-only alpha while it scales.
Boxee, for those of you who don't know, is a media application that can act as a player for content on your computer or, where it really shines, as a conduit for viewing Web video from a variety of sources. Video sites that currently have a plug-in on Boxee include Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, CNN, Apple Movie Trailers, Revision3, CBS, Comedy Central, and more.
Boxee really does a great job of handling all of these different sources of content and presenting them in an easy-to-navigate way. In addition to these video sources, Boxee also integrates music sites such as CBS' Last.fm and Shoutcast. (Editors' note: CBS publishes CNET News.)
As you can see, there's a lot to be excited about here.
After its excellent implementation of Netflix instant streaming, people have been begging Microsoft to bring Hulu and other video sites to the Xbox. Boxee is beating Microsoft to the punch, even offering a Netflix implementation that is more full-featured than the Xbox's.
If Boxee can find a way to get its software off of computer monitors and on to more TVs (as it is doing with Apple TV), I think we could be looking at the next big contender in media software.
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.
