CES

Tech writers and gadget enthusiasts alike were thrilled with last week's announcement of the Palm Pre at CES 2009. Many of you have listed it as the biggest news coming out of the show in our Sony Walkman giveaway. While it's easy to see why so many journalists are excited about the product, it's not unusual for writers to become enamored with the potential of a device without thinking about its real-world applications. GigaOm's Om Malik, one of my favorite tech writers, is trying to keep it real. Malik recently wrote, "I remain highly skeptical of Palm's chance to succeed with this new effort. I may be the only one who isn’t buying it." He also pointed out a few reasons why people shouldn't be too excited about the Palm Pre. Let's take a look at his wizened comments and break them down.

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Dell has announced its latest line of consumer laptops at CES 2009: Adamo. This "luxury" line of PCs will kick off with an ultra-svelte aluminum-laptop designed to compete with models like Apple's MacBook Air, Sony's Vaio Z-series, and Voodoo's Envy 133. Unlike the competing laptops I mentioned, Adamo is expected to be priced competitively. According to AnandTech:

I'm psyched for Adamo, as I'm a fan of Dell's pricing and customer support (on the consumer side). The early photos are pretty slick and I hope Adamo seriously undercuts the competition. That said, I'm not sure why Dell felt the need to introduce an entire new line. For consumer laptops, it already has the Inspiron, Studio, and XPS brands. Even those brands have sub-brands like the Inspiron Mini and the Studio XPS. While the Adamo appears to be aimed at tech-savvy customers, it does make things confusing for the general consumer.

What do you think of Adamo? Will Dell be able to scoop up some sales from the Vaio Z and Voodoo Envy 133?

Source

Welcome to the Tech News Countdown, hosted by Alison Haislip. Every Friday, Alison brings you the top 5 tech stories of the week.

This week, Alison covers the possible suckage of Facebook, the Small Hadron Collider, and Sony's early peak in their career.

Give it a watch and tell us what you think in the comments section. You can also cast your opinion in the Tech News Countdown forum.

Subscribe to G4's Tech News Countdown Podcast by clicking your preferred service:

Do you have an HDTV? Do you have it mounted on your wall? Are you sick of all the cluttered wires hanging out of the back of your wall-mounted TV? Are you riculously wealthy? Well then do we have a product for you. The Belkin Flywire turns all your HDMI output devices into one box that wirelessly sends the picture signal to your TV. Awesome!

Kevin and Dave also check out a new Audiovox Remote that has a color touchscreen and can control up to 18 devices at once! Sounds like the ultimate set up to me. Check it out.

CES '09: The Belkin Flywire & Audiovox Remote

Check out all the other expensive things that you want but can't afford in the CES video page

• The Loop goes in depth about the new HDTV technologies we saw this year
• Olivia tests out the MyVue and Vuzix Virtual Reality glasses
• Check out our picks for the top 3 hottest phones at CES 09
• See if any of the new phones this year can compete with the iPhone

Update: Monday January 12 5:00PM PST -- The contest is closed! Stay tuned for the winners.

The 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has produced a plethora of hot announcements on several exciting products. The G4 crew has been working hard giving you the lowdown on the products and press conferences from this year's show. To celebrate all the consumer-electronics awesomeness that's been happening at G4, I thought it would be cool to go with some retro consumer technology. You see, over holiday break, the fine janitorial staff unearthed a treasure trove of goodies from days gone by -- a batch of classic Sony Walkmans!

Straight out of the '80s, these Sony Walkman EX10s will transport you to days when anti-rolling mechanisms, automatic tape shut-off, and tape selectors were bleeding-edge technology. While some of you might be wondering, "What the hell are tapes?", others are sure to get a kick out of these old-school music-players.

Several lucky readers of TheFeed will be receiving a Sony Walkman EX10. For your shot at retro glory, all you have to do is leave a comment, listing what you thought was the biggest news from the show. Winners will be chosen at random; should you win, you'll receive an email, asking for a physical mailing address. If you don't know what went down during CES then be sure to watch G4's Best of the Best at CES 2009 awards. If you need some convincing on why you must have this Walkman EX10, check out these shots of X-Play's Abbie Heppe (not included) rocking out with it after the jump.

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Saturday Night Live alum, and the future host of Late Night, Jimmy Fallon stopped by CES to talk to AOTS's Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn about his new show and how it integrates web technology, like Twitter to make it the most interactive program on television.

Laughs were had, nether regions were punched (mostly by Olivia) and Mr. Fallon showed the world what an Attack of the Show fanboy he really is. Take a gander!

Our very own Chris Hardwick took a quick tour of the Samsung booth at this year's CES, and you get to follow him. Check out the sweet new HDTVs, point-and-shoot digital cameras, and a full HD solid state drive video camera. Do want.

 CES '09: Samsung Booth Tour with Chris Hardwick

Check out all the other cool gadgets, gizmos, and shiny things you'll want to buy in the CES Video Player

• Chris Hardwick gets some hands-on time with the new Boxee
• Dave Matthews tours the Sony booth
• Chris Hardwick lists off his favorite laptops at this year's CES
• Alison Hayslip gets a 30 second pitch about the Nokia N97

Update 6:59PM: As several readers have noticed, the Windows 7 beta has been delayed  due to heavy demand. Microsoft has not announced a new date for the beta. And also, Steve Ballmer's pants are now on fire.

Microsoft is making the beta version of Windows 7 available today to 2.5-million users. There are several things to keep in mind if you want to download and use the beta version of this upcoming operating system. Wired has put together some notes and reminders for potential users.

I know a few of you are already using the Windows 7 beta. If you're already a user or if you've installed the program today, I'd love to hear your impressions. TheFeed's excellent Brian Leahy has already posted his first impressions (which, despite what some ill-informed people think, is not the same as a review). Now let's get to those notes, courtesy of Wired!

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Our own Chris Hardwick has many side gigs, one of which is playing in the alt-nerd, altcountry rock duo, Hard 'N Phirm with his buddy Mike Phirman. This year the dynamic duo decided to treat us to a little diddy about the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show. They even made a classy, high-budget music video to go with it! Enjoy!

CES '09: 'Hard n' Phirm' CES Music Video

• Chris lists off his favorite notebooks at this year's CES
• Chris checks out the sound accessories at the Dolby booth
• Chris goes hands-on with the best headphones being shown at CES
• Chris takes a tour of the Samsung booth

Palm's Pre mobile phone has been getting a ton of buzz, despite its stupid name. Its sleek looks and novel OS have made it one of the biggest hits of 2009's Consumer Electronics Show. It's been a day since Palm's big announcement and the initial euphoria is wearing off, which has people thinking in more practical terms. How much is the Pre going to cost? Well, according to All Things Digital, it'll be more than $199. The site's Peter Kafka wrote:

There's even a rumor floating around that the phone will go for $399 -- subsidized!

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