Keep your eyes glued to this exciting blog post as it will be updated with the meat and pataters of Bill Gates' Keynote Address as it happens in a few hours (9:30 EST/6:30 PST).

What do you think his big announcement will be? The rumored Ultimate Xbox 360? Consumer availability of Microsoft Surface? Vista 2? He's building a rocket to go to and conquer the moon?

Stay tuned. If you guess exactly what he announces before he does, you will be right.

Update: Been sitting in line for about 2 hours now. We're fighting for use of wall outlets. I had to suckerpunch someone from CNN just to charge my laptop.

8:22 EST: Inside the Room Now -- still about an hour to wait, but they are playing Daft Punk so that's A-OK in our books. We're about 30 rows back because we waited in line like suckers. Also, our iPhones have run out of batteries. Lame.

8:32 EST: Wi-Fi Woes -- The quality of the The Sands Expo wi-fi network from the Palazzo Ballrom in the Venetian is pretty weak. We hope we don't lose signal during the keynote. A guy is falling asleep next to and on to bleahy. It's kind of weird.

8:45 EST: Still Waiting -- People are still filing into the ballroom and the music has gotten considerably worse. We're thirsty and hungry. This is the battleground that internet journalists face at CES. While I was typing this Daft Punk came back on so we're okay now. Don't fear for us. It's even from the new Alive 2007 live album. If only Bill would come out and dance!

9:00 EST: Half Hour to Go -- It's amazing. The room is still filling up. Duke Nukem Forever might even get released while we wait for this to get going. Here's to hoping it starts on time. Pro Tip: It won't.

Our quick keynote impressions after the cut:

--Read More--

Today's CES 2008 Press Day has been a showcase of high-definition. Whether it was LCDs, plasmas, camcorders, or next-gen DVD players... today has been all about HD.

As the country moves toward digital-TV, companies are trying to get everyone using an HDTV instead of just a converter box with their old set.

We've seen a few concepts that impress us, but probably won't hit the market for a few more years, and we've seen TVs that will be available later this month.

--Read More--

Sharp's press conference was considerably more business oriented than the others so far today, but there were few interesting tidbits.

Sharp is going to invest $3.5 billion in a $9.1 billion facility in Japan to create 10th generation LCD panels. They have also entered into strategic partnerships with Toshiba and Pioneer to share technologies that each company specializes in. This is the sort of cooperation you don't often see with American companies, but these Japanese companies hope that their partnerships will result in better products all around.

The two major things Sharp did show off (besides an amazing looking 65" prototype LCD with a 100,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, was their new line of gaming LCD HDTVs and AQUOS Net, which can also utilize the Sharp-supported PLC adaptors for a wired network over home power lines.

--Read More--

Panasonic is presenting a whole new line of products focused on getting consumers to a point where they are "Living in HD".

They are installed a full line of HD products from TV's, Blu-Ray, camcorders, gaming consoles, and digital cameras in 17 American homes to conduct market research and their findings have shaped their new product line. They hope to expand this number to 30 families by the end of March and eventually to 100. You should look into this if you want a bunch of free stuff. They even throw in a Wii!

Panasonic is branding all of their televisions with the Viera name and will offer sizes from 26" to 103" (though we doubt any of you could afford that).

They all feature "Viera Link", which is based on SD cards and offers full-compatibility between all of their products.

--Read More--

Toshiba just wrapped up their press conference here at CES 2008 and it started out as a defense of the HD-DVD format, but then turned into an exciting preview of their new line of REGZA LCD HDTVs.

As we all know, Warner Brothers announced that they were going Blu-Ray exclusive last Friday. This led to the HD-DVD Promotion Group cancelling their press conference. Toshiba, the makers of the format, said a few words on the matter. They were mostly surprised because their Q4 2007 unit sales were the highest yet.

Toshiba stressed that their format is the only one approved for the DVD standard. All players have ethernet ports and will play every HD-DVD released. This is different from Blu-Ray, which has different profiles that are being updated and older players may not play newer discs without firmware upgrades.

Hit the cut for information on Toshiba's new REGZA line.

--Read More--

Pioneer made some bold claims at their press conference this morning and if they deliver, we could see a great line-up of new products in navigation systems, car audio, plasma televisions, and high-end home audio.

• Pioneer is introducing the AVIC-F500BT, a new navigation system they describe as a "Lifestyle Integration Network Console", which is an in-car and portable unit. The device responds to conversational voice commands and comes loaded with over 10 million points of interest. The AVIC will also seamlessly control different devices like iPods and Bluetooth phones through voice commands.
• Pioneer believes that the MP3 age has led to too much of a sacrifice in audio quality as many are satisfied with the lossy format. Their new line of single-CD players use a new technology they call "Advanced Sound Receiver" or ASR. This tech will supposedly add the missing data back to a lossy format.

Be sure to hit the jump for exciting information about their concept HDTV's.

--Read More--

The first week of 2008 came in like a lamb... not much happened of note, but that's how we like things the week after New Year's Eve--quiet.

But that doesn't mean the week was boring. Far from it. Click the cut for a rundown of everything that happened this week in the world of videogames, technology and everything else you care about!

--Read More--