Live from CES Press Day, 7 January 2009

Last to first, real time tweets from Las Vegas…

  • Bill Gates is the UrGeek. Love or hate him, he’s an original with historic scope. Heroic in classical sense. Ballmer…
  • Listening to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. Microsoft will rule the world. Honest.
  • Sony shows great respect for mobile telecom carriers. Has WiFi Walkman in pipeline, but no 3/4G product that would cause consternation for Sony Ericsson’s mobile carrier customers.
  • Sony sez not in negotiations for NZ/Australia mobile carrier deals for netbook, sorry Lifestyle PC, but GSM deals in Europe are locked.
  • Even so, Sony netbook, sorry Lifestyle PC, is way cool. 600 grams, 20 cm screen. Uses Windoze OS but has a Linux bios & can boot either way.
  • Sony intros netbook, sorry Lifestyle PC. $900. Includes wireless data card. Verizon deal for US, T-Mobile, Vodafone in EU. Nothing in New Zealand or Australia.
  • Of course, Sony is cautious. Sony Ericsson is in bed with, and enthusiastically servicing, mobile telecom carriers.
  • For CES, Sony divides its business into “in-home” & “out-of-home”. But out-of-home is mobile carrier-friendly, not consumer-focused.
  • A couple words of Tagalog got me the sympathy of the bartender, though.
  • My Japanese & German is an advantage at CES, Italian & Spanish no help.
  • Lots of consumer-grade PR minions at what are supposed to be trade press-class events. Frustrating.
  • Snuck a peek at Intel booth, heavy on mobile Internet & 4G, at least the WiMAX flavor.
  • Cisco likes femtocell technology, puts it in the same bucket as WiFi. Interesting perspective.
  • Steve Ballmer is tonight’s keynote, but here’s the advance scoop: Microsoft Bob is back!
  • Apple it’s not but it’s a start for Cisco. They’ll need a lot of help though.
  • Linksys by Cisco new consumer brand strategy, paying attention to product design now
  • People started leaving, slid in for Q&A. Service provider guy talking about making networks video aware.
  • Cisco PR kiddies say look it up on their website later. Duh.
  • Cisco press conf overfull. Sent to watch a live web feed. Didn’t work. What business are they in?
  • Line for Toshiba press conf too long. One way to manage reduced attendance is to book a smaller room.
  • Sharp showing big displays. Really big.
  • Line for Toshiba press conference out of control. Must be giving away free stuff.
  • Netgear also showing IPTV player and home media center. Category is getting crowded, not much secret sauce anymore.
  • Netgear has no deals with mobile carriers but sez they’ll appreciate increased data usage. Not convincing.
  • CE guys determined to hang gizmos on mobile data networks: weeds in the walled garden!
  • Streaming TV + tethered wifi router = bandwidth hell for carriers. CE guys are on the march!
  • Netgear introing wifi router with slot for 3G data modem card. Sez 1 use is streaming TV.
  • Skipped main event, checked out stuff afterwards. LG showing netbook, usual mobile phones, nice. Just nice.
  • Line for LG press conf already strung out at 7:30am