Kevin and I had a fantastic day today between cruising the CES show floor, attending Lunch@Pieros and seeing some cool gadgets, appearing on KPRC 950 Houston talk radio with Michael Garfield, the HighTech Texan, attending the Tablet PC meetup where over 100 people converged to talk digitizers, and capping off the evening with a visit to the BlogHaus in the Bellagio where Kevin, Matt and I recorded the funniest MobileTechRoundup podcast ever. Here is a photo journal of this busy, busy day.

This is going to sound odd, but I have to repeat something James said earlier tonight: "The best software I’ve seen at CES is the new Origami Experience app". I completely agree after Dustin and Sears from the Microsoft Origami team gave us the low-down at the Tablet PC / UMPC meetup.

Sears has the official write-up complete with screenshots to give you the visuals, so check them out here.Once I get my Q1 fixed (long story), I’ll try to get a video demo up for you. While you’re downloading the pics and info, let me share my basic thoughts:

1. I watched the application run on a Samsung Q1 upgraded to 1 GB of RAM and it was by far the speediest and most responsive app I’ve seen yet. Bear in mind this was running on Vista, which is required.
2. Dustin nailed it when he said the team tried to keep the "level" of the app very horizontal. What I mean by that is: you don’t need to tap, tap, tap to drill down to the functions or info you want. For example, when looking at your digital music, every option you could want appears on the same screen, which reduces the navigation effort.
3. The slideshow options are stellar. There are numerous transitions and all are visually appealing. I could easily see many of you turn your UMPC into a true part-time digital picture frame.
4. Adding programs via customization options to the Program Launcher is a snap. It couldn’t possibly easier or more user friendly.
5. Everything is geared for a quick finger tap; all of the buttons are well sized and easy to use.
6. The shortcuts to the Windows Mobility Center applet, the Windows Switcher function and the Wireless network status are very handy.

There’s much more here, so until my Q1 is repaired and I can demo the Origami Experience for you, check out the great write up and pics provided by Sears. In the meantime, I’m going to struggle trying to find an area of opportunity for the new Origami Experience. So far, the Origami team has knocked my socks off with the demo I saw; I just might have to give up and say "we’ve got a winner here!" It’s obvious that the team has listened to user feedback and matured the new Origami Experience far beyond the original Touch Pack.

Wow, there’s literally a radio show going on right behind me in this room; Michael Garfield is interviewing someone from Palm as I quietly blog this. Just before meeting James here at the CES Broadcast Booth, I swung by the Toshiba booth for all of three minutes to catch up with the innovative and well designed R400 Tablet PC shown above. The 12.1-inch LED backlight display is a beauty!

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Last night we gave you a rundown on who we rubbed shoulders with; after that and during the day today we saw more great folks, many of which I’ve been wanting to meet in person for some time. It’s amazing that in this sea of people we actually meet anyone we know, so I’ll attribute it to good karma and watching "My Name is Earl".

• Jack Cook and Chris Leckness were seen at the Windows Mobile table of Digital Experience last night; always great to meet the Win Mo enthusiasts.
• I was fortunate enough to have Steven Hughes of Boston Pocket PC walk up to me at the same show. Steven is another great writer and technical resource I’ve "known" for two years but never got the chance to personally meet.
• Even though Evan Blass is now a Senior Editor at Engadget (way to go E!), he stopped among the little people to say hey. Evan and I worked CES together last year.
• Richard Lawler is someone I brought on board at HD Beat (now EngadgetHD) back in 2005. Being a blogger, you bring folks onto a team sight unseen, so it was a pleasure to meet another high-def addict.
• Randall Bennett and Barb Dybwad from my ol’ AOL days were also at Digital Experience; these two very talented people were scouring the area with a high-end video cam; hope they didn’t see me take a second crab-cake when nobody was looking!
• James noticed Dave Winer in the CES Press area where we were camped this morning so I decided to walk up to Dave and tell him the coffee was on me. Of course, the coffee is free, so Dave got the gag and graciously sat with James and I for about 20 minutes. Dave’s MacBook looks like it’s five years old, not the one year old that it likely is. Not a good sign when your Ethernet jack is broken! Dave’s pitstop with us led to Doc Searls and Buzz Bruggeman also dropping by for a minute.

I realize that this doesn’t have much to do with mobile tech, but it’s a big part of the CES experience: the human experience. Each of these folks have shaped the way I blog and the reasons I blog, so I’m hoping you indulge me as I call them out. They’re also covering the show from their unique perspectives, so be sure to hit their sites for a different view of the same wild show!

OK, maybe not the biggest ad ever, but the biggest ad I’ve seen here at CES so far. Microsoft is pulling out all the stops for Vista this year; as I was walking from Circus Circus to the Convention Center this morning, I saw that the Microsofties draped this gigunda Vista banner over the front face of a seven-level parking garage. Rumor has it that the ad was supposed to be on the hotel towers in the background, but folks paid extra for "sunlit rooms" and wanted the amenities they paid for. I’ll bet all the cars in the garage are much cooler today.

We hit up the HP booth and found this demo unit of the new HP tablet chained to a table. Of course, we had to play with it, as evidenced above. The HP Pavilion tx 1000 Tablet PC was running Windows Vista quite nicely on the bright 12-inch screen. I picked the unit up as well and found it to be a tad heavier than I expected; it felt like a 3.5 pound tablet even though it looks like it should weigh less. Then again, I flew in yesterday and my arms are still tired. When I was holding it, I did see some nicey-nice features that made up for my weak arms.

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…and all we got was this lousy picture. Seriously, James and I hit up the UTStarcom booth early today to see some of the new phones we’ve been hearing about, but we came up dry. I specifically went in search of the XV6800, which I anticipate will replace my XV6700. We found a few needles in the haystack, but would you believe no XV6800? In fact, we were hard pressed to find any new phones of note; it’s almost as if we saw the exact same booth last year, which is a little disappointing. You can sense the let down in the pic above: James is the one with the orange backpack just walking away from the booth.

Technically, it’s not day 2 of the CES but day 2 of my own trip here to Las Vegas to attend the biggest consumer electronics show in the world.  I have spent the past 2 days attending the Microsoft Vista RTM Lab which has shown us just about everything you ever wanted to know about Vista.  I have never seen so many laptops running Vista in one room and these were owned by the attendees, not Microsoft!  I counted no fewer than 9 of those Ferrari laptops running Vista in the room and they are very sweet indeed.

One of the coolest things I saw up close today is the new Toshiba R400 Tablet PC.  The R400 is a super thin convertible all in white that runs Vista and has a unique hinged screen.  The most innovative thing about the R400 is the wireless port replicator that will ship later this year.  The replicator has 4 USB ports, Ethernet and a wireless DVI video out.  The R400 connects to all the peripherals plugged into the replicator wirelessly at a range of 3 to 4 feet.  I got to see this in action and it is so cool to see the R400 immediately connect to all the peripherals (including the external monitor) simply by moving into range of the replicator.  This is the way it should be.

The highlight of my day today was visiting the Microsoft Partners Pavilion before it opened to the public and seeing all the new stuff that will be announced during the CES later this week.  I saw the OQO 2, the next generation OQO running Vista and sporting a Via processor running at 1.5 GHz.  It also has integrated 3G by Sprint for mobile connectivity.  They addressed a lot of the issues plaguing the first gen OQO including that horrible squishy screen.  The new one has a nice glossy firm screen and still uses an active digitizer, which will get good use since the OQO 2 runs Vista.

I couldn’t take any pictures of anything at the Pavilion because everything was under embargo until after Bill Gates’ keynote address.  Bill dropped by the Pavilion for an interview and stopped and talked to us for about 10 minutes which was very cool.  He seems like a regular guy and it’s the first time I’ve met him up close.  I attended the keynote address tonight and Gates introduced some cool stuff, including a home server appliance for consumers with multiple PCs at home.  The home server will be produced by HP and released later this year.

Kevin attended the keynote address too and we got to visit the Digital Experience event tonight after the keynote address.  We met up with Matt Miller there and had a good time running into people we know and looking at some cool tech.  We stopped by the Fujitsu display and talked to those folks who were very nice.  They were also showing that concept UMPC with the folding keyboard and screen:

Tomorrow the show begins in earnest and Kevin and I will be getting into a lot of trouble and taking lots of photos so stay tuned…

We’re seated for the Gates keynote; not sure if we’ll be able to blog during this. As big as CES is (140,000 folks expected), we’re already running into folks we know. This happy camper above is none other than Jeremy Toeman from LiveDigitally. He stopped by to ask what our fave moment of the show is so far; waiting to see Gates and being served a free beer while in line (Sam Adams, no less), has to be number one, but hey, the night is young.

Speaking of small worlds and who we’re bumping into, we’re literally seated right next to Mary Jo Foley in the keynote audience. If you don’t read Mary Jo’s ZDNet blog, you should!