Netbooks were definitely the big item as CES this year but we expected that.  Almost everybody makes one and the rest plan to make their own.  The little notebooks were everywhere and due to the low prices of them they are not going away any time soon.  The Sony Vaio P appearance was big news at CES and while not a netbook it is a “tweener” device that piqued a lot of interest at the show.

On the smartphone front things were quiet with the obvious exception of the Palm Pre.  The introduction of the new smartphone from Palm was the biggest buzz-maker at the show and put the only life into the smartphone arena that we saw.  Palm needed a transfusion of excitement in their world and the Pre has definitely provided it.

The rest of the smartphone world at CES was dead silent.  There were no new Windows Mobile phone announcements, handset maker displays were just more of the same.  Nokia showed some new stuff but it was largely variants of existing stuff and no one was walking around the show floor talking about them.  It’s as if Palm sucked the wind out of the smartphone world for everyone else.

The biggest surprise for me at the CES was the total lack of anything Android.  There were no new handsets presented, none announced, just dead silence.  The handset makers working on Android phones may be waiting for the Mobile World Congress in February to make their move but it was surprising to not see a single Android phone appear at CES.  It unsettles me a bit as I have predicted on the latest MobileTechRoundup show that I expect to see at least 12 Android phones appear this year.  Android could give Palm a run for its money with new handsets so they’d better get busy.

UPDATE: after installing Parallels Tools in Windows 7 my connectivity issues disappeared.  This update was performed in Google Chrome under Windows 7 under Parallels Desktop.

Thanks for coming out Hector!

We finally found the right time to get over to the Sony VAIO kiosk, so here’s a short, 11-minute preliminary hands on with the P. Very first, limited impressions: this is a well designed device. The P certainly doesn’t feel like 1.4-pounds when you hold it; it feels far lighter. I guess we’re all used to carrying 2.5- to 5-pound devices. It’s definitely pocketable, but not in any pants I own. The P should fit nicely within an inside jacket pocket, though.

Most amazing to me is how thin the lid and display are, which we show in the vid. There’s really no flex either. The keyboard is reminiscent of the chiclet-style keys on my MacBook. Definitely usable, but tracking nub may take some getting used to. I wasn’t thrilled that the camera is off to the side; I had hoped that Sony somehow designed it with a small tilt so you could sit centrally. Nope. We didn’t check the DPI settings, but text was quite readable. It’s sure to be a stretch for some folks, but for some, it beats having to scroll every few seconds.

Clearly, this is a nice device. Nice enough for $899 or more? That’s a tough call and one we can’t make with out spending more quality time. Before I forget: as I was working the camera (and getting jostled around), I thought the Sony P had HDMI out. Sleep deprivation has set in as I was obviously wrong. That’s the multi-purpose port for an external display and Ethernet. Best part of the vid? The guy who was trying to hone in on the device so he could take video too. Listen and you’ll hear what I mean… take a number, dude! We’ll get a link to the higher quality video shortly.

Update: the high-def version of this video can be seen here.

We were exhausted from walking on day 2, so our daily wrap video didn’t happen until this morning. There were more MIDs, UMPCs and netbooks sighted yesterday. We also spent a good amount of time talking with AMD, who powers the HP dv2: it’s not that much more costly than a well-specified netbook, but doesn’t compromise much in terms of power and performance.

Today we’re hoping to get our hands dirty with more of them and we’ll try to video the experience if things work out. You’d think the show ended yesterday based on the empty press and blogger lounges. Sure, all the big news has come out by now, but there’s still devices to be tinkered with! Only until 5:15pm local time though: I’ve got a very rare playoff game to watch.

Palm Pre- Kevin and I were both very impressed how smooth Palm has made working with the Pre.  It feels nice in the hand and while it’s too early to tell if the Pre can save Palm it’s definitely a gadget that has impressed me here at the show.

Novatel MiFi- this credit card-sized 3G router made an impression on us when it was first introduced and seeing it in person at the show has not changed that.  There is something totally cool and useful about a tiny gadget that once you turn it on you have an instantly connected hotspot no matter where you are.  In a coverage area anyway.

Sony Vaio P- it is no surprise to find this on my short list.  I haven’t had any hands-on time yet but Sony has done a good job with the design of the P.  I like the fact that the keyboard is touch-typable and the build quality looks pretty decent.  We’ll have to see if the screen resolution is to high to comfortably work with. That may drop it off my list.

HP dv2 notebook- seeing how thin and light this 12-inch notebook really is impressed the heck out of me even though it’s not a netbook.  It’s not much bigger than a netbook and it’s light enough to carry around with ease.  The $699 starting price is very nice considering it has a powerful AMD processor and discrete graphics, unlike netbooks.

Pogoplug- this little box is so useful that it’s amazing no one thought of this before.  You plug any USB hard drive into the Pogoplug and it is instantly accessible from the web.  It has full security and multiple drives daisy-chained are also accessible.  Very cool.

Ed Colligan

If you haven’t had enough of the Palm Pre just yet or want to see what we saw at the invite-only Press Event, today’s your lucky day. Palm is hosting a video recording of the event and the beauty of it is that you don’t have to live-blog it. Just kick back, relax and soak in all the new-ness that CES attendees enjoyed. Hopefully, this gives you a better idea of what we saw and helps you form your own early opinions on the Pre. We’re getting so many questions about the webOS and this might shed some light on the unique approach offered by Palm.

Windows Mobile in dashboard

I like this concept from Celio because it leverages the smartphone platform, and more importantly, your data. They showed me this working mock-up. Look close because the automobile dashboard is solely a representative picture. It’s the 7-inch touchscreen display that’s real. That screen is commonly available as an option on autos, but what’s uncommon is to see Windows Mobile on it.

Yup, it’s another application of Celio’s technology in action. Concept only for now, but I could see it become reality. Smartphones are gaining traction over feature-phones, for one. And folks want access to their data all around them. If your existing phone and data plan can provide connectivity to the car, think about what you can do. Tap a contact name and have Google Maps directions appear without any typing or steam personalized audio from your home to your car. While a full-fledged PC and OS work here as well, this has to be far less costly while providing a good portion of the same functionality.

Dell's $99 Mini 9

We heard that subsidized Dell netbooks were coming and now they’re here. For a limited time, anyway. Dell just announced that from now until the end of January, you can nab a Dell Mini 9  for $99 after a $350 rebate. Of course to get that deal, you’ll need to commit to a two-year AT&T data plan commitment. Essentially, this deal is structured the same as the Acer one that hit Radio Shack last month.

Specs for the subsidized Dell Mini 9 include: 1.6GHz Atom, 8.9-inch display, 512 MB of RAM, 8GB SSD, 4-cell battery, integrated HSDPA and Window XP. Note: pencil not included. I’m still not sold on a subsidized netbook, but that’s because I use multiple devices and prefer an external 3G adapter. Folks that don’t want to rely on WiFi hotspots or don’t have a 3G phone to tether might find this to be a good deal.

OQO Model 2+

I spent some time at the Intel booth this morning at CES and was glad to see them with an entire display of Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs).  Intel has been pushing MIDs for a while and it is good to see a fair number of units coming to fruition.

I could only get photos of a few of the models due to the crush of people crowding the displays.  This was easily the busiest display booth I have seen yet at CES showing how popular portable computers have become, at least with the crowd that attends the CES.  Intel is using the term MID loosely as they had a few netbooks on display too so that may have played a role in the big crowd.

I got a chance to play with the newly announced OQO Model 2+ that Intel was showing off due to the Atom processor inside.  The OQO has an OLED screen, the first on a PC as far as I am aware.  The screen looked nice and bright but not much different than the displays on all the other non-OLED displays being shown.  While I was snapping photos of the OQO display model it went dead and had to be replaced with another unit.  I hope that’s not significant.

I played with MIDs from Aigo, Benq, Compal and others.  My favorite device of all I saw was the UMID, a tiny clamshell laptop MID.  The UMID seemed to garner a lot of interest with attendees which leads me to believe that folks are naturally drawn to the laptop form factor.  That’s why I think netbooks have done so well, it’s a form people are familiar with and can envision how it would work for them.  Enjoy these photos snapped in the Intel booth after the jump.  Please forgive me for any poor images, the lighting was terrible and the crowd was jostling me every time I tried to take a picture.

I had a chance to run through the Asus booth and it’s amazing how much focus is on the Eee PC line. Asus has a decent amount of floor space and I’d guestimate that at least half of it is devoted to netbooks. I was joking last night that I’m waiting to see Asus “create” a new model that was exactly the same as an older one. How they keep all these straight with the minor feature differences is beyond me.

I did get my hands finger on the Asus Eee PC T91 to tap the resistive touch-display. Since the unit was looping a vid, all I could do was move the cursor around: nothing earth-shattering in the experience as it’s the same as any other decent resistive touch panel. I was happy to see N10J with the improved keyboard. Have a walk around with me….

We expected to see netbooks in use at the CES and we haven’t been disappointed.  What has surprised us however is how much the lowly netbook has penetrated into the press corps here at the CES.  Sure we expected to see members of the press who cover technology to be savvy about the mobile benefits of the small and light netbook but even so the number of netbooks we’ve seen in just a few days has been staggering.  Everytime we enter a press room or bloggers lounge at the CES we are sure to see multiple netbooks in use with fingers flying over the keyboards.

One time yesterday I walked into a crowded press room and started counting netbooks in use on the tables and gave up after hitting 20.  That is easily the most netbooks I have ever seen in one room before, and that includes retail outlets.  The lowly netbook is here to stay no question.  What is really cool is seeing how often netbook users are approached by others wanting to know how well they work.  The conversation quickly turns to how easy netbooks are to travel with and use in mobile settings such as the convention.

I would have to say that the various EEE PC netbook models are the most popular netbooks in use at the CES if you lump all models together.  I’ve also seen quite a few MSI Winds (or rebadged variants) too.  I have only seen one Dell Mini 9 and no Acer Aspire Ones.