Kinect for Windows
CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer took the stage for the last time before their ‘break’ at CES. During his keynote, he took time to discuss Australia is confirmed as one of the launch countries for Kinect for Windows on Feb 1st 2012. US$249 RRP, Academic price US$149 later.

Sony Crystal display
Sony has a 55" LED TV with 6 million individual LED’s lighting it. The Sony prototype uses 6 million LEDs (2 million each of red, green and blue). It’s nowhere near ready for retail release, but it’s an interesting development, while we wait for OLED displays to drop in price.

New Remotes
Boxee Box led the way with a qwerty backlit keyboard on the back of the remote. TV manufacturers are now copying the idea, but adding a couple of important features. The front control pad is a touchpad and the keyboard is backlit. While it sounds like an improvement, they’ve lost the simplicity of Boxee’s design in an effort to control smart TV’s.

Connected devices
Washing machines, fridges, garage doors will all be connected in the future. Most of these are prototypes and those that aren’t will cost your first born.

So it’s time to take a second and take a look at what to expect for this year.

1. Tablets
The iPad kicked off serious demand for tablets a couple of years ago, but in 2012 the marketplace is going to look very different. Android 4.0 is finally a viable competitor to iOS and Windows8 is also due out this year. Expect a LOT of tablets to be announced, hopefully some of them actually innovate, rather than continue to play copy cat. History tells us, that’s not a winning formula.

2. HDTVs
OLED and 4k are the new hot topics in the TV market now that every manufacturer has checked the 3D box. The price of both, are still likely to be out of reach for everyday consumers, but the rich may actually be able to buy one before the end of 2012. Now if only someone could come up with a way of getting a 84” display through the front door, that’d be innovation. Foldable displays anyone ?

Internet connected TV’s will play a massive part of this year’s offerings. Once the domain of premium HDTVs, IP-connected televisions will become a standard feature. An announcement from Google last week that Google TV will run on the ARM architecture rather than Intel’s Atom is a great indication of where things are heading.

While Yahoo widgets were once the most widely used television platform, Google TV embedded into TV’s looks set to take over that title. Of course they’ll have still competition from manufacturers that roll their own software like LG and Samsung.

3. Windows 8
With a beta release of Windows 8 due in mid-late February and all these tablets floating around, it’s unlikely Microsoft are going to be able to keep quiet on Win8. They have however been burnt on-stage before with announcing tablets that never actually shipped, so they may be a little shy about singing its praises too loudly.

Don’t expect Microsoft to divulge any game changing announcements on the platform, they’ll likely hold that off for an event in Feb to coincide with the beta release.

What would be awesome to see is Microsoft go head to head with Google TV, announcing that TV’s will be able to run Windows8, unlikely, but we can dream.

4. Car Tech
Last year’s CES featured a number of announcements from Auto manufacturers like Ford and Telsa who’s vehicles rely heavily on technology. Expect Car Tech to be a strong trend again at this year’s CES. As a lover of cars and technology, this is two fantastic worlds colliding to benefit consumers.

5. Ultrabooks
Laptops that are thin and light, run and SSD, low-voltage CPU and missing an optical drive are marketed under the Ultrabook banner. The 2nd generation Macbook Air threw down the challenge for a new generation of laptops, but on the Windows-side, it still hasn’t been beaten. While some like Acer, Asus and Samsung have tried, they still can’t match the features and hit the same price point. Fingers crossed we see someone innovate and not only match the Air, but actually make something better.

What are you looking forward to the most at this year’s CES ? As always, we will be teased this week, but then have to wait months before seeing these products in the store.

More information @ http://www.cesweb.org/

LG have done it, the world’s first 55” OLED HDTV. The technology that one day could replace LCD, has been a long time coming and is usually limited to around 20” at best. The technology provides superior power consumption, ,thinner, better black levels, and better response times, but with a screen that’s better in almost every way, price is the barrier.

Most of us are familiar with the the early adopters tax, but this one doesn’t even come with a price tag. The equation is probably best summed up by an Engadget commenter – “I would buy a 100-inch LCD TV over a 55-inch OLED TV for the same price.”

That statement probably isn’t far from the truth, you’d be talking tens of thousands of dollars for this set, but hey that 42-55” HDTV in your living room once cost that. The price will come down as manufacturing techniques evolve and are refined along with increased demand.

LG’s 55” OLED HDTV will be shown off at CES early next month, if you get a chance to see it in person, your eyes are likely to tease that credit card from your pocket. You have been warned. LG have been touting their ability to make OLED at 55” for some time now, but this announcement marks the readiness to take it mainstream.

It’ll also be interesting to see if there’s been any scientific breakthroughs with Transparent LCD displays, one of which was on display at CeBIT earlier this year.

More info @ Engadget

The Motorola Atrix has finally had Gingerbread 2.3.4 released for it but not on the Telstra model. If you are one of the early adopters that rushed out and purchased the AT&T model your update is waiting for you. You can get it by checking the software updates on the phone for an OTA upgrade or you can go here and follow the instructions. Please note this is for AT&T models only. Do NOT attempt to put this on any other model.

So is it worth it if you are running the AT&T model on the Telstra network here in Australia?

Well, it is a 161MB file that once downloaded takes about 25 minutes to install. You are then faced with a new colour scheme, icons and a phone that is quite slow at first while is syncs your data from Google and Motoblur however the great thing is, is that it is an update that leaves your icons and settings as they were.

You are also asked would you like to see a video showing the new features which are updates to the music and gallery apps as well as new style notification bar which allows you to dismiss notifications one at a time rather than clear all.

The phone seems faster and more stable but it is early days yet to see if some of the irritants that the Froyo version has have been ironed out.

However one negative I have come across is that the AT&T mobile hotspot work around seems to no longer work, so will have to do some research into that.

For all the details on the features here is the AT&T pdf which highlights all the news features of the Gingerbread upgrade on your AT&T Motorola Atrix.

How long it will be until Telstra release there is anyone’s guess but historically their slow roll outs for the HTC Desire to Froyo and HTC Mozart to Nodo it could be nearer Christmas before this phone gets the update is has been longing for and deserves.

Having had a Motorola Atrix since its release earlier this year I can wholeheartedly say, that while it has its issues, it is as close to a perfect phone as I have ever had. It is certainly the best Android device I have used. But it isn’t just a phone.

Being an early adopter I have also got the Atrix’s Standard dock and the HD Entertainment dock with keyboard and mouse. So it was only a matter of time until I had to get the accessory that Wow’d everyone including myself at CES this year, the laptop dock or lapdock as Motorola calls it. I remember holding it at the Motorola stand at CES and just being blown away that something so seemingly simple and obvious was finally built and that Apple didn’t build it.

When I finally received the lapdock recently I immediately was thrilled to see that it’s size and aluminium body were just as I remembered from CES.

The Atrix in the lapdock

What is noticeable immediately is a solidly built, razor thin product that dare I say it, resembles a Macbook Air in build. It certainly has an exceptional build quality that sadly the phone lacks.

The phone slots into the dock easily and solidly and when the lid is opened you are face to face with the sharp 11.6″ WXGA (1366 x 768) screen which compliments the frame’s quality build. It is a real shame that Motorola chose to wrap the Motorola cheap case rather then a slick casing similar to the lapdock.

Atrix Lapdock

It has a chiclet style keyboard that is pretty well spaced and has good tactile feedback. In fact it is better then some netbook keyboards I have used.  It’s oversized trackpad is solid and easy to use and responsive. However due to it’s size it can get in the way if you rest your wrists while typing.

There are two USB ports at the back which is another positive as they enable thumbdrives, external hard drives and other peripherals which immediately has the lapdock encroaching into laptop territory.

Atrix Lapdock next to MSI Wind U100+

It’s weight of around 1kg and its form factor put it ahead of many netbooks in its category. I say category but it doesn’t really have one. it is currently in a unique category of its own but it is clearly aiming to be a replacement for a netbook.

Atrix Lapdock vs MSI Wind U100+

So what is it good for?

The first thing that it has in its favour is that as long as it is charged and you have your Atrix with a data connection you are able to do almost every basic daily activity on it, from sending emails and updating Facebook to surfing the web using Firefox (odd that it isn’t Chrome you may think).

Webtop OS

It will take about 30 – 40 seconds to boot up once you have put your unlocked phone in the dock and opened the screen. If you are a Windows user you will take a bit of getting used to its user interface. With its OSX style icon dock at the bottom with a number of icon shortcuts to Facebook, Firefox it is pretty straight forward. There is a status bar at the top with Wifi, Bluetooth and battery displays.

Once you get the hang of using the phone’s software for certain tasks such as email and tweetdeck it is really quite straight forward. I used Quickoffice to do basic word-processing documents but you can also use Google docs.

The dock is all about the “Cloud” and this is where there are limitations. Without the Atrix in the dock it is a beautifully crafted industrial metal paperweight and with an Atrix without a data connection it is a music and video player.

Entertainment Centre

The Entertainment Centre allows you to watch videos play music or view pictures that are stored on the phone. I’d advise you to listen to music through headphones attached to the phones 3.5mm jack as the lapdock’s speakers are as expected just functional.

With the phone in the dock if a call comes in you can answer it using the lapdock and the phone becomes a speaker phone. However you can remove the phone and take the call and then replace the phone into the dock and it will start where it left off.

It isn’t a fast laptop it is certainly no threat to an Atom powered netbook as far as performance goes but it doesn’t try to be. It is there as an extension of your phone and is perfect for a commute to work to clear emails or update Facebook. It is also perfect for keeping in touch while on business or even vacation. But it is limited. You wouldn’t try an put huge pitch presentations on it or heavy graphics.

What is needed for version 2.0?

I hope that this isn’t a one off. I would like to see Motorola develop a new phones to fit this dock so that it isn’t obsolete in a matter of months.

However I would also like to see version 2.0 have the following, be cheaper, a webcam, a touchscreen, more webtop apps and a longer battery life, (although mine has lasted 8 hours in one sitting and that was also charging the phone’s battery), and be backwardly compatible with current Atrix.

The only thing that comes close right now is the Asus Eee Transformer but that is a tablet with a keyboard dock which means still having to carry a tablet around as well as your phone. This allows you to have just your normal pocket sized phone when that is all you need or change into a basic but useful laptop.

Well done Motorola you came out with a game changer so let’s see if the game really changes in the market or whether it is just one of those great ideas that will sadly be obsolete in a year or so. Either way it is everything I need for commuting to work, showing products to clients or watching videos while travelling on a plane and all that using the power of my phone.

I have just received a Motorola Atrix 4G and my initial thoughts on this powerhouse of a Android phone that won 10 awards at CES 2011 are mixed. On the one hand this is the most powerful Android phone around today and sadly on the other it is let down by its the packaging housing this power.

Motorla Atrix

The phone comes with a standard HDMI cable to hook it up to a TV and play the media on the phone on your big screen. There is also a USB cable and wall charger. The odd thing is there are no headphones which tend to be an obligatory addition to most smart phones today especially for handsfree use.

Atrix MicrosUSB & HDMI sockets

First impressions are that the screen, which is made of Corning Gorilla Glass, is quite brilliant and the best I have seen on an Android phone. The 4 inch screen’s resolution is qHD (quarter High Definition) 960 x 540 and is crisper than my HTC Desire AMOLED screen.

Motorola Atrix Home Screen

The phone itself weighs in 2 grams less than the iPhone 4 at 135 grams but unlike its biggest competitor it doesn’t have the styling or the finesse of the Apple product. In fact it doesn’t seem to have the build quality of the HTC Desire or the solid and stylish HTC Mozart.  Unfortunately the phone has a plasticky feel to it, especially the back. The back comes across as one of those cheap fake carbon fibre bonnets seen on cheap, wannabe “Fast and Furious” hoon cars that splutter around the suburbs of major Australian cities.

Plastic Back of Motorola Atrixwith combined finger print reader &co power button (top)

The phone features a 5MP camera with flash as well as a front facing camera for video calls. The camera can record 720p footage and apparently will be able to record 1080p with a future upgrade.

Before using the phone a Motoblur account needs to be set-up. Once done this enables the ability to locate your phone if you have lost it or remotely wipe its data if it has been stolen.

One unique addition to the phone is the finger print reading device on the back which is actually the power button. It can be setup as a way of unlocking the phone with a PIN as a backup. To be honest its a bit too small and works on limited occasions so I can’t recommend it.

Where the phone stands out is its sheer speed. The dual core processor makes Froyo seems like its on steroids. The DLNA software allows you to stream media to the phone or indeed from the phone and the power of the Atrix really shows here.

DLNA software

The 1930mAh battery seems to do a good job at keeping all this power running, but you can actually feel the heat of it through the plastic back cover when using the phone over prolonged periods of time.

Atrix Battery and card slots

The Motorola Widgets can be resized on the homescreen with ease and the social networking app pulls together all your Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin status updates and contacts. All I need now is the HD dock and the laptop dock to put the webtop software through its paces and full potential.

Would I recommend it? The answer is yes purely for the potential this phone has to change personal and working mobility. However I wish Motorola had given the Atrix a better casing as it feels like a wolf in cheap fake wool clothing which really is the only let down. Does it beat the iPhone 4? The answer is, in all areas except design, that is an overwhleming yes.

More info @ Motorola

Today at CES 2011, Ford officially announced they will shipping a fully electric version of their popular Focus mode. In an environmentally focused world, more and more manufacturers are entering the EV market, the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt and Tesla Roadster for example. With the car giant Ford getting into the game, its a really exciting time for EV.

The 2012 Ford Focus Electric is a 5 door hatchback loaded with technology. Before we get to that, lets look at the typical vehicle stats.

Engine: 100 kW AC (Permanent magnetic electric traction)
Horsepower: 92 kW (123 hp)
Torque: 181 lb.-ft./246 Nm
Top speed: 135km/h (84 mph)
Battery: 23 kwh
Drivetrain: Front Wheel Drive
Wheels: 17×7”
Weight: 1674kg (3,691 pounds)

With that out of the way, lets get down to the tech.

Mobile
Mobile applications are affecting almost every aspect of everyday life. Now cars can’t escape either – the MyFord Mobile is a smartphone app that allows users to receive vehicle status information, unlock your car, monitor battery charge level and get charging alerts when complete. Even more impressive than that list is the ability to locate your car via GPS, right from your phone! If your not yet in the smartphone market, there’s also a web interface to access most of this data.
 
Internals
Inside the Ford Focus Electric looks like a futuristic cockpit.

Looking at the center console you’ll see an 8 inch touch screen. This runs Ford’s successful MyFord Touch Navigation System. This allows drivers to get information and entertainment either by touching the screen or controlling the system by voice. Bluetooth compatibility with your phone means MyFord touch can read text messages, play music, voice dial contacts all at the push of a button located conveniently on the steering wheel. This allows the driver to keep their eyes on the road and avoid distractions. Use the touch screen when parked and voice controls on the go, it’s a nice option to have both and you can switch between the two seamlessly.

Focus Electric MyFord Touch instrument cluster

The Focus Electric MyFord Touch also features two 4.2 inch LCD screens adjacent to your standard speedometer. These screens can be customised to suit each individual driver. Choices range from trip info, range data, brake coaching, sorry no Facebook. All of these configuration can be controlled via buttons on the steering wheel.

Externals
Outside the styling is very consumer focused. Not something I’d describe as aggressive, but is certainly approachable. One unique element of the Focus Electric is the charge port is in the front fender, rather than the typical rear quarter panel.

Batteries /distance
The 2012 Ford Focus Electric will be powered by an 23 kWh advanced lithium-ion battery system engineered by Ford in cooperation with supplier LG Chem. A very contentious issue with EV is the distance your batteries will last between charges. Ford say you can expect to get up to 128km (80 miles).

To increase distance, Ford, like others, are also using regenerative braking. This sends some of the energy created from the forces applied during braking, back into the battery.

Charging time
The next question after distance, is how long does it take to recharge ? The answer is between 3 and 12 hours. In the US, there’s 2 power options commonly found 240 volts (charge time: 3-4hrs), the same as what Australian’s are used to, or 120 volts (18-20 hrs). With more voltage, recharging takes less time, so the duration will depend on the wiring in US-homes. When and if the Focus Electric comes to Australia, we’re fortunate that we’ve standardised on the higher voltage.

The price of the charging unit is said to be around US$1,500 so that needs to be included in the price of the cars overall cost.

Release date
Set for a release in North America in late 2011 and Europe in 2012. No dates for Australia, but I’ll be asking.

Update
Engadget has photos from the launch at CES.

Gallery
Check out press shots from Ford.

Tomorrow I’ll be flying out to Detroit to get hands-on with the 2012 Ford Focus Electric and other Ford vehicles at the North American International Auto Show. Personally I’m a big electric vehicle fan, so this announcement is a very exciting one. I plan on my next vehicle being electric, so hopefully the Australian government invest in recharging infrastructure.

techAU is attending the North American International Auto Show as a guest of Ford Motor Company, covering flights and accommodation. My opinions posted here are my own.

Despite a couple of days of pre-CES news, CES 2011 officially begins at 1:30PM AEDST. As usual, Microsoft have the headlining spot to kick things off, with CEO Steve Ballmer running the show.

This morning we seen press conferences from Samsung, Motorola, Panasonic, Sony, Hitachi, Sharp and LG to name a few. There’s been plenty of tablets, smart phones, 3D, HDTVs, cameras announced, so what’s in store for Microsoft ?

During the press event yesterday, we heard info on Surface 2, Windows 8 running on Arm processors, so expect a rehash of that. Don’t doubt there’ll be mentions of the companies successes in gaming with Xbox and Kinect, and mobile with Windows Phone 7.

This post will be updated as the important parts are announced, so watch closely, or check back later for a summary. If you want to see the action happen live, Microsoft are streaming (using Silverlight) a very high quality stream 1.3Mbps over at the Microsoft CES site.

Announcements

• Netflix and Hulu Plus to support Kinect (US only) in Spring.
• ESPN allows sports picks to be shared / compared with friends. (US only)
• Avatar Kinect
  - Facial tracking, social environment, share to facebook
  - free in Spring to Xbox Live Gold Subscribers
  - 30 million Xbox Live subscribers, 50 Million Xbox 360’s sold, 8 Million Kinects sold
• Fable Coin Golf coming to WP7, Xbox Live support, Fable 3 on Xbox sync.
• 5,500 apps now available in WP7 Marketplace, average 100 new apps per day.
• WP7 Updates pushed automatically, copy + paste, fast app switching coming.
• 20% of internet connected PC are now running Windows 7
• Windows Live used by 500 Million people
• New Windows 7 PCS using Intel Sandy Bridge, AMD Fusion processors
• 6.5 hours battery life for a Core i7 with 6-cell.. Go Sandy Bridge
• Dual-screen LED touchscreen laptop, on-screen keyboard
• Surface 2,
  - thin, tracking per pixel, largest piece of gorilla glass bonded to a screen.
  - awesome demo.. commercial availability soon, no mention of consumer availability.
• Windows 8 support for System on a chip, no UI shown in demo.
  - Windows demo’d running on Intel, Qualcomm (Snapdragon), Nvidia Tegra.

Images

Image credit: Screens taken from Microsoft’s Live Stream.

In a series of photos on Ford’s Electric Vehicle Facebook page, they’ve been teasing since December 30th. Yesterday that tease became an announcement. Ford are indeed entering the electric car market with a Ford Focus EV and looks like 2011 will be the year.

On Friday at 11 AM PST, CEO Alan Mulally will have big news from the 2011 International CES in Las Vegas. We’ll broadcast his keynote address on a Livestream tab on this page and have exclusive technology news every hour leading up to his address.

Other Electric Vehicles like Chevy’s Volt, Mitsubishi’s iMiev, Telsta’s Roadster all stick the charging point in the traditional rear quarter panel. From the photos, it appears Ford are trying something different, positioning the charge port on the front fender. The Xbox-style, 4 quadrant lights surrounding the charging port may provide an indicator of how much power is remaining. Obviously this would be more accurately displayed on the dash, but is a quick 25% increment indicator for when when your disconnecting the plug.

There was a prototype Ford Focus EV shown off in 2009 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, while prototypes are interesting, it really counts for nothing until consumers can buy the product. Fingers crossed the announcement will contain information on both US and international release dates.

It is an interesting decision to announce the Ford Electric at CES, while I’m sure the car will be full of tech goodies, there’s perhaps a better venue. We are less than a week away from the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, so lets hope there’s still some surprises up the sleeve.

Either way, I’ll be getting up close and personal with the Ford Electric next week when I attend the NAIAS ! That’s right, techAU is off to the other side of the world to cover Ford’s Driving Green Technology event. Expect plenty of posts, photos and we’ll have to see how we go with mobile video. Might have to wait till I get home for that one.

techAU is attending the North American International Auto Show as a guest of Ford Motor Company, covering flights and accommodation. My opinions posted here are my own.

With CES all wrapped up, I took a chance to outline the trends and more interesting announcements from the biggest electronics conference of the year.

Big CES Themes

With thousands of products announced and/or released during CES, popular trends quickly emerged. These were:

HDTVs – It seems every manufacturer under the sun has jumped on the 3D bandwagon, introducing 3D into their 2010 lineup. Unfortunately they’re all competing to have the best implementation, so not all are using the same technology. Some opt for the more expensive, better active shutter glasses, others going for the cheaper polarised 3D.

As TV’s grow to enormous sizes, even the best looking 1080p starts look average. The solution is the next iteration of quality – 4k, twice the horizontal and twice the vertical pixel count of 1080. Existing 1080p owners don’t need to stress, 4k content is few and far between.

Slate PCs – Announced in Microsoft’s keynote, the term Slate PCs were everywhere. Slates are effectively tablets that have been around for years, minus the physical keyboard, plus a capacitive touchscreen. This means no more stylus, an on-screen keyboard and they now run Windows 7. Implementations ranged from decent to terribly unresponsive. Despite many manufacturers giving this a shot, it seems the market is still prime for Apple to own with a fantastic user experience. That is of course if the iSlate exists at all.

Netbooks – With new processors, even better battery life should arrive in the next generation netbooks. There’s been a crucial update in resolution, now getting up to 1366×768. Many manufacturers are also experimenting with different industrial design, ultimately providing more options for consumer preferences.

Boxee box – A combination of slick D-Link hardware featuring the new Nvidia Tegra 2 graphics, and boxee’s software. This is just one example (probably the best) hardware box to get online video content to your HDTV. Boxee also made the beta of their software public. Get it yourself from http://boxee.tv

Smarter cars – Having a standard iPod dock is so yesterday. One display was Ford’s latest edition of Sync. Built on Microsoft Automotive technology (running on Windows Embedded), you can now plug-in a supported 3G wireless dongle and create a Wi-Fi hotspot on wheels. This allows your passengers to use the internet connection from their laptop, smart phone etc. Add this to Voice commands, GPS, smarter cruise controls and our cars are about to get a whole lot smarter.

Microsoft Keynote
CES began with a keynote from Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer. His presentation ran through a lot of information, most of which we’d heard before. Here’s a summary anyway.

- Windows 7 is fastest selling OS ever.
- Xbox 360 now sold 39 million consoles, 500 million games
- Announced Game Room (old school games, cross platform)
- Natal release date – December 2010
- Halo 3: Reach trailer shown (Some rubbish about IP rights meant this wasn’t shown on the live stream)
- No mention of Home Server
- No mention of Windows Mobile 6.5.3 or 7

Slate PC’s from HP and others
http://www.winandmac.com/news/microsoft-new-slate-pc-revealed-its-running-windows-7/

Noteworthy
As well as trends, there was a bunch of interesting products announced. These aren’t necessarily the best, but ones I thought you’ll find interesting.

Lenovo’s U1, Laptop + Slate.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/01/04/lenovos-u1-is-a-netbook-with-removable-tablet/

Intel announce Widi, stream desktop to HDTV
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/07/intel-announces-widi-hd-wireless-display-technology/

Panasonic 152" 4k Plasma TV
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/08/panasonics-152-inch-plasma-dwarfs-all-who-stand-in-its-way/

Microsoft Arc Keyboard
http://www.everythingusb.com/microsoft-arc-keyboard-18300.html

ATI Eyefitinty, allows gaming across multiple monitors, Nvidia: coming soon
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/08/ostendo-multiple-crvd-display-games-on/

Concepts
Not everything at CES will end up making it to market, or if they do it may be 2-3 years away from being production ready.

Samsung see-through laptop display
http://www.thedesignblog.org/entry/samsung-presents-worlds-first-and-largest-transparent-oled-laptop-at-ces/

Vizio 21:9 HDTV
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/08/vizio-ces-concept-designs-show-a-future-of-ultrawidescreen-ultr/

Special mention to TWiT Live and their fantastic coverage during CES. I watched it for hours and got a real sense of being there, despite living on the other side of the world. My biggest issue was how much data it was using, turns out a 1Mbps video stream uses quite a bit per hour. With our caps in Australia, I really wish our ISPs would unmeter some of this type of content.