Electronics Show Struggles to Green Up

'Ultra-resolution' screen uses motion control, too

(NEWSER) - Perhaps the days of searching for remotes are coming to a close: LG's latest TV operates using voice- and 3D motion-control. The 84-inch HDTV, shown off at the Consumer Electronics Show today, offers "ultra-resolution" and a bezel of just a millimeter, Mashable reports. It also has a plasma touch-screen for the company's Smart TV system. Plus, LG's latest television line will include Google TV, notes CNET . More»

Slate columnist: Tech journalists won't say it, but the show's always a bore

(NEWSER) - Farhad Manjoo isn’t one of the tech journalists descending on Las Vegas this weekend. He decided to stay home and avoid “the overcrowded, overstuffed, chaotic, and profoundly pointless vaporware parade known as CES,” he writes in Slate . The Consumer Electronics Show “is an enormous waste of time,” and all tech journalists know it, he contends—but because it gives them so dang much to blog about, they all schlep out there anyway. More»

Many believe the era of dedicated gadgets is almost over

(NEWSER) - This year’s Consumer Electronics Show has seen the unveiling of a raft of new e-readers, but the would-be Kindle and Nook competitors could have a hard go of it. First off, some are pretty pricey—that Plastic Logic Que will cost $649 without 3G, or $799 with an AT&T plan. Most don’t have the built-in market of Amazon and Barnes & Noble. And then there’s the real problem: Do people want dedicated e-readers at all? More»

Microsoft chief shows off gear with touch, speech interface

(NEWSER) - In his keynote speech at the technology super-convention in Las Vegas, Steve Ballmer pointed the way to a future in which we won’t be chained to keyboards. The Microsoft chief took to the stage with a number of devices that instead use touch or sound for user interface, like Hewlett-Packard’s Slate tablet. In the same vein, Ballmer says, Microsoft is adding a voice- and movement-recognition controller to its Xbox 360 gaming system. More»

Microsoft, HP, Amazon, Lenovo launch preemptive strike

(NEWSER) - Denizens of the non-Apple world—Microsoft, HP, Lenovo, etc.—appear to be starting competition with the Mac-daddy’s rumored tablet computer before its expected unveiling later this month with a preemptive strike at the Consumer Electronics Show. But whatever the CES reveals, Apple is keeping mum. A look at what's out there:

• Microsoft, of course, has its own rumored “Courier” tablet—which the New York Times notes is a collaboration with HP—that may see the light of day tonight during Steve Ballmer’s keynote speech.