OMG, I can hear the fanboys battling already. Here's a video from last night's CES 2008 keynote, Bill Gates' last for the foreseeable future. And I know its scripted, edited and contrived, but I'm sold: The man is a cool geek. He's not cool in a fonzie/Jobs kind of way in this video. But very much like how he seemed at total ease with his geekiness and place in the universe at Mossberg and Swisher's All Things D conference the guy just looks happy here. (Especially while playing goofy and modest butt of the joke with this short's star studded cast.) He seems nothing like the anti-antitrust mogul with a killer instinct and "bad taste" we learned to hate in Pirates of Silicon Valley. Fanboys, get to your comment battle stations. Just leave me out of it -- I only wrote the headline.

The Pitch: The 15.4-inch M50S is supposed to be a mobile entertainment rig, with HDMI out and a hybrid TV tuner, plus an auto-dimmer on the screen's backlight. The Catch: The chips (CPU and GFX) are pretty old hat.

The Gear: Ah, convergence at its best. Asus cross-bred a GPS navigator that does 3D maps and real-time traffic info with a typical Taiwanese PMP that handles MP3s, videos and photos in a 1.3-cm thick unit. The touchscreener also uses Bluetooth to verbalise incoming text messages (probably poorly) and dial calls. It's $US400 when it comes out in a couple of weeks. The Hmm: Most mutt devices rarely do everything well, and I hate the gold paintjob. (Granted, that's a personal thing.)

The Pitch: The G70 is a gaming notebook with NVIDIA 8700M GTs running in SLi, 17-inch 1920x1200 screen, embedded TV tuner and integrated HDMI. The Catch: The 8700M GT is practically ancient as far as graphics card go.

ASUS' MK241 combines HDMI support, built in webcam, an integrated microphone and speakers into one 24" LCD monitor. The monitor supports resolutions up to 1920x1200 and utilises Colour-Rich Technology, which ASUS says enhances visual quality by bringing out 30% more colours. Price and release date have not been announced yet, but it sounds like it would work nicely with the P22. [ASUS]

ASUS' new PC, the Nova P22, has solid specs for a small machine. A Core 2 Duo processor, 802.11n wireless, Bluetooth, built-in speakers and a slot-loading disc drive round out the 122-cubic inch package. The P22 also supports 5.1 speaker configurations if surround sound is your thing. It will retail for $US800 when it sees release at the end of January, and it looks like it would be a great complement to their new LCD monitor [ASUS]

The U2E notebook from ASUS brings a 32GB SSD, an LED backlit panel and a small-lens webcam to an 11-inch, 2-pound, leather notebook. The coolest feature announced so far is definitely the Smart Logon Face Recognition. This software keeps the computer secure by using the webcam to scan the face in front of it and only grant access after a positive facial scan. The U2E will be available in brown or black, but pricing and availability have not yet been announced. See the gallery for more hot pics. [ASUS]

Nokia just told me that the N95 8GB USA edition with HSDPA support for 3G is official.

The NYTimes has a piece on CES suggesting that the high signal to noise ratio is making it increasingly difficult for companies to leave their mark here and launch a successful product. Yes. Yes, I agree. Please, bring back the summer CES session, and split this beast in half. I think companies understand this. So many bigger brands are starting to hold their own Spring line shows, like Sony does, to stand in a more focused spotlight. [NYT]

Kensington just dumped a whole host of in-car peripherals. Here's the lot (all prices quoted in USD.):

• Kensington LiquidAUX for iPhone and iPod ($79.99.) Allows for "superior" sound quality via the auxiliary port, whilst simultaneously charging. Comes with a remote, so you don't have to take your eyes off the road.

• Kensington LiquidAUX™ Deluxe for iPhone and iPod ($99.99.) As above, but with cradle and adjustable flexible arm.

• Kensington LiquidAUX™ Bluetooth® Car Kit ($99.99.) Does the same as the above two kits, however, this will allow you to hook up your Bluetooth (A2DP) enabled cellphone instead. Automated music muting and call taking functionality included, as would be expected.

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Straight from the Motorola press party, we've got video of the ROKR E8. Check out the phone-to-music player's ModeShift keypad morphing action. Could this be the music phone they get right?

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Pioneer execs shuffle us into a dark room, reveal the most critically acclaimed TV made, and then unveil a TV that can kick its ass on contrast. Yes, Pioneer's current Kuro—the "best flat-panel ever"—was shedding light like a sumbitch next to Pioneer's concept Kuro, whose black literally emits no light. So here it is, a strange Battlemodo pitting the super-hot 8th-gen Pioneer plasma against its own future self.

We just got an exclusive look at the super-thin 9mm Kuro plasma concept from Pioneer, and frankly it's hard to believe that it's real at all. It's holy-smokes thin—yes, even thinner than an iPhone. Even at the center where it balloons out to a whopping 18mm or so, it's still, you know, Kate Moss. How soon until you get one of these in your house? Not soon enough, amigo. So for now, it's just you and these sweet sweet pics. Go ahead and drool. We'll leave the room. [Pioneer CES 2008]

The Motorola Z10 multimedia phone. We open with a long demo of the Z10, which has built-in video edited tools and a wireless broadband video uplink via HSDPA quadband GSM.
*30 fps
*8 GB expandable memory
*16 million colour display

As much camera as phone.

Moving on to the Rokr E8.

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You made us do it fanboys. See one more pic after the jump.

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OQO Model 2 just got a 64GB SSD storage option and Sunlight viewable screen [Dynamism]

The sighting: We can't have one of these Alienware curved monitors until the second half of this year, but until then, we've been abducted by its four nearly seamless and sharp screens of DLP goodness. Lit by LEDs, this 2880x900 monster is well over three feet wide and is said to have an other-worldly .02ms response time, great for gaming. The Soylent Green: You can see the seams between this monitor's four segments, but the Alienware humanoids tell us that flaw will be gone by the time this craft lands on Earth. The blacks look a bit washed out to our eyes, too. Price is yet to be determined.

The Pitch: The Sling Modem, which is a Slingbox and a Cable Modem combined into one—NOT TWO!!!—gadget. It'll be available directly from cable providers, but no partnerships have been announced yet.
The Catch: You're limited to only one type of Slingbox with this Modem, so you're SOL if you want to get this or that type of box.

The Gadget: Linksys' slightly fancier Windows Media Center Extender, which streams the Windows Vista/XP Media Center interface over the network so you can watch live or recorded TV and downloaded files on TV in HD.

The Price: $US299

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The product: The Belkin TuneBase FM and TuneCast Auto (the Tunebase with car charger) are Belkin's newest FM transmitters to send music from your iPhone and iPod through your radio.

The catch: While these new models are really just updates to what Belkin's been offering for years, there aren't really any catches since if you don't like the sound of FM, they offer a line out that can be used for a direct stereo connection.

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The Pitch: Use your iPod for mobile podcast/audio recording.

The Gadget: Belkin Podcast Studio is an advanced attachment for your iPod to add high quality recording capabilities. Dual XLR and 1/4-inch channels offer a solid range of recording options. A built-in mic and speaker are powered by their own battery, saving your iPod juice better used for listening to your genius later.

The Price: $US100 this June

The GoodsThe iRiver Wing is a cute little UMPC with a touchscreen and 4GB of flash storage. It's got Wi-Fi, obviously, and supposedly is instant-on. No word on the battery life. The Catch It runs Windows CE Pro for the OS, and the keyboard looks like it could be difficult to pound on.

The Pitch: Kodak's ESP 3 all-in-one printer, which has a nice black finish and a software feature for facial retouching with "one click" that "reduces blemishes" and enhances facial features. They also claim that it saves 50% ink when compared to similar inkjet printers.
The Catch: It's hard to tell exactly what the 50% ink savings means without comparing it to other printers ourselves, but the one-touch facial retouching is good if you're no good at photoshop (like me).

The Gear iRiver's IAMOLED Photo Tank is another PMP, but it's HD-based (80 or 160GB) to SPINN's flash, and its 4.1-inch AMOLED display uses even less more power than passive matrix OLED displays for longer batt. life. It's photo-oriented, with CF and SD slots, though it also does video voice recording, FM and uses the by-this-post-much-hyped SPINN controls. The Catch No price, and the SPINN (PMP, not the controls) is definitely a sexier beast.

The Goods The flash-based SPINN PMP uses iRiver's eponymous SPINN UI, which "combines warmth of analog controls" with digital content—apparently this means a wheel of some sort. It's stacked PMP-wise, otherwise: 3.2-inch 480x272 screen, FM tuner, flash, Bluetooth, dictionary and 30fps MP4 playback. The shell and UI are also really attractive for a PMP of this flavor, which are usually barely less ugly than glossy roadkill. The Catch: Um, are "analog controls" really a feature?

Here is the first look at Linksys' new UltraRange Plus N-routers. First up is the WRT160N, a sub-$US100 router, and next is the WRT310N. Check out the gallery below to see them in all of their sleek and sexy goodness. [Linksys]

Audio-Technica released the QuietPoint ATH-ANC3 active noise-cancelling in-ear headphones today. They say that the battery-powered ear buds block out 85% of all outside noise. We don't understand the point. Since in-ear headphones already cancel outside noise by design, some of the technology here is doing double duty. Still, we guess it's some kind of statement of mind-blowing, macho technology, so like... "sweet." See a full product pic after the jump. [Audio-Technica]

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Ridata introduced three SSDs today, in 32-, 64-, and 128GB capacities. We've seen SSDs this large before, but Ridata claims 170MB/sec read and 105MB/sec write speeds, blowing out their recent competition. Full release after the jump.

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