CES 2006 Preview

Said to be the world’s largest consumer electronics tradeshow, CES, gets underway 5-8 January, in Las Vegas. While not open to the general public, CES previews consumer electronics and wireless technologies, devices and networks from over 2,500 exhibitors. The conference program, keynotes, SuperSessions, exhibitor news and press releases announce thousands of products. Announcements for new products are available for broadband, home networking, mobile/vehicle electronics, personal electronics, satellite systems, telephones, video, WiFi and wireless communications, as well as mobile entertainment and consumer VoIP. Check out the Wireless TechZone for the full list of upcoming presentations.

Highlights of the show include:

• Intel
  will unfurl Viiv PCs, the desktops designed to store music, record TV
  shows and serve music and video. 
• Intel
  will pitch its upcoming Yonah processor for notebooks and thin desktops
  under two designations: Duo and Solo. The Duo will have two cores; notebooks
  with a single-core Yonah will sport a Solo designation. 
• Texas
  Instruments, Philips and cell phone makers will show TV cell phones (DVB-H
  and MediaFLO), showcased by the FIFA World Cup in Germany this summer. 
• Skype
  is making a play for the mainstream IP telephony with a new standalone
  handset to enable users to make free Skype calls over the Internet without a
  PC connection. It also announced a new phone adapter developed with D-Link,
  called the DPH-50U, that allows the Skype service to be used with a
  traditional phone. 
• Home
  Networking Initiatives like the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA),
  WiMedia Ultrawideband (UWB), HomePlug, and Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA)
  are all hoping to knock off WiFi from its predominance in home networking.
  Meanwhile, Airgo’s “faster-than-wired” WiFi True
  Gen3 MIMO chipset is in products like Netgear’s RangeMax 240 and
  Linksys’s WRT54GX4 wireless router. Promoters of that other
  “pre-N” MIMO standard , the
  WiMedia Alliance, may also show and tell.

Full article here. Coverage from the show floor is available from Google News as well.