CES Special Coverage

• AT&T Hedges Bets, Adds Android and WebOS

  AT&T is embracing the Google Android and Palm WebOS operating systems--adding a total of seven new handsets in 2010 built on the new mobile operating systems. With speculation that its iPhone exclusivity will soon end, AT&T is expanding its portfolio, but AT&T is at a disadvantage and it may be too late to start hedging bets.

  AT&T announced that it will be launching five Android-based handsets in the first half of 2010, completing Android's invasion of all four major wireless providers in the United States. Actual details and specifications are scarce, but AT&T did reveal that it will carry a device from Motorola with the MotoBlur interface, a device from HTC, and it will be the first carrier in the United States to offer the Android-based Dell smartphone.

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• Nvidia Offers a Sneak Peek at Android Tablets

  Laying unceremoniously towards the end of Nvidia's booth at a press event last night was an early prototype of the Ultra, an Android 2.0 tablet developed by ICD.

  It's the same tablet (or slate - I'm as baffled as Harry by the terminology shift) that appeared briefly, of all places, on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, a 7-inch tablet with all the trimmings: Wi-Fi, 3G, Webcam, MicroSD slot, 4 GB of internal memory, and, of course, Nvidia's formidable Tegra chip. An Nvidia representative promised more and better tablets at the company's booth on Thursday, but I had to take a stab at this one.

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• Is It the End of the Road for Memory Stick? Hope So!

  In the great scheme of this, this is minor CES news indeed, but I kinda like it: Sony is releasing a line of SD and MicroSD memory cards. If it were any other company, I wouldn't be writing this post, but we're talking Sony-the company behind the venerable, eternally annoying, rather pricey, confusingly named, incompatible-with-the-rest-of-the-world Memory Stick format.

  Sony, of course, would argue that Memory Stick is an argument in favor of buying its products. I've always found it a reason to decide against buying them-even though many of the products that take Memory Sticks, such as scads of Sony's cameras, have been otherwise nifty. (I do admit to having a couple of them around somewhere, though-the one time I willingly used them was when I owned a Sony Clie PDA eons ago.)

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• Nyko's Wii Wand+ One-Ups Nintendo

  Despite the Wii's innovative motion controls, Nintendo's Wii Remote is nothing special to hold, especially compared to the elaborate design of an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 controller. That makes fertile ground for Nyko, whose third-party Wii Remotes, or Wands, feel just as mediocre for $10 less.

  At CES, Nyko is showing off the Wand+, which is the same size as a regular Wii Remote, but includes the functionality of Nintendo's accuracy-boosting Wii MotionPlus dongle, no attachments required. Best of all, the Wand+ will sell for $40 when it goes on sale in late February - the same price Nintendo charges for a standalone Wii Remote (Nintendo's MotionPlus attachment costs another $20).

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• Color Displays Coming to E-Readers?

  It's still early here at the Consumer Electronics Show-the halls bursting at the seams with exhibitors open later this morning for the first time. But if someone asked me what the most interesting thing is that I've seen so far, the answer's easy: It's the low-power color displays for e-readers and other gadgets from Qualcomm's Mirasol division, which the company was showing off at the Digital Experience event Wednesday night.

  Mirasol's technology produces screens that look a lot like the E-Ink ones found on nearly every e-reader to date-they're unilluminated and therefore look better in bright light than in dim environments. But Mirasol's displays, unlike E-Ink, do color and have decent refresh rates. If the shipping version of the display technology's as impressive as the demo, that means that it'll allow for e-readers with color pages, video, and slicker user interfaces. Above, you can see a photo of a concept device that doesn't do the technology justice.

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• HP Experiments With Android

  Spotted Wednesday evening at Digital Experience, an unofficial press event here in Las Vegas during CES week: an HP netbook with Google's Android OS, a touchscreen, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It bears a familial resemblance to HP's Mini netbooks, but has been rethought in multiple ways-for instance, it lacks the row of function keys that's standard equipment on all Windows PCs and Macs.

  This machine's presence at the show isn't nearly the big deal it might be, for one simple reason: HP says it's just experimenting with Android. This is a concept PC, and there's no news about its chances of turning into a shipping product you can buy. Still, you gotta figure that if HP has gone through the bother of building this prototype, there's a real chance it'll commercialize it in 2010. Unless, that is, it decides to scrap the Android OS and begin over again with Google's Chrome OS...

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• Why the Microsoft-HP Tablet Is a Big Disappointment

  Apple must be patting themselves on the back, as the Hewlett-Packard (HP) tablet unveiled by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Wednesday night failed to wow those expecting a true competitor to the mythical Apple tablet.

  

  Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer demonstrating the HP tablet. Photo Credit: Microsoft

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