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CES: Gadgets and Gear Begin to Appear

We're still a day away from the official opening of the Consumer Electronics Show, but the product debuts have already begun. Here's a look at what we've seen so far.

By PC World Staff

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Your Very Own Flying Helicopter

Have you ever wanted to fly your own (toy) helicopter? Soon, you may be able to do just that, using your iPhone or iPod Touch and the appropriate software. Here at CES, Parrot (better known for creating Bluetooth devices) showed off the AR.Drone, a four-rotor "quadricopter" that is controlled by Wi-Fi signals.

The device, which buzzed about the heads of marveled media representatives, includes wireless cameras that can stream video to a iPhone or IPod Touch, thus allowing you to use your actual surroundings as "targets" in a "augmented reality" (that's what the AR stands for) video game.

The unit will be available later this year, the company said. Pricing has not been set.

Logitech's Extra-Cool Laptop Desk

Logitech's Speaker Lapdesk N700 not only promises to keep your lap cool when using your notebook--it also features integrated speakers that are likely to sound a lot better than the ones in many portables.

The speakers may not rival those on your favorite boom box: According to Logitech, the 2-inch speakers provide 2 watts of power. Still, considering the pathetic audio quality of most notebook speakers, the N700 will likely produce better sound than most laptops can manage.

Logitech says it expects to ship the Speaker Lapdesk N700 in February for a suggested retail price of $80.

LaCie's Flash Drives Add Online Storage

LaCie's new CooKey and WhizKey USB thumb drives feature slick metal cases designed to look like actual keys. The design is nice, but not revolutionary. Where the CooKey and WhizKey set themselves apart from the competition is by offering online storage via LaCie's Wuala service. They come with a two-year, 4GB subscription to Wuala, and allow you to "trade" storage space on your computer for cloud storage.

The CooKey and WhizKey come in 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB sizes, and start from $20.

Tivit Puts Broadcast TV on Your Smartphone

Ever wish you could catch the local news on your commute home from work? Or how about watching a sports game in real-time on a long car trip? The Tivit lets you watch live broadcasts on-the-go from the device you never leave home without--your smartphone.

The $120 Tivit is compatible with the third-gen iPod Touch, BlackBerry devices with Wi-Fi connectivity (sorry BlackBerry Storm and Tour users) and Motorola Android phones. It will go on sale this spring.

Sensia: Internet Radio's Colorful New Face

Internet radio is hardly a new concept, but it is getting a new look thanks to the Sensia. This $349 device features a color 5.7-inch, 640-by-480 pixel color touchscreen, from which you can access social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The unit comes with a radio-frequency remote control and includes a Wi-Fi adapter to connect with Internet radio stations as well as a conventional FM tuner. Music shared on a PC that's on the network can be played through the Sensia, which supports the display of album art.

OnStar Mobile App Lets You Obsess Over Your Chevy Volt

When the Chevy Volt electric car rolls off production lines later this year, owners will be able to obsess over them even when they're not behind the wheel thanks to a powerful mobile app from OnStar (a subsidiary of General Motors).

The OnStar Mobile App for the iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry Storm and Motorola Droid lets you monitor and control the Volt's electrical functions from a simple dashboard that shows how much charge is left in the Volt's battery, how far you can travel on that charge and on the car's backup gasoline engine and how many miles per gallon you're getting in the eco-friendly vehicle. It can also remotely lock and unlock the car and sound the horns.

iRiver Unveils Super-Thin E-Book

iRiver, best known for teensy, feature-packed portable music and video players, is hopping on to the increasingly crowded e-book reader bandwagon with one of the skinniest entries to date. Its Story e-book reader is a mere 0.36 inch thick.

Even more impressive than its size is the list of bundled features, which include a QWERTY keyboard, a 6-inch e-Ink display, a Microsoft Office file viewer, MP3 player with headphone jack, voice recorder, and personal organizer. It will also have 2GB of internal memory (most of the e-book readers we've seen top out at 1GB) as well as an SD card slot for adding up to 16GB of additional storage.

Western Digital’s My Book Shows How Speedy USB 3.0 Can Be

Western Digital My Book 3.0 desktop external drive is one of the first to market with the new SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface, which looks very promising in our tests.

We put the My Book 3.0 through its paces in the PC World Lab, and it breezed through reading a folder of 3.7GB of files in just 40 seconds; that same folder took 133 seconds for the drive to read over USB 2.0. It also proved significantly faster at writing folders and reading single files.

Western Digital is shipping the drive on its own, and in a kit with a PCIe add-in card-necessary because USB 3.0 is only now showing up in motherboards. You'll be paying a premium for the extra speed, though-the 1TB My Book 3.0 will cost $200 with the card ($20 less without the card).

LG Shows Thinnest-Yet LCD TV

You can never be too thin -- not if you're an LCD TV, that is. LG Display has developed its thinnest-yet LCD panel; it measures just 2.6 millimeters thin. That's half the thickness of LG Display's previous thinnest prototype panel, a 5.9mm model that was unveiled in May, and much thinner than its current thinnest production panel, which is 11.9mm thin.

The 42-inch panel is still a prototype, though, and LG doesn't have any mass production plans for the new screens.

(Material obtained from a story from the IDG News Service.)

Asustek's Fashion-Forward Eee PC

Think a lowly netbook can't offer a bit of style? Think again. Asustek has outfitted its Eee PC 1008P with some fashion-forward touches, thanks to New York designer Karim Rashid.

The Eee PC 1008P (Karim Rashid Collection) sports a 10.1-inch screen with LED (light emitting diode) backlight, uses Microsoft's Windows 7 Starter OS and Intel's new Atom N450 (Pine Trail) microprocessor. Rashid skinned the netbook with faux alligator hide; the rubbery, reptile-skin like shell comes in two colors: hot pink and brown gold.

A unique aspect of the design is a compartment on the bottom of the device where the netbook's long, thin battery can be slid out and replaced with another battery for longer run time. The company said a second battery would have to be purchased separately from the original device.

(Material obtained from a story from the IDG News Service.)

Skype Sees Things in HD

Video calls in high-definition: that's what Skype can offer in its latest software release. Skype 4.2, now in beta, allows users to make HD video calls, as long as they have an HD webcam and sufficient bandwidth and processing power. The company also announced that HDTVs from LG Electronics and Panasonic will ship later this year with its Internet calling software embedded on them.

The software can deliver 720p HD video at 30 frames per second, Skype said, noting that a few companies will introduce HD webcams designed for Skype's software at CES. They'll be able to handle the video encoding and processing on-board, so customers who have one won't need such a fast PC processor, according to Skype.

(Material obtained from a story from the IDG News Service.)

Lenovo's New Smartbook Makes a Splash

Lenovo made a splash in the mobile market with the launch of its first smartbook, a mini-laptop called Skylight that the company says combines the best features of netbooks and smartphones, albeit without telephone functions.

The lightweight device weighs 1.95 pounds and resembles a netbook, with a 10.6-inch screen and compact keyboard. It's powered by Qualcomm's Arm-based Snapdragon processor, offers 10 hours of battery life, and includes integrated 3G mobile broadband and Wi-Fi connectivity. It runs a Linux OS, which includes a custom software user interface called Live Web Gadgets for users to access multiple Web applications at the same time.

The smartbook will be available for $499 in the U.S. starting in April. It will also be available at a subsidized price through AT&T with the purchase of a 3G data plan.

(Material obtained from a story from the IDG News Service.)