Jacqueline Emigh

PlayBook Photo: TechnologizerIn the midst of so-so critical reception to its soon-to-be-launched PlayBook tablet, RIM tried turning on some magic this week. At a lavish New York City press event, the newly-minted tablet maker showed off along with some of the 2,000 to 3,000 apps set for availability when the gadget hits retail stores next Tuesday.

In fact, RIM's App World will ultimately contain about 100 times that number of apps for PlayBooks, said RIM reps stationed along an "App Wall" that took up around one-eighth the floor space of the event venue.

Release dates for Dell's refreshed XPS laptops have turned into a moving target, and all the specs haven't been quite clear. Yet Dell on Tuesday suddenly announced immediate US availability for both the 15- and 17-inch models, along with a finalized feature set that now officially includes 3D video.

In a Dell press briefing session I attended during CES in January, Alison Gardner, a Dell product manager, sketched out new features for "AV enthusiasts"-such as JBL speakers and MAXXAudio 3-and for "immersive multimedia."

In the ever-expanding world of unconventional computers, Ocosmos has just rolled out new five- and seven-inch Windows 7-based tablets geared to folks who want to combine serious gaming for fun with their day jobs.

The Tiny Computer (TC) OCS1 is targeted at "heavy-duty gamers," and the larger OCS9 tablet at "lighter gamers," Ocosmos staffers said during the ShowStoppers press event at CES.

The skeptics are wrong about 3D technology, said Sony CEO Howard Stringer, as he unveiled a far-reaching Sony roadmap for 3D "without or without glasses" across TVs, PlayStations, Blu-ray players, displays, movies, camcorders, and more.

Consumers will start to really buy into 3D technology whenever their favorite TV shows start showing up in 3D, he predicted, during a CES press conference.

At CES today, ViewSonic launched a four-inch, Android 2.2-based tablet/phone dubbed the ViewPad 4, confirming earlier rumors around an until now nameless gadget in the same general category as Dell's five-inch Streak.

10-inch ViewPadThe ViewPad 4 will have phone calling features, and it will sell for $549 unlocked upon its eventual release, said Josephine Chiu, a ViewSonic product manager, speaking at a pre-show Pepcom press event in Las Vegas.

Samsung's TX100 Slider PC. (Click to zoom)With so many mobile PCs hitting the market, hardware makers are doing all they can to differentiate their products, a trend particularly evident right now among tablets vying to unseat Apple's iPad. Samsung is differentiating to the hilt with two Windows 7 mobile PCs unveiled on the eve of CES: a new "slider" tablet PC, and a slimline ultraportable notebook.

Samsung previewed both the TX100 - also referred to as the Slider PC 7-and the Notebook PC 9 at a news conference during CES Press Day on Wednesday in Las Vegas, amid a flurry of Samsung TV announcements.

Desktop PCs are standing flat where they are, as some pundits see it, but Lenovo plans to give them a leg up on lots of levels in 2011. Beyond literally dozens of new multimedia-intensive IdeaPad notebooks for consumers and ThinkPads for businesses, Lenovo's product rollouts at CES 2011 will also include new IdeaCentre PCs that could help to reimagine the all-in-one category by adding fresh features for TV watching, gaming, and 3D entertainment.

Lenovo A320

Well beyond its seven-inch-yet iPad-like-color screen, Barnes & Noble's new Android-based Nookcolor is packed with new features that include a video-capable magazine library, ArticleView, e-book "borrowing," and much more, as demo'd at a New York City launch event on Monday night. B&N is in it for the long haul with the color e-reader, with an upgrade to Android 2.2 planned for early next year-and don't expect the price to budge soon from $249.

Along with Nookcolor, B&N also unveiled a new library of children's books called Nook Kids, plus the bookseller's first application development program for Android.

Dell has launched three new laptops that deliver a multifaceted upgrade to its entertainment-oriented XPS series, adding new features that include NVidia 3DTV Play, built-in Optimus switchable graphics, and a Webcam capable of HD video streaming.

Aside from Dilbert, most cartoon characters don't get a chance to inspire tech companies. But Rosie the Robot of The Jetsons is definitely an exception, says Colin Angle, the CEO of iRobot. Angle helped to show off robots this week ranging from the company's Roomba vacuum cleaner and PackBot 510 military robot to squishable JamBots camouflaged to look like an octopus and a crab.

At a tech showcase in New York, Angle contended that he founded iRobot some 20 years ago because the robotics industry had failed to create actual robots that could follow the example set by Rosie, a major player in the 1960s futuristic TV cartoon series.

Celebrating the sales of 60 million ThinkPads over the past 18 years, Lenovo on Wednesday announced immediate plans to add Nvidia's Optimus graphics to T Series models, and talked long-time intentions for innovations in areas such as location awareness and VoIP. I was briefed on the news by Dilip Bhatia, Lenovo's VP of ThinkPad marketing.

Starting today, Lenovo will outfit three models of T Series laptops with Optimus, a technology aimed at automatically switching between a built-in discrete graphics chipset - for games and other apps that demand high performance graphics - and an integrated graphics chipset, for faster PC performance and longer battery life.

At a very interactive product launch, Fujifilm this week rolled out a point-and-click camera that lets people display 3D photos on either a 3D TV or a PC. If you own the right kind of laptop or desktop PC monitor, you don’t even need to wear 3D glasses to view the third dimension of your work, Fuji officials said at the event at New York City’s Museum of Natural History.

Nevertheless, the new FinePix Real 3D W3 digital camera comes with an HDMI interface for instant viewing of 3D pics on virtually any manufacturer’s 3D TV with the assistance of stereographic 3D goggles. The camera will compete with a couple of new Sony models which, like the W3, are due to ship next month.