Nintendo Wii U
The gaming company didn’t have a spot on the show floor at CES, but Nintendo offered private demos of its upcoming Wii U console, the successor to the popular Nintendo Wii.

The “new Wii” comes with a 6-inch tablet-like motion sensor control that offers a full touchscreen and alternative views of the game being played on the TV set. While using a larger controller to play games might seem cumbersome at first, the interactive options it adds can be fun. The new console also works with the standard Wii controllers, as well as the Wii Nunchuk and Balance Board. It supports 1080p HD output, and the games in the demo were remarkably crisp and clear.

But there are still more questions than answers about the Wii U. Its launch date is still pegged to sometime in the later part of the year, but exactly when and how much it will cost is still unknown. And while Nintendo was the front-runner in motion-sensor gaming with the Wii, Xbox Kinect, in the meantime, has been setting new gaming-console standards with its gesture-control technology, content partnerships and even basic voice command.

When asked about content partnerships in the works, Nintendo declined to comment on any specifics. As for voice-recognition technology, Nintendo also declined to say whether it would be added to the Wii U prior to launch; the company did point to some audio capabilities built into the tablet-like controller, and said it is exploring all kinds of possibilities right now.

Samsung Dual-View 3-D OLED TV
That’s quite a mouthful for a television set, so let’s simplify it: This is a TV that lets you watch two programs at the same time on the same screen — and not by creating separate boxes within the screen. Instead, users wear active-shutter 3-D glasses, and each wearer has a different 2-D image projected to them, or even a different TV show or movie.

What about audio, you ask? Good question: The audio for each program is streamed right through the glasses, so you’ll hear your own program, while your significant other sitting on the other side of the couch will hear his or her choice of entertainment.

A dual-view screen has a certain appeal for gamers, and both Sony and LG have introduced such screens for gaming purposes.

For the average TV watcher, this is notably both high-tech and isolating.

LG’s Blast Chiller
You might have heard about this one by now. We still think it’s cool, no pun intended.

It was apparent at this year’s CES show that appliance makers think we want fridges that tweet and washing machines that send messages to smartphones when the laundry is done. While interconnectivity within the home is still in its teenage — if not even earlier — stages, there was one feature of LG’s refrigerators that seemed quite smart: The Blast Chiller is a compartment that chills cans of soda or beer in about five minutes, and can cool down a larger bottle of wine in about eight minutes. It will be available in LG’s new line of refrigerators — price is unknown, but current models cost around $2,500. The Blast Chiller was definitely a favorite with conference-goers — likely because, by the end of the week, many may have wanted a cold beverage.

Corning Gorilla Glass, the Sequel
You might wonder where glass fits in at a tech show, but this isn’t just any soda-lime glass: It’s the ultra-thin, chemically strengthened Gorilla Glass that forms the displays of many smartphones and tablets, and even coats some laptops. Last week, Corning showed off Gorilla Glass that was 20 percent thinner and just as durable (which I was unable to break with a metal stick, as you can see from the photo here, although you might not want to use my arm strength as your gauge).

Gorilla Glass can be used to create stronger, brighter product displays, the company said. Last year, Corning had also said that it believed the future of glass was “3-D” or flexible glass that can be used in different form factors, including keyboards and kitchen countertops. At CES, the company showed how Gorilla Glass 2 can be used in home appliances and dashboard display systems.

Sleeper Pick: “The Patch”
As anticipated, armbands, accelerometers, exercise gear and health-and-fitness-focused apps dominated the digital-health section of CES this year (and even Jawbone’s UP armband made an appearance). But if you’re not ready for a full-time commitment to some of these devices, BodyMedia and Avery Dennison have come up with a temporary adhesive patch to test your resolve. Meant to be worn on the back of the left tricep for up to seven days, the patch combines the sensors of BodyMedia armbands with Avery Dennison’s wearable tech to aid in weight-loss management.

The patch is still awaiting U.S. regulatory clearance, so it may not be available until the third quarter of the year, or later. I’m told it will be less expensive than BodyMedia’s armbands, which run from $150 to $179 (and now work in conjunction with a new digital-wellness platform from fitness guru Jillian Michaels.)

But in future-form, a potentially inexpensive, disposable patch that has some of the same sensory capabilities of an armband could be an interesting fitness “gadget”: Slap it on, forget it’s there while you exercise, save the data and throw it out.

(Blast Chiller photo courtesy of Flickr/LGEPR)

MORE CES NEWS:

• Complete coverage
• HP’s Former CTO: Ultrabooks Are Nothing New, webOS Still Has Life Yet
• Walt Shows Off CES Gadgets for Fox Business News (Video)
• What Kind of Web Video Plans Does Sony Have? (Video)
• Fujitsu Seeking Way Into Crowded U.S. Smartphone Market
• Why Rhapsody Is (Probably) Bigger Than Spotify — In the U.S.
• Microsoft Beefing Up CeBit Presence Even as It Pulls Back on CES
• Inside the CES Lost & Found
• FCC Chairman Has New Tablet, but Same Script: More Spectrum!
• Verizon Wireless: We Want to Connect Five Devices for Every Subscriber
• Ultrabooks From HP and Lenovo That Are (Kinda, Sorta) Different
• Walt and Katie Take a Tour of CES (Video)
• Schmidt-Storm Alert: The Google Chairman Didn’t Like Your Question
• T-Mobile Expands Bobsled Messaging Service
• Intel Shows Just How It Plans to Get Into Phones (Video)
• Motorola CEO: We’re Going to Release Fewer Phones This Year
• Kinect Helps Keep Aging Xbox at the Top of Its Game
• More From T-Mobile CEO: On Pricing, LTE and That Ever-Elusive iPhone
• Exclusive: New Boss Acknowledges Windows Phone Still Has “Awareness Problem”
• And You Thought Jawbone UP Was Going to Miss the CES Party!
• Interview: T-Mobile CEO Says No Second AT&T Deal Out There
• Grover Is at CES and I Am Missing It
• BlueStacks Bringing Android Apps to Windows 8
• Why the Future of TV Won’t Be Here Soon
• Nvidia’s Tegra 3 Tries to Save Battery in All Sorts of Different Ways
• Dynamic Dual Coverage: Ballmer’s Last Act in Vegas and the BCS Championship in 3-D
• Microsoft Phoning In Its Last CES Keynote
• Myspace — Yes, Myspace — Says It’s Going to Sell You Web TV
• Samsung Unveils “Super” 55-Inch OLED TV
• Nokia Unveils That LTE Windows Phone It’s Been Dying to Share
• Steve Ballmer Gives Ralph De La Vega a Very … Vigorous Greeting (Video)
• Interview: AT&T’s De La Vega on LTE, Tablets and Life After T-Mobile
• AT&T’s De La Vega: Shared Data Plans Still in the Works
• LG: 55-Inch Glasses-Free 3-D Screen Is on the Way
• LG Pushes 4G Smartphone Through Verizon: The LG Spectrum
• Live: AT&T’s Vegas Act Stars LTE and, Making Her Return to the Stage, Nokia
• CES Notebook: The Constant Search for Power and Vegas’ Worst-kept Secret
• Belkin Bringing Mobile TV to Lots of Cellphones, Will Anyone Tune In?
• Acer Introduces “World’s Thinnest” Ultrabook and a “Me-Too” Cloud Service
• There Better Be Some Cool Stuff at CES, Because CE Holiday Sales Data Bytes!
• CES 2012: Snooki and Bieber Are In, Gaga Is Out!
• Coming to a Smartphone Near You: Gorilla Glass 2
• RIM Hopes Next PlayBook OS Will Impress at CES
• Ultrabooks, the Ultra-Fancy New Name for Laptops
• At CES, Expect More Gadgets Telling You to Get Off the Couch
• Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month
• Microsoft Pulling Out of CES After Upcoming Show
• Intel to Detail Its Phone Plans at CES Next Month
• Dell Will Drop the Flashy Vegas Act for CES This Year
• Ultrabook Conga Line Preps for CES 2012

Product strategists in the PC industry are gearing up for 2012 to be the year of the “ultrabook” — very thin, very light laptops, usually with solid-state drives (SSD), that compete with Apple’s MacBook Air — such as the Asus Zenbook and Lenovo U300s. We agree that ultrabooks’ lighter, thinner form will appeal to many consumers. Already, 21 percent of U.S. online consumers say they’re interested in owning one, according to a Forrester Research survey fielded in September. But we see the ultrabook as an evolution of the laptop rather than an entirely new form factor. So what is the next big thing in consumer computing?

The “next big thing” is likely to be many things — we anticipate accelerating form factor diversification beyond the desktops, laptops, netbooks, tablets and smartphones we have today, as we advance deeper into the Post-PC Era. Based on what we see in research and development labs, new products beginning to come to market and gaps in consumer computing experiences, we’ve identified these five form factors as the best candidates for what comes next:

• Wearables: Wearable devices, or “wearables” for short, are devices worn on or near the body that sense and relay information. Many wearables, like the heads-up display (HUD) contact lenses in development at the University of Washington, are years from marketability. But other wearables are already available as consumer products, for uses such as communication and health and fitness. An increasing number of wearables in the health-and-fitness space interact with Apple iOS devices, such as the Lark Technologies vibrating wristband that doubles as an alarm clock and a sleep sensor; and BodyMedia FIT Armbands, which have four sensors to track activity, sleep and calorie intake. WIMM Labs, a Foxconn-funded start-up in Los Altos, Calif., has designed multifunctional wearables, based on Google’s Android software, that it will license to other companies.
• Embedded devices: We define embedded devices as physical objects that incorporate computing processors and sensors, excluding those worn on the body, which we classify as wearables. Like wearables, embedded devices are diverse in form, ranging from devices such as Livescribe smartpens that fit into your pocket, to LG Thinq refrigerators that sit in your kitchen. Embedded devices may or may not have a display — Livescribe pens don’t; the LG Thinq appliances do. Today, embedded devices are widely used in industrial automation and automotives, and they have emerging consumer uses in home automation, entertainment and productivity.
• Surfaces: Surfaces are large interactive displays, which may incorporate multitouch, voice and gesture control, facial recognition, near field communication (NFC), quick response (QR) codes or other input/output mechanisms. Today, surfaces are found mostly in public places such as hotels (Microsoft Surface tables in Sheraton bars) and conferences and events (Obscura Digital’s custom multitouch video installations), as well as in education (interactive whiteboards) and news media (red state/blue state maps), but we see potential for additional uses, especially in retail and marketing. For example, retailers such as Victoria’s Secret have commissioned the design firm frog design to create interactive displays for their retail stores. In Seoul, South Korea, retailers use surfaces to extend their reach beyond their stores: Tesco Homeplus, the No. 2 grocery retailer in South Korea, built “virtual malls” in subway stations to reach more customers without building more stores. Commuters take pictures of QR codes under the groceries they want to buy, and the groceries are delivered to their homes.
• Flexible displays: Flexible displays are computing screens that can be rolled, folded or flexed. Flexible devices can take the form of personal devices, such as an e-reader, or larger surface displays, such as furniture or wallpaper. Flexible displays are likely the farthest from becoming commercialized products because of the lack of a defined use case or customer: Polymer Vision, a spinoff of Philips Electronics, promoted its flexible eBook Reader for years, but declared bankruptcy before bringing the device to market. HP has been developing printable Mylar displays that it imagines could be used for candy wrappers, armband computers for the military or living room wallpaper, but the displays are still several years from commercialization.
• Miniprojectors: Miniprojectors are small devices that project a larger image onto another surface or, in the case of holographic projection, into 3-D space. Miniprojectors can be combined with cameras that recognize gesture to become interactive, similar to the Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360. Today, miniprojectors such as the Brookstone Pocket Projector are gaining in popularity as iPhone accessories. But they’re still niche products, as consumers must purchase them separately. Apple has already filed a patent to embed interactive projectors into its iPhones, iPads and Macs. Embedded miniprojectors would appeal primarily to information workers, but there could be broader consumer uses as well, such as impromptu photo slide shows or YouTube viewing in a group.

It’s easy to read about computing wallpaper, or contact lenses with embedded heads-up displays, and think that these form factors have no bearing on what product strategists are doing today. But product strategists who see what’s coming can anticipate disruption — or even innovate and become disruptors themselves. As you think about what’s coming in 2012 and beyond, know that none of these devices will operate in isolation. The most successful products will work with other products — for example, wearables that talk to smartphones and TVs; surfaces that are activated by the presence of your smartphone. We’re living in a multidevice, multiconnection world, and the best experiences will be those that work across devices and platforms. In that sense, the next phase of the Post-PC Era doesn’t look so different from today.

Sarah Rotman Epps is a senior analyst at Forrester Research, serving consumer product strategy professionals. Follow her on Twitter at @srepps

Ms. Kelly quizzed the product developers on how they planned to use the data collected by the device and advised them on what to write in the appliance’s “energy data privacy policy” for consumers.

Welcome to the new world of corporate privacy.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Today’s the day we all find out. The two are showing the first fruits of their combined quarter billion dollars worth of labor. The pair announced they have built four enterprise-focused appliances that they say will combine applications, infrastructure and productivity tools into a single unified system. The first half of this quartet is being announced today, with more to follow.

One is the HP Business Decision Appliance, which is intended to run business intelligence applications. The appliance, they say, greatly reduces the time and effort for companies to deploy and manage business intelligence, which is a fancy way of saying you’re analyzing the data from the operation of your business, and looking for patterns or trends that might not otherwise be apparent. It’s optimized to run for Microsoft’s SQL server database software and its SharePoint collboration software, and takes less than an hour to install, they promise.

The second is the HP Business Data Warehouse Appliance, a data store designed for small- and mid-size companies that they say delivers performance that’s suitable for a big enterprise, but doesn’t require an administrator to run it. It’s a smaller version of the HP Enterprise Data Warehouse Appliance, which the two first previewed in November and is available now.

Next up is a messaging appliance geared toward making it easy to install Microsoft Exchange 2010, the server piece of Outlook, Microsoft’s all-purpose email, calendar and contact software that’s so widely used in companies around the world. Its formal name is the HP E5000 Messaging System for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, and the two companies say it’s the industry’s first self-contained server for enterprise-class messaging that can be deployed in only a few hours. It comes pre-configured and with “best practices” designed in. The mailboxes are large, centrally archived and available to any device. It will be available in March.

What’s after that? HP and Microsoft are also working on something they call the HP Database Consolidation Appliance, which can bring hundreds of databases into a single appliance. This one will run SQL server and Microsoft’s Hyper-V Cloud.

It’s all about making IT projects easy to deploy, says Mark Potter, HP’s senior vice president and general manager for industry standard servers and software. “It can take anywhere from one to 18 months to roll out a sophisticated service to end users,” Potter told me in an interview yesterday. “About 32 percent of all IT projects are rated a success. It takes our customers a lot of time, planning and risk. We’re trying to bring a solution to the market that does for business applications what Microsoft Office did for desktop productivity.”

Why spend so much to team up? Microsoft and HP think that by 2015 there’s a combined market worth $55 billion for business intelligence, data warehousing, messaging and online transactions, making that quarter billion potentially worth it. Now they just have to prove these appliances can sell.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Dell (DELL) is acquiring Kace Networks, a systems-management appliances venture with clients in government, education and health care. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

For Dell, which is pushing harder than ever to expand tech services offerings, the deal seems a savvy one. Certainly, it dovetails nicely with the company’s acquisition of Perot and will aid its effort to peddle services to small- and mid-sized businesses–something the company clearly needs to do as profits from its core personal computer business dwindle.

Conn’s sells consumer electronics, home appliances, furniture, mattresses, computers and lawn and garden products in 75 stores in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. And according to a statement from the company this morning, this is not an ideal time to be in that particular line of business.

“Economic conditions in the company’s markets have deteriorated significantly during the current year,” the company warned, citing a rise in the Texas jobless rate to 8 percent in August 2009 from 5.6 percent in December and 5 percent in August 2008. “As a result, the Company’s sales and credit portfolio performance have been adversely impacted.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Looks like Yahoo has found its new CFO. This afternoon, the company said that Tim Morse will take charge of its finances. Morse, who has served as chief financial officer for chip maker Altera (ALTR) since 2007 and spent 15 years at GE (GE) before that, will start work on June 17 and assume CFO responsibilities on July 1.

Welcome news, since Yahoo has been looking to fill the position since Blake Jorgensen said he would step down from the Silicon Valley-based company last February.

What did it take to bring Morse to Yahoo? According to an SEC filing, a $500,000 signing bonus, a base salary of $500,000, an option to purchase 400,000 shares of Yahoo stock, and 150,000 shares of restricted stock.

The appointment of Morse is yet another for Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, who has tended to pick her top execs from a more business-focused sector than one focused on the consumer Internet, which is Yahoo’s arena.

Here is the official press release:

Morse Appointed Chief Financial Officer of Yahoo!

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(Business Wire) Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) announced today that the Board of Directors has appointed Tim Morse as chief financial officer. Reporting directly to Carol Bartz, the chief executive officer of Yahoo!, Morse will be responsible for the company’s finance, investor relations, and mergers and acquisitions groups. He will commence employment on June 17, 2009 and will assume the responsibilities of CFO on July 1, 2009.

“Tim has a proven ability to translate strategy into structure, process, and execution, and I am delighted that he will be joining my leadership team to help drive Yahoo!’s growth,” said Bartz. “With his passion for operational finance, global experience, and expertise simplifying complex organizations and managing growth, Tim is a natural fit for Yahoo!.”

Morse has financial experience in both large and small organizations, managing in complex, fast-paced environments and establishing scalable, cost-effective processes and controls. Prior to joining Yahoo!, he was the CFO of Altera Corporation, a semiconductor company specializing in programmable logic devices for communications, industrial, and consumer applications. Morse previously served as the CFO and general manager of business development for General Electric Plastics. A 15 year veteran of GE, he also held a variety of positions at GE Plastics, GE Appliances and GE Capital in North America, Europe and Asia.

“Yahoo! is an amazing brand with a unique combination of assets, and I am extremely excited to be joining a finance team with a deep commitment to financial excellence and fiscal discipline,” said Morse. “I look forward to working with the entire leadership team to continue to focus on driving results and creating value for our shareholders.”

Morse holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and operations and strategic management from the Boston College Carroll School of Management.

And at this point, the company clearly has to do something. Its last financials were grotesque and the ones to come promise to be little different. The “transformation” Sony began four years ago is still a work in progress, arguably one that’s been stalled for some time now. Once an electronics powerhouse, Sony (SNE) is now a laggard in many of the markets it once dominated: videogame consoles, digital music players and TVs. “The prices of digital home appliances have been declining by 15% to 20% every year lately,” said Sony spokesperson Mami Imada. “Unless we cut costs we cannot hope to survive the price competition.”

The latest Commerce Department retail sales data, which showed a disappointing 0.4 percent fall overall in April from March, includes a 2.8 percent drop in sales at electronics and appliance stores, which is worse than any other individual category. Sales were down 12 percent on a year-over-year basis. In March, sales were down 7.8 percent sequentially for electronics stores, and 8.8 percent year over year.

As the Wall Street Journal notes, the 0.4 percent drop was substantially worse than the Street expectations for a 0.1 percent rise in retail sales over the previous month.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

A growing number of vendors have begun offering servers that come bundled with particular programs, styling the combinations as appliances that are easier to install and manage than components sold separately. Oracle (ORCL) in October announced a joint effort with H-P (HPQ) to offer a “data warehouse” machine that was designed to better search through corporate information better than standalone hardware and software from the two companies.

Read the rest of this post at the original site