Another CES is over, and our well-fed, if not well-rested, NBC Universal team is headed to points East -- and West. Most of us are returning home to New York, but some members of the team are packing up the technical guts of our booth for the trek North, to the Vancouver Games. The Games were the main focus of our booth this year, as thousands of people stopped by to learn more about the extensive multi-platform coverage we'll be unveiling across NBCU's networks and platforms in just a few weeks. And in a few days we'll know the identity of our Olympics sweepstakes winners -- who will be taking a free trip to Vancouver to enjoy some of the Olympics action !

As always, the NBC Universal CES booth has been a massive undertaking -- but with such an awesome team at work it went incredibly smoothly. It's no easy task to design and build a booth that is appealing to show visitors AND functional for the broadcast, cable and digital producers who generate hours of programming in a matter of days.

We couldn't do it without our partners at Sharp -- whose gorgeous screens powered all the media in our booth, on our stages, and in the Sharp / NBC Universal Multimedia Lounge ... or the terrific team at Jack Morton and its Production Design Group, who come up with spectacular eye-catching designs for our booth every year (check out the BizBash top 10 at CES, including our booth) ... or the amazing team of engineers and technicians from the NBC Long Island City shop who assemble, run, and pack up an amazing broadcast and streaming operation here every year.

And we can't leave CES 2010 without a special word about Jay Linden - NBCU's EVP of strategic partnerships and one of the founding fathers of NBCU's presence at CES at the 2008 show. Jay retires from NBCU next month: we couldn't have done this without him and we'll miss him !! Good luck, Jay !!

It's been a great CES. See you in 2011 !!

I must be psychic. A few weeks ago on this very blog I predicted that CES 2010 would be over in a flash and here we are at the end of the road. It is the final hour of the show and Jon Accarrino and I are the last bloggers standing or sitting in the NBCU Sharp Multimedia Lounge.

I have seen so many great things, met countless amazing people, but most of all I am leaving here smarter, better and faster than when I arrived. Helping to host in the "blogger" lounge has been a great experience that I will never forget. I can't wait to get home and tell everyone that the NBCU lounge hosted some of the top bloggers in the world and I got to meet them all!

Most of my time was spent helping NBCU staff with show registrations, tending to catering issues in our double wide trailers and helping out in the booth's blogger lounge. This morning I was lucky enough to squeeze in a whole hour of looking at innovation at its best and it was a real treat. 3D TV (hey that rhymes) has been a big hit at CES this year, but I want to tell you all what MY 3 favorites have been.

I LOVE that there is technology that exists that allows me to paint my fingernails with a picture of myself. Thanks ArtPro Nail Printer for that fun advancement in technology. I also had a great time chatting with OrigAudio's Jason and Mike about their innovative speaker systems. They are friendly twenty-somethings with great vision and great products. Stick Clean has a cleaning cloth for phones, cameras, computers, etc. that can stick back on the device when you are done using it for quick and easy access.

Well that is it for me for now until CES 2011 when there will be more wonders to see. Thanks NBCU for giving me the opportunity to be here for my third year in a row, let's do it again next year.

CES is always a whirlwind. After months of planning and preparation, the 4 days of CES always seem to fly by. We just wanted to thank all the podcasers, tweeters and bloggers who spent time on our broadcast stages and in the Sharp NBC Universal Multimedia Lounge. And a huge thank you to Sharp for sponsoring the lounge again this year!

We had a great time hanging out with everyone, reading your blogs and watching your podcasts. Be sure to check out all your photos on our Flickr page. Just think, CES 2011 is only a few hundred days away! See you all again soon. #itwasfun

• Tim Conneally, betanews
• Andrew Kippen, Boxee
• Peter Smith, Candella
• Carolyn Slater, CES
• Trevor Curwin, CNBC.com
  
• Wayne Karrfalt, Cynopsis Media
• Jay Adelson, digg
• Peter Pachal, DVICE.com
• Leslie Shapiro, DVICE.com
• Curtis Walker, DVICE.com
• Charlie White, DVICE.com
• Tom Newman, Fogview.com
• Troy Gayle, Gadget-T.com
• Jack Ellis, GeekNewsCentral.com
• Jeffrey Powers, Geekazine.com
• Todd Cochrane, GeekNewsCentral.com
• Rob Blatt, GeekNewsCentral.com
• Dan Woolsey, TheGrio.com
• Mike Bertolino, Hack College
• Chris Lesinski, Hack College
• Kelly Sutton, Hack College
• Darren Kitchen, Hak5
• Shannon Morse, Hak5
• Patrick Norton, HD Nation
• Robert Heron, HD Nation
• Dave Brown, Holiday Matinee
• Partick Larsen, Jack Morton
• Cori Weiss, Jack Morton
• Joseph Jaffe, Jaffe Juice
• Ken Graffeo, JAGTAG
• Antonietta Pace, New York City Department of Education
• Mark Milian, Los Angeles Times
• Chris Ariens, Mediabistro.com
• Jon Accarrino, NBC Universal
• Tausha Cowan, NBC Universal
• Carly Greenberg, NBC Universal
• Bill Hartnett, NBC Universal
• Brett Holey, NBC Universal
• Devin Johnson, NBC Universal
• Nick Johnson, NBC Universal
• Brett Joss, NBC Universal
• Melissa Kondak, NBC Universal
• Jay Linden, NBC Universal
• Mark Lukasiewicz, NBC Universal
• Dave MacKinnon, NBC Universal
• Molly McCaskill, NBC Universal
• Stacey Naggiar, NBC Universal
• Chris Nelson, NBC Universal
• Bonnie Optekman, NBC Universal
• Giacinta Pace, NBC Universal
• Tim Peek, NBC Universal
• Katie Primm, NBC Universal
• Darren Sherriff, NBC Universal
• Marc Siry, NBC Universal
• Mary Somers, NBC Universal
• Jim Starzynski, NBC Universal
• Brian Ford, newsvine.com
• Alex Lee, newsvine.com
• Calvin Tang, newsvine.com
• Rohit Bhargava, Ogilvy
• Christine Ngo, Ogilvy
• Jennifer Kavanagh, Oxygen
• Staci Kramer, paidContent.org
• Patrick Roanhouse, The Plan8 Podcast
• Ben Sedaghat, Radius Products
• Ted Schilowitz, Red Digital
• Serafina Kernberger, Revision3
• Jim Louderback, Revision3
• Ryan Vance, Revision3
• Roger Chang, Revision3
• Ryan Duame, Revision3
• Aaron Broder, Scholastic
• Andy McCaskey, SDRNews.com
• Ron Kenedi, Sharp
• Chris Loncto, Sharp
• Bruce Tripido, Sharp
• Rob Blatt, TechPodcasts.com
• Kara Karsten, TechPodcasts.com
• Scott Elliott, Techzecs.com
• Matt Cohen, Tekserve
• Veronica Belmont, Tekzilla
• Partick Norton, Tekzilla
• Ryan Osborn, TODAY Show
  
• Tim Street, 1TimStreet.com

The longest five days of my life are coming to a close at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  I'm exhausted, my feet hurt, my back hurts, and I lost a substantial amount of money for a 22 year old.  Nonetheless, I am smiling, thinking about all the exciting things I've done and the wonderful people I've met here, my first in time Las Vegas, and my first time at CES.

As an NBCU employee in Charlotte, NC I came to CES as an "outsider" among the majority of employees from NY.  I had apprehensions about being the odd-man-out and probably the most inexperienced, but I was met with overwhelming warmth and welcome from my NYC colleagues.  Never have I been made to feel a part of something so quickly.  Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who made my first experience as a NBCU brand ambassador a special one!

Wake up calls at 12am and 10 hour days on my feet... this wasn't quite the picture I had in my mind of what my first time in Vegas would be like.  Let's just say on my next trip to Vegas, there will be many many other "firsts" that I'll have to give a try.  But there is one first I am very proud of, and ... a little embarrassed about too.  My first shot at gambling and my first time at the craps tables.  After standing around for an hour trying to follow the dice, chips and lingo I finally picked up enough to put down some money. On my first roll I launched the die across the table only to hit the table attendants hands.  I was properly scolded for throwing too hard.  It didn't take too long before I crapped out.  Maybe I'll have better luck next time.... it was just so hard to walk away!

It would be insensitive to talk about my firsts in Vegas and not mention the awesomeness that is CES.  As a self-proclaimed movie nerd, this place is my heaven.  Surround-sound systems that can literally blow your mind, crystal clear HDTVs with gorgeous images, the new and exciting 3D TVs and my favorite, the fabulously thin flatscreens.  Flatscreens the thickness (or "thinness" rather) of a few pieces of paper.  All I can think is I want it, I want it, I want it, and I wouldn't complain if I could get one of the 3D TVs either!  But I suppose it just wasn't mean to be on my first trip to Vegas that I'd walk away from the craps tables with enough money to buy a new flatscreen.

Headed to the airport in a few hours for what I'm sure will be a "fabulous" five-hour-flight home in a middle seat... I am grateful more than anything for my first time in Las Vegas, my first time as a brand ambassador and my first time at CES.  Most of all I'm thankful for this lovely group of people I had the opportunity to work with and hope that we all stay in touch!

I had never been to Las Vegas until now, but I was convinced that Lady Luck would shine on me for some strange reason. Maybe it was all the great headlines I envisioned circling the globe: "First time gambler hits jackpot- Now richest woman in the universe!!" Or "CES first-timer helps make NBC the most popular and exciting booth at the show - network ratings soar!!" I admit, these were lofty dreams, and would've been lucky breaks for sure. What I didn't know is that I'd experience plenty of breaks... just not quite so lucky.

It's funny that at the Consumer Electronics Show, the first thing to break would BE my consumer electronics. Actually, it's not really funny at all when you look at this picture.

Did you cringe? Most do. The response I normally get when showing this pic is one of physical pain, sorrow, and sympathy - as if I lost a loved one. And really, I did. My iPhone was a trooper, and didn't deserve such an untimely death. But on the morning of January 7, Lady Luck shone her evil, evil eye on me, and forced my phone to fall out of my pocket while I entered a cab in front of Caesars. We hadn't even fully pulled away before it was runover by another cab. It was devastating, it was damaging, and it was the end of the road for my little computer phone. Even as I type this blog on my loaner iPhone, I can feel the loaner-ness of it, and I mourn my loss anew. Unlucky break #1 hit me where it hurt, and the aftershocks are still being felt as I prepare to fight the crowds at the Apple Store in the Caesar's Forum Shops.

I actually bounced back pretty quickly from this broken iPhone incident. I vowed not to lose my optimistic attitude and refused to let it ruin my Vegas/CES experience. This was offensive to cruel, petty, witchy Lady Luck, so the next break REALLY hit where it hurt. As in, I'm still in physical pain.

So maybe "bouncing back" was the wrong thing to do after the iPhone incident, because as I literally bounced around the NBC booth in an attempt to engage passerbys in our display, I rolled my ankle. Break #2. I guess it isn't an ACTUAL break - thank God- but it's close enough.

So now I type on this loaner phone with an elevated ankle, and I wonder what Lady Luck is really trying to break about me. I mean WHAT IS IT that she wants?? Then I realize it must be this: I might be broken in body and technology, but I just can't be broken in spirit.

This CES experience has been amazing, and nothing that happened or will happen can change that. Our booth is filled with people interested in what we do and how we do it. When we broadcast live, I see how excited the crowd is to watch TV magic and i remember why I got into this business in the first place. My fellow brand ambassadors are hysterical and helpful and make me proud to be one of them. I could go on and on. It's been an AWESOME experience Lady Luck, so HA. Take that.

Tonight, I'm taking this optimistic unbroken spirit to a casino with my friends- my coworkers- and Ill tempt that Goddess of Fortune one last time at the craps tables. And you know what? If I walk away empty handed, it'll definitely "break the bank" as they say. But honestly, that's not Lady Luck, that's just Vegas.

This year the floor is covered with hot cool stuff that you need to keep an eye out for from cases for your BB that can protect you from the phone's radiation (from Pong Research) to a fully integrated nav/music/just plain cool system for your car (Panasonic AVIC X920 BT).

But the big thing this year has to be 3D. 3D TV, 3D video cameras, 3D video games, 3D, 3D, 3D!! You still need glasses for most of them, and the effect is good, but not great.  I don't want to bring anyone down, but it still messes with your eyes a bit and I can't see myself sitting at home with the glasses on for any serious amount of time.

3D video games may be another story. The naturally geek-friendly world of gaming lends itself to accepting gadgetry (including glasses) for hours at a time and the Sony OLED screen that had 3D game samples looked the best out of any of the 3D samplings. Granted, this may have been the incredible Sony OLED display.

So get ready for rich family members and friends to buy 3D TVs and invite you over, but wait at least a few years to run out and get your own. In the meantime, you have a great year of gadgets coming at you.

Be sure to look for our piece next week on our top picks from CES on thegrio.com.

A SHRINKING GIANT IS STILL A GIANT

If the Jolly Green Giant lost 1/3 of his height... he'd still be able to kick your butt. But if you'd seen him grow up, you might not be quite as intimidated as you used to be.

I first came to CES over 20 years ago and I've seen it grow from huge, to unbelievably huge. But my first and clearest impression this year is that the recession has taken its pound of flesh and then some from the annual geek fest in Sin City.

Don't get me wrong It is still gargantuan and glitzy and more than any mortal can really cover in 4 days but it is somehow less over-the-top than years past. Now to some first-timers this may be hard to believe but it may be like a Vegas show girl appearing in just the sequined body suit, sans the 3-foot feathered head dress.

Other big impressions of CES 2010....

3D TV...(IF THEY BUILD IT, WILL THE AUDIENCE COME?) 

The industry's major television manufacturers have set aside their annual mine's bigger than yours contest and have joined in a common chorus..."You need 3D."

They are all showing they're own version of 3D; hoping to use "Avatar" as a giant lead-blocker into your living room. They all use some version of glasses, that create varying degrees of discomfort, or a lenticular screens that give varying degrees of headache. Yet it is a unison chorus that manufacturers and production companies seem to be singing. We'll see if the audience joins in.

The best 3D image I've seen here is on a 24" Sony OLED screen playing the video game "MLB 10 'The Show'" on a PS3. They were showing a Yankees, Phillies game and I felt like I was Jorge Posada catching the game. 

Panasonic's 152" plasma screen wins the biggest, coolest award TV AS COMPUTER / COMPUTER AS TV.

More and more TVs are including web access, widgets and apps to use right on your screen. There's Skype built in and all your handy web tools right there in your what is still known as your TV. Of course PCs have morphed into all manner of devices to provide video via the web and anyplace you want to get it. And in between are a plenty of new devices to bring the web right to your screen. Two of the more promising ones are from iOmega and the "Boxee" box from D-Link which won the "last gadget standing" competition... the CES equivalent of winning best in show at Westminster. (And a bit like a little dog beating the big beauties.) It has a simple yet clever remote and a good looking interface. WHERE HAVE YOU GONE PC? 

The major PC manufacturers have less presence than they have in years yet computers are part of everything. 

Of those PC makers here the biggest push seems to be netbooks, tablets and form factors combing both. 

Lenovo is showing (behind closed doors) a netbook that the screen pulls off to become a tablet.

A company called Entourage Edge was showing a dual-screen device that is half netbook, half eReader. (Promising but I would guess many buyers may be waiting to see what is coming from Apple and Google).

NEED A NEW WAY TO SPY ON YOUR NEIGHBORS AND HAVE FUN DOING IT? 

Far and away, my favorite toy at the show is the AR Drone from a French company called Parrot (www.parrot.com). It's a four-bladed, remote-control helicopter with a built in camera that you can control with your iPhone. It looks like something out of Avatar but could be very handy to see what your neighbor is doing on the other side of that big fence or maybe to get your own aerial coverage of junior's soccer game. That's all for now... back out for a last spin on the floor. Maybe more tomorrow.

Favorite thing at CES? Hard to know since I've barely seen the show!! Keeping tabs on everything inside the NBCU booth keeps me pretty attached to "the fishbowl" a small office/control room where I sit with Tim Wong, Jack Morton's technical director, and monitor what's happening on our multiple stages and on the 70+ monitors around the booth.

Most fun? Having my kids at home use the controllable webcam suspended above the booth to find me - live. Every year at CES, I wear what I call my "where's waldo" red NBC baseball cap to make sure my team can find me in the crowd -- it makes it easy to spot me on the webcam, too.

Saturday is always a little quieter in the booth, though. The major news coverage from CES is over ... and after two days of non-stop television production for CNBC, along with MSNBC and the NBC Stations, the main stage at Central Hall #9836 has been taken over by some great web shows, such as Hack College, Tech Podcasts Network and Plan 8. And our Sharp / NBC Universal Multimedia Lounge remains busy with a steady stream of bloggers enjoying the comfortable chairs and the live broadcast of the Jets/Bengals game -- airing right now on NBC.

There's no question CES 2010 feels much different than 2009. The pessimism of a year ago has given way to some cautious optimism in the industry represented here ... and some genuine excitement about the products on display, especially 3D TV and the incredible array of interconnected mobile devices. The big debate among our own team here: will wearing glasses to watch 3D in your own home feel like too much of an impediment to make 3D really take off?

Well, in the meantime, there's always 3D TV -- Rachel Maddow style!!

With each passing year of the Consumer Electronics Show, TV manufacturers up the ante on design, form factor and overall aesthetics of flat panel HDTV's.  The trend has been toward thinner (depth), new materials utilized in the manufacturing process (acrylics, lucite etc.), the integration of color (they're not all just black or silver any more) and an overall pushing of the envelope to make the appearance something to brag about in your home.  This year's show does not disappoint.  Since we achieved high definition resolution as the everyday standard, augmenting legacy specifications and performance metrics alone is not satisfactory.  Sure, the refresh rates are faster, the contrast ratios are higher and we are all adding web derived content (both streaming and static) at an exponential clip - but the product designs are more visually arresting than ever. 

At Sharp, we learned a valuable lesson last year, which was that having the best image quality in the industry is only part of the equation for success.  That technology needs to be housed in a thin and beautiful chassis.  So for 2010 we've responded by creating not one, not two, but three world-class edge-lit series of LED backlit LCD TV's.  The design direction includes a square acrylic base, a chrome "neck" and a sleek chassis with rounded corners and a "full flat" effect with the front glass running from edge to edge of the set - both vertically as well as horizontally.  The TV's are a svelte 1.5 inches thin.  The integration of the world's first "QUADPIXEL" four color technology into these awe-inspiring designs has us optimistic for a robust 2010. 

When it comes to design, we're in good company here at CES.  To be fair, their are many strong designs represented by our competition here at the show and we are collectively raising the bar each year.  For consumers and tech enthusiasts who care about appearances, the suite of LCD product offerings here on the show floor has something for everyone.  When you take one of these hot designs and integrate the world's first technology capable of a color palette of over a trillion colors (that's not a typo), you have a product solution that has created quite a stir here in Las Vegas.  Unlike 3D (we're all showcasing it) and web connectivity (we're all showcasing it), QUADPIXEL technology is a Sharp exclusive - it cannot be found on any other manufacturer's product in 2010.   

 At Sharp, our slogan for this year's CES is "Hello Yellow", and perhaps we should add "housed in an elegant and svelte chassis".   Check it out - the designs and this new technology from Sharp - they are collectively awe inspiring.

As a "founding father" of NBC Universal's presence @ CES, I'm more sure than ever that we have a critical role in what goes on at this, the biggest consumer electronics trade show in the world.

Three years ago, when we proposed that NBCU take on the role of "official broadcast partner" of CES, it was because we wanted to make a statement...that content like ours is the fuel that creates the demand for the technolgy and innovation that CES is all about. 

Yesterday, I spent some time walking the show floor.  The major players are all about their screens...3-D, HD, LCD, LED, OLED.  While it's fun and impressive to see what the future holds, so much of what's on these screens is just video...of fruit, of flowers...you get the idea.  Once you understand the particular technology feature of that screen, the pictures hold your interest for about 15 seconds.  My point is that the potential of all of this technology is only realize when those screens are filled with great content...and that's the business that we're in...we ARE the fuel!

This year our booth is themed around the upcoming 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games.  It has been proven time and again that the Olympics is the ultimate "fuel," and that was never more true than it was during the 2008 Olympic Summer Games from Beijing.  There's no reason to think that the engagement of our viewers and users with our content across all of their technology options won't continue to grow when the Games begin next month.

What seems to be happening is that consumers are going to be able to have a more meaningful relationship (like the one they've had with TV for decades) with a greater variety of screens.  One could argue that the most important screen in one's life is the one that's with you almost all the time...the phone.  When we visited to Motorola booth we learned that Adobe Flash is coming to their screens... that means that we'll be able to push content to a phone as easily as we do to a PC.  Clearly Apple has figured how to make the video experience credible on their devices...now more of the world will be able to take more of our content wherever they go.

This presents even more opportunity for us to generate revenue as we can attach our advertisers to that content, given the right business model and execution.  Nothing new in that challenge, as we've seen before...

Our presence has made us a magnet for those who have a big stake in the future of content and technolgoy.  The content we push out to CNBC, MSNBC, the Today Show and our stations speaks not only to the interests of consumers, but to the impact of this industry on the economy.

Last but not least, it's extremely rewarding to see how the ad hoc team that comes together under the leadership of Mark Lukasiewicz, Bill Hartnett and so many others pulls this off.  Special note should be made of the efforts of Jon Accarino, who actually got me to post my first-ever blog!

Literally.  I spent eight hours yesterday touring the floor with NBC's talented Peter Rosenberg and three hours today.  This show never was for the faint of heart.

Yesterday, when I arrived back at the booth, Curtis Walker of DVICE.COM was blogging away on his vintage typewriter.  He asked someone if they wanted to see his page and then handed them a piece of white paper.  I loved it!  But I digress.

Yes, I feel like I'm on sensory overload.  But there are themes that emerged.  First, all the TVs - LED, OLED, AMOLED, 3D, 3D OLED - kinda make a small part of me - the Luddite part - the part that still takes notes with pen and paper - long for rabbit ears.  But seriously folks, I have found what I want.   Only problem, it's only a prototype.  Not even built.  Not even being built for sure yet.  It's the SONY 3D OLED.  I've never seen anything so crisp, clear, or beautiful.  It's like looking through a window sitting from any angle.  I'm not alone.  Many consider the Sony to be the best in class for 3D displays.

Have to mention the TCL TV too.  Displays 3D TV without glasses.  Great if you're dead center in front of the TV albeit a little grainy.  Look for it in China in two years.  Maybe it will be better by then.

Also amazing, the Sony 3D PS3 Baseball game.  I felt like I was on the field.  Home run, David Wright!

But purchasing a TV has become significantly more complicated, as if you didn't already know that.  Yes, of course you're going to want the most beautiful picture as always.  But here's a new phrase for you - Over the Top Delivery.  That means content (shows, movies, videos) delivered to you not by cable, satellite, nor telephone company.  The technical term?  Disintermediating MVPD (Muti Video Processing Distribors).  (Thank you Peter.)  So that means internet TV's, wireless TVs and even widgets (or applications) on TVs.  It means using the Boxee Box or Iomega's Screen Play Director to gather your content from the web, Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon Unboxed, Hulu, YouTube, Picasa, your own downloaded material, etc.  It also means using your Internet connected TV giving you the content from whatever companies they've made deals with.   Boxee says they believe we've passed the paradigm of DVRs and TIVO and that by using the cloud they remove the need for recording, saving, and worrying about disk space.  Wonder if, every TV will have that capability one day and will all serve up the same content, paid or free, and if so, if that will affect the popularity of those interim boxes.  I really like the way Boxee organizes all your material.  For example, all movies are in one folder, regardless of their source.  You can search, and the remote even has a QWERTY keyboard on the back.  Hmm.  More interactive possibilities; that's great for viewer text-to-tv.

By the way, Boxee won the 2010 LAST GADGET STANDING live award.  That's always a fun session with a participant vote.  The on-line winner is the Pico Projector.

Ok, back to my theme - TV.  How do you navigate all the entertainment choices? Intel has a great conceptual demo of an Electronic Program Guide.  Like Picture-in-Picture, it shows small displays as you scroll through the options.    One of the best demos I saw was from Toshiba.  Their Cell TV 3D Motion Gesture Control is on the horizon.  Just move your hand left and right, up and down, forward and back.  No more looking under the couch for the remote.  Looked very similar to Microsoft's Project NATAL for the XBOX.  And, I neglected to mention yesterday that a Blackberry executive I met Thursday believed that at some point, you'd be able to activate the touchpad on their newer models even with a finger only hovering on top of it.  I love this stuff. 

I also saw Hillcrest Lab's The Loop today.  It's a round (duh) remote that you hold in your hand as you move your hand in any direction - even out of range of the TV.  They won a CES Innovation award this year.  But they were the first company I saw talk about this process years ago.  I think I first heard the term "lean forward experience" from them.

Netbooks, tablets and eReaders another big draw this year.  There's a gazillion of them.  I saw the ones that Lenovo and Asus have that convert into tablets.  Lenovo's doesn't let you write on it except with a virtual keyboad.  Asus does.  Have to look at that again.  I'm always looking for a faster way to convert my notes into bits.  But I'm going to tell you the one I want.  It's the EnTourage eDGe combination e-reader and netbook.  Read on the left.  Watch related video and hyperlinked content on the right.  Write notes on what you're reading.  Believe I mentioned this yesterday.  Not that I'm hinting how much I want this or anything.

Heaps of cameras. I love the Poloroid Pogo.  Saw it last year.  So fun.

NBC's intrepid cameraman and producer Craig White showed us the Hero HD camera.  It's an amazingly tiny HD video camera that even streams live video out and is waterproff down to 180 feet.  Whatever Craig says is great, is indeed great.

I also really like Sony's Bloggie camera.  Takes stills (no optical zoom) as well as HD video.  AND you can put in a spare charged battery as well as additional memory.  It comes with a 360 degree lens that shoots panoramic shots.  Why the name?  Because a blogger can lay it flat while writing.  Clever.

And of course, there are oodles of smartphones and other cool gadgets.  Read enough about the Droid?  Good.  I'm skipping it.   But have to mention Motorola's Tru 2-way for the set-top box that allows the kind of viewer interactivity we're working towards. IOMEGA makes something called the VClone.  Very cool.  Take your entire PC virtual image with you on a hard drive that fits in your pocket and can diisplay on another other PC with Windows XP, Vista or 7.

Skype is everywhere, too.  There's the Asus Skype videophone.  Wasn't that at the World's Fair a million years ago?  Well, this one looks a lot better.  And there's SKYPE on TV.  I saw it at LG and Panasonic.  And winner of a CEA innovation award is the Saygus V Phone VI which is the first cell handset with low bandwidth two-way video calling on existing 2.5G networks.  It runs on Android and has a QWERTY keyboard that slides out.

What else do I need?  (C'mon, it's my blog!)  The Power Mat.  Currently it can easily power Blackberries, iPods, iPhones as well as bluetooth devices and camera batteries.  And more devices are coming in Q3.  Would be great not to carry around a power strip.  Yes, I travel with a power strip.  Don't laugh.

I also have to buy a new computer some time soon.  My VAIO is terrific but it's five years old.  And my hard drive is full!  I've been holding out for Windows 7 with a touch screen so here we go.   I'm going to choose between the HP Touchsmart 600T which has the CPU built into the monitor or another laptop - maybe the Lenovo T400SMT which is also a tablet.  Still have to think through that.  And my Apple family and friends are trying to convert me.

What's MIA at the show?  No Dell nor HP except displaying technology within other booths.  There are fewer outdoor exhibits.  Gibson guitars moved indoors.  Parrot has a helicopter you can control with your iPhone.  My friend and colleague Brett Holey highly recommends taking it for a spin.  And the Sony OLED flexiscreen laptop is not here either.  At the booth, they said it was a concept display last year.  Actually, that's about all they said.  Are they still working on it?

Can't leave you without mentioning the new way to watch DTV on your cellphone through Open TV.  NBC was instrumental in making this happen which is fitting since we led the way in 2004 with NBC News Mobile.  And it will give us even more opportunities for interactivity.  Ok, shameless plug over.  No, not yet.  Go to http://alerts.msnbc.com to see all the text subscription groups we offer - from Way Too Early with Willie Geist to Nightly News with Brian Williams and everything in between.  Or text the right keyword to 622639.  Try to guess what they are:  NN, DL, EARLY, HB, ED, JOE, RACHEL, TODAY, MTP.  Or Text BUZZ to 46833 for the latest entertainment news.

More later!  I want to head over to the North Hall.  It's been fun.  Follow me on twitter at boptekman.

Hey, everyone, it's Aaron Broder, the Scholastic reporter, blogging for NBC Universal again. It's great to be back!

So, this year, my goal was to have the whole CES thing down-pat. This is my fourth year writing about it, so by now I should know how it works, right? Avoid scheduling appointments - it's stressful and detracts from show floor time. Don't have anything at the Las Vegas Convention Center immediately following something at the Venetian - you can't get between one and the other quickly enough. And whatever you do, try not to schedule anything offsite - it's never as easy to get there as they tell you it is. This year, I was going to stick to these rules, and nothing was going to go wrong.

That was the plan, anyway. The first day of CES ruined that.

I'm not entirely sure what the big deal about Day One is. I've been told it's because everyone is trying to grab the headlines, but there are headlines on every other day too, so I don't think that's it. But for whatever reason, Thursday is the most jam-packed day, and it's impossible to avoid it.

I nearly managed to avoid it - I really did. I was going to go to the Build Your Own PC Race for charity that day no matter what, and I was pretty sure I was headed to ShowStoppers, but those were both after the convention center closed, so I would have plenty of show floor time. I managed to have one - that's right, one(!) appointment, for the upcoming MMO, LEGO Universe. And I was going to go to Lunch@Piero's (a restaurant not far off from the LVCC), another offsite event where products were being shown, but I was going to have to eat anyway, so that was no big deal. I was confident that nothing would throw it out of whack.

Oops. I lied. See, I had e-mailed Palm about trying to get into their press conference, without realizing that it was in the Venetian, 30 minutes after my LEGO appointment started in the convention center! I also had tried to get in contact with Livescribe, the people behind the Pulse pen, and --

You know, hold on a moment. I hope you don't mind if I take a brief moment to talk about what has been the most useful gadget of the show. If you do, then go ahead and skip down to the next paragraph. The Pulse pen is this pen that, at its core, links what you are writing with what you hear. It actually can do a lot more than that, but that's what I've been using it for. And it's been incredibly helpful, because you can go back and tap something you wrote, and listen to hear what was being said exactly as you wrote that. Truly amazing - we are living in the future.

Anyway, back to my story. Where was I? Oh, right.

I also had tried to get in contact with Livescribe, the people behind the Pulse pen, and they said that they were available, on none other than Thursday morning. And they were at the Las Vegas Hilton!

I managed to work it all out - Pulse before the floor opened, then rush over to the Venetian for the press conference, and I rescheduled LEGO Universe for later in the afternoon (which made getting to the PC Race at the Wynn a bit tight, but still worked). But I stared at my calendar, dismayed, as all the white space slowly filled up with appointments and press conferences, and an attempt to get to a booth to see Stan Lee. My perfect plan, destroyed.

Something funny happened, though, on Thursday. It all went... really, really smoothly. Sure, we ran around a bit, making sure we got where we needed to be when we needed to be there, but there wasn't a dull moment where I was at a loss for what to do. It was kind of nice.

So, if I come back next year, I have three rules that I have to remember. Don't have anything at the LVCC right after something at the Venetian. Try not to schedule anything offsite. And whatever you do, schedule appointments - just don't schedule too many.

This is the 3rd year we've hosted bloggers here in NBC Universal's booth at CES. Over the years I've seen people blog on everything from smartphones to an ancient Apple laptop running Macintosh OS 9. But today, Curtis Walker, a tech blogger for DVICE.com, showed up to blog with a 1950's typewriter. It was even more entertaining considering Marc Siry, NBC Universal's SVP of Digital Products and Services, was sitting next to Curtis blogging on an iPhone.

Curtis drew a small crowd of curious onlookers including Darren Kitchen from Hak5. I recorded Darren interviewing Curtis. Check it out.