Let the Gadgets Come!

The Consumer Electronics Show is over: The foghorn has sounded, and the convention center's exhbit teardown is well under way. But even though this year's CES is history, it isn't soon forgotten--many of the products we've seen in the past week will hit the market in the months ahead. And other technologies--such as Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD--will influence how we consume entertainment years from now.

This year's show was the biggest CES yet, with more than 142,000 attendees converging on Las Vegas to preview the latest and greatest in entertainment technology. Enthusiastic crowds packed the show floor, and I heard many attendees comment that they felt the show needed to add another day, given its now-mammoth size. And no wonder: Many exhibit areas had more than a passing resemblance to Comdex (RIP), which meant double the booths to walk by if you're following entertainment and technology. The biggest incongruity from the unofficial merging of these two events was seeing a vendor touting portable hard drives next to a company selling metal detectors.

Even though the show is over, I'll continue blogging this week with reports of new products I found as I scoured the show floor.