CES, also known as the International Consumer Electronics Show, is every year in January in Las Vegas. The show has been going on for over 40 years and CES 2012 was January 10th through the 13th.

Attendance this year was the largest ever at just over 153,000 attendees.

Via PCWorld:

“The 2012 International CES had more exhibitors (3100) hawking their wares across more space (1.9 million square feet) and attracted more people (153,000 attendees) than any other CES in the 44-year history of the event, the Consumer Electronics Association revealed in a statement released Friday.”

Featuring the latest and upcoming gadgets, it’s been a big attraction for technology enthusiasts and geeks all over the World. People  travel from all different parts of the globe, as do companies looking to show off and demo their new products or services.

There were several big hits this year at CES. LG and Samsung’s razor thin and incredibly vibrant OLED televisions really stunned the crowd and are the next generation of TV’s for our homes. With a very thin and light profile, yet energy efficient and amazing colors, they’re quite exciting.

With thinner and lighter laptops on many consumers minds, ultrabooks were out and about. The HP Envy 14 Spectre was one that stood out that we’ve mentioned previously. All in all, there’s too many new gadgets to list and go over.

However, one thing that really did grab people’s attention was the quad core Asus Memo 370T tablet for an incredible $250 that will be available in the second quarter of this year. The tablet features some pretty impressive specs for such a small price.

What was your favorite gadget mentioned at CES 2012?

CES 2012 Largest Year Ever, Sets Record is a post from: The Inquisitr

CES 2012 is fully underway and as expected the team at Parrot has once against managed to impress crowds of visitors with their AR Drone product. The company’s newest offering the AR Drone 2.0 brings with it not just iOS navigation but also the ability to record in 720P and pre-program a linear flight path for a set duration while recording in high definition.

Available for both iOS and Android users the AR.FreeFlight 2.0 application offers what the company calls the “Absolute Flight” control scheme that is expected to be far more intuitive for first time and veteran AR Drone users.

The AR Drone is piloted through a virtual cockpit with two touchscreen sticks which operate alongside the devices new magnetometer which allows users to til their phone or tablet to lead the drone in that same direction.

Parrot has also made Relative controls available alongside a developer kit that allows programmers to create their own steering programs for the company’s 2.0 hardware.

The company has also rolled out a new stable design for light impact security along with bright color options for the drone and LEDs which allow users to see which way the drone is facing when it’s further away.

The AR Drone 2.0 will go on sale in the spring and will sell for $299. The mobile application for the Drone will remain free.

After first spotting the original AR Drone at CES 2 years ago I’ve never been able to forget just how cool this Parrot product was and has become. Will you be rushing out to pick up the AR Drone 2.0 when it’s finally available for sale?

Parrot AR Drone 2.0 Brings 720P Video Recording, Programming Option is a post from: The Inquisitr

With competition in the internet connected television arena heating up, LG will be showing off their first ever Google TV at CES 2012. Previous generations of the TV operating system haven’t necessarily done the best, though a lot of work has went into making an overall better product and experience.

From Reuters:

“Google hopes to replicate the success of its Android mobile software in the TV market, but its attempt to conquer the living room has seen limited success so far due to a lack of web content and support from hardware manufacturers.”

Google also announced on their blog today that Sony, Samsung, and Vizio as well as some chipset manufacturers, will be demoing Google TV products at CES. With news of the Apple iTV heating up, this is sure to be an interesting year for televisions and how we interact with them.

Previously, we would turn on the TV, flip through the guide/menu, find what we want to watch, and watch it. Of course, not to mention the flipping back and forth between shows once commercials hit, that is if you don’t have a DVR.

“Google TV allows consumers to access online videos and websites on their TVs, as well as specialized apps such as video games. Currently it comes built-in on certain Sony television models and Samsung is also working with the U.S. firm to launch Google TVs.”

It’ll be interesting to see what the various companies have on display and maybe this will be the year that this really takes off on a much larger scale.

LG To Have It’s First Ever Google TV, Debut At CES is a post from: The Inquisitr

Gorilla Glass, the incredibly strong material from maker Corning, will be on display at CES, but this time everyone will see the latest generation, version 2. The company is known as the leader in incredibly strong and durable glass solutions for electronics such as smartphones and tablets.

Since it’s inception, Gorilla Glass has been a no brainer solution for many manufacturers when it comes to devices that can potentially be dropped and are used considerably. Essentially, it prevents scratches and from breaking a screen.

The previous generation from Corning was used in such smartphones as the Motorola Atrix 2, Thunderbolt, Droid RAZR, HTC EVO 3D, Droid Bionic, and Incredible S, as well as used in the very popular Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from Samsung.

“Gorilla Glass 2 will work better with smaller devices, will offer improved touch technology, will be more durable, and will allow hardware makers to design larger, more complex glass-covered surfaces for phones, tablets, and televisions.”

The company behind it isn’t necessarily giving a lot of details as to what exactly is new with it, though it seems people will just have to show up at CES to see what is better about it.

“”As we (Corning) did last year [at CES 2011], we’ll provide consumers and customers visiting the Corning booth the opportunity to test first-hand the outstanding damage resistance and flexibility of this industry-leading, ultra-thin, and tough specialty glass.”

Last year, they let people hit Gorilla Glass with a hammer, so this next generation will definitely get some abuse while there at CES.

Incredibly Strong Gorilla Glass 2 Will Be On Display At CES is a post from: The Inquisitr

Microsoft has decided to end it’s CES run in 2012 and according to one report the company was not “forcefully rejected” as some claims have stated but rather chose to leave rather than pay a higher per year price with a 3-year contract requirement.

According to The Verge Microsoft simply realized that the January event in Las Vegas doesn’t align with its own product release. The report also states that CES was “playing the field” in the hopes of finding an alternate to Microsoft which led the company to rethink how long they wanted to stay in the event.

It’s also believed that Microsoft developers didn’t feel as if they were getting a good “return on investment” from the trade show.

Other large company’s, most notably Apple has long used its own clout to hold conferences specific to new company products, allowing them to release products on their own schedule which in turn gives them more control over a products marketing strategies.

With Microsoft bowing out with a one-year extension it appears on paper at least that the software giant is leaving the event on good terms.

As a regular visitor to the CES trade show I can’t say the Microsoft exit surprises me, their display, while typically one of the biggest at the show has always lacked the pizzazz of other company offerings and Steve Ballmers keynote speeches over the last two years have bordered on boring as he spouted out what thousands of developers, consumers and reporters already knew about Microsoft and their product lines.

Are you surprised to learn that Microsoft will not appear at the 2013 CES trade show?

Microsoft Saying Farewell To CES After 2012, Won’t Agree To 3-Year Deal is a post from: The Inquisitr

In a post over on the official Microsoft Blog, Frank Shaw, VP of Corporate Communications at Microsoft, revealed that Microsoft’s keynote at CES 2012 will be the last one for the company.

Microsoft has been a fairly big part of CES for many years now, so the company’s decision to bow out comes as a bit of a surprise. So why is Microsoft backing out of CES 2013 and beyond after all of these years?

According to Shaw, it all simply comes down to timing. CES takes place very early on in the year, and the event’s schedule isn’t in line with Microsoft’s announcement schedule.

Microsoft may be putting an end to keynotes and booths at future CES events, but that doesn’t mean they won’t have at least some presence at the event. Shaw explained:

“..we have decided that this coming January will be our last keynote presentation and booth at CES. We’ll continue to participate in CES as a great place to connect with partners and customers across the PC, phone and entertainment industries, but we won’t have a keynote or booth after this year because our product news milestones generally don’t align with the show’s January timing,”

Shaw didn’t provide specifics on what Microsoft’s plans for future events entail, but he did suggest that Microsoft was looking into possibly cooking up an event of their own.

“As we look at all of the new ways we tell our consumer stories – from product momentum disclosures, to exciting events like our Big Windows Phone, to a range of consumer connection points like Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft.com and our retail stores – it feels like the right time to make this transition.”

Source: Microsoft (via AllThingsD)

Microsoft’s CES 2012 keynote will be its last is a post from: The Inquisitr

Yesterday evening, Nokia sent out press invites for an event to be held at CES 2012 and, interestingly, it looks to be a Windows Phone-focused one as you may be able to tell from the invite shown above with “Metro UI” essentially written all over it.

The invitation reads: “Join our press conference and get the latest news from Nokia, hear from some of the leading minds in the industry about the future of smart devices and applications and witness stunning demos of Nokia technology in action.”

Unsurprisingly, Nokia didn’t send along any accompanying information to give us so much as a clue as to what they’ll be showing off at the event but, again, it looks like “Windows Phone” will be at least one of the topics Nokia will be discussing at CES 2012.

Nokia hasn’t seen a great deal of success recently when compared to their competitors, so it’ll be interesting to see what they have to show off at CES 2012. Could it be a new Windows Phone, or perhaps a Windows 8 tablet? I suppose we’ll have to wait until CES to find out.

Source: Engadget

Nokia announces CES 2012 press event, hints at Windows Phone discussion is a post from: The Inquisitr

Microsoft will begin allowing beta testers to download Office 15 as early as January 15, 2012 according to a recent scoop.

The new option is said to be completely redesigned with a focus on touch and pen based units. The Office 15 software suite is also expected to be designed around the company’s net Metro interface which will allow it to integrate flawlessly with Windows 8.

First reported on the WinRumors website the screenshot above shows the new look for Microsoft’s Outlook e-mail client. As you’ll notice the new output seems to be simplified with less buttons and a white color scheme, a design that meets today’s web standards while still providing the functionality users want.

A preview of the Office 15 software suit is expected at CES 2012 in Las Vegas.

Are you ready for Microsoft Office to be completely redesigned for 2012 standards?

Microsoft To Roll Out Office 15 Beta On January 15 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Sometimes you don’t need to add in new pieces of technology to your products for them to make our list of best inventions at CES. In fact one of my favorite pieces of “Technology” at the CES 2011 show is by Bone and is called the Horn Stand.

The stand is a simple piece of Silicone which is designed using acoustical science to increase the sound output in the iPhone series of devices by 13dB. There is absolutely no electronics on the device, it’s just designed in such a way that sound passes through the silicone case and delivers amazing results.

During a demonstration of the product I couldn’t hear the iPhone from where I was standing, but once placed into the simple to slip on case the results were amazing!

Plus, you don’t have to stand the case up, you can put it horizontal or vertical, allowing for the perfect movie watching or music listening experience.

One final tidbit of info, the device, as you can see from the shot below, offers a cut out for the charging/syncing port, making the unit accessible while keeping the Horn Stand in place.

Here’s a look at the unit from the side in the horizontal position:

The amplifier comes in a variety of standard color choices, including black, white, grey and then the more “look at me” green case shown on this page.

iPhone Horn Stand Amplifier by Bone [CES 2011] is a post from: The Inquisitr

I will now remember the Mario Kart Wii game for two things, first it’s the one game my wife consistently beats me at and two, it offers an inflatable car that you can actually sit in and steer from. We’ve seen the inflatable controller online in the past, but this was our first change to see it up close and personal and to actually sit inside the controller.

The car, blown up using your own lung power, includes a plastic steering wheel column and steering wheel that allows a WiiMote to attach to the center console piece. Users than turn the wheel and use their controllers buttons to move the car.

In the picture shown above you can see the car and below is shots of a kid playing the game and another picture showing the size of the car. The coolest part? We saw adults play entire races in the car, although I’d be a bit afraid to sit in it, but my tiny wife would be perfect for the inflatable controller.

What do you think about having your own Mario Kart vehicle to play from?

Click the images below to enlarge them:

Check out more of our LIVE CES 2011 Coverage.

CTA Shows Off Inflatable Mario Kart Car For Wii [CES 2011] is a post from: The Inquisitr

TCL (The Creative Life), a company that creates audio hardware including TVs put some thought into their display booth at CES 2011 when they decided to create a moving scroll story using their own video equipment.

It’s hard to give any real insight into how cool their display actually is without video, but basically all of the images you see in the photo (above) are moving, while telling a story in one continuous scroll.

The displays were decent enough that the parchment look felt authentic, while the long display worked in tandem perfectly with each monitor, giving users a feel of authenticity with a modern flair.

The coolest part? They weren’t really marketing anything on the scroll, they were just showing off a cool sense of creativity.

Check out more of our CES 2011 Coverage for other cool displays and products from this years Consumer Electronics Show.

TCL Shows Off Video Parchment Scroll At CES 2011 is a post from: The Inquisitr

While walking around the show floor at CES 2011 I happened along the booth for P2i and at the front of their booth was a presenter who was performing magic tricks. I didn’t actually hear him talk about the company’s products, apparently they create “Liquid Repellent Nano-Coating for Technology and Industrial Purposes.” What I did see was a pretty funny, entertaining guy.

He performed magic much in the flavor of “The Amazing Jonathan” who has been spotted many times on Comedy Central and who currently performs in Vegas.

Simple card tricks, audience interaction, in-the-moment jokes. If you happen to be walking the show floor, stop by and take a second to have a good laugh.

Many reps at CES just want to push press packets in your face, even if they aren’t sure if you sell or market their products, it’s refreshing to see company’s like P2i who sell a rather specialized and geeky product who just want people passing by to have a good laugh and they’ve accomplished that at their booth thanks to their friendly resident magician.

Check out our Full Live CES 2011 Coverage.

P2i Presents…The Funniest Guy At CES 2011 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Sometimes the little gems we find at CES don’t come from massively large booths such as LG or Panasonic, sometimes the most useful of technologies are the smaller players at the convention and this week I discovered a product by Norazza called Data Destroyer that’s useful and cool.

Pictured above is the Data Destroyer DD3300 and it is capable of destroying up to 15 disks per minutes, rendering useless both sides of the CD or DVD you pass through its system.

Since the software creates pockets that render the CD unreadable you don’t have to worry about cleaning up shards of discarded disks and it’s much more quite, making it the perfect office companion for stopping corporate identity theft while not disturbing your fellow co-workers.

The unit is just slightly bigger than many small pocket printers, which means taking the unit off site for projects is also a simple process.

You can find the units at Norazza.com.

Big props go out to the rep who was manning the booth on Saturday morning, probably one of the nicest people I’ve met at CES shows to date.

Check out more of our LIVE CES 2011 Coverage.

Data Destroyer By Norazza [CES 2011] is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Iomega booth at CES 2011 was setup not just to show off their products, but also with a full stage to present some of their newest technologies to the masses (plus hand out free Superhero’s to lucky winners). The first product demonstration they provided, the Iomega Superhero was specifically of interest to iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 users, allowing them to backup info while they charge their phones.

The program and hardware are simple enough to use, everytime a users plugs in their phone to charge on the docking station the users information is backed up onto the systems drive, allowing for their photos, contacts and other documents to be saved without having to do any further work.

Available now for a rather low $69.95 (we’ve seen just charging docks for this price) it’s a steal and definitely worth the buy.

See more of our LIVE CES 2011 Coverage here.

Iomega Shows Off SuperHero Charger And Backup Solution At CES 2011 is a post from: The Inquisitr

The team at Eton has teamed up with The American Red Cross to create a sleek looking group of survival equipment.

Whether you want a self powered flashlight or an AM/FM Radio with weather capabilities, Eton and the American Red Cross have rugged devices that are perfect for most uses.

For example, take a look at the WeatherTrackerFR800, a digital radio with location based weather notices, an audio input, headphone jack and DC power slot:

One of my personal favorite gadgets from Eton is the self-powered flashlight, while it’s not a new concept the rugged design and the cool retro feel makes for a must have utility piece for your next hiking excursion:

Also worth a closer look and definitely one of the more complex units from the American Red Cross collection is the Axis, a radio with flashlight and weather tracker that also features a port to charge your cell phone directly from the unit.

There are a ton of new Eton American Red Cross items to choose from, I highly recommend you check them out if you’re the outdoors type.

Check out more of our CES 2011 Coverage.

Eton Delivers Excellent American Red Cross Survival Equipment [CES 2011] is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Tesla Roadster S Model won’t go into production for a while, but that didn’t stop computer company NVIDIA from showing off the tech they’ve built into the car.

Specifically NVIDIA had the Tesla Roadster on display to show off their massive Touchscreen which takes up a third of the cars available dashboard space. Think of the touchscreen interface as the central nervous system for the car and it becomes quickly clear why it’s so important.

If you could care less about technology, you can at least appreciate the very sleek design the car offers, it shouts Tesla from every angle and right through the sleek paint job.

Here’s a picture of the NVIDIA touchscreen:

In the meantime, check out more of our LIVE CES 2011 COVERAGE.

Tesla Roadster Model S Shown Off At CES by NVIDIA is a post from: The Inquisitr

I forget my business cards all the time. Heck the first day of CES I had to scramble to find cards to hand out to people, now Speck has an inventive solution for business people like me who are a bit forgetful. The Speck Candy Shell Card case for iPhone 4 devices features a wrap around, protective design in various colors, while the back side features a special slot to hold business cards.

Sure the backside only holds 3 cards at one time, any more cards than that would make the case bulky, but that should be enough cards for you to realize that you need to go pick up more cards before you do any more business.

The case featured above is a fairly bold color choice, however there are other options, take a look at other case color options below:

Speck has always been good at adding a splash of color to their products so you can probably expect to see more color options in the future.

Check out more of our coverage from CES 2011.

Speck CandyShell Card Case For iPhone 4, A Simple Business Card Solution is a post from: The Inquisitr

When I first walked by the new Toshiba Voice Controlled TV I thought it was a stupid idea, after all there is nothing wrong with the remote control, it offers ease of use and you don’t really need to look at it once you’ve owned your TV for a little while. However, I soon realized that the use of such technology could aid individuals with arthritis or anyone who loses their remote.

The technology is straight forward, start by clapping your hands to prepare a voice command, then simply tell the TV you want to change the channel up, down or to a specific channel and then choose to push the volume up or down the the TV follows your voice commands. It’s too bad you can’t signal the TV for a command in other ways, it could benefit individuals with no use of their upper body if they could use a different method, however the technology won’t be available for a while so there is still room for improvement.

A quick note, at this time a Skype webcam is also required to use the system.

The TV worked great with the Toshiba employees voice, however foreign users with their broken accents were having issues getting the TV to recognize their voices. Of course the TV will be regionally programmed for voice commands, so the language barrier really isn’t something we have to worry about.

There’s not a lot left to say about the system, it works when you clearly tell it what to do and the basic commands it current offers makes ease of use an added bonus.

Check out more of our CES 2011 Coverage.

Toshiba Shows Off Voice Controlled TV is a post from: The Inquisitr

Toshiba chose CES 2011 to debut their new line of Glasses Free 3D TV’s and the results are extremely disappointing.

Offered in various sizes including: 65-inch, 56-inch, 12-inch and even a 3D laptop, the units use a technology known as parallax barriers which is basically a barrier with tiny slots that split images in an attempt to trick your eyes on the sets 4K panels (4,096 x 2,160 pixels).  The problem? You have to be sitting directly in the right sweet spots for the 3D effect to work, move even a foot to the left, right, forward or backward and what you are left with is a blurry image that quite honestly gave me a headache on all TV sizes.

It was actually quite sad to walk into the darkened Toshiba display and realize they marked three spots with gaffer type in front of each TV, personally I’m not moving my massive couch so I can have the perfect viewing angle, plus those sweet spots weren’t all that sweet.

Sure there were moments where the 3D effects looked amazing, but for the most part everyone around me had the same problem I had, the images often looked choppy and blurry, while headaches seemed to be the buzz word inside the booth.

There is no release date in sight for these units, which is probably a good thing, however one promising option is the 3D laptop technology, where the laptop’s built-in webcam actually detects the users eyes to help push out optimized results, it was the best part of the showcase, but still not perfect.

Personally I don’t like 3D glasses, but at least my headaches while wearing them are greatly reduced and take hours to develop, not minutes.

Toshiba Glasses Free 3D Are Big CES Fail, Not Ready For Primetime is a post from: The Inquisitr

I have to take a moment away from the really cool gadgets at CES 2011 to show you the coolest, most oddly comfortable chair I’ve ever seen.

Located near the CNBC and SyFy Channel booths, these suspended chairs feature a built in iPad dock which makes sitting back and relaxing as you browse the web, play games and otherwise converse a real breeze.

They might not look comfortable in pictures, but they were actually perfect after a long day of walking the 1.6 million square foot show space.

By the way, that’s me sitting in the chair in the photo pictured above. I’m even decked out in a snazzy Inquisitr Polo (Thanks Duncan!).

Here are a few more shots of the chairs and their happy occupants:

In the meantime here’s more of our CES 2011 Coverage.

We have a lot of photos and product info to enter still, so bear with us! 3G in Vegas is a bummer

Weird CES 2011 Moment, Suspended iPad Chairs [Pics] is a post from: The Inquisitr