CES 2009 Coverage

By CNET Staff Editors
LAS VEGAS (CNET) ― Since 2006, CNET has presented the Best of CES Awards, given to the top product in 10 categories as well as one coveted Best in Show award.

BEST IN SHOW CES 2009: PALM PRE SMARTPHONE

Phew! Thursday was a long, action-packed day thanks to Palm. I'm just now getting to sit down and gather my thoughts on the Palm Pre and Palm Web OS announcements, and I have to confess that I went into the press conference with some skepticism. It's no secret that Palm's been struggling to keep up with the competition and has come under heavy criticism for its lack of innovation and delays in releasing its new operating system. So can you blame me for thinking that Palm might disappoint again? Read More

BEST IN CATEGORY - CAR TECH: GRACENOTE

Imagine having your favorite recording artist talking to you from your dashboard, recommending new music that you might like. Now imagine the music available to you in your car extending to just about every track ever recorded. Let's take it a step further and say you can use your car stereo like an instant messenger, where you can recommend songs and playlists to people on your buddy list. Gracenote CarStars does all of this, and its slated to become available in a 2011 model car, with a release date sometime in 2010, although Gracenote currently isn't releasing details. Read More

BEST IN CATEGORY - CELL PHONES & SMARTPHONES: PALM PRE

On Saturday, CNET, in partnership with the Consumer Electronics Association, handed out its Best of CES 2009 Awards, including Best in Show and the People's Voice Award and this year's big winner? The Palm Pre. The Palm Pre smartphone took home both honors and became the first cell phone/smartphone to win the Best in Show since CNET started presenting the Best of CES awards in 2006. The went up against some stiff competition, including the Sony DSC-G3 and the Sony P-series Lifestyle PC. So why the Pre? Well, it was a combination of things...  Read More

BEST IN CATEGORY - COMPUTER & HARDWARE: SONY P-SERIES LIFESTYLE PC

Much like Apple, Sony likes to keep its Vaio products aimed at mid-to-high-end buyers and generally eschews the budget end of the market (although there are actually a handful of sub-$600 Vaios we've reviewed fairly favorably). When it comes to Netbooks, it's no different; Sony's entry into the very hot minilaptop category shares a lot with Netbooks such as the Dell Mini 9 or Asus Eee PC, but clearly goes out of its way to avoid being lumped in with them. The P-series Lifestyle PC is one of the smallest laptops we've seen...  Read More

BEST IN CATEGORY - DIGITAL PHOTO & VIDEO: SONY DSC-G3 CAMERA

Wi-Fi-enabled cameras have been around for several years, but arguably never took off because they never hit on the right combination of performance and capabilities; at various points we've seen powerful Wi-Fi but subpar photo quality, good cameras but with limited Wi-Fi capabilities, or simply middling all around. Now Sony's giving it a shot with the Cyber-Shot DSC-G3, and it looks like the company may at least get the feature side of the equation right. The 10-megapixel, 4X zoom G3 includes 4GB of storage and a 210ppi 3.5-inch touch-screen display with Wi-Fi connectivity.  Read More

BEST IN CATEGORY - GAMING: NYKO WAND

In an effort to trump the existing Nintendo Wii remote controller, Nyko is introducing what the company is calling the most advanced Wii remote yet. The Nyko Wand looks a lot like the Wii remote we're all used to, but instead can output commands and even vibration through the controller's port at the bottom of the device. Using what Nyko calls Trans-Port technology, the new interface will allow compatible devices to take advantage of functionality not always available in current Wii remote accessories.  Read More

BEST IN CATEGORY - GPS: TOMTOM GO 740 LIVE

On the first day of CES 2009, GPS manufacturer TomTom introduced its newest portable navigation device, the TomTom GO 740 Live. Like the Dash Express and TeleNav Shotgun, the GO 740 Live is a connected GPS using a built-in SIM card and GPRS modem, so you'll get more up-to-date information delivered to your PND right over the air. What kind of information? Well, I'm glad you asked. With the purchase of the TomTom GO 740 Live, you'll get a complimentary year subscription to TomTom's Live services, which include Google Local Search, fuel-price information and weather data.  Read More

BEST IN CATEGORY - HOME AUDIO: SAMSUNG HT-BD7200

The HT-X710T was one of Samsung's funkier home theater products of 2008, a 2.1-style (two speakers plus subwoofer) home theater system with a tapered, wall-mountable DVD player head unit. While the 2009 follow-up shares a similar "Touch of Color" red-accented design and curved enclosures, the HT-BD7200 gets a Blu-ray upgrade (replete with BD-Live capability and Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding) and support for streaming Netflix online video and the Pandora music service. It's also Wi-Fi-ready, but you'll need to invest in a separate USB 802.11n dongle, or stick with wired Ethernet connectivity instead.  Read More

BEST IN CATEGORY - HOME VIDEO: ECHOSTAR SLINGLOADED HD DVR 922

We're huge fans of the Slingbox, which lets you access your home TV from any broadband-connected PC and many models of 3G smartphones. But the boxes have always had a fundamental problem of monopolizing the host video source (cable/satellite box or DVR); if you access your Slingbox remotely and somebody happens to be watching the home TV, both of you are forced to watch the same program. That's just one problem that the new EchoStar SlingLoaded HD DVR 922 fixes. The "SlingLoaded" moniker basically means that it's got a Slingbox built-in.  Read More

BEST IN CATEGORY - MP3 & VIDEO PLAYERS: SAMSUNG P3

Samsung spilled the beans on the new P3 MP3 player at the company's CES 2009 press conference. As an update to Samsung's popular P2, the P3 shares many of its predecessor's features, including a 3-inch WQVGA touch screen, DNSe sound enhancement, audio and video playback, photo viewer, FM radio, voice recording, and Bluetooth capabilities such as phone pairing and stereo audio streaming. Unlike the P2, the Samsung P3 uses a colorful new user interface dubbed "EmoTure" that emphasizes personalization.  Read More

BEST IN CATEGORY - TELEVISIONS: PANASONIC TH-50PZ800U

Last year, our Editors' Choice plasma, the Panasonic TH-50PZ800U, earned a good portion of its praise by virtue of excellent color accuracy, which we lay at the feet of THX Display Certification. For 2009, Panasonic has included THX in two series of plasma TVs, of which the most-affordable will be the G10s. The company's G10 series of plasmas comes in four screen sizes. The 42-inch TC-P42G10, the 46-inch TC-P46G10, and the 50-inch TC-P50G10 will ship in March, while the 54-inch TC-54G10, a new screen size for the company, will ship in May.  Read More

(© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.)