CES

I've been going to CES for two decades now.

This year's show was smaller than last year's but still huge and busy. The area where I noticed the biggest difference was in the North Hall, which was not full, and a large area was dedicated to iPod accessories. These looked like vendors who would have been at the MacWorld expo except that it has been moved to February and Apple is not attending.

3D TVs were definitely the biggest thing at the show. I tried a few but I'm not the right audience for this. I don't get 3D at all. I see its popularity with Avatar, but I don't think the home market is ready for it. HD is finally getting a footing, and you're asking people to throw out their monitors and buy 3D sets? In this market? BluRay hasn't had market penetration yet, and never may, as downloads are become more and more popular.

There are several new e-readers, but they are not ready for release yet and won't be for months at least. They do look interesting though.

HD monitors are looking better than ever and are getting thinner (is that really necessary?).

Google's phone was not announced at the show, and was not the iPhone killer predicted. It has voice recognition. Other than that, it's an iPhone.

Otherwise, there's not a lot of new technologies happening. I think most companies are afraid of the market and are holding back expenses.