Week in review: The Consumer Electronics Show, our predictions for 2010

Here’s our rundown of the week’s business and tech news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last eight days:

What to watch for at the Consumer Electronics Show — VentureBeat writer and veteran CES attendee Dean Takahashi made a list of likely significant news at the “SuperBowl for the gadget industry.” You can compare his predictions with our actual CES coverage here.

Cool stuff unveiled at the opening of Consumer Electronics Show — Speaking of CES, here are our photos from the CES Unveiled event, where members of the press get an early peek at the cool gadgets launching at the conference.

Is Google’s army-of-Androids strategy working? — We used the launch of Google and HTC’s Nexus One “superphone” as an opportunity to examine the search giant’s broader mobile strategy. The big question: Is Google’s method of incremental improvement (compared to Apple’s more perfectionist approach) working?

Microsoft Arc keyboard replaces squarepants design with lightweight curves – Another product launch from CES: The Arc keyboard debuted by Microsoft, which updates the stodgy PS/2 keyboard with a slim, light, gracefully curved aesthetic. The keyboard weighs under a pound and is designed to be usable both on a desk and in your lap on the couch.

Nexus One, Droid or iPhone — VentureBeat writer Paul Boutin breaks down the pricing and features for each of the three smartphones, and comes up with a surprising pick as the best phone for readers. (In fact, his choice prompted plenty of protest and argument from other VentureBeat writers.)

And here are five more stories we thought were important, thought-provoking, or fun:

Predictions for 2010: Tablets will fail, Google will pummel Microsoft — Our look at the year ahead also covers Twitter, Facebook, the Chevy Volt, and more.

How Jajah, a little phone company, sold for $207M, while everyone else got killed — Two weeks ago, the Spanish phone giant Telefonica said it had acquired Internet phone company Jajah for $207 million in cash. In interviews with several employees, former employees and other observers, we asked how the Mountain View, Calif. company managed to succeed even as a host of other VoIP companies, including names like Jangl and Jaxtr, either went out of business or were sold for pennies in asset sales.

Google applies to buy and sell energy, is a Googley utility imminent? — Here’s another big announcement from Google this week: The creation of Google Energy, a subsidiary that it will use to buy and sell electricity on federally-regulated wholesale energy markets.

Crunchies: Google Voice is coming to the iPhone “one way or another” — At the Crunchies award ceremony Friday, Google’s vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra said the Google Voice application, which is still in limbo after Apple declined to give it the greenlight for the app store, will come to the iPhone “one way or the other.”

Boxee Beta goes public, now for a look inside the box — Media center software maker Boxee announced the public launch of its Boxee Beta software this week, after only a month in private beta. The downloadable software allows users to connect their computers to any TV and instantly stream different types of media, including TV shows, music and movies.