Author: James Kendrick

It has been clear for quite some time that the e-book reader space has gotten pretty hot. There are companies making readers right and left, and I must have seen dozens of them while wondering around the CES. There were readers of all types, almost all of them e-Ink equipped, and if the sheer number of devices is any indicator then the mainstream consumer is going to flock to digital books in droves. Wanna bet that doesn’t happen?

We geeks love e-book readers. They are gadgets, after all, and we can’t get enough gadgets. Mainstream consumers are a different beast, however, and they are going to require something very specific to even have a chance to win them over. Content. Not just a big selection of content, but very specific content.

Mainstream consumers want best-sellers and other recent releases. They want any book they can pick up in one of the thousands of stores where they shop. They want any book they can pick up in a public library. They want to see a book, and buy it for their reader on the spot. Not go searching to see if it’s available for their particular reader, and definitely not to see if the format is compatible with it. They want to see a book, and buy it.

This is why the Kindle has been pretty successful; at least consumers can buy a book from Amazon simply, and have it work on the reader. Barnes & Noble is banking on this too with the Nook. They both have a huge selection of digital books, and buying them is a simple process.

Once the book buying process gets less straightforward, the mainstream consumer will drop out. The first time they buy a book, only to find it won’t work on their particular reader, and it is game over. Frustration and reading books do not go hand in hand, it is a major failure for the consumer.

So we may be seeing gobs of readers getting released, but the reader is only one piece of the consumer experience. And not even the major piece, as there are paper books everywhere they can read. And make no mistake about it, they will continue reading those dead-tree versions if it is easier. I’m just sayin’.

Home, sweet, home. As much fun as I have during the CES week, there’s nothing quite like coming home again. I am unpacked and settling into a normal routine, at least normal for me. During my trip home yesterday I had ample time to reflect on the week-long activities of the CES, and kept coming back to what worked well and what didn’t work. My thoughts were from the viewpoint of someone covering the show, not a standard attendee. What worked and didn’t work for me may not be the experience of someone else in a similar position; this is my unique perspective. Note that this covers both the tech I used, and the show itself. It is a compendium of the entire week from the view of someone covering the CES. Read on to see what I found to be the major wins and fails during CES week.

WIN- Verizon MiFi. The major win for me at CES was having the MiFi in my bag and available at all times. This insured I had good connectivity no matter where I was working, and no matter how bad other connections were. I ended up using the MiFi the entire time I was working in my hotel room, due to the first FAIL on my list.

FAIL- Venetian Hotel room connectivity. On the surface it appeared that connectivity in the Venetian hotel room would be the least of my worries. They had both wired and wireless connectivity in every room, and “free” as part of a mandatory $15/day resort fee. Unfortunately, it seems the hotel was not up to the influx of geek guests who were obviously saturating the network. The wired connection in my room didn’t work at all, and I didn’t have a few hours to work with hotel techs to get it working. The wireless was spotty, if it worked at all. I found that often my PC would immediately connect up to the “SuiteWiFi” hotspot, only to have no access to the web. Other times I could get straight to the web, only to have the connection drop off every few minutes. When I opened up the ThinkPad Access Manager to get a graphical look at the hotspots present, I could see at least 10 other rooms with the same SSID. I suspect the problem was exacerbated by not knowing which room’s hotspot I was connecting to. Big FAIL!

WIN- ThinkPad x200. The ThinkPad worked wonderfully for me during the CES, and I would estimate I spent almost half the entire time in slate mode working by touch. It was a common site to see me in some uncomfortable setting with the x200 in my hands allowing me to get solid work done. I was approached by a lot of people during the week, given that slates were on everyone’s mind, and was repeatedly amused to tell them that this ThinkPad was nothing new at the show. The lack of Tablet PC marketing was obvious over and over during the week (mini-FAIL for that).

FAIL- AT&T. I won’t say much about the total failure of AT&T during the CES week as it has been shouted from every corner. I’ll just say that my iPhone 3G was basically useless the entire week, until late Saturday when it was obvious many iPhone owners had departed. The coverage came back at that point, and worked in the same exact locations it had failed all week. ‘Nuff said.

WIN- Venetian Express Shuttle. The organizers of the CES provided a shuttle service that was an express route between the Venetian Hotel and the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC). These buses left both locations every 10 minutes, and the service was wonderful. Kudos for this, as it made getting back and forth very simple.

FAIL- Press facilities at the Venetian. In years past, the CES has provided separate blogger and press rooms at both the LVCC and the Sands/ Venetian. This year, due to the size of the show being smaller, they only provided one small room at the Venetian. While I liked having both press and bloggers in the same space, the facility was smaller than either one last year. This often made it difficult to find a space to work, especially given that half the allotted space was taken up by CES functions. The Wi-Fi was spotty in the press room too, making a wired connection (provided) almost mandatory, when you could find one.

This year’s CES is winding down and I finally have time to slow down long enough to catch my breath, rest my aching feet, and reflect on the road trip in general. This isn’t really a reflection of the show, it is instead my thoughts on the road trip and the mobile gear I used this year. It is a look at what worked, what didn’t, and why. Join me for this look at the past week.

Before the road trip, I shared my thoughts about the gear I was going to bring and why. I mentioned I was bringing the iPhone 3G, but also the Palm Pre as my experience with the AT&T network while traveling was not a very good one. Bringing the Pre was a very good thing, as I found the iPhone virtually useless for calls and data coverage from day one. AT&T can say what they want about its data coverage, I am continually finding it to be poor during my road trips, and this one was as bad as ever.

The iPhone 3G was great to have for reading e-books, but not much else for most of the week. I couldn’t do anything that required data, until late Saturday. I could tell when a lot of people here for the CES left town, as the AT&T network came back to life. There is absolutely no question in my mind that the AT&T network cannot handle saturation during an event like the CES. The Sprint network rarely faltered during the week. I don’t know why, given its horrible reputation, AT&T wouldn’t beef up coverage for an event like this. Let’s face it, if they can’t provide service to a gathering of technology journalists who cover such things, they have a real problem.

The real joy for me the whole week was using the ThinkPad x200 Tablet. It was liberating being able to use the multitouch x200 in slate mode, especially in tight spaces where there was no room to comfortably use a laptop. I got admiring glances all week while I was using the slate, mostly from others precariously balancing a laptop in very uncomfortable ways. The x200 worked well for me no matter what the circumstances were, and it was great to take notes during crowded press events on the slate with the pen.

The only area I wish worked better was in handling video I shot during the week. The MacBook would have been better for this, strictly due to the ease of use that iMovie 09 provides. I could do everything I needed using Windows 7 on the x200, but not nearly as easily. It still worked though, and I am happy I brought the x200 and left the MacBook at home.

The one gadget that saved my bacon regularly all week was the Verizon MiFi, but I knew that would be the case. My hotel room had both wired and wireless connectivity, but it worked so inconsistently that I just used the MiFi. It never hiccuped, and I had outstanding bandwidth the entire trip with the MiFi. For those interested, I used right at 1 GB of my 5 GB data cap the whole week, and I used it for hours each day. I watched a lot of CES videos this week so it’s a good indication of how much usage would be required to exceed that 5 GB cap.

I brought the docking station for the ThinkPad as it allows me to charge the second battery at the same time as the other battery. That came in handy only once, as the battery life on the x200 is so good I only drained it once during the week. I never brought the charger with me during the day, so I was on battery all day every day. I regularly got over 6 hours of life on the battery. The one day I drained it I just swapped batteries and kept going. Back in the hotel room that night I popped the x200 into the dock, and the second battery into the charger connection on the side of the dock. It was wonderful never having to worry about conserving the battery, and especially nice not to be looking for a power outlet at the show.

Korean firm Viliv has rolled out two new gadgets at the CES, one a small handheld UMPC and the other a convertible netbook. I spent some time cruising their exhibit at the CES but it was so crowded I couldn’t get any good photos of the two new devices. Some friends got some good pics so I will share those to show what the new Viliv devices look like.

First up, the N5 picks up where the S5 I have covered in the past leaves off. Viliv took the 5-inch device and added a QWERTY keyboard. This will make some people happy, I am sure, although personally I don’t get much value from a very small keyboard like this. The folks at pocketables were able to capture a photo of the N5 that I am sharing here.

The specs on the N5 are similar to that of the S5:

• Atom Z520- 1.33 GHz
• Windows 7
• 1 GB RAM
• Wi-Fi, 3G or WiMAX optional
• GPS, Bluetooth, Webcam
• 4.8-inch 1024×600 touch screen
• 32 GB SSD

The other device that Viliv has been showcasing at CES is a departure for them, as the S10 Blade is the company’s first foray into the convertible netbook world. The S10 has a 10-inch swivel screen and a full keyboard, making it a complete netbook.

Viliv has opted to go with a higher resolution screen than on most 10-inch netbooks, and the 1366×768 is a nice touch. They also are offering a complete SSD selection, from 32 to 128 GB. This is coupled with a 2 GHz Atom processor to keep things moving along. The picture is from our friends at Liliputing.

S10 Blade specs:

• Atom Z530 (1.8 GHz) or Z550 (2 GHz)
• Windows 7 Home Premium (touch enabled)
• 10.1-inch multitouch screen
• SSD- 32, 64, 128 GB
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G, WiMAX optional
• Webcam
• 3 USB
• 2.67 pounds

Pricing for the two new devices will be determined later.

ASUS announced some radical product designs at the CES this week. Chief among the new designs is the NX90 notebook, a sleek, stylish beast of a notebook. The NX90 incorporates audio work by Bang & Olufsen to set this $2,500 notebook apart from the crowd.

It’s not new but it was fun to see the Eee PC 1005PE in person. The 10-inch netbook is as good as any on the market.

I love convertible notebooks, and I love multitouch Tablets. The T101MT fits the bill with the swivel screen that handles multitouch.

ASUS discussed some long-term research projects called Waveface that uses translucent bendable displays to build useful devices. The prototype wristband has a smartphone become a thing of beauty, and the slate on the right a very timely device. According to ASUS this technology is 5 to 10 years out so don’t get too excited yet.

I am entering into day 5 of the hoopla that is the CES, and have a rare moment to kick back and reflect on what I’ve seen at the show. Before arriving in Vegas for the show, my feeling was that this would be the year of the smartbook. I expected to see smartbooks everywhere, those little notebooks with ARM chips and either Linux or Android on-board. That’s not what I’ve found, though, and it makes me wonder if the smartbook is going to finally take off.

There have been a few smartbooks lying around, chief among them the Lenovo Skylight we caught on video. I am impressed with how well this smartbook works, and it is easily the thinnest, lightest notebook I have used. It’s hard to get around the MSRP of $499, though, and even though it’s going to be subsidized and sold by AT&T, it’s likely still going to be a healthy pile of coin. I definitely believe that in addition to the always-on nature of smartbooks with the integrated 3G, they must be dirt cheap for consumers to pick them up. Sadly, there have been no super cheap smartbooks bandied about at CES.

Wandering around the CES exhibits found no shortage of notebooks, but I expected that. Every vendor was hawking its latest and greatest notebook models, but to tell the truth nothing really jumped out and grabbed me. Sure, there was no shortage of notebooks with the latest Intel Core processors, and thin and light laptops were everywhere. But I didn’t find much new, and that probably has as much to do with companies no longer waiting for the CES to make big notebook announcements.  The Dell Adamo XPS is as innovative as any notebook that has launched in quite some time, but we’ve already seen months of teasers for that. Dell didn’t wait for the CES to launch it anyway. Heck, HP didn’t even have a booth this year, which is surprising.

In the mobile tech space the big thing was definitely the tablet, or slate as Microsoft and Intel have now dubbed them. You bumped into a slate display almost everywhere you went at the exhibition, and I lost count how many companies were pushing one at the crowd. These slates are in all shapes and sizes, from the super thin handheld sizes (5 – 7 inches) to the larger ones designed more for media consumption. I saw slates that stand alone and slates that pop into keyboard docks. There were literally dozens of these slates at the CES, and we should start seeing these hit the market pretty soon.

In the international exhibitions many Asian companies were hawking reference design for slates, trying to attract companies to bring them to market. There were slates running Linux, others running Android, and of course the mystery slate that Microsoft showed off at the keynote. That turned out to be a prototype by HP that is due to launch later this year. The anticipation over this slate was unfounded, as it is just a notebook without a keyboard that runs Windows 7.

It is clear that the months of rumors about the Apple tablet have gotten a lot of companies concerned. The conversations I had off the record with reps at several companies indicated that it is expected that Apple will bring something unexpected to market with its tablet, and that has many competitors concerned. Thus the race to get slates to market before Apple does is considered important.

Speaking of slates, so far the gadget that has impressed me the most at the CES is easily the Lenovo U1 Hybrid Notebook. Lenovo has done an amazing job integrating the two OSes involved, and it’s simply incredible how the device switches from Linux (in the slate) to Windows 7 (in the notebook). This integration makes this a slate with no compromises, as you always have Windows 7 and a keyboard when needed. You get it all with a single device. Let’s hope Lenovo can get the price down low enough to attract some decent sales. I’d love to see them have the incentive to further the development and evolution of the U1.

Given the hot focus on slates, it has been a lot of fun using the ThinkPad x200 convertible Tablet this week at the CES. It was a common sight to see me walking around the halls of the exhibit with the tablet in slate mode, interacting with the tablet via touch. It was a blast to see the interested looks I got everywhere, as folks were trying to figure out what new thing this was. I can only imagine the looks had I been walking around with the old HP tc1100 slate. Now that would have been something.

E-book readers are also everywhere you turn. I’ll have to address that down the road.

Cool things spotted while wondering the halls of the CES:

I had the opportunity to meet with the Freescale folks to have a look at what they have going on with various OEMs. Not many people are familiar with Freescale, but they make chips for e-book readers and smartbooks. They produce the chips for the Kindle and the Sony Reader, in fact.

In this video from the conversation, Freescale demonstrates the Sharp Netwalker handheld, and the reference design slate with the cool keyboard dock.Don’t miss the price point Freescale thinks should be possible with the hybrid tablet. It’s better than you may think. I have a feeling we’ll be hearing more about new products using their chips.

NOTE: After major problems getting the HD video uploaded due to connectivity issues, this video is in SD.

I took a whirlwind tour through the Microsoft booth and they had a display of some nice notebooks all in one place. I snapped pics to share:

Not all new products are debuting at the CES this week, as is the case with the new Fujitsu Lifebook UH900. This little handheld clamshell has a 5.6-inch screen and runs Windows 7. The little computer has Atom inside along with a 62 GB SSD to keep things hopping.

UPDATE: I finally found this little jewel in stealth mode at the Microsoft booth. I couldn’t play with it very much but got a good photo of it below. I’m certainly going to try and track down a hands-on session with this little clamshell

The little beast only weighs 1.1 pounds, and the display is actually multitouch capable. This could be one of the smallest “slates” capable of multitouch. The little Lifebook will be sold by Fujitsu in Asia for $999. It’s not cheap but it does pack a wallop.

(via Akihabara News)

One of the technologies that has intrigued me for a while is that used in the Pixel Qi display. These LCD displays operate in two modes — a normal color mode like most laptop displays and a non-backlit mode that allows viewing in bright light. Once the backlight is turned off the display is viewed in a black-and-white mode like that used in traditional e-Ink readers. I intend to get some hands-on time with the Pixel Qi technology while at CES this week, especially after talking to Brad Linder of Liliputing.

Brad spent some time with a Lenovo netbook that has been fitted with a Pixel Qi display and he couldn’t say enough good things about it. When the display is running in normal color mode, the power consumption is 2.5 W; when the backlight is turned off the display is completely viewable but only consumes 0.5 W. This has major battery life ramifications for mobile computers, and it’s easy to see why Brad is so excited. Check out his video of the screen in action and you’ll be excited, too.

Image credit: Engadget

Intel demonstrated the first smartphone running the Moorestown processor during the keynote at the CES tonight. The LG GW990 was demonstrated on-stage running Moblin for the OS. The phone was able to easily handle complex multi-tasking, and was very responsive.

Moblin is an interesting choice for a smartphone OS, and could be the dark horse in that area. Smartphones are small computers, and what better way to handle them than with a computing OS. The GW990 will be out later this year.

We showed you Alex, the cool dual-screen e-book reader from Spring Designs. Alex looks like a good reader with that large second color touchscreen. Content is king in the e-book world and the Borders bookstore has been signed up to supply content for the Alex.

“Our agreement with Spring Design represents another step in our digital strategy, which continues to focus on offering book lovers-including our more than 35 million Borders Rewards loyalty program members-high quality content on the device of their choosing,” said Borders Group Chief Executive Officer Ron Marshall. “We look forward to bringing a world class eBook experience to Alex users.”

Alex will go on sale February 22nd for $359 from the Spring Designs online store.

I attended the Palm press event at the CES today and as expected Palm is set to roll out the refreshed versions of the Pre and the Pixi. It wasn’t that much a surprise that Verizon will be getting the Palm phones, but Palm has granted Big Red the two new models under exclusive contract. I’ll bet the folks at Sprint aren’t too happy after this announcement.

The next generation Pre will be the Pre Plus and will get double the memory while losing the navigation button that wanted to be a trackball anyway. The Pre Plus will also ship with the Touchstone compatible back, making all new Pres work with the wireless charger out of the box. It was not made clear if the Pixi Plus will also include the Touchstone capability.

The Pixi Plus remains largely the same, with the welcome addition of Wi-Fi bringing it more in line with the Pre Plus. Both new models will be available through Verizon on January 25th. Consumers who pick up one of the new Palm phones better pick up the monthly tethering option from Verizon, as Palm is including the new “Mobile Hotspot” feature on them. This option will let the phones tether to other devices to share the 3G connection, and like the MiFi with up to 5 devices at once.

Palm will be rolling out the next major version of webOS in February. Version 1.4 will add video recording and editing to all Palm phones. The full version of Flash 10.1 will also be pushed out to webOS phones in February, making them the first smartphones to get full Flash.

Gamers will be happy to hear Palm has deals with major game publishers, and has added development tools that allows using traditional program code in webOS. Need for Speed and the Sims 3 are available now, and they both looked pretty good in the demo shown at the event.

The Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas is opening today and the opening keynote is designed to set the tempo for the annual show. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took the stage to a packed audience and laid out what we might expect from Redmond this year.

Windows 7 is doing great according to Ballmer, due to the largest development process in history. Microsoft used 3,000 software engineers to bring Windows 7 to final form, worked with 50,000 partners, and had over 8 million beta testers to make sure that Windows 7 was ready for release in 2009. It is the OS that can work on screens of all sizes, from handheld slates to massive displays like that used in the keynote address.

The focus of Ballmer’s talk was directed more to the new philosophy that the consumer wants Windows on every screen in the house. It was clear that Microsoft is dropping the Tablet PC product name, in favor of the hot “slate” name that has been pushed into the media by the Apple tablet rumors. Ballmer didn’t mention Apple at all during his lengthy keynote, perhaps an unspoken acknowledgment of the competition Microsoft is feeling from those in Cupertino.

Ballmer demonstrated three slate computers that are in prototype stage, the primary focus being an unnamed slate from HP. The device looked to be a simple slate with few controls on the gadget, simply a touch screen for interaction. This slate is scheduled to hit the market later this year. It was clear from the demonstration that the media buzz about this mystery slate probably overshot the reality. It is simply a slate running Windows 7, without a keyboard. Nothing truly earthshaking. We saw a far more interesting slate yesterday from Lenovo.

A large focus of Ballmer’s keynote was the Xbox Live ecosystem, and it has definitely turned into one of huge proportions. Xbox Live will work with games, of course, but Pay TV is expected to provide a huge market for consumers. AT&T – runs on Microsoft Mediaroom software, and it all works seamlessly with Xbox Live. There is a concerted effort at Microsoft to get Pay TV totally integrated with Xbox, with all the revenue that represents.

Xbox Live will see the release of a new genre of game that Microsoft deemed the Psychological Action Thriller, in the form of a game dubbed Alan Wake. This game will tread in the waters of a new revenue model for games, with episodes being released over time that consumers can get through Xbox Live.

The entertainment business will be huge for Microsoft, with over 100 million songs and games having been downloaded to date. Zune video is now available in 18 countries, and that should continue to grow in 2010.

Microsoft is going to debut a new Xbox Live gaming ecosystem this year that focuses on retro arcade console games from the past. Over 1,000 games will be released over the next few years, and Live members can pick them up to build personal arcades. The goal is to provide a social network aspect to these personal arcades, with members able to invite others to play in their virtual arcades.

Microsoft is expecting 2010 to be the biggest year ever for Xbox Live. This was reflected in the amount of time spent during the keynote discussing these new efforts. There is a massive effort to merge TV consumption with gaming, and Xbox Live is Microsoft’s ticket to bring MS technology to every screen in the house.

Bringing the content to all screens includes the small screen of the Windows phone. Ballmer was proudly carrying the HTC HD2 around the stage during the keynote. He pointed out that Zune content and Xbox Live content will soon be appearing on the Windows phone screens. No timetable was given for this effort. Interestingly, that was the only Windows phone that was shown by Microsoft, despite their intention to release Windows Mobile 7 late this year. WM7 was not discussed at all, a rather telling example of where it fits in Microsoft’s overall strategy.

HTC has proven its desire to be a multi-platform phone maker, and it’s announced a new phone that brings the Sense interface to the Qualcomm Brew Mobile Platform. Brew is the platform used on millions of feature phones, and integrating it with the HTC Sense interface further blurs the distinction between feature phone and smartphone.

The HTC Smart is a touch phone that looks like many HTC devices on the market. It uses touch widgets to customize the user experience. I guess you could say that the Smart brings the Brew platform into the smartphone age. Brew makes it possible to produce cheap feature phones due to the low cost of the platform, and this brings Sense technology to a much cheaper class of products.

Further details about the Smart will be forthcoming during the CES.

Normally when we think of netbooks we think of very small, light notebooks with very limited components. Some OEMs have pushed the limit of the netbook definition by incorporating an 11.6-inch screen. Gateway is pushing the limit even harder with the introduction of its newest “netbook”, the EC14D. This new notebook, and I’m calling it what it really is, takes that 11-inch screen and attaches it to an integrated DVD drive. Yes, this little notebook adds the drive that most in its class forego. Other notable components included are the ULV processor and the multitouch capable trackpad. Here are the complete specs of the EC14D:

• Intel^® Pentium^® ULV Processor SU4100 (1.3GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB)
• Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
• 11.6-inch HD Widescreen Ultrabright LED-backlit TFT LCD (1366 x 768 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio)
• Mobile Intel^®GS45 Express Chipset
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
• 4096MB DDR2 Dual-Channel 667MHz memory upgradeable to 8GB
• 320GB⁽²⁾ 5400RPM SATA hard drive
• Integrated 8X Super-Multi DVD player
• Integrated webcam
• Multi-in-1 digital media card reader
• Intel^® Wi-Fi Link 1000 802.11b/g/Draft-N WiFi CERTIFIED® featuring MIMO technology
• Gigabit Ethernet LAN
• Three USB 2.0 ports
• HDMI port
• Multi-Gesture Touchpad
• Standard 6-cell Li-ion (5600 mAh) Battery
• 3.55 lbs.
• 11.49” (W) x 1.12” to 1.18” (H) x 8.33” (D)

The new notebook will be available later this month starting at $629.99. Hey, those beefier components cost more.

HP is getting into CES fever and have announced a refresh of just about its entire notebook and netbook lines. The netbooks get some fresh paint and other goodies, including a fair smattering of touch. The convertible Tablet PC, the tm2, is the latest iteration of HP’s dual digitizer packing tablets. The tm2 picks up where the tx2 left off and adds full HP TouchSmart software to the touch and ink. The tm2 starts at $949 an will be available January 7.

The netbook line has the Mini 210 and Mini 2102 picking up the latest Atom processor options along with HD display options. Both models feature a 10.1-inch screen and that nice 93 percent keyboard. The 210 starts at $299 and the 2102 starts at $329. They are also available on Jan. 7.

The 5101 gets refreshed and morphs into the Mini 5102. This is the brushed metal netbook aimed at the enterprise, although consumers like it just fine. My video review of the earlier 5101 demonstrates what can be expected from the newer 5102 model. The keyboard is a 95 percent of a full-sized one, and HP made is spill-proof to add a rugged nature to the model. The Mini 5102 is the first HP netbook to incorporate face recognition software, that logs the user in once it recognizes the person is authorized. The Mini 5102 has two options that are first for HP netbooks. There is an interesting touch screen option for the 5102, making it HP’s first touch-enable Mini. There is another option to make the netbook easier to carry, an attachable handle.  HP is pre-loading the Corel Home Office Suite to the Mini 5102 which starts at $399. It will be available later in January. HP is quoting a 10-hour battery life using the optional 6-cell battery, which is only $25.

The ProBook business line of notebooks is also getting new models, notably the 6440 and 6540. These sport the Core i7 processors for performance boosts, and construction with magnesium for durability. These new models start at $949 and are currently available.

The EliteBook business line also sees new models, the 8440 and 8540. Both new models feature refreshed components like the rest of the HP notebooks, with the notable addition of USB 3.0 to the 8540.  The 8440 and 8540 will be available in January for $1,099 and $1,249, respectively.

It’s been a busy day so far getting ready for the opening of the CES tomorrow. We had over an hour to play with some cool mobile gear earlier, including an innovative hybrid, and we should have that video up pretty soon. Meanwhile I have been on a quest to find passable Wi-Fi connectivity somewhere around the Venetian Hotel and the Sands Center. The press room at the Sands is a wash, too many people and the network too saturated to be of much use.

I’m able to keep going just fine with the MiFi, but full bandwidth would be nice. I stopped for coffee in a shop on the edge of the casino and lo and behold the connectivity is free and tasty. Nothing better than a good cup of java and some tasty Wi-Fi, but it sure is strange blogging with slot machines all around.