Net TV, Netbooks Wow at Quieter CES - Page 2

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Notebook PCs are also getting small and more energy efficient. Netbooks, which started to take off in 2008, were omnipresent at CES. A Sony spokesperson asked me not to call the company's new Vaio P Series Lifestyle PC a netbook because, he argued, it has a lot more power and features than the typical stripped down netbooks. He had a point.

The ultra-light machine weighs only 1.4 pounds and is 9.65 inches wide, .78 inches thick and 4.72 inches tall with the screen open, and comes in black, green, red and white. It has a well-sculpted keyboard that's 92 percent of the size of a standard keyboard, and which is surprisingly easy to type on. It also has plenty of connectivity including Wi-Fi, 3G cellular broadband, GPS and Bluetooth. It comes with Vista and has 2 GB of RAM and either a 60 GB hard drive or 120GB solid-state drive.

In size, it's smaller than most netbooks, but its price tag, starting at $900, is a lot bigger.

To save space, Sony left-off a track-pad but put in a pointing stick, or "nub," that sticks up from between G, H and B keys. The LED-backlit 8-inch screen offers a resolution of 1600 x 768, and is certainly small, but reasonably readable.

I was also impressed by a somewhat larger notebook PC from Hewlett-Packard. The HP Mini 2140 sports a 10.1-inch LED display and a classy looking all-aluminum case. At 2.6 pounds, it’s a lot heavier than the new Sony but still quite light. Its 92 percent-scale keyboard is also quite usable, even for touch typists, and with an optional six-cell lithium battery, it should get pretty good battery life.

At a starting point of $499, it's not the least expensive netbook, but it's well priced for what it offers.

The biggest buzz from CES came from a very unlikely source. Palm, which has lately been a laggard in the smartphone market, impressed a lot of people with its Pre handset that has pretty much all the features of an iPhone with a pull-out physical QWERTY keyboard.

[cob:In_Focus]The device also features Palm's new WebOS software that enables users to synchronize contact and calendar data over the air from popular Web sites, including Google's Gmail, Yahoo and Facebook.

For example, if your friend changes his or her phone number on Facebook, it automatically changes on your Pre. And rather than connect the device to a computer with a cable, it will synchronize data from Web sites and Exchange servers over-the-air, using via the Pre's 3G Internet connection.

Now that CES is over, the companies that showed off new products can get back to the business of figuring out not just what impresses reviewers and industry insiders, but what consumers will actually buy. Considering the state of the economy, that will be no easy task.

Larry Magid has been a technology columnist and broadcaster for more than two decades as well as a leading Internet safety advocate. In addition to serving as CBS News & CNET Technology analyst, Larry is a columnist for the San Jose Mercury News and a frequent contributor to the New York Times and other media outlets.