CES 2025 news in review: AI, robots, smart glasses, smart rings and more

The following is a roundup of my stories from Investors.com.

Synopsys purchase of Ansys will fulfill company’s goal. (Jan. 28, 2025)

SoundHound makes tempting offer to carmakers. AI stock surges. (Jan. 21, 2025)

Tech firms have their eyes on smart glasses as the next big thing. (Jan. 10, 2025)

Health tracking is moving to smart rings from watches. Oura leads market. (Jan. 9, 2025)

X CEO applauds Meta decision to end fact-checking program on Facebook, Instagram. (Jan. 8, 2025)

SoundHound AI adds on-the-go food ordering to in-vehicle voice assistant. (Jan. 7, 2025)

Nvidia raises bar at CES 2025. But stock slides. (Jan. 7, 2025)

Nvidia expands AI reach with automotive, robotics initiatives. (Jan. 6, 2025)

AMD reveals next-generation AI PC chips, gets Dell endorsement. (Jan. 6, 2025)

Deere tackles labor shortages with autonomous tractors. (Jan. 6, 2025)

President-elect Trump poses challenge to U.S. tech sales. (Jan. 6, 2025)

AI everywhere at CES 2025 with spotlight on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. (Jan. 2, 2025)

Photo: X CEO Linda Yaccarino (left) speaks at CES 2025 with broadcast journalist Catherine Herridge. (Consumer Technology Association)

CES 2024 news in review: AI, spatial computing, robots and more

The following is a roundup of my coverage of the CES 2024 technology trade show in Las Vegas.

Arm elbows into new arenas as chip designer takes on AI, auto, cloud, other markets. (Jan. 26, 2024)

Powerfoyle becoming “Intel Inside” for light-powered gadgets. (Jan. 19, 2024)

Robot barista looks to fill labor shortage. Say hello to Adam. (Jan. 19, 2024)

Apple isn’t the only player in spatial computing. Rivals populated CES 2024. (Jan. 17, 2024)

Garmin targeting niche markets in smartwatches for women, kids. (Jan. 12, 2024)

Dolby cranks up volume of licensing deals in autos, TVs, PCs. (Jan. 12, 2024)

Qualcomm in catbird seat for edge AI shift, CEO says. (Jan. 11, 2024)

Smart TV platform battle rages at CES 2024. Amazon, Roku make waves. (Jan. 11, 2024)

Automotive chipmakers squeezed by “accordion effect.” (Jan. 10, 2024)

L’Oreal adds glamour to CES 2024 with beauty tech gadgets. (Jan. 9, 2024)

Dell, HP join Intel push for AI PCs. Microsoft Copilot called “marquee” feature. (Jan. 9, 2024)

Nvidia steps up generative AI game with new chips. (Jan. 8, 2024)

AMD rounds out AI PC chip lineup with new desktop processors. (Jan. 8, 2024)

Consumers set to upgrade pandemic-era tech purchases. (Jan. 8, 2024)

“AI is the story of the show”: What to expect from CES 2024. (Jan. 6, 2024)

Photos: CES 2024 outside the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center (Patrick Seitz); LG Electronics WebOS tunnel at CES 2024 (LG)

Ready or not, the conference industry is returning post-Covid

After being shut down for about two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the in-person conference industry appears to be coming back.
After a two-year absence, the National Association of Broadcasters held its NAB Show in Las Vegas April 23-27. The 2022 show attracted more than 900 exhibitors and 52,468 attendees. The NAB Show is the world’s largest annual convention for broadcasters and the broader media, entertainment, and technology industries.
The biennial MODEX manufacturing and supply chain conference drew 857 exhibitors and 37,047 visitors to Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center March 28-31. It was the largest MODEX show ever, with 20% more visitors than the last pre-pandemic show – MODEX 2018.
The MODEX show is sponsored by MHI, an international trade association that represents the material handling, logistics and supply chain industry. MODEX is held every other year, alternating each year with the ProMat trade show.
Many other U.S. conferences are scheduled for physical shows soon. They include the Robotics Summit & Expo in Boston on May 10-11; the Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago from May 23-26, L.A TV Week in Los Angeles from June 6-8; the Automate conference in Detroit from June 6-9; and Sensors Converge in San Jose, Calif., from June 27-29. Those are just a few that I’ve been pinged about.
Some tech companies I follow are hesitant to go back to in-person shows just yet.
Apple is holding its annual Worldwide Developers Conference as an online event for the third straight year.
Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O, will take place online May 11 and 12. Google I/O was canceled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and returned as an online event in 2021.
However, other tech companies are going forward with in-person events that also will be livestreamed for people who can’t or don’t want to travel to a physical show.
Dell is holding its Dell Technologies World conference in Las Vegas May 2-5. Intel has scheduled its Intel Vision conference for May 10-11 at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas.

Related reading:

After two years of Covid, live events are finally happening again (Tech-media-tainment; Feb. 13, 2022)

Photo: Officials cut a ceremonial ribbon to open the NAB 2022 trade show in Las Vegas. (NAB)

At wit’s end with computer problems

Off and on for the last couple of months, I’ve been plagued with computer problems.
Problems with my work computer have hampered my productivity. Problems with a home computer have just added to my frustration.
All I want is a PC that works. Is that too much to ask?
First, my work computer, a Dell PC running Windows XP, became crippled by browser hijacks, hostage-ware, Trojans and other malware. Cleaning out all that malware damaged my user preferences and some applications, so I decided to save all my files and reinstall Windows.
Reinstalling Windows is a time-consuming process. After installing Windows, it had to download multiple software updates from Microsoft’s update page, each one requiring a restart. Then I had to install drivers for my video and audio hardware and printer. Then I had to install about two dozen software applications I use, everything from Microsoft Office to browser toolbars.
After all that, I started getting blue screens of death for bad drivers. I tried everything my company’s IT guru could suggest and a few things on my own, but no luck. The blue screens kept coming, regularly and without warning.
After some consideration, I decided to reinstall Windows again, along with all my software apps.
Things went fine for a few days, then I started getting blue screens of death for “Page_Fault_In_Nonpaged_Area.” That’s usually a sign of a bad memory component or motherboard. So I’ll have to get a replacement PC.
I’d like to upgrade from the decade-old Windows XP to the new Windows 7, but I can’t. Some of my work applications don’t run on Win 7 yet.
While all of this is going on, my relatively new Hewlett-Packard home PC running Windows 7 has an issue with the monitor going into sleep mode while you’re using it. The first service technician I brought it to couldn’t replicate the problem so I brought it home. And it happened again and again.
For now, it sits in a corner. I don’t have the time or patience to figure out what to do with it. And while it gathers dust, I’m using an older Dell PC running Windows XP.
Fingers crossed that I don’t get the blue screen of death on that machine too.

Photo: Blue screen of death message from my work PC.

Steve Jobs channels Jean-Luc Picard

I haven’t seen so many tablet computers, or at least concepts, since “Star Trek” was running new episodes.
Apple is rumored to be coming out with a tablet computer this year. Other tech companies, including Dell, HP and Lenovo, are following Apple’s lead and developing tablet computers as well.
The mockups I’ve seen look pretty familiar. That’s because they look like props from the science-fiction series “Star Trek.” The mockups are being done by media organizations that want to illustrate their Apple tablet rumor stories. The digital artists are probably “Star Trek” fans – tech geeks often are.
Maybe Apple CEO Steve Jobs is a fan of “Star Trek” too and channeled Captain Jean-Luc Picard to get his underlings to make a tablet by saying, “Make it so.”

Photos:
Mockup of an Apple tablet next to an iPhone by Gizmodo.
“Star Trek” tablet computer called a PADD, short for personal access display device. See description and photos on Memory Alpha.

Microsoft meets ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

Twice this year I’ve had to reinstall all my software, files and settings to my Dell desktop PC after Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system suffered a fatal system crash.
Is it a coincidence that the fatal error in both cases bears the same name as the homicidal computer in the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
When my PC crashed, I got a black screen of death with the message: “Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \system32\hal.dll.”
That’s right – Hal, like the astronaut-killing HAL 9000 computer from “2001.” The cinematic computer suffered a system error that it tried to cover up by murdering the witnesses.
Hal.dll errors are serious. Luckily I didn’t lose data, but I did have to reinstall all my software programs. I reinstalled Windows, Office 2007, McAfee security software, applications for burning CDs, editing photos, a virtual private network to access my company’s system, to name a few. Then there’s all the Web browser customization, including toolbars, plug-in apps, bookmarks and passwords.
I’m still recovering from the mess created by the most recent crash last week.
By the way, Hal.dll stands for “hardware abstraction layer” in Windows’ “dynamic-link libraries.”

Twitter is being co-opted by marketers and mainstream media

A new study on Twitter has determined that 5% of Twitter users account for 75% of all activity on the microblogging service.
What’s more, 15% of Twitter users account for 91% of activity on the site, according to Sysomos, a social media analytics firm. Sysomos analyzed data on 11.5 million Twitter accounts for its study posted June 11.
Sysomos said 21% of Twitter users have never posted a Tweet and 85% of all Twitter users post less than one update per day.
Twitter might not be about “two-way micro-conversations as it is about one-way micro-broadcasting,” as TechCrunch noted recently. Most people on Twitter are sheep who don’t tweet much, TechCrunch said.
Just as Web logs, or blogs, were co-opted by mainstream media outlets and commercial enterprises, so too is Twitter. As Twitter has grown, it’s become an audience that companies like Dell can market to and news organizations like CNN and Fox can exploit.
Those organizations are now started to dominate the conversation because they can blast out so many news stories and updates or marketing pitches.

HP overtaking Dell as top U.S. PC vendor no surprise to IBD readers

One of the big stories in the tech industry on Wednesday was the fact that Hewlett-Packard dethroned Dell as the No. 1 personal computer supplier in the U.S.
Investor’s Business Daily ran the story “Global No. 1 PC Seller HP Now Also Leading In U.S.” from yours truly on Investors.com Wednesday night. Dell had been the top U.S. PC vendor for 10 years until last quarter, when HP shipped more PCs domestically.
The news was no surprise to IBD readers. On Feb. 5 Investors.com posted my story “After Losing Global Lead, Dell Slipping In U.S.” That story addressed the factors why Dell would likely fall to No. 2 in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2009.
Ouch, I just broke my arm.

A notebook computer for AIG millionaires

With unemployment rising, investments and home values falling, and consumer confidence in the dumps, Dell has decided that now is a good time to launch a high-fashion luxury notebook computer.
Dell’s new Adamo notebook starts at $2,000. It’s billed as the world’s thinnest notebook computer at 0.65 inches thick. The 4-pound personal computer is sleek, stylish and being marketed as though it were expensive perfume or a fur coat.
Black-and-white ads feature gaunt runway models in haute couture posing with the laptop as if it were a martini or pricey purse.
I know the perfect market for these new notebook computers – all those Wall Street bankers and insurers who’ve taken millions in taxpayer-funded bailout money to use as bonuses for their poor performance.
The executives at bailed-out insurer American International Group who recently took $165 million in bonuses using federal rescue funds should all buy Adamo by Dell notebooks. It would go nicely with their Apple iPhones running the I Am Rich application.

Cisco Systems, Dell and Microsoft strike out at the Consumer Electronics Show

Big companies pitching products at the Consumer Electronics Show this year didn’t hit any home runs. Some got solid base hits, while a few struck out.

The good

Sony did a fine job conveying its vision for HDTV and introducing products capitalizing on major cultural trends.
Sony is the furthest along in developing organic light-emitting diode (OLED) televisions. OLED TV is seen as a possible successor to LCD TV, the dominant type of flat-panel high-definition TV sold today. Sony has one small OLED TV on the market now and a pipeline of larger screen sizes in the works.
Sony also introduced cameras and camcorders targeted to users of photo and video sharing sites, like Yahoo’s Flickr and Google’s YouTube. Its new products included the Wi-Fi Cybershot digital camera and pocket-sized Webbie HD camcorder.

Panasonic’s message was clear: It wants to rally industry support for its 3-D television format. Panasonic is the only company proposing a full HD 1080p standard. Rival formats compromise on resolution or color, Panasonic says.
Based on demonstrations of its technology at CES, Panasonic deserves to be the frontrunner.

The bad

Cisco Systems seemed to be at the wrong show.
Most of its CES press conference was a sales pitch to media and entertainment company executives about how to profit on the Web with their content.
Cisco rolled out its Eos software platform, which allows media and entertainment companies to create, manage and grow online communities around their content. Eos lets content owners deliver immersive consumer experiences, while increasing revenue opportunities and reducing operational costs. Warner Music Group has signed on to deploy Eos-powered Web sites for some of its artists.
Journalists grumbled about the presentation and the small room used for the press conference.

Dell was a big tease.
At a press event at the Palms hotel, the No. 2 PC maker in the world unveiled its Adamo luxury computer brand. And that’s about it.
At the end of the media briefing, executives cued runway model Hollis Wakeema, who was sitting to the side of the stage. She pranced on stage and pulled a sleek-looking laptop out of a carrying case. With music playing, she posed “Project Runway”-style with the super thin notebook PC for photographers. Then a minute later, she and the laptop were gone.
Dell wouldn’t give any information about the product, including hardware specs and pricing.
Executives would only say that it is a high-performance notebook with precision craftsmanship and amazing industrial design. It’s expected to launch in the first half of the year.
So basically all Dell announced was a brand name.

Another year, another dull Microsoft keynote about Windows.
Only this time, tech icon and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates wasn’t giving the opening night speech at CES. This year, that task went to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Ballmer didn’t draw the same size crowd as Gates used to and he seemed to be going through the motions. He lacked that Ballmer passion and wit (especially when it comes to needling rivals) that many of us are used to.
He spoke about Windows 7 (the follow-on to the oft-maligned Windows Vista), as well as Windows Live and Windows Mobile.
The only news was the beta release of Windows 7, which was expected, and several corporate partnerships. The rest was Microsoft rhetoric about connecting the three main devices people use daily – PC, TV and mobile phone.
If you’re not going to dazzle an audience like CES with new products, at least entertain them. The Microsoft keynote this year featured no funny videos or celebrity appearances, which have been a staple in previous years.

OLED TVs, 3-D television, next-gen netbooks among cool gadgets at 2009 CES

The 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was packed with cool gadgets.
Sony continued its leadership in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) TVs.
It already has an 11-inch model on the market, the XEL-1 for $2,500. At this year’s CES, Sony showed 21- and 27-inch OLED TV prototypes in its exhibit area at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
OLED TVs are beautiful and “green.” They are paper thin and energy efficient. The current production model is just 3 millimeters thick and the prototypes are even thinner. OLED televisions can display fast-moving, vibrant video without the need for a bulky backlight.
Plus, OLED TVs beat all when it comes to picture quality. They display rich color and deep contrast. Sony’s current model offers a contrast ratio of 1 million-to-1. It can completely turn off pixels when reproducing black, resulting in greater dark-scene detail.
LG Electronics showed off a 15-inch OLED TV prototype at its booth. Samsung also is working on OLED televisions.
Panasonic earned the biggest wow with its 3-D home theater demonstration.
Panasonic showed 3-D sports and movie clips in full high-definition 1080p resolution on a 103-inch plasma TV. Its 3-D video shot at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing was stunning.
Panasonic is pushing to make its technology the industry standard. It claims to have the only full HD 1080p system. Other systems, such that demonstrated by rival Sony, make compromises in color or resolution, says Joseph Taylor, chief operating officer of Panasonic Corporation of North America.
PC makers such as Asus, Dell and Sony trotted out a lot of netbooks at this year’s CES.
Many featured larger screens and full-size keyboards – things lacking from first-generation models. The added functions also bumped up the price of the small, low-cost, wireless computers.
For example, Taiwan’s Asus showed a netbook with a TV tuner, GPS navigation and a swivel display that turns the touch-screen unit into a tablet computer. The device, which has an 8.9-inch screen, sells for $499.
At the opposite end of the notebook PC spectrum is Lenovo’s ThinkPad W700DS. It’s a dual-screen portable workstation starting at about $3,700. It features a 17-inch main screen and a 10.6-inch secondary screen that pops out of the side of the main display.
The 11-pound notebook is designed for engineers and professional photographers who want to work on graphics or photos outside of the office. It includes a digital pad and stylus for making edits to images.
The secondary screen works as an extension of the main display. You can drag and drop application windows from one screen to the other. The smaller screen can be used to display graphics tool menus, e-mail or instant messaging applications.
Another recurring theme at this year’s show was accessing the Internet from living room TVs.
Netgear announced a neat product called the Internet TV Player, which lets couch potatoes access via remote control videos from YouTube and other Web sites. The player also can get live Internet TV and premium on-demand video.
It can stream content from popular sites such as BBC.com, CNN.com, ESPN.com, NBC.com, TMZ.com, YouTube, Yahoo Videos and MetaCafe. It also supports paid movies on demand such as Sonic Solutions’ CinemaNow. Plus, it can access downloaded videos from sites such as BitTorrent.
The compact set-top box should be available this summer for $199, says Vivek Pathela, vice president and general manager of Netgear’s home and consumer products.
Watching a demo of the product, I wondered how long it would be before the quantity and quality of Internet video becomes good enough to be an alternative to cable or satellite.
I can envision dumping cable TV for over-the-air HD broadcasts and Internet streaming or downloadable video at some point.
My monthly cable bill from Comcast is $89.08, including taxes and fees. (I get the standard digital programming package plus a set-top digital video recorder, but no premium channels.)
I already pay for broadband Internet and get Netflix, including streaming video via the Netflix Player by Roku. That Roku box soon will offer new movie releases to rent from Amazon.com’s video-on-demand service.
Given the current economy and need to save money, Comcast might get the boot.