subject: What Was Hot At This Year's Vegas Gadget Show [print this page] Gadgets revealed at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas flop more often than they pop. This year's show, however, delivered many products that are bound to make a difference for years to come.
Microsoft provided a sneak peek at a radical new version of Windows, Verizon showed the first consumer gadgets for a wireless network that's faster in many cases than wired broadband, and many manufacturers showed tablet computers with the potential to give Apple's iPad a run for its money.
The show itself, the largest trade show in the Americas, was back in high form, after two lean years. A pre-show estimate put attendance at more than 126,000 people, and the crowds pointed to attendance well above that, but perhaps not as many as the 141,150 people that showed up in 2008.
Here are the can't miss developments from the show, which ended Sunday:
Tablets.
Touch-screen tablet computers crowded the show, as brand names large and small showed off a slew of devices meant to compete with Apple Inc.'s iPad.
From a hardware standpoint, companies touted features that the iPad doesn't yet have, such as front- and rear-facing cameras for video chatting and taking high-definition videos and the ability to operate over wireless carriers' new and forthcoming high-speed networks, together known as 4G.
As for software, the upcoming Honeycomb version of Google Inc.'s Android software seemed a popular choice. Many of the tablets unveiled such as the Xoom from Motorola Mobility Inc. will run Honeycomb, which is more geared toward tablets than current versions of Android, which has its roots in smart phones and their smaller screens.
Some tablets shown will run the Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 7 PC software, though. And the business-focused 4G PlayBook, which comes from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Inc., runs RIM's own software.
