Mobile & Wireless

We've seen this before. Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, is removing himself from day to day operations of the company to try to recover from health issues. Tim Cook is again assuming the role of heading the company in his absence.

As might be expected, one of the things that vendors were emphasizing at CES was cost: Unless the product was considered so hot that it was worth whatever you paid for it, there was usually talk about how the device would either cost less than its peers, or at least save you more money.

Remember when we were all excited about the $100 laptop? Well, that didn't work out the way we hoped it would, but Dell does have a $99 netbook. There is, however, a catch.

Microsoft's biggest operating system competitor may not be Apple or Linux. Instead, a possible Google operating system based on its Android OS for mobile phones may power netbooks. If that's the case, the Google OS could take a serious bite out of Windows.

Analysts say that Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony will report full-year operating losses for the first time since 1995 during an earnings call later this month. The news comes on the heels of seven years of missed earnings. So why do I think the company is poised for a massive come-back?

While there are hundreds of hardware and then software layers on top of the processor, not much else can make as big an input on the overall abilities of a device than the horsepower it has under the hood. In this race, Palm Pre's engine beats the (current!) iPhone and just about any other smartphone out there hands down.

I remember my first Palm like I remember my first date in high school. (Kristi, wherever you are, I'm sorry for what happened to your dress, the car, and your dog.) But it's been a long since I used one. Now with the new Pre smartphone, Palm may be on the verge of a big comeback.

In Friday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches bloggers cheer for Palm's new smartphone and operating system. Not to mention a serpentine Burger King ad...
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As an 'Apple Guy' CES has always taken a back seat to Macworld.   Wow, not this year.  This year I can't keep my eyes off of CES.  So many innovative products are coming out while the luster of the 17-inch Unibody MacBook wore off almost instantly.

In today's podcast: China finally issues 3G licenses; Lenovo lays off 2,500 workers; and Microsoft to release Windows 7 public beta.

In Thursday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches bloggers say "bellwether" a lot, as they watch Intel warn of a weak Q4. Not to mention a groan-worthy sailing pun...
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Verizon Wireless executive Tony Lewis told Reuters this week that he expected competitors to the Amazon Kindle eBook reader to "arrive" in 2009, and hinted that Verizon would sell them to customers like cell phones.

At first, the idea of Verizon selling Kindle competitors sounds insane. Their business plan would presumably involve charging customers connection fees for accessing an online electronic bookstore. This sounds crazy for two reasons: 

I'm not going to CES, but I've gotten several pre-show briefings on interesting stuff. Two themes are clearly emerging: gadgets are going wireless in a big way, and everything is finally getting connected.

Wristwatches are now trying to beat cell phone at their own game: Convergence. 

Check back here at Noon Eastern time/9:00am Pacific time on Tuesday, January 6th as I will be trying to keep up with all of the announcements that Phil Schiller can dish out. I should have a handy list of predictions by then which will be mostly wrong.