This year marks my third for attending the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.  As a few of you might already know, my father is the almighty Yahya Ahdout, the owner and CEO of dreamGEAR, a video game/iPod accessory and speaker producer and distributor, and he is my ticket into this amazing show.  You can find his wonderful products at many places including your local Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Blockbuster.  One of his latest items is the Warbeast Guitar Controller for all Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Rock Revolution games on PS2/PS3. But, enough of that, lets get to the good stuff.  I will be at the show for its entirety, and I will constantly be blogging and posting every interesting thing that I find.  Like Engadget and Gizmodo, we will be posting about the biggest announcements by all the different companies, but I will also use my time to go around the smaller booths and post about the pretty cool things that everyone forgets about.  As I roam from hall to hall and booth to booth, I will be accompanied by a very good friend of mine, Michael York, who is getting his new blog off the floor, and will be working in compliance with us at blargKABOOM.

Finally, the things I will be bringing with myself on my journey:
Canon EOS 30D – To snap pictures of everything for all you guys to see!
Asus eee 901 – For blogging on the go while on the show floor.
Apple iPhone 3G – For constant tethering, and music on the go. As it is also of course my telephone.
MacBook Pro – Yes, mine is in fact the first generation model, but it will be my home-base for posting in the hotel room. 

And also, a little background for those of you who do not know what CES is; ah god im too lazy, just read about it on Wikipedia here!

Barack Obama elected President is definitely the main story tonight, but the side store – CNN used hologram technology during their election coverage. What? Hologram do you say? No…. this isn’t Star Wars. Well, it may not be up to the Star Wars bar yet, but it’s getting there. CNN “beamed” (as Wolf Blitzer says) Jessica Yellin into their election central zone via hologram. The technology worked by circling Yellin with cameras and computers than analyzing the data and projecting it onto our TV sets. Unfortunately George Lucas and the Star Wars team take the lead here because it looks as if the TV viewer is the only person seeing Yellin and she is not actually there in the studio projected in front of Blitzer. But still, there was a hologram on TV: the future is here.

CNN video

story via Engadget

UPDATE – To see will.i.am and a behind-the-scenes CNN video, read more.

Sony Ericsson’s C905 Cyber-shot Phone not only stars in its latest ad, but took the picture as well (now that’s multitasking). The ad, exclusively featured in December’s FHM, solely targets users who want a camera-phone, and it does it pretty successfully. Put simply, this phone took a picture that ended up as an ad in a magazine. Now it may have been taken by a professional photograph, in a professional set, with professional lighting, featured a professional model, and retouched professionally, but it still looks pretty darn good for a photo taken by a mobile phone camera. The phone’s 8.1 megapixel camera probably helped make the picture better, but still, look at the bigger picture: a camera-phone took this picture, and the picture looks pretty darn good.

Canon released four cheap digital cameras tonight, adding to their current PowerShot line. First off we have the SX110 IS, a 9 megapixel camera with a 10x optical zoom and a 3-inch screen retailing for $300. Next up is the A2000 IS, featuring a 10 megapixel sensor with a 6x optical zoom and a 3-inch screen retailing for $250. Then we have the A1000 IS, rocking a 10 megapixel sensor, a 4x optical zoom, and a 2.5 inch screen retailing for just $200. Last up is the E1, a more colorful 10 megapixel camera with a 4x optical zoom and a 2.5 inch screen with a $200 price tag.

via Engadget

Since Canon announced its brand new PowerShots back in March, the SD790 IS has had a little spot in my heart. Today, it finally arrived. You can see the unboxing video above, but after playing with it, I can confidently say that this is a great camera. It’s very sleek, it’s got a great 3-inch screen, 10 megapixels, and a 3X optical zoom. The navigation scroll wheel is a little tricky to get used to and is a little slow on the responsive side, but seems like it should be easy to get used to after some use. The specs on the 790 bring the device to a new level. Not only does it include a color accent feature that lets you choose one color to be shown out of them all, but it has tons of scene modes as well. Also, it’s Image Stabilizer (the IS in SD790 IS) lessens the natural movements of your hands. Lastly, its DIGIC III Image Processor is the same chip included in the top of the line, thousand dollar cameras that Canon produces. Overall, the device is very sleek and produces great photos. It retails at $349.99, but you can find it for as low as $300 if you roam around the net.

The SD890 seems to be the replacement to the SD870, but it does bring the screen size down to a 2.5 inch screen. The SD790 looks like the successor to the SD750, one of Canon’s most popular Powershots, and with a new sleek, silver design, I’d definitely look out for it. The SD770 looks to me like a mix of the SD1000 and the SD800.

• SD770 IS - $299.99 - 10 megapixels, 3X Optical Zoom, 2.5 inch screen 
• SD790 IS (pictured) - $349.99 – 10 megapixels, 3X Optical Zoom, 3 inch screen
• SD890 IS - $399.99 – 10 megapixels, 5X Optical Zoom, 2.5 inch screen, sub 1-inch macro

After years of providing cheap and quick pictures, Polaroids are now no more. The company behind Polaroids is getting rid of the old technology and will try “to reinvent Polaroid so it lives on for the next 30 to 40 years.” Polaroids will still be available in stores for the year, but after that only Japan’s Fujifilm will be producing the instant film. The digital revolution is the main cause for Polaroids demise, seeing that in 1991 they peaked at $3 billion, but in 2001 they went bankrupt. The company has been trying to boost profits with tons of different types of products over the past few years, but none of them succeeded. This products end is definitely sad, seeing as Polaroids definitely held memories of the past.

via Engadget

With only four days until the Keynote Address, Macworld ‘08 preparation has begun. Banners have started to rise for the big event and Apple’s don’t give anything away. “2008 There’s something in the air.” is on all of the banners and this doesn’t really give me any clues about what’s gonna happen.  One small thing I noticed is that the font is not the normal Myriad Pro Semibold font that Apple uses, but a thinner and cleaner font. Maybe this means Apple’s getting rid of it, or maybe I’m just crazy and notice these things. All I know is, there are hundreds of black turtlenecks in Steve Job’s closet all hoping to be lucky one worn on Keynote day.

via AppleInsider