Pre-CES Roundup: Content’s The Glue For Device Convergence

A lot of pre-CES stories are floating around today…our exec editor Staci Kamer will be covering the show for us, at our dedicated blog here:

CES Official Blog: Who knew…CES has a lame official blog.

I4U’s CES Coverage: Great coverage with about 5 reporters…

CNET’s coverage: Some good innovations, like getting readers to blog etc…

Engadget’s CES coverage: Well, where else but on Engadget…

Gizmodo’s CES Coverage: Self explanatory…

AP: Yahoo and rival Google will make their CES debuts with keynote speeches, muscling their way into the high-stakes battle begun by computing stalwarts, consumer electronics giants and telecom companies to push digital media deeper into homes.

NYT:The theme of this year’s show might best be described as Convergence: This Time We Mean It.

WSJ: A roundup of video content efforts related to digital hardware…Leading the Internet TV charge are computer-industry players like Microsoft, Cisco Systems Inc. and Intel, which have long been trying to muscle into the living room. Cisco’s Linksys unit, for example, in Las Vegas plans to show a DVD player that also plays video in Microsoft’s Windows Media format — a standard on the Web — and has a broadband connection for routing content off the Internet to TV sets.

Red Herring: Venture capitalists like Geoff Yang, a partner with Tivo-investors Redpoint Ventures, said the last two CES’s were somewhat staid, but this year he is looking forward to how cell phones will dominate the announcements at this year’s show.

Newsday: Xall it a trade show, a propaganda blitz, a political show of force or just a very groovy exhibition … CES is a happening.

SFGate: On convergence: “I think this year, it’s a bit of a retreat in some way,” Ross Rubin, an analyst at NPD said. “Now, the attention is focusing back a little bit on individual (devices) and building up the flexibility of those products as well as the entertainment value or quality of those products.”

FT: The show is expected to be the focus of another battle between competing standards for the next generation of high definition DVDs: Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD. With high definition technology and content likely to be a central theme of the CES show, both camps will be looking to win new supporters.

UPI: EchoStar’s top executives will make announcements about DISH Network’s plans for 2006. They will discuss its plans for remaining the high-definition TV leader with the transition from MPEG 2 to MPEG 4 technology, the expansion of our partnership with VOOM HD services, and other exciting announcements. Not only will DishNetwork be promoting its HD capabilities, it is also focusing on the hot new portable video market.

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