Sony’s XEL-1 flat TV with OLED technology drew big crowds at the Consumer Electronics Show. Image: Jon Fortt

LAS VEGAS - After chatting with Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow, I had to see what the hype was about. So I headed over to Sony’s booth here at the Consumer Electronics Show to check out a $2,500 flat-panel TV with a screen a little bigger than paperback book.

Yes, at 11 inches, it’s that small. So what makes the XEL-1 worth as much as an HDTV 10 times its size?

Pioneer showed off concept TVs that offer a first: near-absolute black in a flat-panel display, providing brilliant contrast. Image: Jon Fortt

LAS VEGAS - In the United States, plasma televisions are losing the high-def battle with LCD screens. But at the Consumer Electronics Show, plasma backers including Pioneer and Panasonic clearly believe it’s not over.

Plasma’s problem has always been the side-by-side comparison with LCD on the showroom floor. Because LCD screens tend to be brighter and thinner, consumers tend to judge it superior, even though good plasma sets can provide truer colors and better contrast ratios for a lower price.

The innovative Rolly robotic speaker system, which is not yet available, is emblematic of the company’s improved fortunes. Image: Sony

LAS VEGAS - After a rough couple of years, Sony is beginning to look like its old self.

It might be too soon to declare a total comeback, but the electronics giant finally seems to have momentum. Those quarterly losses that at times topped $500 million as Sony (SNE) struggled to turn around its core electronics business? They’re not quite a distant memory. But here at the Consumer Electronics Show, Sony does exude a confidence it hasn’t shown in a while.

At a dinner with journalists Monday night, Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow was upbeat. Despite the slowing economy, consumers responded to Sony’s risky $100 million marketing campaign, and turned out in force to buy high-definition TVs, camcorders and other gear in November and December. The industry support for Sony’s Blu-ray format for high-definition video is also encouraging. “I think across the board we demonstrated we had a good holiday season,” Glasgow said.

LAS VEGAS - Why did Warner Bros. choose last week to exclusively back the Blu-ray format for high-definition DVDs and ditch HD DVD, a move that could end the bitterest battle in the electronics industry?

Bill Gates is offering his view on the tech landscape he shaped. Last year, the Microsoft chairman used his CES keynote to tout ideas including an in-car technology partnership with Ford. Image: Consumer Electronics Association

LAS VEGAS - Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates used his last speech opening the technology industry’s biggest trade show Sunday night to announce that the software giant will challenge rivals such as Apple (AAPL), Sony (SNE) and Adobe Systems (ADBE) with new initiatives in phones, online video and the Xbox 360 gaming console.

Journalists prepare for the start of the Sony pre-CES press conference. Image: Jon Fortt

LAS VEGAS - Fresh from its news that Warner has backed its Blu-ray format for high definition, Sony (SNE) is vying to show that it is still an electronics innovator, and isn’t languishing in the shadow of iPod maker Apple (AAPL).

To that end, the electronics giant said it will immediately begin selling an 11-inch version of a super-slim TV in the United States. The TV uses OLED techonology, which allows devices to be thinner than today’s LCDs and more power efficient. Sony also showed off new cell phones, cameras and the Rolly speaker system, a novel egg-shaped robotic speaker system that actually moves to the sound of the music it plays. Below, the way the Sony press conference unfolded:

Trying to pick the winners in ‘08? Watch these three conferences.

In January, politics has Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Tech has DEMO, Macworld and the Consumer Electronics Show.

Just as primaries and caucuses define the year’s political landscape, these three big technology trade shows compete to introduce trends that will shape 2008. Each show has its own personality and its own surprises – and its own part in influencing whether a few months from now we’re all clamoring for new iPhones, wireless HD home theaters, or the next challenger to Facebook.

At next month’s Macworld show, will the trendsetter say goodbye to hard drives?

Apple’s MacBook Pro could get a storage upgrade soon. Image: Apple

What do you get when you cross an iPod with a Mac?

A super-slim laptop that uses chip-based flash memory in place of a spinning hard drive, of course. If the rumors are right, Apple (AAPL) will unveil one at the annual Macworld confab next month.

Before you begin salivating from gadget lust however, be forewarned. The rumors should be taken with a grain of salt (or a whole tub of it if you have one handy) — and not just because Apple prognosticators have predicted for years that an ultra-light dream machine is right around the corner.

The iPod family. Image: Apple

Greg Joswiak has what you might call a busy job — he’s charged with marketing two of Apple’s biggest hit products, the iPod and the iPhone. That might sound easy considering the buzz Apple’s product announcements generate, but there’s more to the task than promotion; he works with the company’s engineering teams to decide what the next iPods and iPhones will look like, what features they’ll have, and what they’ll cost. He’s also got a knack for product positioning; Apple (AAPL) insiders say that in his previous job managing Apple’s overall hardware marketing, he pushed for the company to produce a 14-inch iBook, despite the misgivings of CEO Steve Jobs. The product turned out to be a hit. To get his sense of the future, I talked to Joswiak about the iPod and iPhone’s holiday prospects, and the company’s plans for expansion.

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For a long time you managed Apple’s Mac laptop business, which is also going gangbusters these days, and I know you were really involved in discussions about how those products were designed and positioned in the product family. How was that job different from managing the iPod and iPhone?

First of all I manage product marketing and product management — I don’t actually own the engineering. But we work very closely with them, as you know, on the features we create and what the product’s going to be about. I look in a lot of ways at some of the similarities.

Apple’s iPod is the king of holiday gadgets. But can the company deliver another round of blowout sales in its make-or-break season?

iPod nano. Image: Jon Fortt

It’s 7 p.m. at an Apple Store less than six miles from the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters, and even in early November, it’s already a madhouse. Throughout the upscale mall space, customers are busily poking and prodding the latest iPods and Macs, gushing about how gorgeous everything is.

To make more room for the admiring hordes in this newly redesigned shop, Apple’s (AAPL) retail planners have done away with cash registers altogether. Instead, black-shirted salespeople mill about, answering shoppers’ questions then immediately handling their purchases using wireless handheld checkout scanners – an impressive display of retail efficiency.