Miscellaneous

Podcast: Turn any external drive into a NAS drive

LAS VEGAS--Network-attached storage for the home has been around for a while. It typically consists of an external disk drive surrounded by technology to connect it to a router so it can be accessed anywhere on your network or, via the Internet, from anywhere in the world. At the Consumer Electronics Show here, Daniel Putterman of Cloud Engines showed off a new device that allows you to inexpensively turn any external drive into a network-attached drive.

The $79 Pogoplug is a small plastic box with an Ethernet plug for your router and a USB plug for an external drive. With … Read more

Podcast: Night vision for your Jetta

LAS VEGAS--You've seen the grainy "night vision" thermal imaging pictures from Baghdad, and now you can see them on the dashboard of passenger cars. At the Consumer Electronics Show, Larry Magid talks with Andrew Teich, the president of Flir Systems, which makes thermal imaging devices for both military and personal automotive use.

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See our complete news coverage from CES here

Text messages nab carjacking suspects

If texting is dangerous while driving a car, it's downright idiotic while stealing one.

An Ohio man used a friend's cell phone to get back his car, cell phone, and cash, all of which were stolen in a car jacking, according to a local TV report. Alan Heuss was sitting in his running BMW in Columbus on Wednesday when an armed man opened a passenger door, stuck a gun in his face, and made off with his stuff.

After filing a police report, Heuss was meeting with some friends to drown his sorrows when one suggested that they … Read more

Podcast: Skype wins in a sinking economy

LAS VEGAS--At the CES show here, Skype Chief Operating Officer Scott Durchslag tells Larry Magid how the bad economy is actually good for Skype as people flock to value. He also talks about new Skype software and the explosion of video over his company's service.

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Palm's Pre arrives on smartphone scene

A correction was made to this story. Read below for details.

One of the biggest surprises of CES was Palm's Pre smartphone that some are calling an iPhone killer. While I don't expect this or anything else to kill the iPhone, it does appear that Palm could again become a major player in the smart phone market.

As a product reviewer I will reserve final judgment until I can carry one around and put it through its paces, but based on the few minutes I got to use the phone at the Consumer Electronics Show, I am very … Read more

Podcast: Walt Mossberg on Palm Pre, Yahoo TV

From the Consumer Electronics Show, Larry Magid talks with Wall Street Journal columnist Walter Mossberg about Palm's new Pre cell phone and Yahoo's new Internet TV. Both Mossberg and Magid were impressed by the Palm phone, and Mossberg had some good things to say about Yahoo's TV initiative.

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Today's stories:

Palm calls it a comeback with the Palm Pre

High hopes at Yahoo, Intel for Internet-enabled TV

Is Google building its own router?

This may be nothing but blogosphere blah-blah-blah, but a colleague sent me a note Thursday stating that Juniper Networks' share price fell earlier this week because of a rumor that its customer Google is actually building its own router.

This Google news was attributed to multiple sources including at least one within Cisco Systems, according to a story Monday on SDTimes. CNET News sister site BNET contacted Google about the rumor: "The answer was the now-standard 'It's our policy not to comment on rumor or speculation.'"

OK, so my guess is that this rumor is probably true--with … Read more

Podcast: Talking the Pre with Palm CEO

LAS VEGAS--Palm, the pioneer in personal digital assistants and the developer of the once popular Treo smartphone, has fallen behind Apple and Research in Motion in recent years. But its new product, the Palm Pre, could bring the company back to life.

The new phone, introduced Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show, is at first glance extremely impressive. Like the iPhone, it features a touch screen with a multitouch interface that lets you move from screen to screen by flicking your finger, or zoom into a picture or Web page by pinching. But it also has a pull-out keyboard. And … Read more

Podcast: Conversation with CEA President Gary Shapiro

On the eve the Consumer Electronics Show, Larry Magid, CNET editor at large, sat down with Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) President Gary Shapiro. CEA is the sponsor of CES. The economy, said Shapiro, could actually be good for the consumer electronics industry, because it might cause people to "cocoon." Listen now: Download today's podcast

Interview with Lenovo's Matt Kohatt

Lenovo, which, as a result of buying IBM's PC group is a pioneer in notebook PCs, is at CES with some innovative new products including a unique notebook PC with two screens, a desktop PC with a remote that dubs as a phone and a new netbook. CNET's analyst Larry Magid talked PCs with Lenovo's Matt Kohatt. Listen now: Download today's podcast