TECHNOLOGY REPORT

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is more than just a showcase of the world’s latest and greatest technologies, it is where industry movers and shakers often announce new innovations and set the tone for how technology will move forward in the coming year. For many years Bill Gates of Microsoft led the keynote lineup, but with Gates’ retirement to pursue the objectives of the mega-philanthropic Bill and Melinda Gates foundation it is now Steve Ballmer who effectively “opens” CES with his keynote talk the night before the official conference begins.

We’ll also be live blogging the CES Press Event on Tuesday where several highlighted innovations from the conference make their debut.

SOURCE:  International CES

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Steve Ballmer

Microsoft CEO

Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 after being the first business manager hired by Bill Gates and was named chief executive officer in 2000. With Microsoft’s goal of delivering an integrated platform to enable a seamless experience for consumers across PCs, devices and services, Ballmer is focused on continuing Microsoft’s leadership across the company’s seven businesses.

Gary Shapiro

Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) President and CEO

Gary Shapiro will deliver his annual state of the industry address immediately before the 2010 CES opening keynote from Ford President and CEO Fred Mulally. Shapiro is president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the U.S. trade association representing some 2,000 consumer electronics companies and owning and producing the world’s largest tradeshow for consumer technology, the International CES. Shapiro is an active leader in the development, launch and marketing of HDTV. He has testified before Congress on HDTV and other technology and business issues more than 20 times. He co-founded and chaired the HDTV Model Station and has served as a leader of the Advanced Television Test Center (ATTC). He is a charter inductee to the Academy of Digital Television Pioneers, and in 2003 received its highest award as the industry leader most influential in advancing HDTV.

Alan Mulally

Ford President and CEO

President and CEO of Ford Motor Company, Alan Mulally, will deliver the opening keynote address at the 2010 International CES. “Alan Mulally has positioned Ford as a leading innovator in the automotive industry, and we are pleased to welcome him back to CES,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CEA. “For the auto industry and all other businesses that use technology, CES is the single must-attend event where business gets done.” Mulally will deliver his keynote address, following a State of the CE Industry keynote address delivered by Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CEA. Mulally joined Ford in 2006, after serving as executive vice president of The Boeing Company and president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Mulally is known for his innovation and focused leadership, while working to transform Ford into a lean, global enterprise. He has served as a past president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and is a former president of its Foundation. Additionally, Mulally served as a past chairman of the Board of Governors of the Aerospace Industries Association. He was named to Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2009, “Person of the Year” in 2006 by Aviation Week magazine and one of “The Best Leaders of 2005″ by BusinessWeek magazine.

Carol Bartz

Yahoo! CEO

Carol Bartz has served as chief executive officer and as a member of the Board of Directors of Yahoo! since January 2009. Previously, Bartz served as executive chairman, president and CEO of Autodesk, Inc. During her 14 years at Autodesk, the company diversified its product line and grew revenues from $285 million to $1.523 billion in FY06.

She previously held positions at Sun Microsystems, most recently as vice president of worldwide field operations and an executive officer of the company. Before joining Sun, she held product line and sales management positions at Digital Equipment Corporation and 3M Corporation. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the National Medals of Science and Technology Foundation. Ms. Bartz also serves as a director of Cisco Systems, Inc.

Paul Otellini

Intel President and CEO

Paul Otellini became Intel’s fifth CEO in 2005, succeeding Craig R. Barrett. Otellini previously had served as Intel’s president and chief operating officer, positions he held since 2002, the same year he was elected to Intel’s board of directors. Otellini is now focused on continuing Intel growth by extending Intel Architecture into adjacent market segments of embedded, handhelds and consumer electronics and to continue building new businesses by tackling big problems.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo

Nokia CEO

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo is preparing to deliver a keynote address at the 2010 International CES as part of the third annual Technology and Emerging Countries (TEC) program, which focuses on technology’s role in furthering economic and sustainable development.

Kallasvuo was appointed president and CEO of Nokia in 2006. He has held several executive positions after joining Nokia in 1980 as corporate counsel, including executive vice president, North America; Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Kallasvuo has been a member of the Group Executive Board of Nokia since 1990, and was nominated to the Nokia Board of Directors in May 2007. He has been Chairman of the Board of Nokia Siemens Networks since its formation in 2007.

Zhou Houjian

Hisense Chairman

Zhou Houjian, chairman, Hisense, will deliver a keynote address at the 2010 International CES as part of the third annual Technology and Emerging Countries (TEC) Program, which focuses on technology’s role in advancing economic development.

Under Zhou Houjian’s leadership, Hisense Group Co. Ltd. has grown from a small regional multimillion dollar company to a large global multibillion dollar conglomerate. With a worldwide workforce of more than 60,000 employees, Hisense has over 300 sales companies and more than 60,000 service outlets around the globe. It has 13 manufacturing facilities in China, as well as in North and South Africa. In addition, it has three R&D facilities in China, as well as in the U.S., South Africa, and Belgium. Its products are exported to 130 countries and regions throughout the world.

Zhou has twice won the honor of China Central Television’s Business Man of the Year (2000 and 2005), a similar award to Time Magazine’s Man of the Year. He is also recognized as one of the most influential persons since China’s economic reform policy was established in 1978 and has been named as one of the “Top Ten Electronic Information Leaders since China’s Economic Reform.

Las Vegas’ two newest hotels – both opening in December – are also the most environmentally friendly ever built in the city.

The Aria Resort and Vdara Hotel are among the few elite structures that carry a LEED Gold Certification.   The Aria is the largest LEED Gold Certified building in the world.   LEED stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” and is an internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings that have met very rigorous environmental standards.     Some energy and design innovation highlights

• First energy-generation on The Strip through its 8.5 megawatt natural-gas co-generation plant, providing efficient electricity on site, reducing emissions and using “waste heat” to provide domestic hot water
• Water conservation technology and programs that will save between 30% and 43% of water within the buildings and 60% in outdoor landscaping
• World’s first fleet of stretch limos powered by clean-burning compressed natural gas (CNG)
• Nation’s most technologically advanced hotel rooms with exclusive features allowing guests to “green their stay”
• Development of slot machine bases that serve as floor air-conditioning distribution units, efficiently cooling public spaces from the ground up in the occupied zones, rather than wasting energy cooling the empty space below the ceiling
• Energy-efficiency initiatives providing a savings equivalent to powering 8,800 households annually.
• Creation of a large-scale recycling operation that enabled the recycling or reuse of more than 260,000 tons of construction waste, including 97% of the imploded Boardwalk Hotel

• More information on CityCenter’s Green initiatives can be found at: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/mgm/39529/
  

Please note that the Aria Resort and Vdara Hotel are sponsors of Technology Report’s CES 2010 Coverage.

Update:  Bartz will not be speaking at CES 2010:  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2355792,00.asp

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz will be one of the keynotes at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  Bartz will speak at 11 AM Thursday, January 7th in the Las Vegas Hilton.

Bartz was Autodesk CEO from 1992 to 1996, and took the helm of a troubled Yahoo in January 2009, just months after Yahoo founder Jerry Yang resigned the post after months of controversy surrounding his decision to avoid a Microsoft takeover of Yahoo at upwards of $31 per share.

Bartz is known as a “no nonsense” tough executive and many assumed at the time her job was to groom the company for a Microsoft takeover. However that never materialized.  Instead, Yahoo and Microsoft recently announced a joint search deal where Yahoo will effectively be dropping Yahoo search and using Microsoft BING search technology instead.  Yahoo will continue to sell advertising across both networks giving the combined Microsoft Yahoo search empire a larger advertising footprint.   Most feel this deal is more beneficial to Microsoft than Yahoo since it expands BING’s reach at only a small cost to Microsoft.   Yahoo will retain most of the advertising revenues for the next several years in this deal.

Perhaps Bartz most quotable moments to date were about a month into her tenure when she said she would “kick ass” with the Yahoo brand and also inadvertently suggested that some Yahoo engineers were not “f**king doing anything.”

Other executives expected to give keynote addresses at CES 2010 include Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Alan Mulally of Ford (see our CES 2009 Coverage of Mulally’s keynote) , Paul Otellini of Intel, and Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo of Nokia.

Yahoo CEO Terry Semel spoke at CES 2006, and Jerry Yang gave a very uninspired talk in 2008 CES, but Yahoo had little to say at CES 2009.

Gary Shapiro of the Consumer Electronics Association said after the announcement:

“Yahoo is a top global brand whose vision is to be the center of people’s online lives, and Carol Bartz is leading the development of Yahoo’s approach to delivering personally relevant, meaningful Internet experiences,”

Disclosure:  Joe owns YHOO stock

Please note:   The Aria Resort and Vdara Hotel are sponsors of Technology Report’s CES Coverage.

The ARIA Resort & Casino and Mandarin Oriental Hotels in the new Las Vegas CityCenter Project are the first in the USA to debut a spectacular level of technological innovation for their guests.

A WiFi City:

CityCenter will soon complete the world’s largest Distributed Antenna System with over 6,500 antennas and over 2,900 wireless access points to cover the entire CityCenter campus.

New Guestroom Technologies:

CityCenter and Control4 Corporation have developed personalized “smart” automation for every guestroom at the Aria and the Mandarin Oriental, an innovation previously available only in select high-end resort suites and residential locations.   Every guestroom device is networked via one gigabit of bandwidth.

The room will recognize a first visit and “greet” guests as they enter with lighting and parting of curtains to showcase the  hotel’s spectacular city or mountain views. The TV will turn on to display a list of automated controls for guests to personalize.

The system also provides  one-touch remote control of lighting, room temperature, television/video systems, music, wake-up calls, draperies and requests for services.  The nightstand contains a seven-inch panel with touch-screen technology that navigates the same room settings as the remote control.

RFID unlocks the door by passing the key card over a sensor.

All rooms feature a 42-inch LCD HDTV with laptop and other device connectivity as well as access to room controls.   The TV also acts as a communications center for the room.

The ARIA Resort & Casino opens in December.

Las Vegas CityCenter

Please note:   The Aria Resort and Vdara Hotel are sponsors of Technology Report’s CES Coverage.

Print troubleshooting is one of the most frustrating aspects of computing. Although printer quality and cost has become very reasonable, there’s nothing more frustrating than printer failure during a deadline for an important paper or letter.

Some good troubleshooting rules of thumb are as follows if you suddenly experience a dreaded printer FAIL:

1. If you seem to be able to print text documents but cannot print things appearing in the browser, note that some printer / browser combinations won’t allow printing from within the browser window.   For example to print a PDF file from some Lexmark printers you’ll want to download the PDF first, then open it up in Adobe and then print.    Otherwise the document may come out blank.

Still not printing?

Some printers have good diagnostics so use those first, but I find that the generic Windows help often sends me down a garden path of confusion so consider trying these ideas first:

1.  Reconnect cables and reboot both system and printer.

2.  Confirm your have the correct printer driver installed.  The driver is the small program that allows your printer to communicate with your computer.   Usually the name of your printer plus “driver” at Google will quickly take you to a driver installation routine for most major printers.

3.  Confirm you have ink in the cartridge (for ink jet printers).   The simplest way to do this is often to install a new cartridge.   If it works then you are good to go, but if it fails then ink was probably NOT your problem before.

The Consumer Electronics Show, “CES 2010” is still about 90 days away but this year our Technology Report coverage will begin early with special features about what to expect at CES 2010 and a guide for first timers on how to navigate the world’s most massive and amazing technology show.

We will also focus some of our pre CES coverage on amazing new developments at the Las Vegas CITYCENTER Project – a spectacular metropolis right in the heart of Las Vegas.  CITYCENTER features some of the world’s finest architectural and technological innovations as well as innovative green technologies for urban buildings and landscapes.

We’re also very pleased to announce that the Aria Resort and Casino and Vdara will be our sponsors for coverage leading up to and including CES 2010.     Aria is home to some of the world’s most advanced technological implementations in the history of resort hotels, and we’ll be sharing details about how Aria, Vdara, and CITYCENTER are merging world class technology with world class hospitality.

Part 2 of 2 from our guest expert, Dinesh Boaz

By Dinesh Boaz

Continuing my discussion of how Bing compares and contrasts with Google, this week I highlight Bing’s travel option, its “popular now” tab, what the Microsoft-Yahoo search deal means for Bing and more.

Bing’s travel option is another unique element of its “decision engine” experience. As I said last week, Bing is really a user-friendly decision engine with a process engineered to streamline queries and results.

Bing travel functions are more like Expedia or Travelocity than a search engine, allowing users to find precisely what they’re looking for at the best price. Responding to a flight query, for example, Bing yields results identical to those found on airline and package-value sites. Moreover, once a traveler opts for a specific flight or hotel, he’s redirected to the appropriate purchasing page as if he’d performed the search directly with the carrier; travelers won’t find themselves reinputting identical requests.

Noteworthy among other novel features is Bing’s “popular now” tab, which takes users straight from the homepage to results for the most popular searches at the time. Image queries bring about grids of pictures that when rolled over display image size, website and file name data. Results can be filtered by size, layout, color, style and people (“just faces,” “head and shoulders,” and “other”). Maps feature information on local businesses, people and locations, and detail the most up-to-date traffic information, indicating travel speeds and traffic flows on major thoroughfares.

The threat to Google
What’s most threatening to Google’s lion share of the market can be surmised in one word: Microhoo. Similar to the Bennifer and Brangelina celebrity phenomena, Microhoo represents the joining of two powerhouses — Microsoft and Yahoo.

The tech giants announced in late July a 10-year deal where the two will continue to brand separately — albeit a “powered by Bing” on the search results of the Yahoo.com page — but will join resources and search potential. Microsoft hopes to channel Yahoo’s expertise in the online advertising space — it was dominant in the market until it fell to Google in 2007 — to make Bing.com a resounding success, and at the same time attract a large part of Google’s advertisers and market share.

The terms of the contract place Yahoo in charge of attracting premium advertisers. Microsoft will pay Yahoo 88 percent of all revenue gains for search queries on Yahoo.com’s site. The deal is expected to show its initial stages in early 2010.

In short, Bing sets out to provide more search options than most search engines, shortening the distance between users and the information or products they set out for. With its consistent interface, user-friendly options and convenient utilities, Bing isn’t just about providing web results.

Dinesh Boaz is the managing director and founder of Direct Agents Interactive Advertising, a New York City-based interactive advertising agency. Reach Dinesh at dinesh@directagents.com or via Twitter at twitter.com/DBoaz.