Photos: Best of CES 2006

Members of the Windows Live dance troupe pose for a photo during a break. The '80s-themed dancers, adorned with sweatbands and high tube socks, are touting Microsoft's Windows Live Internet services.

Ina Fried

For his Thursday morning keynote speech at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer (left) brought some star power on stage. Joining him for some advance publicity on the Sony Pictures version of the bestseller "The Da Vinci Code" are actor Tom Hanks, director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A highlight of Bill Gates' opening keynote speech at CES was some hand-to-Xbox combat with fellow Microsoft exec Steve Ballmer. The two sparred via the "Fight Night Round 3," video game. Gates played as Muhammad Ali and Ballmer as Joe Frazier. The bout went to Gates in a knockout.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

In a flashback to the early days of personal computing, the opening keynote also featured a video with a young Bill Gates and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Ina Fried

Gates' on-stage dance card also included pop music star Justin Timberlake. The two were accompanied by MTV Music Group President Van Toffler to present the new Urge music service.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The calm before the visitors began storming the doors of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Jody Gianni, CNET Networks

With CES in full swing, the show-bound traffic was heavy, and the parking lots were full.

Jody Gianni, CNET Networks

The Funky Monks rocking out at Creative's booth during CES.

Elinor Mills

Some 2,500 exhibitors are converging on CES in Las Vegas to get the attention of industry professionals, the media and consumers.

CNET Networks

The Yahoo tent at CES. CEO Terry Semel speaks on Friday.

Michael Kanellos

At CES, vendors show off all manner of gadgets, including state-of-the-art tech for automobiles.

CNET Networks

The Sands Convention Center at CES in Las Vegas was home to various small companies and emerging-technology companies showing off their wares. Among them: a Dutch firm that's trying to reinvigorate the Commodore brand. Here, a booth shows off its products, including a portable media player and a media hub.

Ina Fried

PC cases that light up, such as this one from Logisys, are a staple of the outer reaches of tech trade shows. At this year's CES, smaller firms can be found at the Sands Convention Center.

Ina Fried

A CES attendee tries out the Golf Launchpad, a PlayStation 2 controller that lets golfers take a real swing while playing virtual golf.

Ina Fried

At the Sands Convention Center at CES, iRobot shows off the latest of its household drones, the floor-mopping Scooba.

Ina Fried

Mitsubishi's prototype Blu-ray Disc player is big and somewhat intimidating. It's far bigger than a normal DVD player.

Daniel Terdiman

Royal Philips Electronics' Blu-ray player is bulky yet simple. Its few visible controls make it look like it could be easy to use, yet its size makes it seem like it could run hot and suck a lot of power.

Daniel Terdiman

The Panasonic DMR-E700BD is the company's first-production Blu-ray player. Its image quality is terrific, but the machine itself looks like something out of "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Daniel Terdiman

Pioneer Electronics' BDP-HD1 player was one of the slicker looking of the Blu-ray machines on display at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Yet it still looked more like a decent mid-1990s VCR than state-of-the-art technology.

Daniel Terdiman

To look at Sony's BDP-S1 Blu-ray player was to flash back to '80s-era Trinitron TVs. The buttons seem the same, and the machine itself is big and bulky and about as unsexy as possible.

Daniel Terdiman

Hewlett-Packard's HD DVD digital-entertainment center looks kind of modern but also reminds one of an old dual-cassette deck.

Daniel Terdiman

It seems that in creating its sample HD DVD player, RCA simply took a shell from one of its old VCRs and stuffed it with new technology. The machine may turn out stunning image quality, but by its look, no one would know it.

Daniel Terdiman

With its bottom control panel door closed, Toshiba's sample HD DVD player is a study in large simplicity. With the door open, the machine looks archaic.

Daniel Terdiman

Do the new Blu-ray and HD DVD players remind you of anything? To one CNET News.com reporter, they look a lot like 1980s-era VCRs.

Las Vegas Sun

This Advanced Digital Media high-definition TV with 37-inch LCD screen, the SLC3760N, is among the new products Hewlett-Packard rolled out at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas this week. Compatible with Windows Media Player 10, this screen is designed to showcase music, photos, slide shows and videos stored on a PC.

Hewlett-Packard

Another HP HDTV on display at CES, the PL506N plasma TV features a 50-inch screen.

Hewlett-Packard

Based on "digital light processing" technology developed by Texas Instruments, this 65-inch microdisplay TV, the md6583n, features 85-watt surround-sound audio.

Hewlett-Packard

The dv8000, one of the new HP notebooks on display at CES. The notebooks are expected to be available by the end of this month and will be priced from $699 to $1,049.

Hewlett-Packard

At CES, Dell showed off this concept laptop with a 20-inch screen and detachable keyboard. The company said it has "10 patents and counting" related to the product but did not say when it would ship.

Ina Fried

Dell's "factory-overclocked" limited-edition XPS 600 Renegade is the company's first foray into the world of overclocking, which refers to selling PCs that have chips running at above their approved speed.

Ina Fried

Accessory maker Speck Products showed off its latest iPod cases at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The company also launched its first electronic iPod add-ons, a set of car chargers and FM transmitters.

Ina Fried

Little-known GGI was one of many upstarts at the Consumer Electronics Show looking to get in on the iPod accessory action.

Ina Fried

Belkin used its CES booth to display the TuneDok, as well as a variety of other Mac and iPod gear.

Ina Fried

Japan's Green House used CES to show off a variety of peripherals made to sit above or below a Mac Mini, including a speaker, hard drive and subwoofer. The company was at the Sands Convention Center hoping to find some U.S. distribution for the gear.

CNET Networks

The RIAA says the $399 Pioneer Inno, which stores up to 50 hours of XM Satellite programming, is a tool for copyright infringement and can act as the equivalent of a download service such as iTunes. The recording industry sued XM Satellite for $150,000 in damages for every song copied by XM customers using the devices, which went on sale earlier this month.

PRNewsFoto/XM Satellite Radio

XM has a second radio receiver/MP3 player, the $399 Samsung Helix. It sports the same dimensions as the Inno and similarly stores 50 hours of programming.

PRNewsFoto/XM Satellite Radio

Sony's first high-definition Blu-ray DVD player for the international market, called the BDP-S1, which will be released this summer. The company hasn't yet said how much it will cost.

Sony

The Sony Reader, an eBook device with electronic-ink technology created by E Ink. It's similar to the Librie product previously distributed in Japan.

Sony

Sony's 46-inch Bravia LCD television, which will retail for $4,500. The company also showed off a gargantuan 82-inch LCD screen TV at the CES show.

Sony

The DCR-SR100 camcorder, Sony's first to feature an iPod-like hard drive to store video. It will be available in May, for about $1,100.

Sony