TVSquad

So you've got that new high definition television in the living room, your 120 gig TiVo recording all of your favorite shows and a cable box with more channels than a Roman aqueduct.

Think you've reached the pinnacle of home entertainment? The Consumer Electronics Show would beg to differ.

Some 3-D TV's popped up on the convention floor and the advent of the burgeoning technology is starting to create a bit of buzz that it could become the next step over HD TV.

It seems like CBS is really trying to get on board with this whole Internet thing. In a keynote address to the Consumer Electronics Show, President and CEO Leslie Moonves told the crowd that old and new media are pretty much the same thing now, and that networks and other content producers should embrace the newer forms of media rather than fight them, like the music industry did.

To that end, Moonves and Sling Media CEO Blake Krikorian introduced a new product, called the Clip + Sling, which will get loaded into Slingboxes starting in the second quarter. What the software will allow users to do is grab clips from CBS shows and then e-mail them to friends. You may eventually be able to "mash" clips together for your friend's amusement, though I'm not sure what purpose that serves. Anyway, it seems like Moonves really likes these new-fangled video thingies -- he brought one of the YouTube guys on stage during the speech -- but I just have one question: why the hell doesn't inntertube ever freakin' work right?

Have you heard about the new phone? No, not that one. The one that's for die-hard fans of The Simpsons! This week in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Samsung is quietly showing off a bright yellow Simpsons telephone (photo attached). The phones have the Simpsons movie logo on them so apparently they are tie-ins to the upcoming movie and they do say 'Limited Edition'. Hopefully they have personalized ringtones too. I'd love the 'squeak-squeak' of Maggie's pacifier as a text message notification.

How many of you would buy a Simpsons telephone? It kinda pales in comparison to the big phone, doesn't it? I bet it's a lot more affordable, though.

[Via TV Tattle]

Unlike some of our partners in crime, I didn't make it to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year, though had I know that the Adult Entertainment Expo was also taking place in Las Vegas that week, I might have given more consideration to going. Gareth Mitchell of the BBC has a funny anecdote about how he became trapped in a bar at CES by a cavalcade of porn stars as they sashayed down the red carpet. Mitchell wisely points out that a lot of electronic innovations in the audio/visual realm have been propelled by the adult film industry. Indeed, it was porn that caused VHS to catch on and Beta to eventually fizzle out. If nothing else, perhaps seeing those intrepid stars of all things naked and penetrable reminded the vendors at CES of that fact.

While we didn't attend the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this year, I've done my fair share of reading about it. If I had to pick one theme that seemed to pop up several times a day, it'd be television. Not just television as in new TV hardware and gear, but also in how content will reach the masses. A few highlights:

• onthegoLIVE -- Stream TV audio to any phone
• Google Video Store -- Selling episodes of CSI, NCIS, Survivor and other CBS shows.
• Yahoo! Go TV -- Link your computer with your television (also, Ellen DeGeneres showed up on stage for this)
• AT&T and Verizon turning to Microsoft for IPTV to the home
• Intel's Viiv -- Intel's digital entertainment computer specification
• Westinghouse's 56-inch 4x 1080p LCD -- So what if it's $10k -- look at that monster!
• If that's a little too large for you, how about Pioneer's 50-inch 1080p screen?
• Bill Gates's views on TV content delivery in the future -- Facinating stuff, Vongo, etc.
  
• TiVo's own wireless adapter -- 60% faster than other brands!
• Finally, a TiVo desktop is coming for Mac OS X
• TiVo's Series 3 recorder -- Dual CableCARD slots and dual HDTV recording
• The MediaREADY 6000 -- Pricey, but oh, the features
• HD Beat's LG booth tour -- Some awesome TV technology in there

There's a lot more over at Engadget's CES coverage, so be sure to go check that out soon.