This year at CES the big story was 3D. Every meeting, every speech, and every party was, at some point, interrupted by some executive or PR person telling us to put on our glasses. Sony famously brought out Taylor Swift, and then asked you to watch Taylor Swift perform live in 3D on video screens… even though she was right there. 

You can read our own Jon Stokes’ take on the differing 3D displays and technology from CES to get caught up on the story. The question is: did the show sell you on the idea of 3D? The technology seemed mature and ready for your home—as long as you don’t mind wearing those ubiquitous glasses—but will interest from the press and electronics giants translate into consumer spending? We’re throwing the question to you.

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Early estimates for fourth-quarter PC sales are in, painting a much rosier picture than the past several quarters. Even Dell, which had a significant drop in market share for 2009, managed to turn in a slight increase in unit shipments for the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, HP moves into the top spot in the US, while Apple, despite showing an increase in units shipped, moved down to number five. Dell also took a hit worldwide, being bumped from the number two spot by Acer.

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Desktop versions of Intel’s next-gen processor architecture have made appearances in the top-end iMac models, but we shouldn’t have a long wait for mobile versions to show up in Apple’s portable line. A sales promotion for Intel retailers offers a chance to win a MacBook Pro featuring a Core i5 processor during the month of January, though such a machine does not currently exist in Apple’s lineup.

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Your next PC may cost you a bit more than expected if you buy later this year. Market research masters Gartner say that the price of building PCs will climb this year, reversing a six-year trend, due to component scarcity. That’s going to pose a bit of challenge to manufacturers who have focused on pumping out cheap netbooks during the economic downturn.

The biggest driver of the likely price increase is memory. The DRAM industry is in the midst of moving from DDR2 to DDR3, which means less of each type of RAM is being produced. DDR3 spot prices are up 23 percent over the last month; with memory comprising about a tenth of a PC’s overall cost, that’s a significant cost for OEMs to absorb.

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CES is a daunting show to cover, filled with emerging technologies, new products hoping to change the world, and a few goofy surprises here and there. What you don’t often see is what goes on around the fringes of the show: the products that don’t get written about, the booth designs intended to draw your eye and get you to walk in, and the weird tricks companies try to get your attention.

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During his CES 2010 keynote, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will show off an Hewlett-Packard tablet with multitouch, e-reader, and multimedia functionalities. At least that’s what the The New York Times is reporting, citing unnamed sources. The “slate-type computer” is supposed to be “available by mid-year” and we may already have heard the name publicly.

“This is my Zeen. It is the key to my Airlife.” These mysterious sentences were part of recent HP trademark filings uncovered by the NYT that cover “mobile computing devices and wireless lifestyles.”

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I have this love/hate relationship with format wars.

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Economic woes plagued the semiconductor industry in 2009. According to Gartner, worldwide revenue dropped $29 billion, an 11.4% drop from ‘08.

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Gartner

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Regardless of recent updates to the Mac Pro line, rumors are circulating that Apple could be upgrading its pro line of desktops early next year with faster processors that sport more cores and consume less power. The information was allegedly leaked from Intel, and the new processors (codenamed Gulftown) will reportedly make use of six cores on a 32nm die with 12MB of L3 cache per chip. Currently, Apple’s high-end machine offers only four cores per processor with 8MB of L3 cache.

According to AppleInsider, the i7980X will start at a clock speed of 3.33GHz, which happens to be the clock speed of the fastest quad-core processor you can currently order in a Mac Pro. The i7-980X will supposedly replace the i7-975 in the Extreme tier of Apple’s three-tier system. According to the roadmap, the processor will see a launch in the first quarter of 2010.

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The next revision of your favorite gadget may have a bit more memory. Toshiba has launched new 64GB embedded NAND flash modules, which it says are the first in the industry. Samples are available now with mass production beginning this winter.

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Toshiba, Engadget

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