ces 2009

Though always known for its odd, over-the-top exhibits, CES took the cake this year by featuring a full TV sound studio--inside Sony's already-massive booth. The studio featured the brand-new set design for Jeopardy, the nerd television institution owned by Sony Pictures that was celebrating its 25th season by filming its "Celebrity Jeopardy!" and "Tournament of Champions" editions, which began airing last week.

That gave us a chance at CES to meet up with geek-god Alex Trebek (who just gets better-looking every year) to talk about TV, tech, and trivia. Trebek claims to be a technology dinosaur, saying he doesn't even know what model cellphone he carries. But we weren't buying it. The guy's been working in electronic television since the age of the dinosaurs-well actually, 1961, when he started at the Canadian Broadcasting Company. But he remains a master of the medium-dreaming of how his show will look on OLED sets and in 3D.

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The Samsung W7900, aka the Show, certainly lives up to its name. In fact, if it had just the gorgeous 3.2-inch OLED screen, the digital TV tuner or the five-megapixel camera, it would be a winner. But the Show combines all those features with the (current) Holy Grail of handhelds -- a digital projector that displays sharp, bright images up to 50 inches.

Our friends at Texas Instruments, which makes the DLP projector inside the Show, let us snag the phone for a quick hands-on.

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About 130,000 people attended CES this year. Gaffers and booth babes, engineers and security guards, drivers and technicians by the thousands devoted months to staging the world's largest consumer electronics show. And by this time today likely nothing more remains in all of Vegas than a lone, abandoned flash drive and some tumbleweeds.

Forget the world's smallest violin, we're going the denial route.

Click here for a look at 26 of our picks and pans—from favorite sleeper debuts and sweetest celebrity shills to the most awful sales pitches and product ideas. Light up an electric cigarette, lean back in your $7,500 recliner and join us. It ain't over till we hit "z"!

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Almost one year ago to the day, at a CES where energy-efficient gadgets were touted strictly for how eco-friendly they were and not for their budget-consciousness, three of the industry's giants announced a joint e-waste recycling venture. In tough times it is not only the extras that go but the things that are deemed not strictly necessary in that we did not have them before and we managed more or less. E-waste recycling could have become one of those things, indeed still might, but at least at this year's show it looks like the foothold it gained in years past is solid.

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"It's evolutionary, not revolutionary" was how one attendee summed up this year's show. And, indeed, the biggest debuts of last week seemed, well, not particularly big. TVs were thinner, cameras zoomier, 3D a step closer to fruition. But game changers were few and far between. And perhaps that's because companies have learned to tone down their promises and time frames.

It's not just big technologies. A few years ago, a grand, gadget-filled future was just around the corner. There'd be cameras that print their own photos! And cell phones with Skype! When you wanted to turn off your TV, you'd just wave your hand and when you wanted to turn on your toys you'd just think hard. And then we waited. And waited. And waited. So it was a pleasant surprise to learn that 2009 was to be the year of fulfilled promise. All those products we'd just about given up hope on were launching at long last. If only we could say it was worth the wait.

Launch the list here for a look at the letdowns.

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