Take a look for yourself and get stoked for Lost's return in a couple weeks. – Jason Chen

The Final Episode [YouTube via Blowing Smoke via TV Squad]

While Laptop Mag, Popular Science, Shiny Shiny, Infosync, Reg Hardware, Maxim, and Pocket Lint have taken lemons and made lemonade, we are taking lemonade and making...super lemonade. Hit the jump to see the absolute cream of the crop products, the one list to catch you up on all the lists: The Best Of, The Best Of CES 2007.

Media Player
LG Super Multi Blue
"We love the quality of Blu-ray, we love the quality of HD DVD, but we don't want to get involved in a format war and back the wrong one. Seems LG doesn't either with the launch of a dual player." (pocketlint)

Portable Media
Sansa Connect
"This WiFi portable audio player provides streaming Internet radio, as well as WiFi content acquisition in one nicely priced package. In other words, any time you find yourself in a WiFi hotspot, you can download new songs." (maxim)
It's just like a Zune, but useful.

Television
Sharp 108" LCD

Computer
OQO Model 02
"Roughly the size of two iPods, the OQO 02 could easily be mistaken for a handheld videogame system or even a slightly oversize Blackberry. But don't let it fool you: It's a fully functional, standalone computer capable of running Windows Vista." (popsci)
And it's a lot nicer than this UMPC.

Phone
LG VX9400
"Though we've seen swivel screen phones abroad...Verizon's V Cast Mobile TV announcement brought forth the first swivel screen for the US...very light, and surprisingly slim, we expected more bulk from the first generation of true mobile TV phones. The screen swivels to landscape mode and clicks nicely into place, and though it isn't very large, we were happy to see video commandeering the entirety of the screen's real estate." (infosyncworld)
No, we weren't tacky enough to say the iPhone.

Robot
iRobot Create
"From the company that brought you the Roomba vacuum cleaner comes a robot designed for students, geeks and other 'bot lovers to create their own programmes. See it in action here fetching beer from the fridge or even being controlled by a hamster. Genius." (reghardware)

iPod Dock
Viewsonic PJ258D
"... sleekly designed and weighs less than four pounds. The docking station connects an iPod video player directly to the projector...also supports other digital media, including S-Video and VGA...has a 1024 x 768 XGA resolution, 2000 lumens of brightness, and a 2000:1 contrast ratio." (LaptopMag)
If you don't think iPod docks deserve their own group, you weren't at the show. And it's among the world's most expensive, ludicrous iPod docks at $999.

What were your favorites? –Mark Wilson

Featuring 8-in-1 compatibility, along with an LCD touchscreen button layout, the Sunwave appears to be your standard, (nice) universal remote. But when switching between devices, the backlight color changes, easily identifying which device you are controlling. During our hands-on, we were impressed by the fluid interface, but hoping that the backlight appeared brighter in the romantic dimness of our home theaters. Oh, and what's with the 7 colors for our 8 devices? Poor VHS, shafted again. –Mark Wilson

Product Page (sorry, no clue what it costs).

CES 2007 [Gizmodo]

The 9.4 mm-thick candybar's double LCD design is pretty revolutionary: There's one on the "phone" side, and a larger one on the "music" side, which supports MP3, WMA and AAC. You switch between the two screens with a button on the side of the phone. (On the other side is the SIM card slot, which is behind a rubber top just like the microSD one, so it can be swapped out fairly effortlessly.)

What's nice is that music is easily accessible: just pop in a microSD card (or use the 400 MB of internal memory), navigate to the music icon (the multimedia menu reminds me of a PSP, so it only takes a second) and hit play. Displaying the album art is a nice touch, making it feel more like a real music player. The entry pad on the multimedia side is very much like the Chocolate's, with no tactile feedback, but it felt fairly responsive. It also, as you can see, gets smudgy after only a second of manipulation, but cleans up with a quick swipe of your sleeve.

On the phone side, conversely, you do get tactile feedback. This side also features my biggest gripe with the phone — the screen on it is abysmally tiny, and it's annoying. While, for instance, you can switch to the larger screen to read text messages, you enter contacts and dial using the smaller one. However, it's not an insurmountable obstacle in cozying up to the phone, as the menus were well laid out and looked great on the both of the screens, which are sharper and more contrasty than the photos indicate.

I think that the dual screen solution is an interesting way to combine a phone and a music player, as it feels like they soldered one to the back of the other. For the most part, it's well executed, though it has potential to be better. Overall, I like the phone quite a bit, and will be looking forward to its second quarter debut in the US. While the rep wouldn't name the carrier (or price tag), he did admit that it will be CDMA here, so you can follow that to its logical conclusion. – Matt Buchanan, Photos by Ben Longo

Penny-Arcade

Thanks to FastMac's extended batteries, we were able to post live from Macworld and CES without having to run back to the press room all the time to charge. Available in 15-inch MacBook Pro and PowerBook G4 models, these fit in snugly just the way the originals do. And at the price of $99.95 with a complete 1 year warranty, you can't go wrong.

The next time we do CES, we're going to buy at least two each. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Fastmac]

Otherwise, scroll below for a full gadget buffet.

The cool thing about the Falcon is...

that it reacts depending on the app or game you're playing. We demoed it with Half Life and after a few seconds of adjustment found it was both easy to use and accurate. The knob has 3 buttons you use for firing, and each time you fire, the Falcon provides a push backwards. The bigger the gun you're shooting, the stronger the jolt backwards. Another demo had us pushing an object on the screen. Again, the Falcon provided resistance when pushing on the hand grip. Our only complaint was the Falcon's size. It stands pretty high and requires a bit of desktop space. It also has this weird dental machine/space robot look to it. It's not the prettiest controller out there.

Otherwise, it's expected to come out in June for $239 and will ship with a few micro games. – Louis Ramirez

Product Page

Product Page [Amazon]

Cisco Preparing an Apple TV Competitor [Daily Tech]

So as a result, the DVD Forum might sue LG for falsely using the HD DVD logo and for falsely saying that their hybrid player plays HD DVDs when in fact it doesn't play them the way they were intended to be played. Microsoft was also a bit miffed at LG for...

not giving them a heads up before announcing the BH100. So it looks like LG's baby won't see the light of day, which is a damn shame. Both sides have valid points—we just hope they manage to work something out because all this does is make me wanna stick with my old school DVDs even more. – Louis Ramirez

LG Hybrid Blu-ray/HD DVD Player Cannot Be Sold As Is [BetaNews]

Transform the iriver S10 into a... Watch? [dapreview]

a medieval torture device for your eyes. We tried it on. It was actually comfortable in a weird eye-poking kinda way. – Louis Ramirez

Flybook

Canon to Buy Toshiba's Stake in Display Unit [Yahoo News]

Toshiba Stainless Steel Kitchen TV [ubergizmo]

Update: This lack of sleep is killing me. I forgot to the link. See below for babeage.

CES Babe Gallery

Update 2: Now the Zoomr link above is busted. Hold on while I go reconnect the Intertubes. Here, look at the galleries below while I am un-exploding the Internet.
TweakTown Babe Gallery
ThinkComputers Babe Gallery

Motorola: John Wernecke tersely offered that Apple "was and still is a business partner." Sounds like someone's not happy that their crappy iTunes phones aren't even worth bitching about anymore.

LG: More talkative than Motorola, Melissa Elkins said that LG "welcomes healthy competition" and thinks that the iPhone shows that "we're all moving in the right direction." However, the iPhone is "different [from what LG is doing]" and is "a little bit more in the high end" whereas they offer phones for a variety of providers at many different price points.

Samsung: Kim Titus thinks that "more excitement around phones and functionality is going to be nothing but good for the industry."

Nokia: Keith Nowak happily told me that Nokia thinks it's "exciting" because it's "making people aware that... internet and people are coming together." Moreover, it "follows what we've been saying for years." On exclusivity, it's "not abnormal" and pretty much all manufacturers do it. All of that being said, "nobody's touched it" so it's hard to comparisons.

Upshot? No one thinks that it's the end of the world. In fact, they think if people get used to paying more for phones with increased functionality like in Europe and Asia, everybody wins. Or they're agents of the Beast and are lying their asses off. – Matt Buchanan

CES 2007 [Gizmodo]

To mix it up, I occasionally used an expresscard from Verizon on my Macbook. Although Verizon hasn't officially upgraded revision A, they're the only EV-DO company to have expresscards, the native expansion slot for the Macbook Pros many Gizmodo bloggers use.

Not that getting the USB dongles from Sprint fixed everything. We had depend on a hack from the EV-DO forums that allow OS X to use the USB devices. The resulting reception and performance made it worth the trouble.

We had reception in basements of the Sands, when our phones and other EV-DO cards couldn't pick up a damn thing, and WiFi was saturated by hundreds of journalists trying to file. And in the electric din of the Las Vegas Convention Center's halls, we uploaded probably a thousand photos, and dozens of videos, not to mention tens of thousands of words of ill crafted prose. And speeds were consistently good enough to not impede our work flow.

As soon as these loaners go back to Sprint, and they come out with and expresscard, I'm going to actually throw down a portion of my paycheck every month for the service. A rare endorsement for a guy –Brian Lam

Sprint Mobile Broadband[Gizmodo]

The Skinny A backpack on steroids. With enough space to hold a 17-inch laptop, two digital SLRs, an iPod and a pony, the CompuDaypack pretty much eats other backpacks' lunch. It's also as soft to the touch as Travis is.

Geared Toward Professionals, imagined or otherwise. Guys who need to lug around that type of equipment while running to the press tent.

The Spin The phrase "walk like a pro, talk like a pro" kinda makes my skin crawl. Wonderful that that's the backpack's tag line.

Counterspin I mean, I did see the bag in action and did get to feel it up. I paid $85 for the garbage backpack I've been using here at CES and the CompuDaypack is $5 less.

Buy it if... You need to haul a mini production studio across long stretches of jungle or across town.

– Nicholas Deleon

Product Page [Lowepro]

We found this little UMPC gem "Vistagami" running Windows Vista with the Origami Experience Pack (we think). This prototype was a little rough around the edges, with a joystick that clicked like an NES controller, and a bit of delay when navigating the video menus. But, the touchscreen was clear, responsive and running Windows Freakin' Vista.

The Vistagami goes in to production this May and will retail for around $900. –Mark Wilson

p.s. The Amtek people called Mark fat in Chinese.

–Travis Hudson

CES: The new XM CommanderMT [Orbitcast]

It can also show you radar detector and caller ID info, and the company's also working on displaying GPS data such as altitude and heading. Expect to see the BT1 in time for Christmas for less than $200. Motion Research tells us turn-by-turn GPS navigation might be in the offing after the BT1's release. – Charlie White

Product Page [Motion Research, via Coolest Gadgets]

There was a guy pimping the little noisebombs, quite happy to rattle the rafters of the Sands Expo. – Charlie White

Product Page [minihorn]

Product Page [Drinn]

Check out all of the schwag goods from CES here. –Travis Hudson

Ball point pen chandelier [MAKE]

The tough part is when you stretch, realize that your "girlfriend" didn't make you breakfast, and discover that she stole your wallet on the way out.

We have no idea how it actually smelled because the unit was out of fluid. But the top was kind of sticky and nasty. –Mark Wilson

As far as the Wii and Xbox 360 go...

Once again, Nyko has come up with several charging solutions. The Wii gets the Charge Station ($30), which charges the Wiimote. Since Nintendo has all but ruled out making a "charging solution," this certainly fills a void. Nyko's also got their own sensor bar for the Wii ($20) with a 25-foot radius. It's wireless, too, so setting it atop a wall-mounted TV is a little easier. They're also coming out with their own component cable given that the Nintendo one is damn near impossible to find.

Lastly, Nyko was demoing Zero, its newest line of wireless controllers for the PS3 and 360. Nyko's trying to get rid of the notion that third party controllers are on the cheap side with Zero. Available sometime this quarter for around $50, the controllers all have backlit buttons and are made out of an aluminum that helps dissipate heat. They were also damn light. I believe I said something along the lines of, "it's like I'm walking on air!" Pretty sure that's when they kicked us out. – Nicholas Deleon

Nyko

Geared Toward: MP3 fans who love MobiBLU's small size. The screen was bright and video was smooth on the OLED display.

The Spin: Not only does this play music, it's got Skype. Plug it into your PC via USB, then you can use the headphones and built-in mic to talk. Kinda convenient to make calls in a buddy's house, a net cafe, or at CES.

Counterspin: Despite hearing about it back in August, we still don't know what the release date for this is.

Buy It If...: You love MobiBLU but want some video and even Skype. –Jason Chen

Product Page [Mobiblu]

Jump for a hot-tub frolicking video and more-detailed pics of the entire process, as well as underwater proof that the Skins actually work.

Skins can also keep that small electronic device protected from sand, dirt, grime, and any other liquids, too. – Charlie White

Product Page [Innovalife]

The Skinny A waterproof, crushproof case that can be dropped from 4 feet without damaging your product. Qwerty keypad can accept backlight from the Treo. Hard cover can fold back to reveal thin (also waterproof) screen for touch interfacing. Blackberry wheel works as well.

Geared Toward X Games competitors, guys going through mid-life crisis in Africa

The Spin Otterbox rep actually stood on their new laptop case to show off its support. He was also "very enthused".

Counterspin The otter is possibly the world's cutest animal, which is probably influencing our response. We're going to put one of their samples to the test later...

Buy It If... You can't unplug during your rafting adventures or Gallagher shows.

–Mark Wilson

Geared Toward Video and photo editors who need a quick way of fast forwarding through clips or image libraries.

The Spin The 3Style is essentially a distant cousin to the SpaceNavigator. The difference is that the 3Style has a more natural, fluid feel and is easier to hold.

Counterspin Though we liked it, don't expect to see this Australian-made mouse anytime soon. The folks at Cylo told us the earliest we could see it was 3 to 4 months from now.

Buy It If... You like boob-shaped computer peripherals. – Louis Ramirez

Cylo Tech [Gizmodo]

It takes stereo audio from the docked iPod or Zen and upconverts it through "Xtreme Fidelity" to quality that they claim is somehow magically better than CD, which can then be streamed wirelessly to X-Fi wireless receivers (sold separately, naturally). Moreover, it converts that audio into DTS surround sound, which can be fed into a theater system via the optical-out port, along with video into your TV via S-video or composite outputs. Verdict? While the audio sounded good, anything that's upconverted strikes me as fishy. Also, the "X" garbage is so mid-90s it hurts. That said, the wireless streaming and home theater hookup seemed to work well, making it more worthy than most docks. Part of the "Made for iPod" program (guess they are chummy post-settlement after all), it drops in spring for $200, or with the $100 X-Fi receiver bundled for under $300, so it's not exactly the cheapest option out there, either. I mean, for that much you could just get an AppleTV. Gallery after the jump.

– Matt Buchanan, Photo gallery by Teru Kawayama