The products are all packaged in "frustration free" packaging, and include HDMI cables, Ethernet cords, and blank DVDs, to name a few.

This has to irk the consumer electronics companies that currently sell marked up cables and other items in Amazon's virtual marketplace already, but Paul Ryder, Amazon's vice president for consumer electronics and wireless, said all they'll need is a little re-education.

"I'm sure some vendors of cables and blank media are going to ask us, ‘What just happened?' We'll educate them that we saw value available to the customer in the market, and with our relationship with the vendor, we wanted to give that value to customers," he said over at the New York Times Bits blog. [Amazon via Bits]

To inspire developers, Sony's holding a competition for the best application. For your troubles, you could win either a Bravia 40-inch LCD TV, a Vaio TypeC laptop, or a Blu-Ray player, a Cybershot DSC-T77 or one of their new Walkman music players. Just get your app in before January 8th, 2009. [Sony Insider]

I'm not saying I'm anti-progress. We've reached a point in this industry where everything worth a damn is more PC than CE on the inside anyway, and we have to take the growing pains if we want the growth. But suffering a Blu-ray disc error on the PS3 the other day caused me to consider the issue: is it so wrong for us to ask for reliable CE products, ones whose added functionality is not complemented by added hassle? I feel like half of the products I've reviewed this year were cool but had at least one feature that was not ready for primetime. Yet they are sold in Best Buy. Even the beloved TiVo, role model for the New CE, has an occasional propensity for misbehavior.

So, for 2008, I want consumer-electronics product developers to spend more time on quality assurance, and less time shopping for gimmicky third-party software to tack on at the last moment. The temptation is highest in the realms of high-def disc players, "connected" receivers and sound systems, DVRs, game consoles and digital picture frames. Keep 'em clean, guys—we love all the added functionality, but if it doesn't work 100% of the time, for the love of God don't ship it. [All Giz Wants]

• In January, Intel will introduce what they claim is the smallest SSD in the industry. Officially named the Z-P140 PATA SSD, the drive holds 2GB or 4GB and is 12x18x8mm (about the size of a penny if you couldn't tell from the pic), and 0.6 grams. The Z-P140 can act as a controller for compatible NAND memory, which means these drives are expandable to 16GB. Intel says that this new style of SSD should be showing up soon in several UMPCs and other mobile internet devices from companies such as Asus, BenQ, Clarion, Lenovo and more.

• Intel will also bring WiMax and other wireless connectivity options to these devices. A WiMax/Wi-Fi combo chip, code-named Echo Peak, will also come to market in 2008. Of the 25 devices in the mobile computing category planned for next year, Intel says that 20% will have WiMax, 60% will have 3G and 40% will have GPS. 100% will of course support both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

• For desktop users, processor capacity and hi-def performance will see major enhancements in 2008. "Skulltrail", a new dual-processor based platform, will enable high-end and professional computer users to run dual quad-core Core 2 Extreme processors for a massive 8-core performance, for gamers and other hardcore users. In addition, a new feature called HD Boost is an instruction set that will provide faster video encoding/decoding, 3D rendering and photo editing.

• Consumer electronics such as set-top boxes and digital televisions will also get a boost from "Canmore", a "system-on-a-chip" that combines 1GHz processing core with A/V processing and graphics and I/O components onto a single chip. Intel sees increased internet connectivity in these types of devices, and cited examples such as playing video games over your cable box as possible implementations.

• Santa Rosa Refresh, an updated version of the Centrino processor, is a 45nm Penryn chip with better graphics capabilities. The Refresh will be offered in notebooks and desktops and is geared to improving the quality of HD DVD and Blu-ray, among other graphic intensive applications.

• Finally, Intel says that the Gateway One and Dell XPS All-In-One will get the Penryn boost next year, and I was also told that they are "talking to Apple."[Intel]

Event sponsors often take the cheapest hired gun they can find and don't ask questions about what's going where and how. The "recyclers" then turn around and hawk the wares, handing off what they can't sell to export brokers. And if they get busted, they just say they were selling secondhand goods to poor countries that need them.

The article-concluding solution propagated by Green Earth hippies actually makes sense: Make companies take back their own goods for recycling. Some companies already do, like Apple and Dell, and it's the law in eight states. Besides the obvious benefits, the hippies argue it'll push them to develop products with fewer dangerous chemicals, since the stuff will be back in their hands. It's better than the hands of underpaid, underprotected workers trying to scratch out a living. [CNN/AP, Flickr]

Warranty Week, an industry publication, last year estimated that of the $15 billion in premiums charged consumers in 2004, $7.5 billion went straight into the pockets of the stores that sell warranties as their cut.

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Unwarranted [Washington Post via Kotaku]

One of the products with the most growth is satellite radio. Satellite radio ownership has hit 10-percent of households. Satellite radio giants, XM and Sirius, have surpassed 10 million subscribers.

Average Household has 26 CE products [DesignTechnica]

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