Bill appears and after a brief state-of-the-industry intro, notes that this is his final CES appearance. He'll look back on some of his previous experiences, noting how far we've progressed since he declared the "Digital Decade" in 2001 for three reasons:
1. The promulgation of lower-cost HD displays and soon interactive surfaces.
2. Mobile intelligence - cellular and GPS enabled products that help us get through the day
3. Interaction with technology increasingly mirroring the way we interact with people

First announcement: NBC Universal is making MSN the exclusive home for NBC's coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics in China. It's the first "long tail" Olympics: there will be thousands of hours of content available at nbcolympics.com, ranging from the most popular sports to the most obscure—from basketball to badminton. The video will be both live and on demand, with over 30 simultaneous live broadcasts; 2,200 hours of live broacasting and 3,000 hours of on-demand content. All of the video will be shared in Silverlight format in "near HD" quality.

Hands-on: Never-before-seen demo of the Surface table. In this demo, Bill designs a snowboard for himself—yes, a snowboard—using multitouch technology to try out different designs, then save them to his Windows Mobile phone and share with his friends. I only wonder what his insurance company thinks about his snowboarding plans.

Robbie Bach, Microsoft's President of Entertainment & Devices Division, will take the stage to cover the bulk of the presentation, talking about:

• Xbox's banner year - 17.7 million Xbox 360 units sold; 7 titles surpassing 1 million sales mark; U.S. users spent more on Xbox 360 in 2007 than more on any other game console ever

• TV show deal with ABC Television and Disney Channel for Xbox Live programming, available for direct download to Xbox 360. It includes 500 hours of content, in standard and high def, available at the end of the month, with shows such as Desperate Housewives, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, plus Disney shows including Hannah Montana.

• Movie deal with MGM - Xbox will offer MGM films in standard def and high def including the entire Rocky series, Terminator, Dances With Wolves, Silence of the Lambs, Legally Blond, Barber Shop and the Bond franchise.

• New application for Microsoft's Media Room IPTV, distributed by AT&T U-Verse: On TNT, NASCAR fans can choose a view of the race from the camera inside their favorite driver's car via their set-top box; Showtime boxing will let you choose camera angle and audio feeds from the trainer, ref, or the commentators; in CNN's coverage of US presidential campaign, viewers can vote on issues, gauging voter opinion in realtime.

• Media Center Extender support is growing in the consumer-electronics industry, led by Samsung, which will be working on a connected TV with MCE capability.

• Zune 2 off to a good start, with 1.5 million people starting Zune social fan pages since the service began in November. Bach will announce the availability of the Zune in Canada, the first distribution outside the US.

When Bill takes the stage again, he will demonstrate a "device of the future," something that won't necessarily become a product sold by Microsoft, but still a good glimpse of things to come. The device will ostensibly store and catalog all of Bill's memories so that he can pull up a reel of all his past CES keynotes. At one point, he will snap a picture of the Venetian auditorium and the gadget will recognize the venue, proposing various recreational activities he might enjoy after the keynote.

This is a rough sketch of the proceedings, one that's bound to change considerably. I'm told there will be some surprises—maybe a celebrity guest or some farewell treat. Who knows? That's why we plan to catch the whole event, and fill in any gaps that may be missing from this otherwise thorough digest. (You're welcome.) [Microsoft at CES]

It's been built by Nascar team owner, Gene Haas, in conjunction with Jacobs Engineering, and will be rented out to other teams to cover what I'm sure is the huge price tag. [Jalopnik]

Also, you'll live in a gated community, so you won't have to worry about any pesky minorities or hobos making you uncomfortable. The good life, yessiree! –Adam Frucci

Heaven's Landing [via Oh Gizmo!]

We can't say much for its performance, but it's guaranteed to suck you down a socio-economic level or two. – Jason Chen

Track Vac Robotic Vacuum [Hollywood Forces via Robotzilla]

"We are pleased that we were able to cross the finish line with Goodyear and that they chose us to collaborate with them on the development and manufacture of their RFID tire tag," said Dan Finch, president and CEO of Advanced ID, the tag manufacturing company.

Chock full of info, right?

RFID tags embedded in Daytona 500 tires

If you're a NASCAR fan, check out this stunning piece of equipment from Nextel and Sprint. An audio/video data scanner called the FanView, it will make sure you don't miss one single moment of racing magic—all over the 2.5 GHz wireless spectrum.

Gives you the race telecast, radio broadcast, up to seven in-car camera channels, direct audio feeds from pit and driver, audio replay and a live feed from the official timing and scoring system. Though not for sale, you 'll be able to rent FanView at the race, starting at $50 a day or $70 for the weekend. And remember folks, Nascar revs up on February 19th, so start your engines.

All of NASCAR in the palm of your hand [Mobilemag]

ShackWatch Cometh

Admit it: you've got a love-hate relationship with your local Radio Shack. The geek in you loves the fact that, whenever you need a pack of rectifier diodes or a D-Sub pin crimper, you know the local Shack's gonna have 'em. But the human being in you hates the pushy sales reps, the shelves of Z-grade junk, and the bank of TVs constantly tuned into the sinister Dr. Phil.

Low End Theory feels the same way, though I tilt more toward the lovey end of the spectrum. In fact, when I first began brainstorming on a Gizmodo column, I toyed with the idea of running a weekly ShackWatch feature. I mean, hey, the Shack's never gonna run out of new, cheap products to either praise or lampoon, right?

Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and ShackWatch will be a trimonthly treat instead. Let's kick off the inaugural episode with a look at what's cooking up on my beloved 125th Street, where there's a Shack featuring plenty of push-to-talk phones, synthesizers bigger than a Cooper Mini, and a curvaceous, blue-eyed salesgirl who can push me around whenever she likes. PLUS: Poland responds to last week's challenge!

There are, in my experience, two types of Radio Shacks in this world. There's the sedate mini-mall version, staffed by geeks who were too smart to end up working for the municipal roadkill pickup crew, but too lazy and socially inept to move out of mom's house. This is where a friendly guy named Louie will meet you at the door and try to push you on a 20-inch TV; when you note that you're only there for a few gold-plated Y-cables, he'll back off and return to debating Captain Janeway versus Captain Picard with the other employees.

My local Shack is of the second type: the chaotic retail-strip store, where the employees are too busy playing games or hounding customers about Sprint PCS contracts to notice that gadgets are strewn all over the floor. There's plenty of hardware to ogle here, but it's terribly organized; good luck tracking down that much-needed battery for your Panasonic cordless phone.

Low End Theory's mission was clear: slip in, jot down notes on a few worthy products, and slip out before being accosted by a bitchy-as-hell clerk yelling, "Yo, you looking for a phone? Looking for a phone?!?!"

The first stop was right inside the door, where my Shack's sizeable walkie-talkie stock is displayed. I'm not talking the Nextel variety, I'm talking real-deal walkie-talkies sans service plan. And there seemed to be no better deal than the Maxus Family 4-pak. Multicolored so you know they're good, the Maxuses (Maxi?) promise a range of two miles—perfect for my country estate, natch. (Note to analysts who might interpret previous statement as sign of Gawker Media munificence: I'm totally kidding.) The range spec sounds dubious, but at $29.99 for the whole kit and kaboodle, it seems worth the risk.

I tried to take the walkie-talkies off the rack for further inspection, but the 125th Street Shack has these weird security racks that don't let you slide products on and off without assistance. I noticed a salesgirl eyeing me as I fidgeted, so I decided to avoid tempting fate and moved on to the Wireless BBQ Thermometer. On post-summer sale for a measly $15, this actually seems like a nifty idea: perfectionist that I am, I've always wanted a less spattery means of finding out when my burger has an FDA-approved internal temperature. Best of all, the digital readout actually says "BEEF," at least on the display sticker. My question is, how do they turn a bunch of digital 8s into "CHICKEN"? And what if I want to roast up a guinea pig, Peruvian-style? (They're called cuy and they're quite tasty, thank you very much.)

The masterpiece of this particular Shack, though, was the Race Scanner Intercom, a getup that lets you and a pal eavesdrop on the pit-to-car communications at the track. It comes complete with headphones fit for sealing out the roar of a 767. It's not quite in the low-end range, with a list of $269.99, but the unit in my local Shack was going for 50 percent off. Hmmmmm, maybe it's because New York is perhaps the worst place in the U.S. to sell an accessory designed for the NASCAR market? Radio Shack may offer plenty of cheap gadgetry to peruse, but their distribution folks sure could use a little refresher course.

POLAND DIDN'T FORGET ABOUT US: Last week, I appealed to in-the-know readers to clue Low End Theory in to some cheap gadgetry from east of the former Berlin Wall. To my tremendous delight, a Polish Giz-fan responded with the scoop:

You should know that making gadgets in Poland (and probably anywhere in any of the post-Soviet countries) is more expensive than making gadgets in China. We're underpaid, but not that underpaid. So factories are only an exception, not the norm here. These exceptions are LG-Philips, which builds LCDs in Kobierzyce and Thompson, which makes TVs in Warsaw

That said, our new favorite Pole did turn us onto some budget Polish brands that, like the jWins and Cobys of the world, take advantage of cheap Asian contractors. So next time you're in Gdansk, by all means buy a DVD/Divx player from Manta. Our man in Poland gives them a nice thumbs up, in terms of value for the zloty.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Low End Theory column appear every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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