The Globe and Mail

Facebook in your car!
Mercedes-Benz USA is bringing Facebook to its cars, with a special version of the service that is built-in to a new in-vehicle telematics system. The version offered in Daimler AG's Mercedes is stripped down to a limited set of features, specially designed for drivers and centered around the locations of friends and businesses. (Reuters)

(Rick Wilking/REUTERS)

Bigger, better screens
Samsung and LG are showing off the first production models of organic light-emitting diode TVs (Samsung's is pictured). OLED screens are extremely thin, with highly saturated colours and a nearly perfect black. Previously prohibitively expensive, the technology is mostly used for high-end smartphones.
LG is also showing off an 84-inch (213-centimetre) set with a resolution that's more than four times that of top high-definition set. This so-called “4K” resolution represents another advance in screen technology that will take time to reach consumers, if it ever does — there are as yet no 4K TV channels or movie discs.

(Julie Jacobson/AP)

Ultra-big bet
Intel Corp. will roll out its largest advertising campaign since 2003, starting in April, to push ‘Ultrabooks’, the thinner and lighter notbooks similar to Apple's MacBook Air, which launched three years ago. PC makers have responded well to the ultrabook idea, and Intel says there are 75 models on the way. The Consumer Electronics Association expects 30 to 50 ultrabook models to be on display at CES. (AP)

(Paul Sakuma/AP)

The end of the Remote
TVs that connect to the Internet are old hat: Next up is the interface: LG and Samsung are pushing flatscreens with built-in cameras and microphones that will allow control motion and voice controls in the living room. Sony Corp. revealed at that Google TV will finally be coming to Canada, in a new Blu-ray player that runs the software, which will also have a remote with a microphone for voice-powered Web searches. Cable companies seem less keen on this remote-less future. (AP)

(Julie Jacobson/AP)

Game console war
Sony Corp sold 6.5 million games machines during the holiday season, including the PlayStation 3 console and the newly launched PS Vita handheld device, a senior executive said at CES. Sony Corp's videogaming business, will prove pivotal in returning the company to profitability, Kazuo Hirai, the executive pegged to succeed Howard Stringer as president, said on Tuesday. Not to be outdone, Microsoft announced it had sold about 7 million Xbox and Kinect units over the crucial holiday shopping season, totalling up to about 66 million Xbox units in use.
(Reuters)

(Ralph Orlowski/Bloomberg)