As we bid farewell to the 2011 International CES, we close with some general observations from the ETC reporting team…

Las Vegas was crowded – really crowded. If the national economy is slow to recover, there was little evidence of it in the Nevada desert. CEA estimates that about 140,000 people attended the show (more than last year and on par with pre-recession levels), and the state of the industry is showing strength. CEA’s Gary Shapiro estimates that consumer electronics spending will show a 6% increase for 2010, to $180 billion, and will rise an additional 3% this year, to more than $186 billion.

If we had to sum up this year’s show in 10 words, they would be: smart, connected, apps, 3D, 4G, gestural interfaces, tablets, tablets, and tablets.

The word that appeared around every corner of this year’s show floor was ‘smart’ – from banners and new product lines to marketing slogans and more. There was no escaping it, as it seems manufacturers now recognize the need to simplify consumer control over the dizzying array of available devices and services.

‘Connected’ everything was another star of the show, especially in regards to television and related services: search, discovery, VOD, and way too many apps to fathom. In fact, it was a challenge to spot a TV that wasn’t connected to Hulu, Netflix, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, Yahoo! – you get the idea.

CES presented the connected TV as the center for our new multimedia-driven homes. We saw Hubs, Dashboards, Media Links – all designed to address these needs.

This CE connectivity is reliant upon high-speed networks and we heard a lot in terms of 4G and LTE. Verizon, T-Mobile, and others showcased their recently launched networks and collection of tablets and smartphones designed to leverage new speed and efficiency. We found the Motorola Atrix 4G compelling, an Android-based phone featuring NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2 chipset, support for AT&T’s 4G network, and a very interesting laptop dock.

We saw 3D in record abundance – from 3D mobile and 3D gaming to new autostereo displays and a wide selection of prototype and market-ready 3DTVs and laptops.

Sony and Panasonic are sticking with active-shutter, while others – including LG, Toshiba, and Vizio – are touting the benefits of new passive 3D models. Passive displays are being produced at a more reasonable cost and many find passive polarized to be more comfortable. Additionally, the weight of the glasses is an improvement, and they work better over eyeglasses.

For those who believe donning plastic glasses may become the primary obstacle to consumer adoption, a number of autostereo displays were on hand, some that showed real promise and others that were less than impressive.

In terms of gestural interfaces, Microsoft Kinect is already breaking sales records, but the real story here is how gesture technologies will be used beyond video games. PrimeSense showed a system that wirelessly links the PC and TV, enabling access to content from a controller-free 3D system. Imagine what ‘connected’ TV will be like with set-top boxes featuring gesture recognition.

If there was a single breakout star this year, however, it would be tablets.

The Motorola XOOM turned a lot of heads in Vegas. The Android-based device (CNET’s ‘Best of Show’ winner) is one in a growing number of tablets targeting the burgeoning iPad market. Reactions were also positive for the 4G BlackBerry PlayBook which, unlike most of the iPad competitors, does not use Android, but will run on the BlackBerry Tablet OS.

Another tablet not using Android is Samsung’s Sliding PC 7. It runs on Windows, and is a touch-screen device with its own slide-out keyboard. Larger than an iPad but smaller than many Netbooks, it could be the hybrid that many have been hoping for.

We have much more to discuss, especially in regards to cloud-based content hosting and delivery services (i.e. UltraViolet), connected TVs and Blu-ray players with 2D-to-3D conversion capabilities, and more – but we’ll save those thoughts for our post show report which should be available within the next week.

Thanks for reading the blog for this year’s CES coverage. A special thank-you to ETC’s sponsors who make our work possible. Until the next show…

KC Blake, Sarah Blake, George Gerba, Carolyn Giardina, Bryan Gonzalez, Bob Lambert, Michael Lei, Phil Lelyveld, Jack Lerner, Edie Meadows, Nick Nero, Paula Parisi, Adrian Pennington, Rob Scott, David Wertheimer, Joyce Yi

Winners of this year’s CNET Best of CES Awards were announced Saturday morning in the lobby of South Hall. With all the buzz surrounding tablet PCs taking over Las Vegas, it’s apropos that a new Android-based tablet would take ‘Best of Show’ for 2011.

Motorola’s XOOM turned a lot of heads this week – from its appearance in the opening keynote to crowded demos in Central Hall at the Motorola booth. The XOOM is one in a growing number of tablets targeting the burgeoning iPad market, but as Bob Lambert wrote in his CES event coverage, Motorola’s solution is compelling, “with Android’s refreshingly thoughtful user interface, growing range of applications and high-speed LTE-based wireless connectivity.” Additionally, CNET reports some interesting distinctions: “(XOOM) comes standard with front- and rear-facing cameras, including one that can record in HD, compared with none in the current version of the iPad. It also boasts a larger screen with a higher resolution, supports Adobe Flash, and uses Verizon’s network instead of AT&T’s.”

We’ll be watching how this potential competition will play out in 2011.

This year’s ‘People’s Voice Award’ went to the Razer Switchblade – an Intel Atom-based, concept design for a Netbook of sorts, designed to bring PC gaming to a portable form factor. Razer has taken the familiar keyboard and redesigned it as a tool for mobile gaming controls (CNET has a great online video demo). By combining a multitouch screen with a tactile adaptive keyboard (the keyboard actually changes on-the-fly based on which game you are playing), Razer presents a compelling solution for portable gaming.

Whether the Switchblade takes off or not, we expect the form factor is something we’ll see with future interface technologies.

Our audience should also be interested in some of the category winners, including: Nintendo 3DS (Gaming), a portable system in which gamers have the option of adjusting the 3D intensity or shutting it off; Toshiba 3D eyeglass-free technology (Prototype), a proof of concept design for 3D laptops that leverages eye tracking software; and the Motorola Atrix 4G (Smartphones), an Android-based phone featuring NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2 chipset, support for AT&T’s 4G network, and an interesting laptop dock.

For the complete list of winners and related articles, visit the CNET Best of CES page. Other awards presented during CES worth noting include:

— The CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards program (sponsored by PCWorld)

— The 61st Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards (NATAS)

— The 4th Annual Mashable Awards (formerly the Open Web Awards)

— The 2011 CES Mobile Apps Showdown (created by Robin Raskin of Living in Digital Times)

— The 2011 CES Hot Stuff Awards (sponsored by Stuff magazine)

Home Server Technologies Inc. (HSTi) showcased an innovative new technology called Wireless Media Stick, a simple and affordable product that allows media connectivity between mobile devices, TVs, DVD players and more.

The product addresses this year’s underlying theme of connectivity, but unlike Google TV or Samsung’s Smart Hub products, all of which can run a hefty cost after subscriptions and hardware, the Wireless Media Stick is available for a modest $119.

The unit looks like any USB flash drive. After connecting to a main computer that contains media files, the computer is enabled (all the software is embedded into the product), and the Media Stick can be inserted into any device with a USB playback port — and through a wireless connection users have the ability to access and share photos, videos and music.

What’s especially interesting about the technology is that you can also stream on-the-go; the Wireless Media Stick app is downloadable for smartphones and by taking the Stick to any location you can directly stream data from a mobile device to any TV, computer or stereo that is USB playback compatible.

The reasonably-priced Wireless Media Stick is currently available and should be particularly appealing to high school and college students who are constantly on-the-go and accustomed to easily sharing their media content.

Research in Motion (RIM) hasn’t kept the BlackBerry PlayBook much of a secret, but there was one specification it saved to announce at CES — the PlayBook will be a 4G device.

Wireless carrier Sprint Nextel will offer a version of the BlackBerry PlayBook that runs on Sprint’s next-generation network. The 4G PlayBook is expected to be available this summer. A release date for the Wi-Fi-only version has yet to be announced, but RIM indicated it would be available early this year.

Unlike most of the iPad competitors, PlayBook does not use Android, but will run on the BlackBerry Tablet OS that uses QNX technology. The tablet has a touch screen smaller than that on the iPad, and is geared toward business users.

Other specs include:

– Multi-touch capacitive screen (7-inch, 1024 x 600).
– Measures 5.1 x 7.6 x 0.4-inches and weighs 0.9 pounds.
– Features a 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM.
– Front-facing camera shoots 3MP.
– High-definition rear-facing camera takes 5MP shots.
– Adobe Flash 10.1 enabled, built-in HTML 5 support.

Video reports and commentary are available on the BlackBerry blog.

Worried about who might be eavesdropping on your mobile phone calls? A new company called Kryptos Communications is showing an app to provide secure, fully encrypted voice communications over mobile phones.

Kryptos provides VoIP connectivity for secure calls over 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi if users on both ends have downloaded the app. The service is reasonably priced at $4.99/month, with no contract required. The Kryptos app is already available for iPhone, with Android coming later this month and Blackberry in February.

Might be an interesting solution for executives, teams working on sensitive projects, or paparazzi-dodging celebrities.

T-Mobile is making a major 4G push, promising to “double” the performance of its network to peak download speeds of 21Mbps during the first half of 2011 and 42Mbps by the end of the year.

The company additionally announced 25 new devices, including its first tablet, the Dell Streak 7, scheduled to hit retail first quarter. The Streak 7 runs Android 2.2 on a dual core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor with Adobe Flash support.

It has a 7-inch multi-touch screen, up to 32GB of internal storage, and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for face-to-face communication via Qik or Skype.

LG Electronics Thursday tossed its hat into the 4G arena, debuting its first 4G phone, the Revolution, which will be offered through Verizon. The Revolution supports the streaming, playing and recording of high definition video. The Android 2.2 device has a 4.3-inch touch screen and a 5 megapixel camera capable of 720p capture. The package also includes hotspot capability for up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices. Verizon president Dan Mead said at a press conference that customers can expect download speeds of speeds of  5 to 12Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5Mbps in areas with 4G coverage.

At the LG booth, the company was also showing off its Windows 7 phone, the Quantum. Windows 7 phones hit the market in October, and there are only three models currently available, the LG Quantum being the only one with an actual keypad. Sold through AT&T, it’s a bargain at $99 (with contract, after rebate) and has numerous nifty features, like an always-on camera with a dedicated button.

LG also presented proof-of-concept technology for a mobile lenticular display that looked pretty great, and got a buzz going. But company reps said there was no timeline for product.

Verizon, which has arguably led the industry in terms of infrastructure but lagged in terms of debuting 4G phones, made a splashy announcement of new devices for the carrier’s 4G platform, called LTE. None of the new products have release dates beyond “sometime in 2011,” but the company did say it expects to end the year with high-speed mobile broadband in 175 markets.

Verizon vp networks Tony Melone said at a Thursday press conference that customers can “conservatively” expect download speeds of 5 to 12Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5Mbps from LTE (up to 10x faster than 3G).

The company didn’t ignore content, unwrapping a deal with Viacom’s Electronic Arts to bring the game “Rock Band” to its 4G mobile users. “It’s not just about apps, it’s about how deeply and seamlessly they’re integrated,” Verizon vp and chief operating officer Marni Walden said.

Verizon’s new phone offerings include the Android powered HTC Thunderbolt, one of the first phones to fully integrate Skype mobile with video calling (through one-touch calling). A 4.3-inch screen and 8 megapixel camera make the Thunderbolt multimedia-friendly. And as with the LG Revolution, also announced (see separate post), the Thunderbolt is an Android 2.2 device, capable of HD capture and playback, in this case 720p, and is DLNA-compatible.

The company also announced the first Samsung 4G LTE phone, which will take advantage of Samsung’s Media Hub content service, offering premium movies and TV shows. The Samsung Galaxy Tab was another new device on tap, with a 7-inch display and – a novelty among tablets – front and rear facing cameras for live video chat. Rounding out the Samsung offerings is a 4G mobile hotspot dongle.

Verizon also touted two notebook computers that will be able to take advantage of its 4G network: the HP Pavilion dm1-3010nr Notebook PC and the Compaq CQ10-688nr.

Riffing on the fact that some consumers are using the phone as their primary digital screen, Motorola and AT&T on Wednesday unveiled the ATRIX 4G, which puts the power of a Netbook, and then some, in the palm of a user’s hand.

Billed as a gaming, music and video-on-the-go powerhouse, the Android 2.2 unit runs Firefox 2.3 and has Flash integration on a 4-inch screen. It can be juiced to a custom docking station complete with keyboard and an 11.6-inch screen, as well as HDMI output for TV connectivity (up to 720p HD on release, which Motorola plans to upgrade to 1020) and three USB ports for a mouse, speakers or gaming controller. As a bonus for business users, it has an integrated Citrix receiver for VPN access. The Atrix runs on a dual core (2GHz total) processor , with 1GB of RAM, and offers up to 48GB of memory – 16GB on board and an optional 32GB microSD card.

Motorola also introduced the XOOM tablet, for Verizon, which it billed as “the first tablet PC built to run on the Android 3.0 OS” (dubbed Honeycomb). The device, which features a 10.1-inch (16:9), 1280×800 display, will connect to the new Google Mobile Innovation service offering HD-optimized books, music and movies. It debuts in 3G in the first quarter, with an upgrade to 4G expected in the third quarter.