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)

Facebook and Twitter had a strong presence at CES … in the form of apps on connected TVs, Blu-ray players, set-top-boxes, and just about any connected device. Samsung even announced that its new connected refrigerator could display your Twitter feed. The popularity of social networks have forced CE manufacturers to include them on their products’ feature specs, irrespective of how appropriate the application truly is. Unfortunately, this knee jerk reaction to include social networks clearly demonstrates the lack of imagination or understanding as to how social networks are really used by people.

Social networks go beyond just being able to see what your friends are saying as you open up the refrigerator. Rather, social networks should be viewed as sources of information that can reveal deep personal connections. Re-imagine the connected refrigerator using social networks to suggest meals that have been successfully cooked by family and friends. Or suggesting new drinks or other edible delights that were just mentioned in a friend’s status update. The key to appropriate usage of social networks is … context. What is the device and how is it being used?

CE companies should realize that the device itself gives the user context and should guide the usage of social networks on the device. True, in the end, CE manufacturers will always pick the lowest hanging fruit first. But as social networks become more ubiquitous, the industry needs to determine what about social networks will help them to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Ultimately it’s not just about adding Facebook, but instead, asking “What can we do using social networks to maximize the appeal/utility of our products for our consumers?”

AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime), the popular app development platform for Internet and mobile devices, has extended its reach to include support for connected television.

Adobe announced that Samsung is supporting AIR across their line of Smart TV’s and it is safe to say that you will see other manufacturers follow suit. With over three million Adobe Flash developers who can use Adobe Creative Suite 5 to author content for AIR for TV, the platform already has a large built-in user base.

AIR 2.5’s cross-platform technology is especially good news for content companies who can re-purpose existing assets to quickly create an app for a movie property that can then be delivered across a spectrum of devices from Internet to mobile to TV.

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.

One of the most interesting (and nerdy) things you can find at this year’s show is from a small vendor called Vidtonic. Vidtonic is hopping on the Android bandwagon, but they are approaching it from a very different angle than everyone else.  While Motorola and others go to great pains to protect their hardware from hackers who want to modify the default OS or overclock their processors, Vidtonic aims to sell open source hardware units to this community, allowing them complete freedom to tinker in whatever way they wish.

Although specific kits and pricing aren’t yet nailed down, the general idea is that you’ll be able to buy a motherboard with CPU, memory and onboard audio/video. Inputs and outputs can be customized via add-on cards. Then you’ll be able to download the already freely distributed Google Android OS platform with the Linux drivers necessary for the Vidtonic board directly from them. From that point on, what you do with it is only limited by your time and creativity.

Vidtonic will even provide a higher end SKU which comes with a display and and the electronics mentioned above.

It’s Lego Mindstorm for AV hackers. The ultimate promise here is obvious. Ground zero of the media center STB scene started with a community of Xbox hackers in the early 2000′s who built Xbox Media Center (XBMC) to provide a platform for an all-in-one media box for the living room. While Sony and Logitech are putting tons of investment into Google TV, it’s this ‘crowdsourcing’ approach to feature development that has historically provided the best solutions and the most innovation.

When the SageTV, MythTV and current Android hacking communities get their hands on these units we’ll see a wave of incredibly innovative applications for media hubs.

In an example of the type of “electronic ecosystems” that are brewing here at CES, Chicago-based Cobra Electronics on Tuesday showcased the iRadar, which becomes GPS-enabled by downloading an app that syncs the device to an iPhone or iPod Touch.

In the spring, the app will be upgraded to include a real-time data gathering component. “The iRadar detectors will be able to share information, kind of like Tweeting,” Cobra senior vp marketing Sally Washlow said. “So if I’m driving around and I pick up a radar signal it will upload it to a cloud, and will send it out to other iRadar users.”

The device detects the location of conventional radar as well as red light- and speed cameras. An Android version is scheduled to debut in March.

“The neat thing is, the iRadar detector is $129, whereas most radar detectors with GPS built in cost $400 and up,” Washlow noted.

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.

In the ongoing quest for a truly universal remote, German company VooMote has presented an impressive contender. The VooMote ONE is a snap-in case that turns an iPhone or iPod Touch into a universal remote to control any consumer electronic device with IR functionality.

The slick little handset comes preloaded with codes for hundreds of thousands of devices, including home appliances and non-media products. After initial set-up, it can be waved in the general direction of a device in order to pull up a custom remote screen.

The VooMote ONE will be for sale in Europe at the end of February, and coming to US retailers later this year. An Android version is in development.

The Orb BR is a Blu-ray Disc that leverages the connectivity of your BD Live enabled Blu-ray player. When you place the Orb BR disc in your Blu-ray player, it uses BD Live to stream content from your PC or Mac directly to your Blu-ray player. The key is that you must have the Orb Caster client software running on your computer.

The client can stream content from sites such as Netflix, Amazon VOD, Pandora, and Hulu, as well as personal content from your music, photo and video collections.

Additionally, you can use Orb’s iPhone remote app to view a list of content and control playback. The advantage to using the Orb BR disc is that there is no need for additional hardware. However, the user must be running the client on their computer when they want to stream content.

The Orb BR disc is due to come out in February and will be priced at $19.99.