Greetings from Las Vegas, where the biggest week of the year is set to kick off: International CES 2007, the world's biggest showcase for the newest products and trends in the world of Consumer Electronics.

The show starts Monday morning at the Las Vegas Convention Center, but the press-only previews started Saturday night with CES Unveiled.  Several wireless companies were previewing their wares at Unveiled, and several more have issued Press Releases hinting at some exciting new stuff set to be "unveiled" at the start of the show Monday morning.  Samsung, for one, is set to release new music and video focused handsets to the U.S. market at their booth.

I'll be touring the show and meeting with Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, LG, and more wireless manufacturers to get the lowdown on their handset and accessory offerings for the new year.  Meantime, here's a rundown of the pre-show highlights so far: 

The most exciting booth at Unveiled belonged to Digit Wireless, makers of the Fastap keyboard that adds a full QWERTY board to handsets in the space of a regular dialing layout.  Fastap technology is currently available in the US on LG's AX490 flip phone for Alltel, which was a recipient of a CES Innovations 2007 award in the Wireless Communications category.  Digit had several new models on display, including the ZTE D90 and Chili C7, both of which prompted me to ask Digit reps if I could buy one right there on the spot.  These are the most stylish QWERTY-enabled handsets I've ever seen, and they're packed with features like 2 megapixel cameras, Bluetooth, Wireless Web, and music players (The C7 packs 4GB of onboard flash memory for media storage).  Unfortunately neither model is yet available for sale, but Digit reps did say to expect new models to be released by major US carriers sometime in Quarter 2 or 3 of this year.  Keep an eye out for handsets featuring Fastap - Digit may be onto something big as mobile internet becomes more popular and users gravitate towards full-featured devices with keyboards that also remain slim, attractive, and easy to tuck away in a pocket.

LG announced their video-centric VX9400 for Verizon, featuring a sliding, rotating screen that snaps into horizontal "widescreen" mode for viewing.  The video content comes by way of the MediaFLO-powered VCast service.  It's quite a slick looking device (save for the transistor radio-esque antenna) and could help push Verizon further out front as the king of wireless entertainment in the states.  At Uneviled, LG had their full line of US carrier phones on display, including the Verizon enV VX-9900, the slimmer, lighter, more feature-packed successor to the V.  The glossy black VX8600 flip phone and HSDPA-enabled CU500V were also on the table at Unveiled.  LG reps told me their entire line of international handsets including the new "Shine" will be on display in their main booth Monday.  There also may be a US version of Shine on display as well; the rumor going around is that it could be a slider phone.

MediaFLO was demonstrating their live television solution for wireless, and it was quite impressive.  The company doesn't make hardware, but rather transmits audiovisual content across their own nationwide network.  Service providers working with MediaFLO can then offer the content to their customers; MediaFLO has powering Verizon's Cast service for a year or so now.  A rep showed me a Qualcomm handset (MediaFlo is owned by Qualcomm) playing TV content, and she flipped through the channels just like you do on the couch at home.  The image was clear and sharp, audio was in sync, and Prison Break looked just like it does on TV (but smaller). Expect news from MediaFLO this year as the battle for your cellular entertainment dollars heats up.

A company called Seamless Internet was demonstrating their S-XGEN mobile computer/cell phone.  This hybrid device features a GSM cellular radio combined with a personal computer running Pocket PC and featuring aTFT touch screen, fold-out QWERTY keyboard, 20 GB hard drive, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity all powered by an Intel processor.  The device was large and heavy - at 14 ounces - for a cell phone but quite small for a mobile computer.  There's a possibility of a version running Windows XP down the line; now that would be a futuristic device.

They may not be cellular, but Skype was at Unveiled hawking their SkypeIN and SkypeOUT services as well as Wi-Fi phones from Belkin and Netgear.  With a Skype-compatible Wi-Fi phone (or the new Sony Mylo), Skype users can make and receive phone calls over any available WLAN network without the need for a computer.  The eBay-owned company is set to make a push for your calling business, as their service is cheaper than cellular and land lines, and quickly becoming almost as convenient - particularly in areas heavily blanketed by open wireless networks.

That's all for now, as I'm off to the Pepcom Digital Experience show tonight and, of course, the main event starting tomorrow morning.  Check back for the latest on what's new and what's just around the corner in the ever-changing world of cellular telephones and technology.

Author: Noah Kravitz