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Here we are in Paris, sorry, Vegas (big cities all look the same these days). Crave is ready for CES 2007, but is CES ready for us? It is not. To be fair, the press events don’t start until tomorrow and the show proper doesn’t open until Monday, so we’re a day early. Right now there’s very little evidence that the world’s largest consumer electronics show is about to strut its stuff on the Las Vegas stage.
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The Sony Style store is welcoming CES attendees, but no one else seems to care. If you aren’t here to gamble and you don’t want to buy tickets to a show, it’s easy to think you’re in the wrong city. CES isn’t exactly taking over the town.
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Most of the action will take place at the Las Vegas Convention Center, a big pink building that contains 186,000 square metres (or 2 million square feet) of exhibition space. There’s some evidence that CES is coming, but it’ll be a building site almost until the show opens.
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This looks like the InFocus stand (well, it does if you’re close enough to read the writing on the boxes). Toshiba seems to be winning the banner war, although it’s so windy that they may not survive until Monday.
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CNET.com’s trailer also looks like a work in progress, with a pile of boxes out the back. This is where the writers and editors from CNET.com, CNET.com.au and CNET.co.uk will type up their reports.
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“The ‘ow’ starts now.” Ouch. It looks as if the wind has ripped the heart out of Microsoft’s banner, although it could be a work in progress. Maybe we’ll have a ‘Wow’ by the time Bill Gates gives his keynote speech on Sunday afternoon. -ML