The 2009 edition of CES -- the International Consumer Electronics Show -- returns to Las Vegas this week. The scheduling for the show has changed: It's still the first week of January, but no longer runs during the work week; instead it runs from the end of the week through the weekend, Thursday to Sunday, January 8 to 11.
Last year CES drew over 141,000 attendees and 2700 exhibitors. This year the number of exhibitors is down slightly, and attendance will slip too -- as demonstrated by the discounts being offered by Vegas hotels.
The anticipation is down as well, with the economic turmoil, and with the end of an era in the industry: for the first time in many years, Steve Jobs is not speaking at Macworld, and Bill Gates is not speaking at CES (it's up to Steve Ballmer now).
But there still will be lots of news from CES, and new product introductions, from huge-screen HD TVs with Web connectivity to portable mobile devices that do everything.
If you're not going to the show, you can keep in touch via the major tech blogs like Engadget and Gizmodo, which deploy teams to live blog from the exhibitor press conferences, keynote talks, and exhibit hall. Other tech sites like CNET also feature heavy coverage.
Meanwhile, I'll be assimilating it all, and updating my annual CES Summary article with information about the show and links to the cornucopia of news and commentary and feeds from the events.
See my article, in progress: 2009 International CES Summary