By Michal Lev-Ram

LAS VEGAS — At a moment when Yahoo desperately needs to wow investors, the company unveiled a handful of enhancements to its mobile search service that are also being offered by rivals Google and Microsoft.

The announcement, made Wednesday at the CTIA wireless show in Las Vegas, includes a new voice-enabled search function that allows consumers to look up restaurants and websites by speaking into the phone. This could be a useful feature for people without QWERTY keypads on their phone, or for those who want to look up information while driving. The only problem is, Microsoft (MSFT) already offers a similar application on its Live Search mobile service.

Yahoo (YHOO) says its new voice recognition feature can adapt to a user’s voice over time and is now available for download on select Blackberry devices, including the Pearl and Curve. More compatible devices will be added in coming months.

Yahoo also unveiled a search box that will sit directly on a phone’s homepage, which will allow users to look up whatever they want without having to open their browser — a feature similar to a Google (GOOG) software “shortcut” for cell phones launched just last month.

On top of these features, Yahoo also plans to offer a downloadable application that tries to predict a user’s search as he or she starts typing. This is similar to the search assist function on Yahoo’s online homepage (accessible on a PC) but is the first such feature to become available on a mobile device. In other words, Microsoft and Google aren’t one step ahead on this one. Yahoo says its new recommendation tool can cut down on the amount of time it takes to conduct a search from a cell phone. Currently, this function is only available on Apple (AAPL) iPhones, which come loaded with Google applications like YouTube videos.

The new enhancements to Yahoo’s mobile search application will likely make it a smarter, faster and easier to use service. But, with the majority of the just-announced updates already available from the company’s rivals, it’s unlikely it will be enough to significantly differentiate Yahoo and deliver the much-needed pizazz investors are looking for as the company tries to fend off a takeover bid by Microsoft.

By Michael V. Copeland

If you want a hint at where innovation in the gadget world is headed, talk to the chip guys. These nuggets of insanely complex silicon that companies like Intel, AMD (AMD), Atheros, Broadcom and Marvell (MRVL) are creating today will end up in the phones, laptops, televisions and mobile video/music/Internet devices of tomorrow.

We all know that Intel is dead-set on making WiMax — wireless access measured in square miles — a reality. When they start shipping WiMax PC cards in laptops is another matter (Intel (INTC) said it’ll be around the middle of the year), but when they do, your laptop might start acting and looking more like the tidy mobile device it should be. Think about a sub-subnotebook machine, always connected to a broadband signal — it might make video calls via VoIP, stream movies, take photos and send them wirelessly back home or to the office. I want one now, but it doesn’t happen without the chipset (and the network infrastructure to go along with it). That’s a ways in the future for most of us, especially in the United States. But the capability is coming soon, and a raft of new gadgets that take advantage of it will follow.

One of the most interesting chip trends I saw last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was encapsulated in a little device called the Eye-Fi. Here’s a gadget that exists today, but has lots of implications for tomorrow. What the Eye-Fi does is automatically stream photos from your digital camera via your Wi-Fi network to your PC or an online photo service. What the Eye-Fi team has done essentially is wrap a service around a common flash memory card and a low-power Wi-Fi chip from Atheros (ATHR). It’s these lower power Wi-Fi chips that are extremely interesting, when you start thinking about other services they enable.

All the manufacturers in that realm of the chip business are working on prototypes that are as power efficient and powerful as possible. But think about all the things that can happen if you can put Wi-Fi into all sorts of mobile and fixed devices and connect them to either the Internet or a private network. Gadgets get smart and can receive, send and potentially respond to whatever information they are set up to handle.

It could be smarter light switches that turn off and on via an e-mail or text message, or LCD picture frames that stream your e-mail to your bedside and upload a recipe to the kitchen screen every day before dinner. Or maybe some slick mini-display that scrolls updates from your Facebook friends on one side, reads you the news on the other, and does any number of other things that you find important or entertaining.

Who knows? The possibilities are numerous, but it begins with these chips now starting to ship. It also calls into question the future of other wireless standards like Bluetooth and Zigbee. Zigbee, a low-power wireless technology, has never really taken off. Bluetooth has, but combining Bluetooth with Wi-Fi in devices is much more of a headache than engineers would like it to be. Low-power Wi-Fi plays nicely with its full-power brethren and has the potential to sweep both other wireless standards away.

In the Broadcom (BRCM) booth at CES I got a demonstration of a lower power chip now ready to ship that allowed for high-definition video, graphics and audio in such a small package that you can already see all the little video devices/phones it will spawn. One very cool potential application combined that low power HD video chip with a motion control chip that Broadcom builds for the Wii controller and another very popular music device/phone that begins with the letter “i.” Basically, you get a handheld Wii, which, I would bet you’ll be seeing sometime in the near future.

By Yi-Wyn Yen

LAS VEGAS - One of the amazing things about the Consumer Electronics Show is all the cool toys you’d like to have, but don’t really need or can’t really afford. Like Panasonic’s 150-inch plasma screen TV. Or a $3,000 flight simulator.

The basic version of the DreamFlyer retails for $2,800, and the premium version that includes pedals costs $3,225. It does not include the PC, video game software, or flat-screen monitors you’ll need to set up the machine (up to three is recommended for a more realistic viewing experience). Oh, and some assembly is required.

After that, get ready to soar. Considering that it doesn’t use hydraulics or motors, Flight Motion Simulators’ DreamFlyer does an impressive job of mimicking being in a cockpit. It uses the weight of the individual in the pilot’s chair to generate flying motions like pitch and roll.

The company is currently working on a race car version. There is no release date yet, but you can bet it won’t be cheap.

By Michael V. Copeland

LAS VEGAS — I am not saying it’s safe or smart (and it’s probably illegal in most states), but I’ll be damned if a little driving is going to keep me from checking e-mail on my BlackBerry. And if I already have driving directions on my laptop screen, why not prop it up on the passenger seat next as a sort of ad-hoc navigation aid?

The point is, all the things we do, and all the gadgets we use as part of our work and fun, are steadily finding their way into our cars.  So far, we’ve mostly been the ones who are initiating that migration, not the automakers. People were watching movies on laptops in the back seat, and hacking their car stereos to use their iPods, long before they could get a factory-made LCD screen in a headrest or an in-dash dock for their favorite digital music player.  But based on the miles of auto tech on display at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, that’s about to change, and fast.

I’m not talking about the usual CES assortment of monster speakers, neon-lit amps and GPS units that if placed in a pile would  become their own geographic feature on a map. The new trend is the ability to bring your entire digital life  — not just music and driving directions — into your car.

Auto parts maker Delphi is showing off a device by partner Autonet Mobile, a Bay Area based startup that has developed a mobile WiFi kit for your car. Screw the base station into your trunk, connect the power, fire up the cellular-based broadband to bring in the Internet signal and your ride is bathed in WiFi.  Passengers can update their Facebook profiles, stream a YouTube video, or check restaurant reviews while on the road. Anything that can connect to WiFi will work. “It’s all about extending the Internet lifestyle into the car,” says Autonet Mobile CEO Sterling Pratz. When you are in range of your home WiFi network you can even send music or video wirelessly back to whatever is in the car.

The Autonet package will include the hardware to bring in the signal and a monthly or annual service fee for the cellular broadband service.  You can try it now for $10.95 a day at certain Avis rental locations, but the ultimate plan is to roll it out nationwide as an option in new cars. That begins in two weeks when two Bay Area car dealerships, one Volvo the other Toyota (TM),  start selling the in-car Internet gear. Pratz would not say what dealers are going to charge, only that it would be “much less than an in-car DVD system,” and the monthly fee would be at a discount to a typical $50 per month cellular broadband contract.

Pratz and his team have taken the approach that it’s far better to let people bring the gear they already have into the car. The logic is that it offers flexibility and no risk of obsolescence as long as WiFi is around.

One gadget that would be a perfect complement to Autonet, essentially an in-dash computer, hits the auto parts after-market in April. Developed by Grand Blanc, Mich.-based Azentek, the Atlas CPC 1200 amounts to a $2,800 PC cum GPS unit that fits in your car dashboard. For that price, the Atlas CPC 1200, has all the bells and whistles you can imagine. Up to 160 gigs of storage, DVD/CD drive, Bluetooth, 6.5-inch LCD touch-screen. The pricey PC, which starts shipping in April, uses an Intel Core Duo processor, and runs Windows Vista Ultimate. What it misses, however is connectivity. But since it does sport Wifi, you could bring in the signal via Autonet and boom, have your e-mail and you buddy list up while you drive.

Microsoft was making noise this year at CES with its Sync partnership with Ford (F).  And while slick in execution, the Sync technology, which will be an option on every Ford 2009 model, it mostly offers voice-activated cell-phone calling and music. One cool feature is the ability to have incoming text messages read aloud by the computer. But if it can do that, surely audio e-mail wouldn’t be too much of a technical hurdle. Give me that, and I’ll bet not only would Sync be a hit, but the roads would be far safer without all the BlackBerry reading drivers out there  — myself included.

By Michael V. Copeland

LAS VEGAS — The quiet here in a booth sponsored by Dell is at odds with the pandemonium all around at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Four plywood lounge chairs designed by Charles and Ray Eames sit on a dark floor made of some obviously recycled material. In one chair , a guy with headphones covering most of his head quietly taps on a laptop. Squares of drought-resistant grass act as a border around displays highlighting how to live and work with less impact on the environment. A Plexiglas wall invites people to use a grease pencil and answer the question, “What Does Green Mean to You?”

Although it is often wrapped up in a good deal of marketing hype, it’s a question that is beginning to be asked by the exhibitors here at the annual Consumer Electronics Show. Much of the “greening” of the technology world is by necessity. Stringent manufacturing standards and recycling goals must be met. But for their own success, gadget makers are developing new technologies that consume less energy so they can provide longer run times or cooler operating environments.

The goal is better functioning products that happen also to be greener than the power-sucking alternatives. Chip makers like Intel (INTC), Broadcom (BRCM) and Marvell (MRVL) have been beating that drum for several years and are getting amazing results. At this year’s CES, Broadcom is showing off powerful yet very efficient chips that enable things like the playback of high-definition  video on a cell phone. Other companies like Sony (SNE) and Samsung are using organic light emitting diodes to offer super-thin, bright and incredibly efficient screens. Are these kinds of technologies overtly green? No, but they are headed in the right direction.

A new cluster of companies at CES this year featuring “sustainable technologies” are overtly environmental. Some of the companies in this group include, Freeplay Energy which makes solar-powered radios and Meraki Networks, which sells solar-powered WiFi gear and aims to build a free WiFi network in San Francisco. This CES green group is a start, but it is a ridiculously small bunch of fewer than 10 companies.

Still other companies outside of this group have come to CES with a green agenda. One that is making a splash at CES is a company called Green Plug. The Silicon Valley startup previewed its technology Monday — an electronics component chip that provides a layer of intelligence so that gadgets can talk to their power source and make more efficient use of energy, whether it’s from a battery or a wall plug. Applications range from consumer electronics to cars, aircraft and power tools. And GM (GM) on Tuesday will unveil its Cadillac Provoq concept car, which it says will be “free from petroleum fuel and emissions.” That can only mean all-electric or maybe a hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicle.

Back at Dell’s little green oasis, which must be noted is separate from the massive main Dell (DELL) booth and is tucked into the “sustainable technologies” area, spokesman Adam Schaeffer looks around at the mostly empty booth and stresses, “This is all about promoting the start of a conversation.” Nigel Williams, one of the 140,000 CES warriors here in attendance, walks up to the Plexiglas wall and ponders the question, “What Does Green Mean to You?” Next to replies already written in green, yellow and pink grease pencil that say things like “Hope” and “Breathing clean air,” Williams writes a simple statement, “There needs to be more green products.”

He’s right.

By Michael V. Copeland

LAS VEGAS — What’s the best music to accompany getting incapacitated by a Taser? Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust,” maybe, or The Doors, “The End.” That’s what is running through my mind as Tom Smith, chairman and co-founder of Taser International prepped me for a little shock treatment therapy today at the Consumer Electronics Show.

For the woman who wants to consolidate her personal protection and music collection, Scottsdale Ariz.-based Taser International (TASR) just launched the C2 encased in an MP3-playing holster. The lightweight (seven ounces) device, about the size of a small stapler, is a full-blown law enforcement-strength Taser that comes in your choice of leopard print ($379.99) or a palette of designer colors, including a brilliant pink and bright blue ($349.99). For dead-eye accuracy it sports a LED flashlight and a laser. You put the red dot where you want it to go, from as far as 15-feet away, press a button and a cartridge of compressed nitrogen shoots two #8 Eagle Claw fishhooks out speeding toward the soon-to-be-in-a-world-of-pain attacker.

And so you don’t have to clutter your bag with your protection and an iPod, Taser now offers a chic $72.99 leather holster that includes a flash-based digital music player with a 1GB capacity. “People today want one device that does it all,” Smith says as he attaches two alligator clips to my leg. “Why not have a music player?” Of course that leads to the question of what songs best suit the well-protected woman (about 60% of of Taser users are women, Smith says).

With a smile still on his face, Smith punches the button on the Taser now connected to my leg, and sends the full-jolt of two, 3-volt lithium ion batteries into my leg. He’s still smiling when a sensation of being hammered on my femur and tibia from the inside gathers momentum, and my right leg begins to buckle. All I can manage is a loud expletive, before Smith stops the torture. “I’ve got the song,” Smith says still smiling. “Can’t Touch This.”

Indeed.

By Michael V. Copeland

LAS VEGAS - One thing technology should have nailed by now is evading speed traps set by radar-toting officers. The old days of the “fuzz buster” were a bit hit and miss (just ask my insurance company.) But come on, if we can remotely land and guide a robotic rover on Mars, I should never get a speeding ticket again. And what? You bought that Porsche 911 or that Tesla Roadster so you could drive slowly? I don’t think so.

Sure, there are still a few spots where it’s illegal to use a radar detector, but for those places where it’s within in your driving rights to fight technology with technology, Cobra, that ‘70s brand icon, has some gizmos you might want to consider. I took a peek, while they were setting up their booth today.

Top of the Cobra line is the $259 XRS 9950, which will be available in April. It’s got a 1.5-inch bright organic LED color display, and gives continuous updates on car battery voltage, signal strength and what direction you are headed on a digital compass.

But here’s where it gets very cool. The XRS 9950 has the option of being paired with a GPS locator. Seems like a no-brainer, but in addition to driving directions, Cobra has mapped out the locations in North America where pesky speed and red light cameras are located. Such cameras can’t be detected by some whiz-bang technology, but if you know where they are located relative to your car’s position you can get a warning before you get (yet) another ticket.

Does it work? Standing in the Las Vegas Convention Center at exactly zero MPH it worked fine. But the real test will come on the open road. We’ll let you know as soon as we can get our hands on one, and a driver with a really fast car. Volunteers?

By Michael V. Copeland

LAS VEGAS - Solar-powered Bluetooth headsets, radio-controlled beer coolers, a $2,000 iPod dock, and it’s hard to tell whether it’s day or night. Welcome to the Consumer Electronics Show, 2008 version.

While the show doesn’t kick-off officially until Sunday evening with Bill Gates’ annual keynote speech, the press on Saturday got an advance look at what the world’s largest electronics trade show has to offer over the next four days in Las Vegas.

If the sneak peek was a good indication, there will be a lot of floor space this year once again devoted to gadgets that connect to your iPod or some other digital music player. There are docks featuring old-school vacuum tubes, docks you can float in the bathtub, and docks that look like ladybugs. Then there is the $2,000 Bel Canto Ultra-Dock that uses Sonic Focus software and a chipset from Analog Devices to replace the musical data, and therefore the sound, that sloughs off during MP3 compression. It does sound great, but for two grand it had better.

Devices that connect to the Internet without the use of a computer are also making a run at this year’s show. One of the byproducts of the ubiquity of WiFi is that now you can start connecting other things to the Internet that don’t rely on a PC. The kinds of things you do with these connected gadgets are in some ways as varied as the Internet itself. Geeked-out gadgets from Bug Labs and others keep track of sports scores, the weather, the Nasdaq, or your bus schedule.

What is likely to be quite popular in the coming year are devices that stream Internet radio broadcasts to your kitchen table or office desk. Sonoro, a German brand new to the United States but popular in Europe, is launching a particularly sweet-looking Internet radio console. Sleek and jet black with a glowing dial (photo above), it would be Darth Vader’s choice for sure (and priced at around $349, he could buy one for Luke as well).

It’s a good bet that in the future, most electronic devices will connect wirelessly via some means — WiFi, cellular networks, or satellite, to get the job done. That might be for gathering and sharing information, entertainment or for safety.

Spot, a subsidiary of satellite services company Globalstar (GSAT), is pushing its Spot Satellite Messenger. The size of a chubby Blackberry, the device lets globe-trotters and extreme adventurers send out messages via SMS or e-mail to let people know where they are — whether they’ve just summited Everest or sailed around the Horn.

The recipients of your messages can even track your progress via a mashup with Google (GOOG) Maps. If things aren’t going so well in the South Atlantic, it will send out a 911 call, every five minutes for a week. And since it uses a satellite signal, it works anywhere in the world. (Whether you can get help anywhere in the world if things go awry is another matter). All this doesn’t come cheap: The device costs $170 and requires a $99 a year service contract. The tracking feature is an extra $49.95 a year.

Of course this is what CES is all about: introducing innovative technology that may not be perfect today but leads the way to the future. You can bet the Spot, or some version of it, will be smaller, faster and cheaper in six months. Screens will be bigger, headsets stealthier, and whatever gadget you have in your pocket will hold more and do more than you ever thought possible. Everyone descends on Vegas this time of year, whether they have a booth or not, because they want to see what the future looks like. Check back, and we’ll let you know.

By Michal Lev-Ram

Shiny new cell phones might make for great stocking stuffers, but for every new mobile device purchased there’s an old phone that needs to be recycled. If you’re prone to hiding last year’s model in a desk drawer or, even worse, throwing it in the trash (a major environmental no-no), think again. This holiday season, you might consider swapping it for some cash.

You won’t make much, but companies like Flipswap and CellForCash.com will actually pay you for your old phone, which they then resell. Torrance, Calif.-based Flipswap offers its service to consumers on its site but also sells its software — sort of like a Kelley Blue Book for phones — to wireless distributors like Parrot Cellular and online phone retailer Wirefly. Flipswap’s proprietary, real-time pricing algorithms take into account your phone’s make and model, condition and market demand. A one-year-old Motorola Q from Verizon Wireless will fetch $54.50, for example, while the average payout for an old device is $30, says Flipswap CEO Sohrob Farudi. Then again, the company has also shelled out upwards of $300 for an “old” iPhone (which Farudi now uses).

Flipswap, which was launched in 2004, is already profitable, according to Farudi. He says more than 2,000 cell phones were traded in through Flipswap on Black Friday — the post-Thanksgiving start of the holiday shopping season. But it’s all pocket change compared to the more than 100 million phones discarded each year in the United States alone. To increase its reach, Farudi says his company is in talks with two of the major carriers.

December is the busiest season for cell phone sales: According to mobile research firm M:Metrics, an estimated 12 percent of U.S. consumers will buy new phones — a 40 percent spike above the monthly average rate. And this year, Farudi expects business to be especially good.

“I think we’re going to see a lot of activity this month,” says Farudi. “And that’s partly due to the iPhone.”

It won’t be just new iPhones that are taking the place of older devices. Other new touchscreen phones, such as Verizon Wireless’ Venus and Voyager, could mean more business for companies like Flipswap. Ocala, Florida-based CellForCash.com also takes in old cell phone in exchange for cash - their average payout is about $25, according to spokeswoman Linda Zimmerman.

And if you’re feeling generous, both companies also let people donate their cell phones to a variety of charities. Either way, it’s better than letting them non-biodegrade in the depth of your desk drawer.

By Josh Quittner

One of the rallying cries of the Web 2.0 movement, during its sensational rise over the past five years, is openness. Open systems (Linux, Wikipedia, any phone you can hack from T-Mobile) are good. Closed systems (Windows, The Wall Street Journal Online, any locked-down cell phone you buy from Verizon) are bad.

The basic idea is that the Web itself, that Shiva of the business world, is built on HTML and Javascript — code that’s as open and free from any one company’s control as, say, the United Nations. Smart companies are Zen-like: They give away the store and yet manage to make fortunes. Google, (GOOG) which opens up everything from its data streams (Google Maps, for instance) to the bidding process for advertising keywords is the typical example. Google is Web 2.0 and Yahoo, which has had a tortured time trying to accommodate itself to the new social web, is considered very Web 1.0 — and on the ropes because of it.

Amazon.com has always embraced openness. Launched in 1994, it’s a classic Web 1.0 company by definition. And yet it’s also at the forefront of the social web. It allowed its customers to write reviews of products before anyone else, its enormous affiliate program lets everyone sell its products and it was among the first to make its APIs (application programming interfaces) available to developers.

So it was fun, therefore, to watch some of the smartest Web 2.0 thinkers make sense of Amazon’s (AMZN) move to a closed, proprietary world last week with the launch of its e-book reader, Kindle. This was a rollout that, on first blush anyway, made the Microsoft Zune look downright innovative in its openness. (At least you can play MP3s on the Zune. For free.)

What’s going on here?

Here’s my guess: Emboldened by Apple’s (AAPL) success, some of the most innovative companies in the tech world are starting to shift back toward closed systems.

Apple, of course, is about as closed a company as we’ve ever seen. It is what makes the company great and what makes it a horror show. It’s why people love and hate it. On the one hand, Apple products are typically so far beyond those of the competition, a visitor from another planet might think that the former is made by humans and the latter by monkeys. (A techie pal, upon picking up his new iPhone some months ago, waved it at me and gushed, “This is like something from the distant future.”) On the other hand, virtually nothing about Apple is transparent and open, from it’s ghastly press relations to the way it handles customer complaints. The recent incident with the tech pundit Robert Scoble is a great example. He downloaded an Apple update to OS 10.4 and couldn’t restart his computer. I had exactly the same problem when I updated my laptop last week. So did many, many other people, judging from the thousands of views at the relevant area of Apple’s own support site. Yet, talk to Apple support and they deny there’s even a problem. It’s about as open as North Korea.

And yet, its success speaks volumes. The stock is up over 100% during the past 52 weeks. The company maintains such tight control over the products it sells you that you aren’t even allowed to use them in unauthorized ways. Remember the whole episode when some people tried to unlock their phones, Apple updated its software and bricked the rebel phones? Talk about closed systems…

Steve Jobs has become something of the alpha pack leader of the CEOs in Techland. While many people point to the similarities between Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates — affluent suburbanites, both dropped out of Harvard to pursue their big-picture tech dreams — its clear that Zuck’s role model is Jobs. (Zuck uses a Mac, dresses in his own Jobsian uniform, and tends to make grandiose statements about launching movements whenever Facebook holds an event.) While Zuckerberg’s most famous move was opening up Facebook to developers (”Today, we’re starting a movement…”) so far, he’s resisting Google’s call to create a truly open platform. Developers writing applications for Facebook must use its own proprietary language, called FBML. Google, and the rest of the OpenSocial alliance of competing social networks, use HTML and Javascript.

And really, why should he? Just because it’s open?

Apple is successful because Apple is Jobs. And Jobs believes in an almost pathological control. That is, after all, how a visionary gets results.

Will that work for Amazon and Facebook?

In Amazon’s case, if Kindle flames out, it’s not a big deal. The project is an ambitious experiment, and as Tim O’Reilly points out, even if the device itself fails, Bezos could well have jump started an industry that Amazon, with its enormous collection of e-books, is perfectly positioned to dominate.

Facebook, though, is at a more critical juncture. If it stays closed and starts to stultify as a result, members could easily pack up their tents and move to the next big thing. But if it manages to fight off OpenSocial? Look for more closed systems.