Amidst this week's CES buzz, there’s one political question that keeps popping up on show-goers' lips: “Why should Obama have to give up his Blackberry?”

The president-elect will soon become the most tech-savvy commander-in-chief in American history, and the digital communication landscape has changed radically since Bush first entered the White House in 2000. Today, it’s almost unthinkable that any chief executive, corporate or political, should be required to use less technology than he or she did prior to taking office.

Someday soon there'll be a chicken in every pot and a centralized media center in every home. Till then, we're stuck with what we've got; some companies are rising to the challenge. Golden Signals, which debuted DisplayShare this week, is one of the more innovative: its wireless TV-computer linkup utilizes your existing gaming console and router.

Install the $50 software and your computer begins creating a realtime video of every action occurring on the desktop. By simultaneously commanding the console (currently only Playstation 3, but a version that works with the Wii and Xbox 360 is expected by summer) to stream the video on TV, DisplayShare allows you to view anything you'd see on your computer on the big screen.

Ever since the Palm Pilot was introduced a decade ago, its maker has had some devoted fans. Today it looks set to gain some more. Palm just announced the Pre, a smartphone that has an iPhone-like touchscreen and a full keyboard, plus a new interface that looks easier to navigate on a small screen than desktop-style windows.

Just a year ago, Casio introduced its first high-speed camera, the Best of What’s New-winning EX-F1. The size of a small SLR, that camera captures up to 60 full-res photos per second. The rate is cut to 30 per second in Casio’s two newest high-speed models, but the size is also cut as low as 0.64 inches thick for the model EX-FS10 (and just an inch for the companion EX-FC100). They also capture high-speed video at up to 1000 fps at low resolution, or up to 720p high-def at a standard 30fps.

For years, pocket-sized projectors were talked about but not seen—like a mythical or at least very rare, endangered species. Now, it seems, they are multiplying like rabbits.

Gradually, OLED TVs are getting to sizes that seem fitting for actual TVs. Last year, Sony brought its 11-inch screen to the US. And today, Samsung is expected to announce the availability of its 14.1-inch diagonal, 2.63mm-thick screen (shown here).

Aside from a few more inches, the Samsung set offers many technical advances over the now old-looking Sony. For starters, it's an actual HDTV, with a resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. (The Sony is a sub-HD resolution of 960 x 540.) It's also based on technology that shows a lot more promise for mass production and lower prices.

While all consumer electronics items have large ecological footprints, plasma TVs have long had the distinction of being size XXL. But Panasonic is out to change that with a new line of ultra-efficient (and ultra-thin) panels called NeoPDP.

The technology appears this summer in the Z1, a 54-inch (diagonal) screen measuring about one inch thick. It's also equipped with a wireless receiver that can pick up video beamed from across a room.

Just as production of Polaroid's beloved instant film grinds to a halt, the company is announcing the anticipated digital version of the original "instant camera". Debuting in spring 2009 for $199.99, the PoGo Instant Digital Camera combines Polaroid's 2008 breakthrough pocket printer with a digital camera.

The earliest photos in my family albums are all old-school Polaroid, and I have fond memories of watching images of birthday parties and impromptu portraits emerge on the film. So my first thought about the PoGo was: can a digital camera possibly capture this mysterious magic?

OQO has been pushing the bounds of what you can fit into your palm for a few years. Long before netbooks were even a twinkle in Intel's eye, the company was making tiny, full-service computers. But with the explosion of said netbooks, plus ever-smarter smartphones, is there still a place for this Lilliputian, high-power, high-priced computer? Hard to say, but the company isn't just sitting back to see what happens.

We at PopSci love Sonos, the wireless music streaming system that has won two Best of What’s New awards over the years. And since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the Linksys division of Cisco seems to love Sonos too. They’ve come out with their own version of the product--with a few features that may be better.

Two days before the Consumer Electronics Show officially starts, the first products debuted at CES Unveiled on Tuesday evening. Many of the tables at the Venetian conference center in Vegas looked best-suited to an obscure trade fair, with information about USB and HDMI specifications, for example. But a few innovative--or just plain quirky -- products emerged. Click to see the highlights.

At long last -- and after we jealously watched Sharp's debut in Japan last year -- wireless high-def TVs have come to the States. LG's 55-inch LHX LCD television features a separate "media box" that sources like cable boxes and Blu-ray players plug into. (Other products from Sony and Geffen are add-on units.) The box beams digital video and audio to the one-inch-thick TV using 60-gigahertz technology from SiBeam called WirelessHD.