CES Notebook: Intel's Inside Move

The guffaws that accompanied Williams' appearance seemed to help Page avoid real scrutiny of the company's latest offerings. After berating the consumer electronics industry for products that don't work well together and for producing numerous different plugs and cables that all do the same basic task, Page took a page out of the same book.

Users will only be able to view videos on Google's new video service by downloading the company's own video player which uses the company's own proprietary encoding, meaning that they'll have to download yet another media playing program in addition to RealPlayer, Windows Media Player and QuickTime already integrated on many PCs.

And Google announced a deal with CBS that will allow Google Video users to download CBS shows from the service. At least for the time being, those videos aren't available anywhere else. So, while you can use one television to watch any of the three major networks, you'll have to use at least two different online video services to get the same programming over the Internet.

Page's speech may not have been a disaster, but those realities are certainly disappointing.

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Speaking of multimedia -- which is becoming the annual theme of CES -- chipmaker Sigmatel(SGTL) is hoping to head up the chain for such devices. The company, which supplies chips for Apple Computer's (AAPL) low-end iPod shuffle, has come out with a new, faster chip that it hopes will be built into more sophisticated -- and more expensive -- devices.

Sigmatel, which aims to be the Intel of MP3 chips, already has some 40 different companies that are working to design new multimedia players using its chips, according to CEO Ron Edgerton.

Edgerton sees the market for MP3 players growing 50% in 2006 from the 120 million to 125 million units sold worldwide in 2005. And, befitting someone whose company works with many of Apple's MP3 rivals, Edgerton sees those rivals, particularly those in Microsoft's PlaysForSure alliance, gaining share this year.

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While few devices stood out at CES, at least one seemed to jump out of its screen.

LG Electronics had on display a 102-inch full high-definition plasma display. That's about the size of a king-size bed.

No word yet from LG about how much the behemoth will cost -- or when it will be available.

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