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Children's perplexed reactions to a Sony Walkman have been caught on camera, with the majority frustrated at operating clunky buttons over a touch screen. Los Angeles-based filmmakers Benny and Rafi Fine asked volunteers aged six to 13 to guess what the bulky device was, with suggestions including a 'walkie-talkie' or 'boombox'. 'What is this?' one nine-year-old girl quizzed as she investigated the Eighties-era cassette player, while another exclaimed 'I'm not going to give up, I'm a survivor,' as she determinedly tried to figure out how it worked.

"BOSTON (TheStreet) -- Smartphone makers upped the ante this year with sleeker designs, better touch screens and new applications. Consumers, chanting "I want one too," responded with open wallets. ....smartphones were the fastest-growing segment of this year's mobile phone market, with sales rising from more than 318 million units in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 411 million last quarter. The struggle for smartphone dominance escalated just as rapidly, as Nokia(NOK Quote) and its Symbian OS phones watched their market dominance wither. Nokia's share plunged from 47% at the end of last year to 39% last quarter. Meanwhile, Research In...

The wraps came off high-definition DVD players at this year's annual Consumer Electronics Show, offering the final component to replicate the movie theater experience at home. And while a fierce DVD format war likely will delay the mass adoption of such devices, digital video is here to stay - the Consumer Electronics Association trade group estimates 25 million U.S. homes will have a high-def TV set by year's end. But big, expensive flat-panel sets aside, this year's gadget show offered plenty of smaller screens for video... Yahoo Inc., DirecTV, Starz Entertainment Group and Sony were also among the companies getting...

Gizmos land among CES 'mega-trends' as U.S. sales rocket It's all about portable music players and flat-panel TVs. One look around the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center confirms that, with much of the space devoted to companies pitching all manner of MP3 devices and big- screen televisions. And no wonder - U.S. shipping revenues of portable MP3 players in the first 11 months of last year were up 224 percent over 2004. And sales of flat-panels - LCD and plasma sets - are expected to go from $6 million in 2005 to $10 million this year, helped by...

Bill Gates Keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2006 January 4, 2006 For the tenth year in a row, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates returns to kick off CES with his vision of the year ahead in consumer electronics. Bill will deliver the opening keynote on Wednesday, January 4 at 6:30 P.M. Pacific in the Las Vegas Hilton Theater. In his keynote, Gates will share Microsoft’s vision for the future of consumer technology, highlighting the important role of software in developing and delivering innovation that benefits the industry, our partners, and people everywhere. If the...

Nokia on Wednesday announced a trio of new phones, including one that can store up to 3,000 songs. The N91 has an integrated 4GB hard disk and supports digital music formats including MP3, M4A, AAC and WMA, Nokia said. Additionally, the handset comes with a stereo headset with remote control. The N91, expected to ship by the end of the year, will also feature a 2-megapixel camera, e-mail support, a Web-browser and video-sharing capabilities, the device maker said.