CES 2009 kicks off this week

The 2009 CES, or Consumer Electronics Show, is taking place this week at Las Vegas, from January 8-11. CES is considered the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow, with many companies planning to announce or release products at this mega event. Indeed, news and sightings of new products are already beginning to filter in.

One of these products is Palm's much anticipated smartphone, which is based on its new Nova operating system. For more information, you can read about it from our report. In addition, netbooks are the talk of the town, though computer maker Hewlett-Packard seems to be eying a niche somewhere between a netbook and an ultraportable.

In other news, Nokia smartphone users will want to know about a new attack vector based on text messages. Apparently, a flaw in the Symbian operating system could cause certain Nokia models to choke on malformed text messages. The outcome varies, though a common symptom is the inability to properly process or receive new messages.

What makes this problem serious is that there is no resolution once "infected;" even switching it off and back on again does not resolve the issue. Unfortunately, there is also no workaround for the problem, at this point. On the flip side, there are many helpful uses for text messages too; we previously reported on Lenovo's solution that involved using text messages to remotely disable stolen or lost laptops.

And finally, welcome back, and a very Happy new Year to you! - Paul