On the other hand, I am a hardcore audio fan and I have to say that a lot of really interesting products have been launched during this CES for the audiophiles all around the world. Computer high-end audio is growing bigger each year with more DAC and music server coming out. The Montreal company Tenor Audio is back with the beautiful 350M Reference monoblock at $90,000 a piece. A plethora of loudspeakers, cables and amplifiers were launched by as many companies. There are just too many to talk about them all here, but if you want more information,  the Stereophile.com CES section is the place.

Other highlights would be the USB 3.0 demontrations or the LiquidHD Technology that supposedly allows the perfect streaming of HD content over a network. But now, back to my top 3 of CES 2009.

3. VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC

I have to say that I am not usually a fan of Sony when it comes to anything else than their gaming console. I am also not a big fan of netbooks. So why the P Series? Well, because I don’t see it as a laptop, but more as a big smartphone. The thing I hate about netbooks is that they are not suited for extensive work. They don’t have a lot of processing power, have limited memory and no place to put yours wrists when you type. However, they have something other laptops don’t have and this is a reduced size. This makes them easy to carry anywhere and use everywhere. But what is the point if you can’t work effectively on them? Well, this is where the P Series is superior. It is literally a communication device. With integrated GPS, 802.11N and 3G, this device is the perfect one for travelers. This is the device I would have killed to have last summer when I was in France. It doesn’t take a lot of place in a backpack, gives you your position and possible directions as well as giving you an access to Internet to write mail, check for hotels or anything else (since it is the Internet). It also as better hardware and a wider keyboard making it even more attractive.

However, it also has some negative point. First, the absence of a touchpad. They put a kind of trackball instead which just feels less natural than a touchpad to me. It also comes with Windows Vista. No comments.

2. Sennheiser HD 800

As I said before, I am an audio freak and when it comes to headphones, Sennheiser is usually my choice. I currently own two pairs of Sennheiser headphones, the best of the two being my HD 555. Well last week, Sennheiser announced their new pair of headphones which makes my HD 555 looks like iPod earbuds. Their name: HD 800. They have the largest transducer ever included in headphones with 56mm which allows for deeper low frequencies. However, with a transducer that large, you have the danger of high frequencies resounding inside the cup distorting the sound. That is why Sennheiser engineers came with a special ring design for the transducer that reduces the distortion. The result is a 6 – 51,000 Hz frequency range which is more than excellent for a pair of headphones. Everybody that used them agreed with the exceptional quality of the sound they produce. Perfection: this is what you would expect from $1,400 headphones and this is what they give.

1. Palm Pré

And the winner is… The Palm Pré! I know, I know, not original at all. However, more than the actual phone, it is the operating system that I find brilliant. After watching the Palm keynote I read a bit on this piece of software and it is just amazing. But first thing first, lets talk about the hardware.

It has the usual connectivity components: GPS, Wifi and 3G. It also has a beautiful multi-touch screen, like most new phones. However, and this is were the hardware conquered me, it still has a full qwerty keyboard. I tried different smartphone and I have to say that the multi-touch of the iPhone is amazing for navigation but just awful to write text. The absence of feedback when I press the keys on the screen makes it really difficult to use. The blackberry, on the other side, have a nice full qwerty keyboard but navigation is limited by the trackball. The Pré combines both the keyboard and the multi-touch screen which is a big plus for me. Furthermore, the fact that the keyboard slides doesn’t cut away screen space. It is also a bit smaller than other smartphones.

Now the software. The first interesting thing about webOS is its ability to multitask. You can run multiple applications at the same time and switch easily from one to the others. It also has a notification system that uses small pop-ups on the bottom of the screen to notify you when other applications changes or when you receives a message. This ability to run multiple applications at the same time is a huge improvement over other smartphones like the iPhone. Another amazing side of this phone is its ability to sync contacts and calendars from different networks easily without the need of a computer. This makes it more business friendly than phones like the iPhone or the G1 which lack business features. Finally, and that is one of the major advantages, the operating system is totally web based. That means that applications are developed using XHTML, CSS and Javascript which makes development way easier since these are known, documented programming languages. Also, some new functions have been added to Javascript to allow the language to access the hardware leaving more possibilities to developers.

Overall, the Pré is a good phone powered by a pretty solid piece of software. Now I just have to wait for a GSM version to come out to get my hand on it.