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Sony has unveiled two new digital cameras at CES this week, both of which will record Full HD 1080p video in the AVCHD format.

The DSC-HX5V and DSC-TX7 have 10MP sensors, include Backlight Correction High Dynamic Range (HDR), and include TransferJet wireless technology. The HX5V also includes GSP + Compass for automatic geo-tagging of photos by location. Both have an HDMI output for easy connection to HDTVs.

The HX has a 3-inch LCD and 10x optical zoom and the TX has a 3.5-inch touchscreen display and a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 4x optical wide angle lens.

Both cameras can accept SDHC memory cards, or Sony's own proprietary Memory Stick, although the latter is much more expensive.

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo added during his keynote speech at CES that the mobile phone manufacturer is promising $1 million funding for a developer that can design a phone that "helps improve the life of the poorest citizens in the world."

The operation, dubbed the Growth Economy Venture Challenge, includes both software and hardware innovations and the million dollar idea will be judged by a panel of Nokia developers and private venture capitalists. The "poorest citizens" of the world, as described by Nokia, are those that make under $5 a day, such as people in Haiti, and many parts of Africa.

"We've seen what the tech community can do when it focuses on problems that are also opportunities", Kallasvuo added. "We want to channel that energy toward improving lives in the developing world."

Kallasvuo illustrated some of the problems that developers will encounter, such as the fact that many in developing nations are illiterate, or lack bank accounts.

"Business people often tend to lump all of the growing countries outside the West into one category,” he noted. “They call them 'developing countries,' 'emerging countries' or 'emerging markets.' Each of these markets is uniquely different and complex. A one-size-fits-all approach just doesn't work."

Microsoft has filed a second appeal in their XML patent case, claiming the original ruling could be dangerous for future patent cases.

Last month, the software giant lost to tiny Canadian company i4i, and removed all infringing custom XML editing abilities from its Office 2003 and 2007 suite. Microsoft also paid $290 million in damages.

Of the new appeal, Kevin Kutz, director of public affairs for Microsoft says: The latest appeal "details significant conflicts we believe the December 22 decision creates with established precedents governing trial procedure and the determination of damages, and we are concerned that the decision weakens judges' authority to apply appropriate safeguards in future patent trials."

New versions of Office go on sale the 11th, with all infringing XML editing removed.

Loudon Owen, chairman of i4i responded to the new appeal: "This next step of seeking a rehearing was anticipated. We continue to be confident that we will prevail. We look forward to continuing to build i4i's business now that Microsoft is obligated to comply with the terms of the injunction. i4i stands ready to work with the wide range of customers that require this custom XML functionality."

According to a new materials cost teardown performed by iSuppli, the new Google Nexus One costs $174.15 to build, with the most expensive part being the extremely powerful Qualcomm SnapDragon processor, estimated at $30.50 USD.

The most interesting revelation is the fact that "Touchscreen Assembly (capacitive multitouch)" costs $17.50, about 10 percent of the entire bill of materials, even though Google has disabled multi-touch on the Nexus One.

Google is selling the phone unlocked for $530, or $180 with contract via T-Mobile.

The full teardown results:

LG has noted at CES that the first phones to include Microsoft's Windows Mobile 7 will be released later this year, and that LG will be carrying both WinMo 6.5 and 7-based phones.

Despite LG's confirmation, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer left no comment during his CES keynote speech, promising more details were upcoming at the GSM Mobile World Congress in February.

"We will have a lot more to say about phones next month at Mobile World Congress," he said.

Dell has unveiled their "Streak" tablet at CES, and Engadget has posted some pictures and some hands-on impressions.

The tablet runs a tweaked Android 1.6 firmware, and the Streak has a 5MP camera. It also has a SIM card slot, meaning AT&T 3G service will likely be available for the device. The display is fully multi-touch capable.

The virtual keypad even includes a number pad on the right side, and is apparently very responsive.

Pics via Engadget:

Apple has put its recent purchase, Lala, to work already, opening up 30-second previews for the Web-based version of iTunes' Charts.

Until this week, iTunes Charts did not have preview available and it was necessary to open up the iTunes software installed on your computer. Thanks to Lala, users can now preview the tracks at 44.1, 320 kbps AAC, using QuickTime.

Apple purchased Lala last month for $85 million USD.

Microsoft's Robbie Bach has said today that Google will cause problems for itself now that it has released the Nexus One smartphone, problems with "attracting partners" for Android in the future.

Bach thinks that now that the company has released its own phone, handset makers may feel that Google phones will be prioritized over their own Android devices. That may push some to stop using Android in general.

"Doing both in the way they are trying to do both is actually very, very difficult," adds Bach. "Google’s announcement sends a signal where they're going to place their commitment. That will create some opportunities for us and we'll pursue them."

At least one analyst agrees: "No one has ever succeeded in selling their own device while trying to license to partners simultaneously," says Michael Gartenberg of Interpret LLC. "As much as Google can say it's not a Google phone, the phone says Google on it. They're going to have to convince their licensees they're not in competition with them."said.

Google feels completely different about the matter and cites the fact that they will be adding a plethora of Android phones to the Google Store, giving users an easy way to access Android, from all makers.

Samsung has introduced their latest flagship HDTV at CES this week, the LED-backlit C9000.

The company has called the HDTV "ultra thin" and the pictures seem to agree. The TV has native 3D support, and can convert 2D into 3D. Refresh rate is 240Hz.

The touchscreen remote control can "show content from other sources, like live TV while watching a Blu-ray on the big screen," says Gizmodo.

More information when it is available.

Kempler & Strauss have made available their W PhoneWatch this week, a touchscreen GSM device that will retail for $200 USD unlocked.

In the U.S., the PhoneWatch will work with T-Mobile and AT&T but will not include any 3G or Wi-Fi support. The watch has a speaker and a microphone but the company has recommended that all users also purchase a Bluetooth headset to pair to the device.

The PhoneWatch is quad-band GSM (supporting 850MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, and 1900MHz), has a 1.5-inch TFT LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 128 x 128. The watch measures 57 x 45 x 18mm and weighs only 2.5 ounces.

Perhaps most surprisingly, the watch has a 1.4MP camera that can take pics at 640 x 480 resolution. The built in video camera can make AVI files at 128 x 104. The watch can support video playback and MP3, WMA and WAV files.

Plastic Logic has launched the Que e-reader this week at CES, an admittedly powerful device with a giant price tag.

The button-less device has a sleek touchscreen and is completely dependent on multi-touch.

"What we are trying to do at Plastic Logic is give you the benefits of paper without all of the drawbacks," said CEO Richard Archuleta, via Cnet.

The e-reader can access e-mail and calendars via Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Windows Live or Yahoo. The player can read PDFs, Excel, Word and Powerpoint documents natively. Somewhat surprisingly, the display is in black and white, and Archuleta says: "At Plastic Logic, we really celebrate black and white."

Plastic Logic has content deals with USA Today, Zinio, The Financial Times, LibreDigital and the Que's bookstore will be backed by Barnes & Noble.

The 4GB model will include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and will price $650 USD. An 8GB model with 3G will cost $800. There are no monthly fees. Because of the price tag, the player is likely not aimed at the mass consumer audience but more towards high-powered executives.

Google has raised their offer to purchase On2 Technologies by 20 percent, to $134 million USD, a few months after shareholders denied the company's first offer.

The video compression company will now receive the $134 million in cash as well as 0.0010 of a share of Google Class A common stock for every share of On2 they currently have. Google trades for about $599 a share while On2 is currently trading for $0.74 cents.

Google announced it would purchase the company in August, however On2 shareholders were unhappy with the valuation of the buyout. The new offer is a final offer.

YouTube-parent Google says the purchase will help the continued spread of Internet video given On2's video compression technology which will shrink video files and make them easier to send for those with slower connections.

Amazon has put nine Blu-ray players up for sale today following the recent announcement of dozens of new standalone BD players at CES 2010.

All players are now under $200, with the cheapest being the Sony BDP-S360 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player for $125 USD.

The highly rated Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-ray Disc Player is cut down to $127, a great deal for those that do not care for the latest tech introduced at CES, such as native 3D support.

Check the deals here: Amazon Blu-ray Players Under $200

On the 5th, Google introduced the Nexus One "superphone," and it has once again been given the title of possible "iPhone Killer." CBS has a nice comparison of the specs, and some interesting commentary worth a view.

Boxee has announced the specs for its much hyped Boxee Box today, revealing that the player will be using the powerful Tegra 2 (T20) platform.

The Tegra 2 uses a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU, and uses very little power consumption, says the company.

Full specs:

Tegra 2 CPU:

* Enjoy a fluid and responsive user interface that is similar to the UI performance up till now available only on full blown PCs
* Play 1080p video from locally stored content and stream HD video content from the Internet
* Play Adobe® Flash® 10.1 content from across the web, including HD content

More inside the Box:

* RF chip by Nordic – to support a great remote control experience that is not dependent on line-of-sight and can work from anywhere in the house
* 802.11N wireless chip by Broadcom

What’s not in the Box:

* No hard-drive – We discussed hard-drive at length with D-Link, and figured people already have storage solutions, and that we should do our best to reduce the price of the Boxee Box. You’ll be able to connect your choice of storage devices directly to the Box using USB
* No IR – While we realize many people are using universal remotes, we believe there is a greater benefit having a full QWERTY keyboard, and the right way to do that was RF. We really wanted to also support IR, for various reasons we could not get it as part of the build. We continue supporting this in software, so you can use any IR dongle and continue using your universal remote with Boxee.