We took a break from porn stars, resort openings and fancy dinners yesterday to embrace our inner geeks and check out the goods at Day Three of the Consumer Electronics Show over at the Las Vegas Convention Center. What we found were a lot of cell phone accessories, giant plasma screens and scantily clad models overtly being used to lure tech nerds to exhibits that would otherwise be ignored.

Buzz words: Blu-Ray. HD. Going “green.”

Dolby had a significant presence in the South Hall, exhibiting Dolby surround-sound-equipped notebook computers – and a life-sized (is 20-feet-tall “life-sized?”) Transformer robot. Microsoft had, of course, a huge presence, especially with its Zune display, which in our opinion, isn’t such a bad alternative to the iPod, and the ability to remotely share and send songs with and to other Zune players is more than just frosting.

Samsung brought Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Moon out to draw interest to its products, which included the NV 24HD digital camera – a 10-megapixel hybrid device that captures both still images and HD video, but still fits in your pocket. ION Audio had an array of cool musical tech toys, including electronic drum kits, a self-contained iPod PA and analog-to-digital devices such as Tape 2 PC and LP Dock.

Hewlett-Packard really had nothing new to offer technology-wise, so they opted for catering to hipster art lovers, unleashing a line of “Artist Edition” notebooks, featuring customized skins designed by up-and-coming contemporary artists. At least they look pretty.
AOL had a tent set up among neighbors Microsoft and Yahoo!, but at this point, the internet pioneer seems to be clutching on for dear life. The most it had to offer was a new version of WinAmp (does anyone use that? At all?), desktop software for Mac and Windows (Google intimidation, anyone?) and some sort of MapQuest GPS software partnership (yawn).

However, our favorite moment of the day is a toss-up: Either watching the Asian guy in a suit fall on his ass while playing electronic drums to the Clash at the ION booth, or narrowly avoiding death (or a boo-boo) when the “down” escalator at the Bally’s monorail platform stopped dead with about 25 people on it, your intrepid DailyFiasco reporter included.

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