LAS VEGAS – Verizon will launch a $10 million competition to help address some of the world’s biggest challenges in three key areas, Lowell McAdam, the company’s chairman and CEO, announced today at the 2013 International CES.

Our first meeting of CES officially was Cooler Master. We made it over to their Suite at the Palms to see what they would be bringing out over the next year. Not only that we we got to check out all of the case mods they had sitting around along with Cooler Master’s Booth Babes. As usual they had a wide selection of new products to show off, check out what is upcoming inside.

A few of our staff are still out in Vegas partying it up and getting the inside scoop on all things electronic for the coming year. Not only are they sending me a bunch of cool stories out of CES, but our affiliates are as well. This week we do not have as many reviews on actual hardware as most of the press is focused on what companies plan to do, and not what they have done. Be sure to read all these links quickly though, because they will soon be buried by the constant flow of CES news and announcements.

Kingston had done plenty to get us excited before meeting with them today at Caesar’s Palace. The excitement of the HyperX Anniversary StarCraft II tournament was enough to win Adam over, and while the reveal of a USB 3.0 1TB flash drive gave everyone plenty to talk about. Though David Leong attended the Pepcom Digital Experience the night before, you can imagine he had plenty of an audience. Today we met with David and his team for a one-on-one guide through the grapevine.

Enermax and child company Lepa are companies we’ve touched base with briefly in the past, but this year we had the opportunity to meet up with them in a private showing suite for a more detailed look at what they had in the works for 2013. Enermax is a company known for very high-end power supplies, and we had heard that they may be planning to expand their reach into other products as well.

LAS VEGAS, January 8, 2013 - Thrustmaster, the innovative PC and console accessory brand, arrives today in the Gaming Headset market with some serious credentials, nearly 30 years of gaming experience have been combined with 20 years of audio expertise under the Hercules brand within the Guillemot Group.

Bergen,Norway and Miami, FL – January 8, 2013– CUPP Computing, AS (CUPP), a leader in dual mode processing and security technology for PC and mobile applications, announced today that it will demonstrate its new version of hybrid computing technology running exclusively on gaming systems from ORIGIN PC at CES 2013. In its demo suite at the Hilton-Elara, CUPP will be showcasing a new PT1.6 ARM-based module running seamlessly on ORIGIN PC's EON11-S laptops.

Santa Monica, CA - January 8, 2013 - Fresh on the heels of the biggest entertainment launch of 2012 -Call of Duty®: Black Ops II, Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI), and their award-winning development studio Treyarch are kicking-off 2013 with the announcement of Revolution, the first massive Downloadable Content (DLC) Pack for the record-setting game. Since the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, millions of fans have taken-on the game's ambitious near-future fiction, engaged in over 427 million hours of near-future warfare in non-stop multiplayer action, and survived hordes of Zombies. Set to launch January 29 first, exclusively on Xbox LIVE® for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft with other platforms to follow, Revolution delivers an unprecedented level of content, and for the first time in Call of Duty® DLC history, a new bonus multiplayer weapon.

LAS VEGAS (CES) – ­­­Jan. 8, 2013 – It’s a tablet. It’s a PC. It’s a console. It’s all of the above: a full-feature PC and the most powerful tablet in the world. What’s more, it has four modes specially designed for gamers and is able to run all PC games and applications.

For many people tablets are great for Web browsing, downloading movies, gaming, and much more. But, actions including note-taking, photo editing and multitasking have proved challenging for some.

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 8, 2013 -- TP-LINK, a global provider of networking products, will debut at the 2013 International CES a comprehensive family of wireless small office, home and mobile connectivity products designed to strengthen the company's leadership in WLAN and Broadband CPE devices. 

Provo, Utah – January 8, 2013 – The world’s most talented speakers just got even more talented with the addition of three new BRAVEN Bluetooth speaker models: the 850, BRV-1, and 570.  Joining the BRAVEN family, the 850 is similar to the brand’s wildly popular Six Series, but is four times larger and delivers massive, industry-leading sound.  The BRV-1 is uniquely suited for outdoor adventures with its compact, waterproof, ultra-shock-resistant design weighing in at less than 400 grams.  The BRAVEN 570 delivers the same awesome industry-leading audio as its predecessors with a stylish, impact resistant exterior and a lower price point.

Austin, TX -- Jan 08, 2013 -- Mushkin, Inc., an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance and mission-critical computer products, today officially announced the worldwide launch of its new enterprise class ProSpec series solid-state drives (SSDs).

Singapore - January 8, 2013 - iTwin - the company that created the award-winning iTwin Remote File Access solution – unveils iTwin Connect to address the myriad challenges faced by today’s mobile professionals. First, iTwin Connect ensures private and restriction-free browsing and secondly, it provides remote desktop access, remote file access and access to the home/office network (i.e., acting as a personal virtual private network or VPN).

Austin, TX -- Jan 08, 2013 -- Mushkin, Inc., an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance and mission-critical computer products, announced today at CES 2013 that its new line of memory modules, code named Stealth, are scheduled for worldwide release mid-February. The new family of modules includes high-performance specifications for professionals and tech enthusiasts who want the best possible computing experience.

While CES is obviously the main focus, there are a few other smaller, more focused events that go on at the same time to take advantage of such a large gathering of companies and press. An example of one of those is Pepcom’s Digital Experience, they are calling this year’s event a technology tailgate. We didn’t pack up our grill and foam fingers, but we did bring our cameras and enough Red Bull and soda to power us through the event before heading off to Kingston’s Party. With more than 200 companies exhibiting and a few long time friends we wanted to visit, we had more than enough to keep us busy.

Taipei, Taiwan - January 7, 2013 - ADATA™ Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules and NAND Flash storage application products, today announced an expansion to its XPG™ Gaming Series DDR3 lineup with a 2600G 16GB dual channel kit. ADATA will be giving the new DDR3 modules their first appearance in live demonstrations held throughout the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), running this year from January 8 - 11.

Austin, TX -- Jan 07, 2013 -- Mushkin, Inc. -- An industry-leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance and mission-critical computer products, unveils its latest and most exciting range of products ever at the world's largest consumer electronics show, CES 2013.

VALENCIA, CA (January 8, 2012) –  The Ear Phone Connection, a developer of two-way radios audio accessories, today announced that its new Nighthawk Bluetooth Microphone Combo System will feature a universal recording app that will allow Apple and Android, users to wirelessly record high-quality audio at distances to 120 feet with full remote control capabilities.

Las Vegas, NV, January 7^th, 2013 – GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today announced support for 4k display resolutions using multiple standard 1080p displays with Intel® Collage display technology. The new collage feature is available from an Intel® graphics driver update that needs to be individually implemented by motherboard companies before it is available to the user.