CES may get more attention from gadget hounds and fans of PCs, but MacWorld gets lots of headlines and the attentions of Apple fans around the world. The two shows run around the same time and offer lots of new products to fans.

Microvision has announced that it will be showing its pre-production version of its pico projector dubbed SHOW WX at MacWorld. The new version is 25% smaller than the previous SHOW projector prototype according to Microvision.

One of the products that I see a lot of each year at CES is external storage solutions. The usual companies like Seagate and other places offer a full line of external solutions, but it never ceases to impress me at the number of small firms I have not heard of that offer external storage.

One of the smaller firms, which I have heard of before, called Verbatim has announced a pair of new external hard drives that feature fast 7200 rpm 3.5-inch hard drives inside small enclosures. The drives feature quad interfaces and work with Mac and Windows computers.

CES always involves a glut of new laptops, netbooks, and desktop computers being shown off and introduced. The machines introduced usually run the gamut from thin and light machines to gaming behemoths with a price tag that sounds more like the price of a car than a computer.

Lenovo has already announced four new computers that we will see this week at CES. The new machines include one of the thinnest 16-inch laptops around called the Y650, a 15-inch notebook called the Y550 and a 14-inch Y440 notebook. Lenovo has also announced the addition of instant on and facial recognition to its S10 netbook.

The Apple rumors never stop. They’re flying fast and furious. According to the newest rumors, we may see an updated Mac Mini with dual display support when and if Apple announces the new machine at the upcoming Macworld conference. MacRumors is reporting that the new Mac Mini will feature both a mini Display Port and Mini DVI connector, which leads them to believe that Apple is gearing the machine towards users wanting multiple screen access.

Other rumored new features include a modular design that would allow for a second hard drive in place of the optical drive, an enhanced graphics chipset, and a new color scheme.

Damn. Look at that X-Wing’s guns. Kind of makes the whole flying through the Death Star trench scene a tad wrong. What you see here is the $20 Weenie Wing Commander. It’s mission in life is to keep your your hot dogs from burning. It avoids copyright violation very skillfully. Put a bunch on the grill and re-enact all your favorite scenes in glorious pork.

The only thing missing here is a spot to park your astro-pork droid. So, you’ll just have to cut the tip off a wiener and put in place where R2 goes. The Weenie Wing Commander. Protecting hot dogs at geek barbecues everywhere next summer.

DailyMobile has some pics of the upcoming Sony Ericsson C510 codenamed Kate. It’s a successor to the Sony Ericsson K770 that packs in a 3.2 MP camera with face detection, LED flash, QVGA video, 2.2 inch QVGA display and 160MB built in memory.

Some other features include: Smile shutter, Auto rotation when viewing, Cyber-shot™ UI 2.0, Dedicated shutter key, Illuminated imaging shortcut keys, Direct blog short cut key, Blue illuminated imaging short cuts, Download and upload to YouTube. The phone is scheduled to ship in February 2009.

More powerful cameras mean that we need powerful storage solutions. Well, here’s the latest portable external hard drive photo manager from Digital Foci. It goes by the name of the Picture Porter 35 and the device features a 160GB+ hard drive, a 3.5 inch color LCD screen, an integrated card reader supporting CF, MMC, SD/HC, miniSD, Memory Stick, MS PRO, MS Duo, and xD-Picture cards, a USB host, and a TV or a projector output.

It’s not the most beautiful device we’ve ever seen, but it’s a great tool to backup your endless vacation photos and enjoy them. The Picture Porter 35 will be introduced at CES next week, but won’t be available until Summer of 2009. No price info yet.

Using the Wii-Fit’s balance board is great for some sports simulations, but it can only go so far. The Ski Home Simulator is another option for those with large bank accounts and too much time on their hands at $2285. It has features for the ski beginner, as well as more advanced users.

Apparently it’s for the PC only, meaning that you need to plug it to your PC or laptop. With 32 different courses from 18 real life venues including Beaver Lake, Lake Louise and Chamonix, these are still pretty expensive courses when you take the price into account.

This year’s CES will see Blaupunkt and miRoamer put Internet radio into car dashboards for the first time. According to miRoamer founder and CEO George Parthimos, “miRoamer’s development with Blaupunkt is the first seamless Internet radio solution. With the simple push of a button, users can access AM/FM stations or Internet radio’s thousands of music, entertainment, news and talk stations from around the world, all from the same car stereo.”

The first model will connect to a 3G/HSDPA/HSPA device via Bluetooth for Internet connectivity. When connecting to the Internet from an external device (Like an iPhone), the customer’s existing service provider is the default network. They have various models in the pipeline which may have their own internal modem.

Brando’s ingenious 7-in-1 USB Charging Cable is like a gadget charging orgy. It provides power for your PSP, DS, DS Lite, DSi and Game Boy Advance handhelds, and all it costs is a USB port and $7. Sure, this cable is a Brando product, and could possibly fry all of your well loved game handhelds, due to it’s questionable craftsmanship, but what is life without some risk.

At $7, what the hell. If it explodes, you’ll have some new parts for a future DIY project. I’ll put it to you, valued readers of the ‘Brick, would you trust Brando’s latest charging gadget with your handhelds?

No one can really blame a kid for going nuts when he gets a Wii for Christmas, what with the current Wii shortage and all. Still, there’s something a little off about how excited this kid gets. He must have been dreaming about wrapping his little hand around the Wiimote and getting in on the busting up a TV with your Wiimote action, for months.

Because he sure is excited about receiving his game console. The video is weird, but worth a laugh or two. Go on and watch it. Then you tell me if this little guy isn’t destined to be the next this guy. Oh and keep the volume down.

9to5Mac is reporting that a unibody, 17-inch MacBook Pro will be announced at Macworld. It would follow in the footsteps of the previously released unibody 13 and 15-inch models. The rumor has been independently confirmed by Apple Insider as well.

The news isn’t isn’t all that surprising. But what is surprising is that this model is expected to have a slim, extended-life, and a very non-removable battery built in. Obviously that’s disappointing. Non-removable batteries are pretty damn lame. Way to go Apple.

Despite the fact that the advancement of the internet has put email as the ultimate way of electronic messaging, fax machines have kept up the pace somehow.

Just when you thought Fax machines were through, Panasonic has delivered a high-tech paperless fax machine, the KX-PW608. It allows users to directly type fax messages on a cordless handset and then convert the digital files into fax messages. Working without the fed paper, the KX-PW608 can handle Word docs and files saved in other formats, like PDF, while the machine’s big built-in buttons and LCD screen makes it easy for everyone to type and read messages. The paperless fax machine will be available by the end of January, but only in Japan.

Space is always an issue with PCs, so Originatic is aiming to put them on your wall. Scheduled for the CES ’09 debut is the all-in-one wall-mounted Smart-Leaf PC, designed with space-saving in mind. If you’re a casual PC user, it’s worth a look.

In Vegas, Originatic will showcase two of these PCs, the Smart-Leaf Oasis and the Smart-Leaf Mountain. The former features a touchscreen, fold-out keyboard, trackpad, TV tuner and Wi-Fi, and is perfect for the home, the latter features all keyboard lock and a trackball in addition to the other’s features, but lacks the TV tuner. That one is for business use.

The Jewelbox is the second new Ladybug-inspired product from Vestalife. The other is the Firefly. The only differences in this one are the shape and the absence of a built-in subwoofer. The red is a bit more subtle on this one.

No price info or word on availability yet, we will likely know more next week at MacWorld and CES. I’m liking this one over the Firefly. If there’s one thing that Vestalife knows, it’s Ladybug speaker docks.