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The Topics:

Carol Bartz, from Autodesk, is the new Yahoo! CEO
Yahoo! on Tuesday confirmed that former Autodesk chief Carol Bartz will succeed Jerry Yang as its new CEO. Bartz, for her part, asked investors to give Yahoo some “friggin’ breathing room” to let the company get back on track.

Can the Pre Save Palm?
Written off for dead by many, Palm came back at CES with the Pre — a smartphone that combines some of the features of the BlackBerry and the iPhone, and which adds a few innovations. It also introduced WebOS, a web-centric mobile operating system. Will Palm grow with these decisions?

Is Wireless HDTV Set for 2009?
Obnoxious tangled wires behind your widescreen could very well be a problem of the past. We now know that ultra-wideband HDTV sets will hit the market later this year, thanks to a several announcements at the 2009 CES. According to a report by the EE Times, wireless-chip designer SiBEAM is collaborating with LG Electronics, Panasonic, and Toshiba to develop designs.

One Laptop Per Child Lays Off Half its Staff, Issues Pay Cuts
The Boston-based nonprofit, One Laptop Per Child, has laid off more than half of its staff. The organization dedicating itself to providing cheap laptop computers to children in underdeveloped countries is suffering greatly from the global recession and increased competition in the PC sector. Now the non profit is left with a meager 32 employees, all of whom have taken salary cuts. Is this the end for this effort?

Netbooks Rule at CES
At the CES show last week, Asus introduced a new $499 netbook called the Eee PC Touch. It sports a nearly 9-inch touch screen that swivels or folds over so it can be used as a tablet-style PC. Meanwhile, other netbooks were everywhere at the show. Aren’t these systems underpowered compared to laptops that only cost a little more?

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