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The massive consumer electronics marketing machine is ramping up big-time here in Las Vegas, even though the official start of International CES 2008 isn’t until Monday. Yeah, there’s Bill Gates’ traditional Sunday night keynote, but that’s really just a high-calorie hors d’oeuvre in advance of the main course. (And there are some cynics who’s say it’s empty calories . . . )

Over the course of the show, I’ll use this Linkfest format to drop quick hits of CES-related tech news; some non-CES items may find their way here, too. Check these posts often, as new tidbits will find their way to the top. I’ll also update with lengthier posts as needed.

Things may be relatively slow today, pick up steam tomorrow and be really rolling by Monday.

Logitech The very cross-platform Squeezebox Duet.

• Logitech traditionally kicks off the slew of CES news conferences, and today they showed off five new products: The MX 5500 Revolution Desktop, a Bluetooth mouse-and-keyboard combo; the Squeezebox Duet, a handheld, Wi-Fi enabled device for moving music from your computer to a stereo system; the Z Cinema 2.1 stereo speaker systems with simulated surround sound; the diNovo Mini, a thumb keyboard designed for controlling a Media Center PC connected to a TV; and the Harmony One remote, which has a slim profile and a touchscreen.

Three of the devices — the Revolution Desktop, the Z Cinema and the diNovo Mini — are designed to work with the Windows Media Center features in Windows XP and Vista. The Z Cinema’s surround-sound feature is software-based and requires Windows, but the speakers will work plugged into any kind of computer (the SRS TruSurround HD software will also work on virtualized Windows running on the Mac). But the most interesting product is very cross-platform — the Squeezebox Duet will work on Windows, Mac and even Linux machines.

The $400 Duet is yet another device for using Wi-Fi to stream music from a computer and Internet radio stations to a stereo. But this one uses a handheld device about the size of a largish cell phone that lets you scroll through your music and control what’s played. It includes a Wi-Fi receiver about the size of a small paperback book that you connect to your stereo system. The handheld component also has a headphone jack, so you can use it as a portable music player. It’s very slick, though a bit overpriced. Hopefully retailers will steeply discount it.

The $300 Z Cinema also is cool. It has a Windows Media Center remote, two speakers and a subwoofer, and the simulated surround sound is quite realistic. You have to be sitting right in front of the speakers for the best effect — it’s designed for desktop PC use.

Logitech doesn’t yet have information on its Web site on these products, so no links yet.

• The skies are dark and ominous here in Las Vegas as the storm that smacked California on Friday rolls through, and certainly it matches the mood of the supporters of the HD-DVD high-def format. They were dealt a devastating blow Friday when Warner Bros. announced it would exclusively use the Blue-Ray format. Blu-Ray’s championed by Sony, while Toshiba and Microsoft are behind HD-DVD. Blu-Ray now has Warner, Fox and MGM in its corner, which is about 70 percent of the market. HD-DVD has Universal, Paramount and Dreamworks.

The announcement was such a stunner that an HD-DVD news conference scheduled for Sunday at CES was "postponed." Consumers have not been rushing to high-definition DVDs because of format war, but this announcement could change that. Or, it may have come too late, as the Web is increasingly eyed as a way to deliver video content to homes, as well as at work.

• I’m looking for the weirdest gadget I can find at CES, and while the USB MSN Missile Launcher may or may not be on display here, it certainly is a candidate. Launch foam-based missiles at your friends and watch their growing irritation via MSN Messenger’s video chat service and a camera mounted atop the toy. It’s a steal at $49, and extra missiles — which you’ll need when your EX-friends shred your missiles in anger — are $3 for three. (Spotted on Engadget.)

Other potential candidates: GPS locators for your pets, and a robotic lawn mower that rolls back to its own docking station when it needs a recharge.

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