There are numerous logistical challenges at CES, from long walks, to long cab lines, to the general press of humanity waiting to see the gadgets and celebrities on display. However, one hurdle I have not had to clear (pun intended) this year, is a lack of connectivity. Every time I pull out my trusty Motorola WiMAX adapter, I get full signal, even in the bowels of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Yesterday I got a post up while waiting on an appointment outside the Samsung football field booth. Sure, I was the idiot kneeling on the ground in a skirt and typing away on my netbook, but I was productive!

The Clear folks, meanwhile, have had a decent presence at the show, and I got a brief look at a line-up of WiMAX-enabled laptops at Digital Experience the other night. Clearwire also announced this morning that it is launching a new 4G network… in Spain. (?!) It’s the company’s first 4G service deployment in Europe.

While my good friend Paul Kapustka managed to get a Clearwire loaner USB card for his Vegas trip, I’m surprised that Clear isn’t giving away gear and temporary service to press and bloggers to drum up a little WiMAX excitement. I can’t think of a better venue, particularly in light of the LTE news flowing this week.

Dazzboard is a newborn Finnish company that’s been getting decent press for the last six months as a media manager for the stuff on all your devices – photos, music, and video. Now the company is adding an Android App Manager to its list of features. The Dazzboard 2.0 software is a browser extension that you can access from your computer. Instead of shopping, adding, and deleting apps from your smartphone on the smartphone itself, you can do the heavy lifting on a larger PC screen, and just enjoy the apps themselves from your phone. It’s all drag and drop, and at least from the demo I saw tonight, looks dead simple to use. I’ll be trying this one out soon on my own Android device.

Other new features in Dazzboard 2.0 include:

• iTunes content connectivity – only non-iTunes-DRM stuff
• OpenID compatibility
• Enhanced media management including cloud storage and support for social media networks
• YouTube browsing
• Media bookmarks

On my way to another appointment at CES, I got sidetracked by the display at the Cydle booth. Cydle, you say? Yeah, I’d never heard of them either, but they’ve got some cool-looking gadgets here in Vegas. Apparently out of South Korea, Cydle is due to go into retail in the States in the first half of this year. I saw a 10″ netbook that will be priced at $299 (unfortunately with limited specs to match), and more interestingly, an Internet-connected media player (a MID!) with an ATSC TV tuner embedded. Brad Linder at Lilliputing got a price out of Cydel for the M7 Mobile Internet Device. It should go on sale for $199, making it not much more expensive than Aluratek’s non-Internet-connected Cinepal.

Aluratek’s got an interesting mid-tier product on its hands. When I first read the specs of the Cinepal, I was less than impressed. It’s a portable media player without the broadband connection. However, seeing it in person and talking to one of the product guys, I’ve had a bit of a change of heart. The Cinepal has a beautiful screen, and it offers a significantly better movie-watching experience than an iPod Touch or a smartphone. According to Aluratek, the reason the Cinepal doesn’t come with broadband is purely price point. At $149-$179, it doesn’t have to compete with an Archos device, it just has to compete with old-style portable DVD players.

I don’t know how many folks will purchase a Cinepal given the other options available (netbooks, high-end PMPs, etc.), but for a family with young kids that likes to travel, I can see the appeal. The Cinepal should be in stores by February.

Alright, I’d admit that headline is a bit of tease, but it certainly seems possible that we could see Yahoo Connected TV widgets on Roku boxes (and lots of other hardware) in the next few months. I talked to a Yahoo spokesperson at Digital Experience last night and heard some impressive updates on the Yahoo Connected TV initiative. Dave was intrigued by Yahoo’s widgetized TV demo last year, but we’ve heard of minimal updates in the last twelve months. Now comes a slew of news from the former king of Search.

First, Yahoo is adding partners left and right to bring its Widget Engine to more devices. Hardware highlights include new Vizio XVT Series HDTVs, which will be available with the Widget Engine in Q1, the ViewSonic VMP80 media player, also due out in the first quarter for an estimated $159, and new partnerships with MIPS technologies and Sigma Designs, which “will enable manufacturers to easily support Yahoo Connected TV  in a wide array of consumer electronic devices, including Blu-ray players, network players, AV receivers, and cable IPTV set-top boxes.” My new friend Roger from Yahoo would not confirm that the new software partnerships would bring Yahoo to the Roku specifically, but he did say Yahoo widgets would be on “Roku-type” boxes, and that devices already in the field could be updated remotely to get the Yahoo experience.

Also new from Yahoo, you can now create your own TV widget to show up in Yahoo’s Widget Gallery. Yes you, consumer end-user person. By partnering with Widget Realm and Brightcove, Yahoo is offering a simple way to design your own app and make it available to the masses. As of 6:00 this morning, you can go to Widget Realm and become a de facto Yahoo developer. I can’t wait to try this one out myself.

Finally, Yahoo has announced new content partners for its widget platform. Joining brands like CBS, Showtime, and Blockbuster are CNBC, NBC.com, Napster, Sky News TV, the Weather Channel, and more. This is one to watch in 2010.

I’ve been waiting for years for a useful Wi-Fi photo frame, and it looks like 2010 may finally usher in the new digital frame era. At Digital Experience tonight (a CES event within an event), I saw two promising entrants in the Wi-Fi photo frame market. First comes the Kodak Pulse. At seven inches and $129.99, the Pulse might sound a bit overpriced, but it’s not when you consider the full touch screen, and the fact that it gets its own IP address. This is the application grandparents have been waiting for. Mom and dad can email photos of baby Johnny, and they will immediately go into rotation on Grandma’s frame. The Pulse also integrates with Kodak Gallery and Facebook, with the potential for further service integration down the road. It’s due out in retail April-ish.

I also saw Pandigital’s Photo Mail frame tonight. Like the Pulse, it receives photos by email with no monthly subscription fee, but emailing photos comes with a per-pic charge after the first 300 emailed shots. The frame has Wi-Fi and connectivity via AT&T’s Edge network. Also due out around April, the Photo Mail frame is eight inches, but without the full touch screen. Interestingly, the back end is apparently handled by Snapfish, but there is no direct integration with existing Snapfish albums (as with the HP DreamScreen). The expected retail price is $149.99.

Bottom line: I want more testing time with the Kodak Pulse. I think we might have a winner.

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Wireless power options continue to improve, but I’m still not wild about spending money for a charging mat and a gadget case. It helps that prices are coming down, but even the latest entrant from Case-Mate – an iPhone/iPod solution called the Hug – still costs $89.99. And money is only part of the problem as far as I’m concerned. I don’t love the idea of having to use a mat at all, which is why I’m excited about the latest tech from Texas Instruments and Fulton Innovation.

TI and Fulton are working on a contactless charging system. It involves a transmitter, receiver, and “associated magnetics,” and the companies are offering a development kit to gadget designers that want to test it out. The bqTESLA Contactless Charging Evaluation Kit will cost $250 and will be available “by the end of Q1.” TI and Fulton will also have a demo on hand at CES, and I will definitely check it out if I can make the schedule work. The solution is based on Fulton’s existing eCoupled technology, which I took a look at during last year’s Consumer Electronics Show.

UPDATE: I made the mistake of assuming that contactless meant the gadget and charging station would not need to make contact. Sadly, that’s not the case. Fulton and TI are referring to metal contacts, which are not required. The gadget and charging mat here still need to touch. More to come on this front  later.