Steve Jobs and his iPhone successfully stole the limelight from the Consumer Electronics Show this week, which meant the attendance of a former Apple chief in Las Vegas went almost unnoticed.

John Sculley, whose ten-year reign at Apple began when Steve Jobs, then chairman, recruited him in 1983, took part in a debate with Bob Metcalfe, the co-inventor of Ethernet, on the future of home automation – and whether Apple would enter this market.

Mr Metcalfe is now chairman of Ember, a home automation player which sponsored the debate along with one of its customers Control4. He spoke of a quintuple play in the home – the triple play that has been coined for service operators offering TV, telephone and internet service, and then mobility services and home automation being added to the mix.

The killer application that could kick-start home automation would be energy management, he predicted, with new-home builders the most likely to propagate this.

Mr Sculley, who is currently chairman of digital identity company IdenTrust, professed to knowing little about the subject and emphasised it had to be made simple for the consumer.

“I’m still intimidated when I walk into a room and there are three or four remote controls and I have to use two of them and I don’t know which two,” he said.

He also said he had no idea whether Apple would attempt or be successful in home automation, but Apple’s techniques could be applicable in making the technology successful.

“The iPod is not sold as technology, there’s really no mention of it, it’s sold as you would sell fashion – it’s about style, it’s about fit and finish. The winners [in home automation] will be those who start with the user experience and not the technology.”

Are Apple and Cisco Systems poised for a battle royale over the rights to the iPhone name? I just got off the phone with one of Apple’s normally reserved PRs, and he had some choice words for Cisco, which just announced that it would file an injunction to block Apple from using the mark to promote its new handset. Here is what he said:

Cisco’s trademark lawsuit is silly. There are already several companies using the name iPhone for voice over IP. We are the first company to ever use the iPhone name for a cell phone and if Cisco want to challenge us we’re confident we will prevail.

Cisco says it has owned the rights to the iPhone name since it acquired the trademark through an acquisition in 2000. But Apple’s spokesman challenged whether Cisco’s trademark claim would hold up in court. I believe those are known in some parts of the US as ‘fightin’ words’.

Now that the iPhone has arrived, the real speculation can begin. Just how big of a hit will Apple’s new-fangled gadget be? With the cheapest of Apple’s new phones priced at $499 -  more than twice the typical cost of a Motorola Razr - the iPhone is likely to remain beyond the reach of the masses, for the time being, at least.

In 2001, the first iPods were also priced seemingly out of reach. The basic 5GB model cost $399, with a 10GB music player available for $100 more. It wasn’t until 2003 that the iPod fell below $300. Today, an iPod shuffle can be had for as little as $79, while higher-end video iPods retail for $349.

When he laid out his rationale for pricing the iPhone in his keynote address at MacWorld, Steve Jobs said the phone’s $499 price tag was the same a person might pay for an iPod and a smart phone separately. That may be compelling for some, but many potential customers are likely to be waiting a couple more years until their price of the handset comes down - or at least until their existing phone contracts run out.

LAS VEGAS: British readers will probably be familiar with the Carlsberg "probably the best lager in the world" ads. The latest versions have the theme of something very mundane being turned into a male fantasy - a guy turns up to view a flat and walks in to find a luxury penthouse with beautiful women serving drinks and pizza, talking intelligently about sport and leading him onto a balcony with a grandstand view of a football game. The punchline is "Carlsberg doesn’t do flatmates, but if it did, they’d probably be the best flatmates in the world."

Well, right now, it’s nearly midnight in Las Vegas and I’m blogging in probably the best press room in the world.

The official press room of the Consumer Electronics Show closed hours ago. I left a defeated army of journalists there this afternoon, lining the walls, sat on the floor trying to get a wireless connection or queuing for a lunch box, or an ethernet connection or access to one of the official wired laptops.

Here, I’m sitting in a comfortable chair in a luxury corner suite of the Bellagio Hotel with panoramic views of the strip. I’m typing on a just-released widescreen HP TouchSmart PC running Windows Vista, there are only six currently available and three are in this room.

I’m sipping on a gin and tonic from the bar and listening to Gorillaz on a serious sound system. There’re pizza and snacks on the table, a party atmosphere and the photo blogger Thomas Hawk is sitting next to me showing to a crowd the CES babes photos he’s just uploaded to Zooomr.

Robert Scoble has come over to see if I’ve got everything I need. He’s been holding court on a bean bag in a room next door where you can chill out playing video games on a large high-definition television. The suite is open and the drinks and blog posts are flowing 24/7.

This has nothing to do with Carlsberg, but it has everything to do with Scoble’s PodTech, sponsors Seagate and bloggers becoming the coolest guys in the room. This suite is known as the Bloghaus and is for bloggers only.

It’s the kind of fantasy journalism that video gamers and geeks on all-night scripting sessions might imagine. But for a few days in Vegas, it is real and the most concrete example I’ve yet to encounter of the elevated status of the new media newcomers, probably the best treated journalists in the world.   

LAS VEGAS: Yahoo!, the internet media company, chose the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to launch version 2.0 of its Yahoo! Go online application suite for mobile phones, which features a smart new ‘carousel-style’ interface designed to make it much easier for mobile phone users to access online information.

The application, which is device specific, will initially be available on Motorola’s flagship Motorazr maxx V6 and MOTORAZR V3xx handsets and will be available for about another 70 mobile devices from leading phone makers shortly.

Marco Boerries, in charge of Yahoo!’s Connected Life broadband division, said the service would be available for at least 400 mobile phone models by the end of the year and that it was also lining up deals with mobile carriers in the US and elsewhere to pre-load the software onto their handsets.

Yahoo! Go has widgets enabling Yahoo! email, location-based local information and maps, news, sports, finance, entertainment, weather, photo sharing and search.

Las Vegas: "You don’t need a wall to hang it on, it is the wall."
The best line from Sony’s press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show described the prototype of an 82-inch Bravia LCD television on display at the booth.
Of course, Bill Gates tried to upstage this in his keynote later, showing a future home with a virtual Microsoft wall, but that was just a projection in every sense.
Sony’s product announcements consisted of a 70" Bravia TV, a new range of camcorders, a Vaio ultra mobile PC and a circular living-room PC, the TP1 (pictured, click to enlarge), that even Mr Gates tipped his hat to as an interesting new form factor.
There was no viewing provided of the module that will fit onto S-Series Bravias from this spring, enabling them to stream internet video without the need for a PC.
The content demonstrations from partners AOL and Yahoo! were not that impressive given that all the flaws of internet videos are ruthlessly exposed by high-definition televisions. But Sony’s movie trailers streamed in high-def fared better.
The move seems a defensive one by Sony - it needs to get some kind of product out there at a time when many other companies are piling into this space, including Microsoft and reportedly Apple. Yet the module’s appeal is limited to owners of new Bravia sets and by a lack of high-definition content it can deliver.
Any Bravia owners with a PlayStation 3 attached would give it a miss - they already have the same capabilities and many other features on the games console.

Las Vegas: Microsoft seemed to cross a line in the living room with last night’s keynote speech by Bill Gates on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show.
There was the product announcement of the home media server, which could sit anywhere in the house, but more interesting was the news that the Xbox 360 would be able to act like a set-top box and serve up IPTV by the end of this year.
Up to now, Microsoft has promoted Windows Media Center machines as the ones that best push its software as the provider of television in the living room. The Xbox has been an alternative device focused on gaming and devoid of PC-like capabilities such as the ability to browse the Web.
But maybe Microsoft has realised the vast majority do not want a PC sitting under their TV set
and a more fully-featured Xbox can do little damage to its PC ambitions there.
After all, the Xbox 360 is seen as a successful product with 10.4m consoles now sold and Xbox Live, with its 5m members, is "the largest social network on the TV", according to Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division.
"I can play the best next generation games, download movies and TV shows, connect to my Windows PC and access my music and my photos, watch HD-DVDs, and now experience next generation TV programs with IPTV," the presenter enthused.

"This is everything I want, it’s all in one box, it’s all on Xbox 360."

With Vista three weeks from launch, the keynote focused on some little known features linked to the new operating system.
DreamScene drew gasps as a waterfall came to life on the desktop - a demonstration of the full-motion desktop wallpaper that can be created from any video. Group Shot also won applause. This allows users to easily merge two bad photos to create one good one.  The demo showed family pictures with children’s eyes closed in different shots that could be corrected to bring together the ones without this common flaw.  An eye-opening experience all round.

Here in San Francisco, far from the hustle and bustle of CES, vendors and marketing reps are busy decking the halls of the Moscone Center in preparation for MacWorld, the annual festval of all things Apple. Although registration is open today, the conference does not truly kick off until tomorrow morning, when Steve Jobs will deliver his keynote address.

In the meantime, the hotel bars and speakeasies of San Francisco are bound to remain full of Apple gossip as attendees gather to discuss what tricks their high priest has up his sleeves.

Most analysts remain divided about what Apple is likely to unveil at this year’s meeting. The list of rumoured new products this year includes an Apple iPod/mobile phone combo, an in-home digital TV device, and a new video iPod with a bigger screen.

A casual stroll across Market Street and through the San Francisco Apple store revealed no special preparations underway ahead of the keynote address. Last year, the entire top floor of the Apple store was sealed off to hold what was later revealed to be the first shipment of  Intel-based Macs. In spite of the lack of overt preparations, many - including Jupiter’s Michael Gartenberg -  believe there is big news coming.

Apple, as usual, has remained mum. Whatever he unveils at MacWorld, Mr Jobs is no doubt relishing the fact that it is bound to take some attention away from his recent options troubles.

Those not lucky enough to be in San Francisco for the main event should be able to view photos of it on this newly-launched Flickr photo group. Keep an eye on this space for more updates after tomorrow’s keynote address.

Las Vegas: For many of the companies attending the annual Consumer Electronics Show here, it is all about ’speeds and feeds’ and bragging rights. The ‘biggest’, the ‘fastest’, or just the ‘best’.
This time around Sharp, the Japanese electronics group, has placed a pretty big opening bid by unveiling "the world’s largest LCD TV" - a 108-inch giant that convincingly nixes the idea that LCD technology can’t match the rival plasma when it comes to size.

The eye-popping Sharp display is 66 per cent larger than Sharp’s previous flagship Aquos LCD TV, a 65-inch model that wowed the CES audience last year. No news yet though on the price.

<!––>Las Vegas: Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, the PC processor rivals, are keeping a low profile at the Consumer Electronics Show compared to last year’s launch of their assault on the digital home.
Then Paul Otellini, chief executive, gave a keynote speech as Intel launched its Viiv home entertainment brand. AMD competed with AMD Live! and both held big parties with Intel’s featuring a concert by the Black Eyed Peas.
Today, just a couple of announcements are the highlights of their shows. Intel is launching three new quad-core processors, two for the enterprise and and its first one for the mainstream consumer - introducing the Core 2 Quad brand name for the first time. It has nothing new to say on Viiv, which has yet to become a household name.
AMD is expanding its Live! initiative from desktops to notebook PCs configured as entertainment centres. It is also providing original equipment manufacturers with a reference design for Live! Home Cinema - an all-in-one home theatre system that pushes it into the realm of consumer electronics boxes.
A reference design for a Live! Home Media Server that allows consumers to share pictures, music and videos among networked PCs completes its offering.