With the Consumer Electronics Show now in full swing, the amount of gadget and gizmo information coming out of Las Vegas is staggering. And given that there are 3,100 companies showcasing more than 20,000 new products here, that's not surprising.

But while the industry touts its latest and greatest, the general public has already put together its wishlist for 2012 – and the top items on it can't be found at CES.

Online survey company Sodahead has released the results of a poll showing that Apple's iPhone 5 remains the most anticipated tech product of 2012, capturing 35 percent of the vote. Close behind was the iPad 3, with 30 percent.

Rounding out the top five was the oft-whispered Google tablet (16 percent), the PlayStation Vita (12 percent), Wii U (11 percent) and the expected-to-be-updated Kindle Fire 2 (7 percent).

The Kindle Fire is on the way to customers – and with it, Amazon's hoping to revolutionize the tablet business.

The $199 entertainment-focused device is actually shipping a day earlier than planned, as Amazon looks to build on the substantial buzz the Kindle Fire has generated since it was first announced. The company also plans to ship the Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G eReaders tomorrow – six days ahead of schedule.

The Kindle Fire is considered the tablet most likely to give Apple's iPad a run for its money, due in large part to its affordable price. Amazon's taking a razor and razor blades sales model with it, keeping hardware costs low but reaping the benefits of that by controlling the content that runs on the device.

Technically an Android tablet – and, thus, able to run most of the offerings in the Android Marketplace, the Kindle Fire is focusing on mainstream entertainment, specifically movies, television, books, magazines and music – all sold through Amazon.

Reviews have been mixed, at best. (Variety has not yet received a review unit of the device.) But with the buzz and the holiday rush underway, those negative comments aren't likely to substantially affect sales.

After being the subject of whispers, rumors and speculation for months, it appears the iPhone 5 is finally ready to make its debut. (Edit: Or, you know... maybe not.)

Apple has confirmed plans for a press event at its Cupertino, Calif. Headquarters on Oct. 4, where it's expected to unveil the next iteration of its popular smartphone.

There are plenty of rumors about what that phone will offer. Among the most prevalent are longer battery life, an 8 MP camera and a faster processor. While the iPhone 4 has been on the market for some 15 months, demand for the phone has remained strong, giving Apple leeway to announce the new version a bit later than it usually does. (New iPhone announcements typically come in June.)

Of interest at the conference, beyond the iPhone 5 itself, will be what media partners Apple chooses to bring onstage to sell the device's benefits. The chance of an updated iPod also being among the announcements is worth keeping an eye on as well, especially given the recent launch of Spotify and that service's close integration with Facebook, a partnership that could make it a serious competitor to Apple's cloud plans.

Intel's Sandy Bridge technology is less than a year old, but the next big thing already appears to be on the horizon.

The company showed off prototypes for its "Ivy Bridge" processors this week at its Intel Developer Forum and the early word is encouraging – with faster speeds, lower power consumption and amazing battery life.

Now, I realize that processor chips aren't exactly sexy, so I'll avoid getting too deep into the weeds here. They are, though, the brains behind all the gadgets the entertainment industry depends upon to distribute content – so the more we know about them, the better.

Let's look backwards first: Rolled out in January, Sandy Bridge (technically called second generation Core processors) were vastly faster than the previous line and offered strong video processing capabilities as well as security enhancements for studios.

Warner Bros., Dreamworks and 20^th Century Fox partnered with Intel to deliver high definition content in a secure environment – and created enough of a comfort factor that studios agreed to release HD films to the PC market simultaneously with DVD and Blu-Ray releases.

Ivy Bridge will contain all of that – as well, apparently, as the ability to remain on standby for 10 full days, while remaining connected to the Internet. That's done by reducing the power required while a laptop is in idle mode, meaning the batteries can last a lot longer.

Apple machines still have an idle time advantage over Intel, able to run for up to 30 days, but they don't stay connected online.

Why is this useful? In short, when you take a Ivy Bridge powered laptop out of idle, your email will be caught up (theoretically, of course, the chips are still being fine tuned) or the movie you've paused can resume almost instantly.

Intel will likely talk a lot more about these chips at CES in January – but the company already had them up and running in its Ultrabook laptops, easing some fears that the technology was running behind. The early word on the systems sounds encouraging, though.

You don't need to know exact iPhone or iPod sales to know Apple has a lot of money. Even the least economically focused person on earth knows the company is rich. But the comparisons are just staggering.

Prior to the debt ceiling being raised, there was a lot of media attention surrounding the fact that the company had a higher cash balance than the U.S. government – with $76.2 billion in hand vs. the government's $73.8 billion. Now it's aiming higher.

CNBC reports that thanks to recent stock fluctuations, the tech company is now worth as much as Europe's 32 biggest banks – combined.

The financial institutions, which include Germany's Deutsche Bank and Italy's Unicredit, had a total market capitalization of $340 billion – the same as Apple's.

Of course, none of this is permanent (well, let's hope not!). And the ties to the entertainment world are pretty loose (though Apple certainly wouldn't be in this position if it hadn't made a major shift into the entertainment space 10 years ago). Still, it's a good illustrative point of how powerful the company has become in a short period of time.

And it sure makes you wish you'd invested in Apple in the late 1980s, when the stock hovered between $2 and $11 per share.

When HP first announced the TouchPad, the words "iPad killer" were whispered on a few sites previewing the device. That's not unusual hyperbole in the tablet world, but HP had integrated Palm's beloved WebOS onto the system, making it very user friendly.

Today, one month after releasing the TouchPad to retail, Hewlett Packard announced plans to discontinue the device – making it one of the most colossal failures in the tablet space.

HP, in a just-released statement, said it "will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones." (That means the Pre cell phones are biting the dust as well.)

The TouchPad got so-so reviews upon its launch, but suffered from being a bit bulky and having a terrible marketing campaign, featuring Russell Brand and Glee star Lea Michelle. The troubles were telegraphed by reports that Best Buy was sitting on a tremendous unsold inventory of the devices and they began appearing on clearance site Woot.com

The collapse of HP's WebOS division comes on reports that the company is considering spinning off its PC business. The company seemed to confirm this as well in its statement, saying it "plans to announce that its board of directors has authorized the exploration of strategic alternatives for its Personal Systems Group (PSG). HP will consider a broad range of options that may include, among others, a full or partial separation of PSG from HP through a spin-off or other transaction."

Intel's introduction of its Sandy Bridge chip technology in January was a breakthrough for the computer industry. Suddenly, transferring HD video between devices wasn't an arduous affair and the chip came with security protocols that were enough to impress even jaded studios – who agreed to begin offering HD versions of film online the same day they hit DVD and Blu-ray – a first for the entertainment industry.

To quote Bachman Turner Overdrive, though, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Both Intel and IBM are working on new chip technologies that could once again shake up the chipset business in the coming years.

Now, look, I realize chipset technologies aren't exactly sexy – but they're the guts that make everything else move forward. And what IBM and Intel have in the oven could let SPFX houses and other members of the filmmaking community take a quantum leap in their field.

Let's start with Intel, which is currently hard at work on its next chip, codenamed "Cloverview". Planned to launch in conjunction with Windows 8 in the back half of 2012, this isn't a leap forward for desktop machines like Sandy Bridge was. Instead, the company is targeting tablets, netbooks and other smaller portable devices.

Right now, those systems tend to lack processing beef. But it's hoped that Cloverview will put them more on par with mid-level desktop systems.

Meanwhile, development work is already underway on "Ivy Bridge," the successor to the current second-generation Core processor. Those, reportedly, will support DirectX 11 graphics (the new highpoint for PCs), USB 3.0 and several other bleeding edge technologies. They could be out as early as the first half of 2012.

At IBM, the advancements are perhaps even more seismic. Engineers there have announced the invention of a new type of memory that reads and writes 100 times faster than flash. On top of that, its lifespan is significantly longer than flash. That could lead to radical advancements in everything from media players to cell phones to DVRs to enterprise storage systems.

What does it mean for the average computer user? How about systems that boot up instantly? The ability to transfer data at speeds that make even the fastest chips today look downright pokey?

And, for Hollywood, it might even speed up the CGI process, cutting the development time of animated films and FX-intense films.

The tech, which is called phase change memory is a bit further out, unfortunately. It'll likely be another five years before it sees the light of day. But it's always kind of exciting to know when a paradigm shift is looming.

The days of having to own pro-level audio equipment to produce a professional sounding podcast may be far behind us, but a bad mic can still ruin your credibility and cause an audience to flee. Fortunately, Blue Microphones has produced a pair of pro/am mics that are not only affordable, but produce an audio quality that comes within shooting distance of systems that cost thousands of dollars.

The company offers two mics – the less expensive Snowball and the higher-priced Yeti. Determining the best for you will largely depend on your needs.

If you're doing your digital recording primarily for pleasure and want a clean sound but not necessarily studio quality, the Snowball is the better choice. It's cheaper (under $60) and works without a lot of fuss. First released in 2005, the Snowball has a rather ubiquitous design – specifically, that of a ball – and comes with two microphones within the head, allowing it to record at a high quality rate.

The system eschews stereo for mono, however. And while it offers three types of recording modes, they're not clearly labeled, which can lead to some confusion.

Those are nitpicks. The sound quality of the mic is terrific, with a minimum of hiss and perfect for close-range sound recording – part of the reason podcasters have fallen in love with the brand.

For stereo recordings – and interviews that will involve more than one person – the Yeti is a much better choice, however. At $150, it's the pricier of the two, but it comes with four recording modes and will dramatically improve the quality of your recordings.

The Yeti also has a number of bonus features, including a headphone jack and three embedded mics, as well as a mute button and gain control.

I had some concerns about the stability of some buttons on the device, though. And the sheer size of the thing (it's almost a foot tall!) borders on ridiculous. But you can't argue with the sound quality. It's outstanding.

Blue Microphones has made a pair of quality products – either of which will perform admirably in home-recording studios. They may not measure up precisely with products from Shure or other pro equipment, but they hold up well.

The only overarching problem is today's world is more and more about quality AND portability. Neither of these is something you'd take out of the house as you record – and the company needs to find a lighter, high-quality alternative if it wants to stay ahead of the competition.

Hounded by critics for remaining silent despite the theft of personal information from 100 million accounts, Sony's CEO is finally speaking out.

Sir Howard Stringer, in an open letter to customers, addressed the data breach yesterday for the first time since the crisis began on April 20.

"Let me assure you that the resources of this company have been focused on investigating the entire nature and impact of the cyber-attack we’ve all experienced and on fixing it," he wrote. "We are absolutely dedicated to restoring full and safe service as soon as possible and rewarding you for your patience. … As a company we — and I — apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused by this attack." 

Stringer's silence on the matter has brought critics out in force, including some who have called on him to resign for the company's handling of the matter. In the note, Stringer hinted that the restoration of the PlayStation Network may be pushed beyond this week, despite the company's vow on May 1. Rather that targeting a specific date, he couched the date by saying networks would return "in the coming days".

Stringer's note comes as CNET reports that another significant hack could come as early as this weekend. (It's worth noting, however, that sophisticated hackers, like the ones who stole personal information for over 100 million accounts from Sony, rarely announce their plans in this fashion.)

Sony is stopping short of making direct accusations, but pointed an accusatory finger at the collective group of hackers who go by 'Anonymous'.

The company, in a letter written to the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, said it does not yet know who was behind the attack, but it had found a file planted on the server of Sony Online Entertainment named "Anonymous". (SOE just yesterday announced it had discovered hackers had accessed and stolen information from 25 million accounts.)

"When Sony Online Entertainment discovered this past Sunday afternoon that data from its servers had been stolen, it also discovered that the intruders had planted a file named 'Anonymous' on one of those servers, a file containing the statement 'We are Legion'," wrote Kazuo Hirai, chairman of the board of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

The letter was written in response to a series of questions the Committee had about the data breach, which has resulted in the personal information of over 100 million customers being stolen. Rather than attending the hearing in person, Hirai sent an eight-page note offering a timeline of events and addressing why the company had waited as long as it did to alert customers.

"I am of course aware of the criticism Sony has received for the time taken to disclose information to our customers," he wrote. "I hope you can appreciate the extraordinary nature of the events the company was facing. ... Throughout the process, Sony Network Entertainment America was very concerned that announcing partial or tentative information to consumers could cause confusion and lead them to take unnecessary actions if the information was not fully corroborated by forensic evidence."