Ryan Nakashima

LAS VEGAS — The Consumer Electronics Association estimates that global spending on technology will slip 1 percent this year to $1.06 trillion as the lower average selling price of smartphones and tablets offsets unit growth in markets like China. The decline is off the peak of $1.07 trillion estimated this year. Steve Koenig, the association’s director of industry analysis, issued the forecast at the opening of the annual International CES gadget show on Sunday. Exclusive WRALTechWire rerports about Lenovo at CES: Lenovo’s new lineup emphasizes mobility, plus storage for the ‘digital home’ Lenovo’s Think products adapt to modern business...

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates donned a cool leather jacket when he first introduced the Xbox onstage in 2000. More than a decade later, the video game console is still the hippest brand in Microsoft’s portfolio. But as the company begins selling its first new Xbox in eight years on Friday, some critics say Microsoft should spin the gaming unit off. They argue that Xbox distracts management from the company’s fast-growing cloud computing business and its effort to catch up to rivals in tablet and smartphone sales. Here are Xbox’s pros and cons: PRO IT IS PROFITABLE IN THE LONG...

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is giving people a peek into Windows 8.1, a free update that promises to address some of the gripes people have with the latest version of the company’s flagship operating system. Although the preview version of Windows 8.1 is meant for Microsoft’s partners and other technology developers, anyone will be able to download it for free starting Wednesday, exactly eight months since desktops, laptops and tablets with Windows 8 went on sale. The version of the Windows 8.1 update meant for the general public will come out later in the year, though a specific date hasn’t...

Nintendo is switching on a television service that transforms the tablet-like controller for its new Wii U game console into a remote that changes the channel on your TV and puts programs from the Internet just a few finger taps away. The TVii service will debut in the U.S. and Canada on Thursday, the company said. That’s a delay from previous plans to have the service available when the game console went on sale in North America on Nov. 18. The TVii service launched in Japan on Dec. 8. The aim of TVii is to bring order to the...

It was too expensive. It lacked editorial focus. And for a digital publication, it was strangely cut off from the Internet. That’s the obituary being written in real time through posts, tweets and online chats about The Daily, the first-of-its-kind iPad newspaper that is being shut down this month. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. said Monday that The Daily will publish its final issue on Dec. 15, less than two years after its January 2011 launch. The app has already been removed from Apple’s iTunes, where it once received lukewarm ratings. The Daily had roughly 100,000 subscribers who paid either...

I’ve been conditioned just like any other consumer to expect certain things from certain companies. When it comes to tablets, I expect Apple’s to look and feel amazing, Google’s to seamlessly blend online services such as Gmail and search, and Amazon’s to have easy access to its online store. So when Microsoft came out with its first tablet computer, the Surface, I wanted and expected a machine that is good for work. After all, its Windows operating system runs most of the world’s computers, particularly in corporate environments. The Surface is Microsoft’s first attempt at a general-purpose computer. In...

Phil Orlins knows everything about producing TV in three dimensions. The ESPN producer has captured the undulating greens of Augusta National and the flying motor bikes of the X-Games for ESPN’s 3-D channel. But he can only guess how well his shows resonate with viewers. That’s because 3-D audiences are so small they can’t be measured by Nielsen’s rating system. “The feedback on The Masters was fast and furious. You could go on Twitter at any moment, and there’d be comments coming in every minute about 3-D coverage,” said Orlins while giving a tour of a production truck at...

ROSEMEAD, CALIF. — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. previewed its “Disc to Digital” service for converting DVDs into an online library on Wednesday. Based on my experience, I’d give it a six out of 10. That’s the number of discs I was able to convert from a completely unscientific sampling of my personal DVD library. The new service allows movie fans to walk into any Walmart, where they can present their old DVDs and get permanent access to an online version of each movie that can be streamed from a home computer or a mobile device. The DVDs are stamped with...