Howdy everyone! It's early here at CES Las Vegas...so early that you're one of 110 people currently following along our little live blog. Consider yourself privileged.

There's a strong sense of "it's too early!" in the room. Quiet shuffling all around. Lots of people hunched over their screens. Glazed eyes. Y'know, normal for the second day of CES.

In case you're wondering, the soothing sounds of Jerry Orbach's witty repartee in Law & Order reruns were not enough to soothe me to sleep at a reasonable time last night. Oh well.

Announcer: "Please take a moment to silence your LG phones. Oh, and those other devices too."

Awwwwww.

We start with a heavy dose of dubstep overlaid on a video saying "Innovation for a better life." Expect many of these types of statements throughout the next week.

Now, William Cho, president and CEO of LG Electronics USA is on stage. "We are entering a the new year with great momentum and enthusiasm."

BTW, he's reading from cue cards in his hands that are labeled with LG's logo. This is the first product announcement -- 3x5 cards! Or not?

Now that we've started, comments have been silenced.

First comment/question! Wonderboy wants price drops on existing OLED sets once these announcements are made. Amen.

Planning to show "advanced IoT platforms" to "alliances with core industry players" Cho adds.

He's planning to discuss cars, IoT, then "ultra premium products."

Starting with cars. They're one of the few growth areas in traditional tech, so a lot of makers are very interested in getting into the auto space.

As with all car tech, I always wonder at the balance between distraction and the fascination of using tech. Thus they always mention safety. Hopefully those automatic warning systems are reliable.

Ahn says cars using LG's technology can communicate with better technology than 4G. On top of this, LG is working on key components like high-performance motors and speakers. "We have supplied components to car makers for more than 10 years," he says.


LG already provides core components for electric vehicles and for new devices like Google's cars.

For example, LG works with Nest and ADT. (Is this a sign they've already ceded ground to competition?)

Now Gayathri Rajan, VP of product management at Google, is on stage. Not sure what she focuses on, but she's there talking about IoT

By the way, I can't help but notice the similarity in naming between SmartThings (Samsung) and SmartThinQ (LG). And so the wheel turns.

The job she sees; 1) Reimagine ordinary objects with power of the Internet. 2) Choreograph experiences across "ensembles of objects and services."

I totally love that cloudcube Smart Object icon! It's like a die has gas.

Now Rajan is talking about Google's software for IoT, and talking about how happy she is to be working with LG. Off stage, no real announcement but hey, LG has reminded us that it has enough sway it can pull a Google person onto the stage to say stuff for a few minutes.