The fiberglass hull glides on the surface, with solar panels to power its electronics and sealed boxes to protect data-gathering instruments.

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Quantum computers are nothing like the boxes of electronics we're used to.

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The whole personal computer era can be seen as one giant triumph of dis-integration, as IBM's circuit-boards-to-boxes-to-software mainframe business gave way to the layered computer industry we see today: Intel making the electronics, Dell the boxes and Microsoft the software.

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While consumers are still lining up for Wiis, reports come from around the country of unwanted PS3 boxes sitting in electronics stores for days at a time.

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But this years CES is likely to see a change in both the mix of new products offered, and the nature of Consumer Electronics itself, as the boxes and gadgets become more predictable and the big changes happen at the network and content side of the equation.

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In 1986 Jensen started an electronics department so that Linak could make the control boxes needed to use the actuators.

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Products for consumer electronics include various HDDs designed for digital video recorders, set-top boxes, karaoke machines, printers and gaming consoles.

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Not only is Cablevision conspicuously not a member of the CableLabs consortium, it also owns the Wiz electronics chain, which would presumably benefit from sales of set-top boxes.

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Last month, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, such devices took center stage with new boxes from TiVo (nasdaq: TIVO - news - people ) and newcomer Moxi , whose console took the show's top prize (see story, p. 90).

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