In the dog eat dog world of the CE business, margins are low and money – especially in this economy – is tight. That’s why a number of smaller vendors, including some we talked to in Vegas, took rooms in local hotels or ran “peripheral” events in other venues. The Daily Tech reports that some of those vendors have been ousted by the hotels themselves after the CEA, the organization that runs CES, convinced management to force them out.

Why? Because the CEA requires payments of $100,000 and up to exhibit at CES and their inability to pay for formal space at the show or in one of the show’s official hotel spaces is apparently an affront to the gadget gods. While the CEA puts on a nice show, it is my opinion that trade shows are dinosaurs and the extortionist tactics used by CEA to convince Las Vegas hotel to do things like this is an affront to capitalism and whatever else is good and wholesome about a massive trade show in a resort city in the middle of the desert.

In the end, CES is place where CE companies troll for customers. If the CEA wants to increase barriers to entry to their perceived value-add proposition, more power to them. Just don’t expect vendors to play nice next year in this game of cat and mouse.

If you’ve been booted, let us know. We’d love to hear your story.

So I saw Up yesterday with the boy and I wondered if anyone had invented a collar that can allow dogs to communicate a bit more clearly a la Dug the Dog in the movie. If you haven’t seen it, one of the characters has created a collar that reads a dog’s thoughts (”Squirrel!”) and plays them out loud. Hilarity ensues.

So I’m looking around and discover that yes, such a thing exists, but it’s definitely a bit less high-tech than I thought. I introduce to you the X-Rated Hound Bytes Talking Dog Collar. Gah.

Are you a dog lover? Here is a gadget that will give you hours of fun, Hound Bytes Talking Dog Collar; this is the worlds first talking dog collar.

You can take your dog for a walk and be the envy of your friends, with the
RC control you can make your dog use funny phrases such as:

* It’s a dog eat dog world, so eat me!
* Tricks! You wanna see tricks? Get yourself a hooker!
* Woof, woof, I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced

It’s only $12.99 so you won’t have to spend much to lose your dignity.