The suspense is over! Yesterday morning, a standing-room-only throng of CES attendees attended the tenth annual Last Gadget Standing event (co-sponsored by Technologizer and LGS creator Robin Raskin’s Living in Digital Times), and witnessed demos–from the straightforward to the wild and crazy–from the ten finalists. Then they voted for their favorite gizmos by clapping, cheering, whistling, hooting, and hollering.

The Last Gadget Standing–as determined by applause-o-meter at the event is Acer’s Iconia, a notebook with two 14-inch screens and a touchscreen interface. And the People’s Choice winner–determined by an online poll–is Barnes & Noble’s Nookcolor “reader’s tablet.”

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A two-screened laptop. A color e-reader. A camera that does 3D. A scanner to go. A state-of-the-art Android phone. A next-generation integrated chip. A camcorder you wear. A watch with GPS. Blocks with brains of their own. And earphones that customize themselves for your particular ears.

Ten innovative products with nothing in common except one thing: They’re our Last Gadget Standing finalists. And now it’s time to figure out which one will be, indeed, the Last Gadget Standing.

If you’re in Las Vegas for CES, please come to our live event at 10:30am on Saturday, where you can see live demos of all ten products and vote for your favorite. That event will determine the Last Gadget Standing. But if you’re not in Vegas…vote anyway! This online poll that will determine the winner of our People’s Choice award.

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When we announced the Last Gadget Standing finalists last week, we said that three were still under wraps because they hadn’t been announced yet. Well, one is now public, and it’s a technology rather than a gadget per se.  It’s Intel’s new-generation Core i3, i5, and i7 processors, code-named “Sandy Bridge” and featuring a CPU, graphics, and memory controller integrated on one die for better performance and battery life. The first new i7-based PCs are now shipping, and Intel says that five hundred Sandy Bridge computers, based on 29 variants of the platform, are in the works.

Last Gadget Standing judge Joanna Stern has a good explanation of all this over at Engadget.

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Let’s see, we’ve had Elvis impersonators, roving robots, Dr. Evil, mad scientists….could Last Gadget Standing get even kookier?  I’m afraid so.

Next week’s tenth-anniversary edition could be it. In addition to me, Harry McCracken, and your judging team, the event will be hosted by Jon Hein and special guest Gary “Baba Booey” Dell’Abate from The Wrap up Show on the Howard Stern channel on SiriusXM Radio. Hein’s tech claim to fame came is the creation of Jump the Shark, devoted to the moments where there’s only one way to go: downhill. (Just ask Fonzie).

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We’re down to ten finalists for our Last Gadget Standing competition. None of them competes directly with any other item on the list, but we do have two unusual devices you hook to one or both of your ears.

The $199 Looxcie looks like an oversized, old-school Bluetooth headset, and while it can indeed serve as a headset for your phone, its main trick is that it’s really a camcorder that can send video clips to your iPhone or Android handset–and it has a buffer, so you can capture stuff going on around you even after it happens.

Sonomax’s Soundcage–also $199–is a set of in-ear headphones with a unique twist: It comes with a headband that lets you sculpt the buds for maximum comfort for a bespoke fit that’s otherwise the province of much pricier, fully custom headphones such as Ultimate Ears’ highest-end models.

Your verdict, please…

Dozens of companies that will be demonstrating their products at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show nominated themselves for the Last Gadget Standing competition. We judges whittled the contenders down to 25 semi-finalists. And now we’ve cut down that list to ten finalists who will get to show their stuff at our event at CES in Las Vegas next week. One of them will be…the last gadget standing.

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Time for another Last Gadget Standing face-off! On the surface, Google and Samsung’s Nexus S and Barnes & Noble’s Nookcolor don’t have all that much in common—after all, one is a smartphone and one is a “reader’s tablet.” But they’re both based on the same operating system, Google’s Android, and that makes them distant cousins, at least.

I’ve reviewed and (mostly) enjoyed both of them–they’re both worthy Last Gadget Standing semi-finalists. Now it’s time for you to weigh in.

Believe me, picking products that epitomize emerging technologies at CES ain’t easy. Come to think of it, even getting a cab isn’t easy at CES. But we Last Gadget Standing judges have spent the last few weeks sorting through a fabulous selection of products. I figure our judges have each easily seen at least a couple of hundred new products this year year alone. And when they get a little jaded or overstimulated we turn to you for crowdsourced intelligence.

We’ve choose eighteen products we think you should keep your eye on. (We also have more products–including ones from Fujitsu, Intel, Nvidia, and other companies–that we can’t even talk about until January 5th, when the press day at CES begins.)

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Last Gadget Standing Nominee: Fujifilm Real 3D W3

Price: $499.99

I’m not sure if the world is ready to start taking photos in 3D, but Fujifilm sure came up with an attractive was to do it. The FinePix Real 3D W3 digital camera is the first compact consumer 3D digital camera capable of capturing both 3D still images and HD 3D movies at 720P resolution, thanks to its dual-CCD, dual lens system. You can view 3D photos and movies on the W3’s autostereoscopic widescreen display–no glasses required–and the HDMI output port lets you connect the camera to 3D TVs. Other features include Advanced 2D Mode, which takes advantage of the dual CCD/dual lens system to capture two different 2D images at the same time–zoom and wide angle, for instance, or two different sensitivity settings.

Last Gadget Standing Nominees: Mad Catz Rock Band 3 Fender Mustang PRO-Guitar Controller, Rock Band 3 MIDI Pro Controller, and Cyborg R.A.T.9 Wireless ProGaming Mouse

Prices: $149.99, $399.99, and $149.99, respectively

When it comes to Rock Band 3, gaming accessory kingpin Mad Catz is having it both ways: It offers both a fancy fake guitar and an adapter that lets musicians play with real MIDI instruments.

The Fender Mustang PRO (seen above) is a replica of a legendary real guitar. It works with Rock Band on the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 and includes 17 frets, a six-string strumming area, and a touch-sensitive string box for muting and cutting off notes. It’s also got MIDI output for use with sequencers and MIDI hardware. Meanwhile, Mad Catz’ MIDI Pro Controller lets music fans connect standard MIDI keyboard and drum sets to Rock Band via a USB connection. It sports a D-pad and gaming controller buttons, and lets you adjust velocity to reduce drum crosstalk during play; it can rest on a table or be worn on a belt during play.

On another note entirely, the Cyborg R.A.T.9 is a wireless mouse aimed at serious gamers. The macho-looking black mouse uses a 2.4-GHz wireless connection, and the company estimates its latency at less than a second. It comes with two hot-swappable battery packs and 42 grams of adjustable weights, letting gamers tweak the mouse’s heaviness; And there are five programmable buttons and a mode that lets you temporarily slow down the cursor for precise control.

Last Gadget Standing Nominee: Rullingnet Vinci

Price: $479

Parents love to toss their kids their iPads for a little fun and games, but the iPad isn’t really a toddler device.  Vinci, on the hand, was designed for toddler hands and tough use. It’s a infant-proof tablet–designed for children up to age three–with apps that include games, storybooks, and music videos.  Rather than focusing on academic teaching, they aim to show babies the world and let them be in control. And it sets out to address four key areas of early childhood development: cognitive, educational, emotional and social.

Vinci is a bit pricey at $479, but it’s built for babies with their own unique needs.

Last Gadget Standing Nominee: Sifteo Cubes

Price: $149

Sifteo Cubits provide kids with a new way to play.  Cubes are wireless 1.5″ blocks with full-color screens that interact with each other and respond to motion to unleash a whole new world of games.  The cubes are outfitted with  motion sensing, neighbor detection, graphical displays, and wireless communication features. Pile them, group them, sort them –and you have many variations of game play.  While traditional game consoles often lead to “screen stare” and tired thumbs, say the product’s creators, Sifteo Cubes start interacting with you and each other as soon as you pick them up and move them around.  Sifteo’s initial collection of titles will include games for adults, fun learning puzzles for kids, and games people can play together.

Cubes are scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2011.

Last Gadget Standing Nominee: Beamz C4

Price: $199.95

I gotta tell you that I call this thing the Digital Theremin. Musicologists may recall that the Theremin was one of the early electronic instruments that played music as you passed your hands past radio antennae. Well now the Beamz lets you pass your hands through lasers. As you pass the points you make glorious sound.  Coupled with synthesized background beats, you sound good even if you’ve never played a note before. Beamz connects to a PC via USB and includes Beamz Player, an application that lets you play fifty Beamz songs, including works by Grammy-winning artists and independent musicians.

So how cool is it to pas your hands through laser beams and “play” light?

Last Gadget Standing Nominee: Kanex XD

Price: $149.95

The Kanex XD does one thing and while it’s probably something that shouldn’t need doing in the first place, it does it well.  It transforms your 27-inch Apple iMac or Apple LED Cinema Display into a High Definition display. This allows you to connect and play your HD devices:  Blu-Ray DVD player, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, or digital set top box in HD format. Reviewers have noted that Apple’s limit of 720 dpi 720p on the screen (no fault of Kanex) is an issue. But, they’ve also noted that  Kanex provides a true, crisp, and clear picture from any HD source with no video scaling. To sweeten the deal, full control of volumn and brightness is available through the unit’s Bluetooth keyboard, and the XD also supports audio pass-through to enhance sound as well as video.

Last Gadget Standing Nominee: dB Logic headphones

Price: $29

Worried that listening to loud music for too long could damage your hearing? You could stop listening to loud music for long periods. Or you could buy dB Logic’s headphones. They use a technology called SPL2 which the company says “intelligently modifies the sound wave to closely match the profile of the original sound wave, while keeping the overall volume level at a level that can help avoid hearing loss.” They’ll be available this month.