Top 10 best and worst of CES 2009

3. The 'no photos' police
Shaun Nichols: Is there anything more asinine than forbidding 130,000 people from taking photos while visiting an open booth at one of the industry's biggest trade shows? This year, Samsung in particular was one such offender, with more than one showgoer being told to put their cameras away rather than get a shot of one of the company's new displays.

Apparently, Samsung's management wants to make it very clear that the general public outside of CES should not be looking at the company's television sets, and they were not alone. Brilliant strategy all round.

Iain Thomson: It does seem a trifle odd that some companies are publicity shy when they pay so much for the floorspace. Still I'm sure it will bring them dividends, although not in the financial sense.

Still I found security surprisingly light at most of the show. Companies were practically encouraging you to try out the systems on display, and photography was not an issue, showing an awareness that people trying to sell their board on a new system will be better prepared if they had video footage of it.

4. Hotels
Iain Thomson: Las Vegas is a city built around the hotel trade. If you've got the money you can have a whale of a time and many do, but the city is also built to cater for the budget traveller if you believe the hype.

However, at the budget end of the scale the choices are not exactly inspiring for the many thousands of delegates. No Wi-Fi, paper-thin walls and a relaxed approach to housekeeping are commonplace complaints on the show floor and in the crews outside the outdoor food stands.

But the other oddity of the show was that the hotels themselves were panicking. Usually you have to book hotels well in advance because space is at a premium and prices go up the closer you get to CES. This year prices actually fell as the show approached; a worrying sign.

Shaun Nichols: CES 2009 defied all logic in that as the show grew closer, the room prices got lower. I guess that's how it goes in Vegas.

While I can completely understand the textbook supply and demand issues that come about during the show, it can be very frustrating to shell out top-dollar for rooms that are normally a third of their CES prices. The first thought upon entering any room at CES is a reflection on what sort of room that money would get at any other time of the year.

5. CES Flu
Shaun Nichols: It's pretty much inevitable. You go to CES healthy, you come home sick as a dog. Breathing in an insidious mixture of close quarters, high stress, and nonstop hand-shaking, the heinous viruses that spread throughout the show have become the stuff of legend.

The CES flu has caused more tech workers to call in sick than a new iPhone release. Even as I write this, I can feel the dreaded illness making its way into my sinus passages and taking up residence in the back of my throat. Let's just hope there's still some vitamin C drops left at the airport pharmacy.

Iain Thomson: With so many nations represented at CES it's inevitable that someone's going to be travelling sick so any show of this size acts as a huge jump in the illness rate of attendees.

A visit to a stand guarantees you a handshake or two and there was plenty of hacking and spluttering going on in the press conferences, on some company's claims as well as through disease.

Lots of people are touching the same hardware and walkways on the show floor are fairly narrow at CES and if you're moving through at more than a snail's pace you tend to knock into clumps of people like a human pinball machine. This means many delegates bring back more than a pocketful of business cards and product data.