Tens of thousands of tech vendors, tech journalists and gadget geeks will descend into Las Vegas over the next week for the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Gizmodo Australia will be there to cover the show and bring you the best, brightest and weirdest new gadgets on offer. A lot of vendors are being quiet about what they plan to announce at the show, but details are slowly trickling out before the doors even open. Here’s what to expect at this year’s CES.
Phones and Tablets
You won’t see a huge amount of smartphones hit the show floor at CES 2013, but the phones that are going to be there will certainly be able satiate the rabid tech enthusiasts appetite.
Smaller players like ZTE with its Grand S and Huawei with a rumoured entrant will be repping the smaller players, while brands like Sony will be out to drop big-screened, full-featured offerings in a move aimed at getting the jump on rivals who wait until February’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to release new flagship devices.
Make no mistake: plenty of phone manufacturers will be exhibiting, but these are the players we know will be outing new product so far.
As far as tablets are concerned, expect to see a glut of Windows 8 devices on offer. Asus and Acer have declared 2013 to be the death-year of the netbook, so expect to see a lot of funky catchphrases like hybrid, convertible and dual-purpose thrown around the show.
The big news out of both the tablet and phones corner is that Corning will be releasing another super-strong follow-up to its existing line of Gorilla Glass, with what’s going to be creatively dubbed Gorilla Glass 3. Details on the third iteration of Gorilla Glass are scant right now, but Corning tell us that it will have “new composition with durability enhancements“. You’d certainly like to hope so.
Computers and Laptops
This is the first year that Microsoft won’t be exhibiting at CES, but you wouldn’t know it. This year the Las Vegas Convention Centre is going to be covered wall-to-wall in Windows 8 laptops, desktops, hybrids and tablets. We’re going to see so many Microsoft logos and Metro interfaces in the next week our eyes will likely fall out.
TVs
This year’s show really is going to see manufacturers throw-down when it comes to televisions. Expect fierce competition not only on the hardware front, but also when it comes to the services on offer.
Intel and Sony both are rumoured to be working on internet TV services, but whether they’ll have anything to show or announce remains to be seen at this point. We know for sure, however, that LG will be showing off its Google TV integration for better services and apps on your panel.
As far as hardware goes, expect it to be a smorgasbord of beautiful display tech. What we know already is that Samsung will have a 24-inch touchscreen monitor on display, LG will be showing off the beauty of its OLED panels and its bangin’ new speaker systems.
Big name vendors like Sony and LG will show off their 4K offerings as we look to see who else will have one of the sexy new sets to offer. We’re looking at you, Sharp and Samsung.
Gadgets
CES is all about gadgets and other cool tech. We’re likely to see more gadgets than we can even count, so stay tuned for all the nifty gear we can get out hands on.
In the meantime, check out Samsung’s newest robo-vacuum and gaze upon LG’s air conditioning system that you can shout at. We’ll definitely hear news about the Pebble E-Paper watch we saw on Kickstarter this time last year, which right now is running months behind schedule, too.
Cars
Self-driving, electric, hybrid and smart cars will all be on show at this year’s CES. Toyota and Ford will be the big players, and Audi will be bringing the luxury cabin tech as always.
Gizmodo Australia will be on the ground at CES 2013 to bring you the best gadget and tech news as it happens. Stay tuned to our dedicated CES hub for all the latest.