Every year, the Consumer Electronics Show kicks off the new year with a preview of what's to come in technology and consumer products. While often many of the products at the show take a while to reach mainstream consumers, this year looks to be one where previously too expensive or niche devices show off refinements that will make them more accessible to all consumers.
Here's a look at the top products and trends to expect from designers and manufacturers in next week's big technology showcase in Las Vegas.
Next Generation Televisions: Bigger, Better... Cheaper?
As LatinosPost previously reported, manufacturers like LG Electronics are going to show off a slew of curved OLED and Ultra HD televisions. This is not new - a couple of OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diode) came to market in 2013, but were priced far outside the range of most customers' budgets.
Ultra HD capable TVs - or 4K video televisions - are also not very new, but have remained as obscure as OLED technology throughout last year. Part of that is due to the fact that there remain few options to actually deliver 4K content to these devices.
That's going to change this year, as Netflix is already testing out 4K video streaming, and another development - slated to be demonstrated at CES - may actually make UHD streaming within reach for most consumers.
The problem with streaming 4K video is that, up until now, it required much more bandwidth to deliver than most people can afford. However, YouTube has said it will demonstrate a new "VP9" video streaming codec at CES this year that cuts the bandwidth requirement in half. While OLEDs may remain out of reach for most consumers, starting at CES, expect 4K to get a boost towards the mainstream.
Wearables
Despite a very active 2013 in wearables - with the Sony Smartwatch 2, Pebble, Samsung Galaxy Gear, and others being released for the first time on the general public - expect 2014 to ramp up and refine the wearable computing category.
Early attempts at mainstream acceptance for general-use wearables (not sports and fitness bands like Fitbit) have been met with little success. For example, as we previously reported, Samsung's unveiling of the Galaxy Gear along side the highly anticipated and awesome Galaxy Note 3 was pretty embarrassing to watch (no pun intended).
When a successful tech giant like Samsung can't figure out how to make a smartwatch useful without making it unwieldy, you know the industry has further to go. Expect more attempts from designers to refine their all-purpose wearables, and fitness band makers to try to appeal to a broader audience (don't expect anything from Google or Apple, though). Whether they succeed is still up for grabs.
Smart Homes
Despite the increasing ubiquity of smartphones, Bluetooth, embeddable sensors and processors, and the wireless internet, there hasn't been much progress towards having a fully connected "smart" home.
According to the Verge, CES 2014 is the time and place to jumpstart trend towards more interconnected home appliances and devices. LG and Samsung both plan to introduce major appliances and apps that can connect and intelligently control washers, ovens, A/C units, fridges, and other home appliances.