It's time already to kick off the new tech year in style at the
the International Consumer Electronics Show, which is being held in
Las Vegas this week. It might seem brutally soon after actual New
Year, but innovation waits for no man, so brace yourselves for an
onslaught of new tech over the coming days.
WIRED.co.uk will be reporting from the show, going hands-on with
all manner of technology and attending keynote speeches from the
likes of Intel and Samsung that will help set the tone for the year
ahead. We'll be scouring the show floor for products both brilliant
and bizarre, as well as covering major announcements from big
hitters including LG and Sony.
Many of the major companies have already hinted at what we can
expect or even announced their new product lineups already, meaning
that we already have a good idea what the major trends of the show
will be. Without further ado, here are five trends we expect to be
big news at the show this week.
TVs
CES always brings with it a slew of new tellies, and 2015 will
be no different. The buzzword -- or phrase -- this year is likely
to be quantum dots. This basically refers to a complex
nanotechnology that makes pictures look brighter, bolder and
clearer. LG has already announced that it will be showing off its own quantum dot TV, but it is unlikely to be the only television
manufacturer doing so at the show.
That doesn't mean 4K will take a back seat, though. Of
course what we really want to see are affordable 4K television sets
and better ultra high definition content to take advantage of them,
but we could be a year or so off this just yet.
At CES last year Netflix CEO Reed Hastings hopped between stages
to talk for multiple companies about 4K video content, but it would
be great to see less reliance on a single streaming company this year in order
to push high-quality video availability forward. There's a
possibility that we could start to see Blu-ray players capable of
handling 4K content, which would be a step in the right
direction.
Connected cars and homes
Every year at CES, the number of automotive companies showing
off their latest innovations grows. We'll be keeping a keen eye on
the likes of Audi, Volkswagen, Ford and Mercedes to see what
they'll be unveiling, and to watch how they go about negotiating
Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
Similarly, we're expecting to see the first Apple Home devices
unveiled. We already know to expect products from iDevices, one of
Apple's launch partners for its connected home system, but it
surely won't be the only company to do so. There will likely be
plenty of Internet of Things gimmicks to negotiate before we
stumble upon connected home devices that we feel we wouldn't want
to live without, but the WIRED.co.uk team in Las Vegas will be
searching high and low.
Wearables
Wearables are
getting smarter, more efficient and more attractive -- and it's
about time too. The last 18 months of releases have proved
disappointing battery life and a lack of desirability are massive
roadblocks in this new product category gaining traction. At this
CES, we expect to see these issues addressed with better wristwear,
new form factors and sharper design.
It has been exactly a year since Intel announced its Edison
chip and development platform for wearables. The company has
since run its Make It Wearable
competition and announced partnerships with Fossil and others
to built connectivity into a range of devices, and we can expect to
hear more announcements along these lines from the chipmaker in the
next few days.
Withings has already announced a new version of its
smart-looking smartwatch, which we'll be taking a closer look at
later today, and a company called Goldkey will be showing if an
Android watch that will work as a standalone phone. We expect
plenty of companies will be keen to cause a splash in the
smartwatch department ahead of the Apple Watch going on sale, which
is likely to happen soon.
We're also expecting a big ole bunch of health and fitness
wearables to be unveiled at the show, including the next generation
of activity trackers and hopefully some innovative clothing options
too
Drones and robots
Robotics could easily be one of the most exciting trends of CES
2015, with a whole section dedicated to drones for the very first
time. GoPro has reportedly been working on its own camera drone
that will compete with the likes of Parrot and Hexo+ -- which are also at the show -- and Intel Make It
Wearable winner, Nixie. Despite having a press conference scheduled for Tuesday,
it's unknown whether the action cam maker will actually be
revealing the drone just yet -- rumour has it that it isn't quite
ready.
Droids won't be confined to the air, however. There should be
plenty robot groundlings to see as well, with companies like ABB
Robotics and Japanese company Doog in attendance.
3D printing
3D printing is
not the novelty it once was, but that doesn't mean that we won't
see any exciting innovation in this area this year. The 3D printing
footprint at the show will be double the size that it was at CES
2014. The best-known players such as MakerBot, Stratasys and
Autodesk will be in attendance and we're keen to see what new
developments have occurred in printing with unusual materials,
including food. We'll also be keeping an eye out for affordable and
practical personal printers or 3D printing tools that people are
likely to buy for home use.
Source Article from http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-01/04/ces-2015-trends-predictions http://cdni.wired.co.uk/1920x1280/s_v/vegas.jpg
CES 2015: the trends and technologies to look out for
No comments:
Post a Comment