The Greatest (Tech) show on Earth

By: Ian King

This year, Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will be packed with a wide array of splashy gadgets. Drones are being heavily featured, as are connected cars and a range of smart home technology


Ultra-high definition television sets that don't have much content available. Wireless chargers that don't work together because they're built on competing industry standards. Wearable devices that few consumers have shown interest in buying.
Technology companies will once again be using the Consumer Electronics Show that starts next week to unveil must-have new gadgets. The odds are stacked against them.
CES, the world's largest trade show, is far from a hit- making machine. While the technology show is a leading indicator of trends and attracted 160,000 attendees last year, many products debuting at the event take years to get into consumers' living rooms -- if at all.

The last time the event had a true stand-alone sensation was when Microsoft Corp. debuted the Xbox game console at CES in 2001. "It seems that every year there's a central theme to the technology introduced and a lot of those have just whiffed," said Jordan Selburn, an analyst for market researcher IHS Inc.
This year, CES will be packed with a wide array of splashy gadgets. Drones are being heavily featured, as are connected cars and a range of smart home technology designed to make everyday life more convenient. Quantum dot televisions, which promise better color and lower electricity use in giant screens, are also debuting.

Crowded Show
That's spurring crowds to flock to CES. Attendance at the event last year reached a record 160,498, up 15 percent from 140,000 in 2011, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. The number of exhibitors totaled 52,326 last year, rising from 51,236 in 2011. The group, which runs the event, declined to comment on the number of attendees and exhibitors registered for the show next week.
"It's so big that if you skip it's `Why aren't you going?'" said Brian Blau, an analyst at Gartner Inc. "A lot of these companies have to be there whether they want to or not."
Yet CES's history is littered with products that have flopped or been slow to take off. While high-def TV debuted at CES in 1998, it took seven years before 10 percent of the market used it. More than five years after 3-D HD televisions debuted at CES, few consumers are watching movies through the 3-D glasses required to make it appear that something is jumping out of their screens. Last year, one of the more memorable parts of CES wasn't a product but a viral moment when director Michael Bay cut short a presentation about Samsung Electronics Co.'s TVs after a teleprompter failure.

In Defense
"CES's relevance grows as technology is now woven into our daily lives and is helping to solve some of the world's biggest problems, from health and transportation to agriculture and beyond," said Karen Chupka, vice president of business strategy for the Consumer Electronics Association.
This year, companies including Sony Corp. and LG Electronics Inc. are renewing their drive to convert everyone to ultra-high definition television, or 4K. Many of them will show off the organic light-emitting diode technology that promises even thinner TV sets capable of producing a more vivid picture, according to Selburn.
Still, Selburn said he's seen little evidence that media companies and content distributors have firm plans to provide movies and TV programs on 4K-resolution discs. What's more, there's debate as to whether 4K screens offer consumers many benefits. Viewed up close in stores, a giant 4K screen will look better than current high-def sets. Yet at normal viewing ranges, some analysts have argued human eyes aren't capable of telling the difference.


Wireless Fight
Las Vegas will this year also feature a fight over wireless-charging technology that threatens the introduction of new devices. Worse than even the debut of home video, where VHS duked it out with Betamax in the 1970s, wireless charging already has three rival groups -- the Wireless Power Consortium, the Power Matters Alliance and the Alliance for Wireless Power - - trying to make their version the industry standard.
"The rate of growth is being hampered by the standards battle," said John Perzow, vice president of market development for WPC. Even without the conflict, 2015 probably won't be the year of wireless charging, according to Sujata Neidig, a marketing manager at Freescale Semiconductor Ltd. She said her company's chips are going into wireless-charging systems that won't make it into consumer hands until at least the second half of 2015 and probably in greater numbers in 2016.


LG Door-in-Door fridge
LG's "Door-in-Door" fridges feature a smaller sealed compartment that makes it easy to grab your favorite foods without letting cool air out of the main storage space. This door that's nestled within the larger refrigerator door is perfect for beverages, yogurt and other snacks that you're likely to reach for more frequently. Door-in-Door isn't new to LG, but they've just added a new model to the lineup -- the $5,999 "Mega-Capacity" LPXS34886C.

Xiaomi Mi5
Xiaomi has managed to become China's largest phone seller in just a year. High-profile ex-Google and now Xiaomi marketing lead Hugo Barra sees Xiaomi's phones more fit for the developing world and markets like Brazil will get its phones in 2015. The one Xiaomi phone that you should really care about in 2015 is the expected Xiaomi Mi 5. With a price for its flagships traditionally at half that of other, well-established companies, the Mi series still crams in the latest of specs in an impressive package.


Smarter WiFi coffee machine
Smarter, the makers of the iKettle, have announced a Wi-Fi Coffee Machine that will be available internationally. Smarter's new machine will features a built-in bean grinder and an Android and iOS app. That means that you should be able to control what happens with your brew remotely, including being woken just as your coffee finishes brewing, receiving alerts when it needs to be refilled and even getting a "welcome home" note asking if you'd like it to make you a fresh pot.


Moto X
The Moto X started a new chapter for Motorola under Google in 2013, and while it was not a technological wonder, it offered wonderous customization options. In 2014, two things happened - the Moto X (2014 edition) showed that Google is learning from its mistakes, as it fixed the specs on the Motorola flagship, bringing it on par with the competition, and then... Lenovo acquired Motorola. We're curious to see what the Moto X (2015 edition) brings as Lenovo has confirmed that it will continue using the Motorola brand in many markets.


Polar A300
Polar has announced a new dedicated fitness watch with all-day activity tracking. The A300 is a cousin to the M400 and shares some of the same features. In addition to being able to track your steps taken, calories burned, and distance traveled, the A300 automatically measures your restful and restless sleep at night. One feature it doesn't include, however, is GPS to track your pace and distance when running.


Sony Xperia Z4
Sony hasn't hung around over the last year, releasing the Xperia Z2 and Xperia Z3 mere months apart. So why wait to unleash the Z4? Rumours peg the Z4 with a larger QHD screen to equal that of the LG G3. It might also have a bigger brother in the form of the Xperia Z4 Ultra. Expect gargantuan proportions all round.


HTC wearable
HTC claims its first wearable will be wrist-worn, but insists it's not a smartwatch. Instead, it will be "very different" to anything currently on sale. Sounds intriguing. But what could it do differently? Reports have previously claimed the device will play music and be controlled using Google Now, and could even be aimed at emerging markets like India. HTC already baffled us all with its RE Camera, let's see if it can do the same for wearables.


Samsung Galaxy Note 5
The Note 4 has launched not too long ago, and we've already heard the first rumors about the Galaxy Note 5. Those claim that the next big thing in the world of phablets is expected to feature a slightly larger 5.9" display with a massively sharper, Ultra HD resolution. Do expect gradual improvements with a new, 64-bit system chip in the Note 4, further improved S Pen functionality, as well as a focus on improved multitasking.


Amazon Kindle Fire 2015 edition
Amazon's lineup of Kindle Fire tablets has performed strongly, competing with Samsung for the title of the most popular Android-based tablet brand, but as the future of tablets becomes less clear and more complicated it's hard to predict what the 2015 edition of the Kindle Fire will look like. With rumors all around for a jump to larger screen sizes that allow for more laptop-like productivity, we would not be at all surprised to see the new Kindle Fire tablets jump to a 12" screen size, or even slightly more. As always, we also expect great price, top-notch hardware, and Amazon's heavy custom skin on top of (hopefully) Android 5.0 Lollipop.


Steam machines
Valve had a huge presence at CES 2014, but has chosen to stay away this year. Instead, it's keeping its cards close to its chest until the Games Developers' Conference in March. However, Alienware, Maingear and the rest of the Steam Machine clan should be there. Hopefully at least one will offer a machine that doesn't cost the earth. Fingers crossed.


Acer G-Sync
Acer has announced two new G-Sync monitors, each with a unique feature intended to grab the attention of hardcore PC gamers. G-Sync is Nvidia's monitor technology that better syncs your monitor's refresh rate with the output of your video card. The resulting affect is a more stable image with less instances of screen tearing when playing games. You'll need a PC equipped with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 650Ti Boost GPU or higher, however, to take advantage of the tech.


LG quantum dot TV
LG has already announced the tech, so tellies that feature it are a dead cert. It harnesses nano-sized crystal dots that emit various colours depending on their size, which should improve colour saturation and give a wider colour palette. LG claims it improves the picture colour reproduction rate by more than 30 per cent, and makes the screen brighter, to boot.