The Consumer Electronics Show is huge.
I�m always
tempted to drop crumbs so I can find my way back to the
CNET stage each day.
But within the blinking, buzzing, RF-
saturated chaos there is always just a handful of things that
really matter.
They set the weathervane for the year ahead.
I�m Brian Cooley with the Top 5 technologies I�m looking for
coming out of CES 2012.
#5 is 4K Televisons.
4K means 4,000 lines of resolution
from left to right.
Current 1080p TV�s have about half that.
I�m ranking this one at the bottom since I don�t hear a lot of
people tell me their current HDTV looks fuzzy.
And 4K would
demand new distribution media to store it and new
infrastructure to broadcast it.
That�s OK, anything�s better
than another year of seeing all those companies build the
largest TV in the world.
#4 is Ultrabooks.
All the Windows laptops that are chasing
the MacBook Air.
I rank this sort of low not because I don�t
buy it, but because it�s already on.
This will be a refinement
of a category not the introduction of one, but still real big.
That said, I will personally give some kind of award to the
first Ultrabook maker who can build one that doesn�t make
cheap plastic creaking sounds when you handle it.
How
does only Apple get that?
#3 is Passive 3D.
This HAS to get done.
Most 3D TV�s today
still use expensive, delicate, proprietary active electronic
glasses and that�s one of the big stumbling blocks to a
technology that has plenty of them.
While we�re waiting for
really great glasses-free 3D, inexpensive, universal passive
glasses would be a huge boon for a technology that needs
one.
#2 is, again, Tablets.
Now, this is actually more interesting
that the simple replay it sounds like because EVERYONE
who came out swing for the iPad last CES fell flat on their
face, selling not many more tablets combined all year as
Apple sells in a month.
Just a washout.
So this year, you�ll
see a bunch of angry, embarrassed companies taking -- I
hope -- a new tack that will make tablets more affordable
and more focused on their real mission: consuming media
and playing games.
#1 Windows 8.
Every year CES has one overarching theme
and this year I have to think Windows 8.
Not that its
necessarily so great, but that it will have so much riding on it.
If Win 8 doesn�t connect the dots between phone, tab,
computer, social and cloud services right quick, we can
damn near whistle Microsoft dead in the game against
Apple, Google, and Facebook.
No pressure.
For more top 5�s like this one heard on over to
Top5.cnet.com.
I am Brian Cooley.
