As the economy sputters back to life, gadget makers are preparing a whole raft of hardware for you to buy in 2010.
Some of it will even be worth purchasing.
Among the highlights: set-top boxes and TVs that will let you kiss off the cable company, 3-D televisions, increasingly powerful device "platforms" enhanced by massive app stores, e-book readers, a new crop of netbooks, and tiny projectors crammed into everything from cameras to netbooks.
Many of these devices will be on display at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas, where more than 110,000 members of the electronics industry will gather to show off their wares and give the world a preview of what gadgets are coming out this year. It'll be the second straight year of declining attendance for CES, where attendance topped 130,000 last year, but it's still a major event in the gadget world. And Wired's Gadget Lab team will be there, bringing you the highlights from the show, complete with photos and video.
"CES has been hit by the one-two punch of the general economic travails and the demise of Circuit City, which has led to further retail consolidation," says Ross Rubin, an executive director at The NPD Group. However, Rubin says, it's still a big show -- and there will be lots there to appeal to gadget lovers.
It's unlikely that there will be a single standout star of the show, the way the Palm Pre was at last year's CES.
"It is such a vast show that it is rare that one product 'steals' it the way we might see at a small technology conference such as Demo."
And then there will be the tablets. Most industry observers, including Gadget Lab, expect Apple to release a tablet device, possibly called the iSlate or iGuide, sometime in 2010. Other major manufacturers, including HP, Dell, Intel, Nokia and HTC have been rumored to be working on tablet-style devices. Smaller companies including Fusion Garage, Notion Ink and ICD have announced plans for tablets in 2010. And many publishers, including Wired's parent company, Conde Nast, are already working on the software to display e-magazines and other content on tablet devices.
But don't expect much news on the tablet front this week. Whether their products aren't ready yet or they're just waiting for Apple to make the first move, most companies rumored to be working on tablets haven't let any details slip yet (and they aren't expected to say much more in Vegas, no matter how many martinis we ply them with).
Until then, we'll have to content ourselves with imaginary visions of what an Apple tablet might look like -- like the one above?
Read on to find out what we do know about the biggest gadget trends of 2010. -- Dylan Tweney
Illustration: Courtesy Gluepet
So Long, Cable Company
Historians may look at 2010 as the year that gadget technology finally destroyed the cable companies. And it's the rise of internet video that is making this happy day possible.
If you've seen an episode of Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long then you know that the web is actually a decent place to get high-quality, original content -- much of it free. As anyone with a high-speed connection and a faint knowledge of Google will confirm, in addition to the aforementioned Dr. Horrible, you can easily check out snippets of 30 Rock on Hulu, take in full episodes of The Office on NBC.com, or watch the latest episodes of The Daily Show on Comedy Central's site.
TV manufacturers have noticed this trend, and have rapidly made web-connected TVs de rigeur. We noticed this trend a few months ago, and the latest crop of web-ready TVs that will be announced at CES 2010 will push the trend even further. Expect streamlined user interfaces, thinner LCD displays and lower prices. And most importantly, more models to pick from. Big-name TV makers like Samsung, Panasonic, Sony and Vizio will offer web connectivity over a larger line of their products. We're calling it: If a TV can't access the internet directly in 2010, it might as well be sitting next to an exhibit of Neanderthals at the Natural History Museum.
When the free video grows a little tiring, for-fee services, led by Netflix, will save the day. The Xbox 360, the PS3 and a vast smattering of Blu-ray players all have the capability to stream media from Netflix's catalog directly to a TV. Click a button, watch a movie. It's that simple. And the majority of Blu-ray players, gaming consoles and media devices released in 2010 will have Netflix streaming capabilities.
The final stone atop cable TV's pyramid? Video-streaming appliances like the Boxee Box. On it, you'll be able to watch any piece of non-DRM-restricted media on the internet, share movies or TV shows with your pals, and stream videos cached on your computer's hard drive. And then there's the Sony PS3 (read on for our take on that).
For lack of a better word, we'll call these multifeatured, internet-connected, media-streaming set-top boxes "video boxes." Expect them to pop up everywhere in 2010.
Unless you like paying exorbitant prices and enjoy terrible service and smarmy service reps, there's very little reason to keep your cable provider this year. -- Daniel Dumas
Hello, Do-Everything Device
2009 was the year of apps, as proven by the iPhone's App Store, which has accrued more than 100,000 offerings to date. That raises an important question for consumers: Now that gadgets are powerful, affordable and compact enough to carry everywhere, why would anyone purchase a dedicated device with stagnant, limited functionality? (Amazon Kindle, we're looking at you.) An internet connection and a software platform enables manufacturers and third-party developers to keep adding to the capabilities of a device, without having to rush major hardware upgrades to market each year. That's a win for tech companies and consumers, as it has been for Apple and iPhone customers.
Expect more manufacturers to embrace the "platform" tactic, now that we've seen how successful it can be for smartphones. Intel, for example, has announced its own app store for netbooks. Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony each feature their own online game stores for their console platforms.
The case of Sony's PlayStation 3 is especially interesting. Now three years old, the PS3 was once viewed as an overpriced piece of hardware with a meager selection of games. But now that the console has decreased in size and price while gaining features (e.g. Netflix) and a slew of popular new titles, the PS3 could be more attractive than ever for consumers.
In 2010, Sony has a number of exclusive games launching for PS3, including Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, God of War 3, Heavy Rain and The Last Guardian, which analysts believe is the tech titan's last chance to reclaim a sizable chunk of the gaming space. But it's notable that the device doesn't depend on games alone: It's also an admirable Blu-ray player and its support for streaming video means it's slowly turning into a capable set-top box.
If Sony succeeds, it'll prove that the strategy of future-proofing works, so long as you start off with a flexible platform. Could this change the way companies approach hardware upgrades? Maybe: If you can give consumers new features through software updates, it means you can go years between hardware upgrades, as opposed to every six months.
Whatever the case may be, it's clear that tech corporations are interested not just in releasing hardware, but also in platforms to enrich (and control) their product experiences. -- Brian Chen
Photo credit: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
Here Come the Smartbooks and 'Notbooks'
Given the weak economy, netbooks are still hot sellers. So, it's no surprise that manufacturers are trying to milk the trend. In 2010, expect a wider variety of sizes in the low-budget-computer price range ($300 to $500).
Some will go big: Several companies will roll out 11- and 12-inch budget notebooks with the same guts as netbooks. These devices will be like the Samsung NC20 -- the best netbook Wired reviewed in 2009. The tech industry has been quick to coin a term for these kind-of-sort-of-netbook devices: "notbooks."
Some will go small: Several manufacturers are planning "smartbooks," which are even smaller than a netbook and have built-in wireless data connections. For instance, Lenovo will announce a smartbook powered by an ARM processor on Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform, and AT&T will provide its wireless connectivity, according to Qualcomm. This super-tiny, wireless-enabled device echoes the Nokia Booklet released in 2009.
And let's not forget Google, which is partnering with manufacturers to produce netbooks equipped with flash drives and running the open source, browser-based Google Chrome OS. Chrome OS devices will feature bigger screens, keyboards and trackpads, according to Google, so they could be considered notbooks as well.
Is the era of the netbook over? Perhaps the 10-inch devices we know of today will go away if consumers prefer any of the notbook offerings emerging in 2010. But clearly, the effects of the netbook era will be seen for years to come. -- Brian Chen
Photo credit: Priya Ganapati/Wired.com
E-Book Readers Get Competitive
People worldwide bought about 5 million e-book readers in 2009. But the party has just begun. The e-reader market is set to heat up as new entrants promise to make the Sony Reader, Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook look like the primitive, version 1.0 devices they are.
Among the most interesting new products of 2010 is likely to be the Plastic Logic Que e-reader. Que, with its 8.5 x 11-inch touchscreen display, is a large notepad-like device that promises more features than the Kindle DX and is targeted at business users. Plastic Logic says it will announce the pricing and availability of the device at CES this week.
For consumers not entirely sold on e-readers, hybrid e-readers such as the eDGe might help them overcome their reluctance. Entourage, a company based in McLean, Virginia, will show a $450 dual-screen device this week that combines a netbook and an e-reader (mockups of which appear above). The eDGe will fold like a book and will have a black-and-white E Ink display on one side that can be used for reading ebooks. The right half of the device will have an LCD touchscreen for browsing the internet, taking notes and running apps.
Other small manufacturers such as Notion Ink are also likely to have e-reader-tablet hybrids based on screens from Pixel Qi. Pixel Qi’s 3Qi displays will operate in three settings: a full-color, bright, conventional LCD mode; a very low-power, sunlight-readable, reflective e-paper mode; and a low-power, basic color transflective mode. The 3Qi displays are just entering production in early 2010, so expect them to show up in devices you can buy later this year.
But 2010's biggest introduction is likely to be color displays for e-readers. Qualcomm will show its Mirasol technology, a low-power reflective color display that refreshes rapidly enough to support video. E Ink, whose screens are now in almost all e-readers today, is likely to have a competitive product in 2010, as well. Color e-readers could make it to market in time for the next holiday season. -- Priya Ganapati
You Will Want a 3-D TV
James Cameron's mega-movie Avatar was a 3-D holiday sensation. But did viewers love it enough to want a similar experience at home? Major TV manufacturers think so, and will flood the floor of CES with 3-D televisions this year.
Leading the charge is likely to be Sony, which showed demos of a 3-D TV in 2009. Sony is likely to unveil a new 3-D TV product that will be available in late 2010. Other TV manufacturers such as JVC, LG, Mitsubishi and Panasonic will also show large-screen 3-D TVs.
What will set them all apart is the kind of technology they use to trick the brain into perceiving the 3-D effect. Sony and Panasonic are likely to show TVs that use active-shutter technology. In it, images meant for your left and right eyes alternate rapidly on the HDTV screen, while you wear a special pair of glasses with electronic shutters that open and close rapidly. Each shutter is synchronized to transmit the wanted image and block out the unwanted one.
Wearing glasses is cumbersome and unwieldy, so LG and Sharp are working on 3-D TVs that will require no glasses. The tradeoff: They will require an optimum viewing distance of about 13 feet for the 3-D effect to work properly. CES is likely to be the place where early versions of such a device could debut.
Meanwhile, various companies, including Nvidia, will show products that allow faster 3-D video playback on Blu-ray players.
What good is a 3-D TV without movies or games to watch? DirecTV hopes to have the answer to that. The company plans to offer an all-HD 3-D channel, the details of which it will announce at CES. DirecTV’s HDTV satellite receivers can show 3-D content after a firmware upgrade, the company says.
Still, it's an open question whether people really want to go to the expense and trouble of installing 3-D display systems in their living rooms. Given the high prices and the tradeoffs (glasses, fixed viewing distances), our bet is that any real growth in 3-D televisions is a few years away. For now, we're sticking with our 2-D televisions. -- Priya Ganapati
Photo credit: Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com
Pocket Projectors Get Huge
For years, companies have promised tiny "pico projectors," movie projectors small enough to fit inside a cellphone but powerful enough to throw a TV-sized image onto the wall. In 2010, they're finally coming into the mainstream.
Nikon made the first real mainstream pico product when it launched the Coolpix S1000pj this year -- it has a projector inside for impromptu slideshows. Samsung has even crammed one of these tiny devices into a cellphone, the W7900, and was showing it off at CES last year. But otherwise, the pico projector market has been limited to standalone devices like WowWee's iPhone-compatible Cinemin line. Such devices are small, to be sure, but they're still one more thing to carry.
At CES 2010, we expect to see pico projectors appearing in more and more devices. Cameras are the obvious destination, but camcorders are more accommodating. Additionally, movies suffer less than still photos from being shown in rooms that are less than perfectly dark and on surfaces that aren't perfectly smooth and white (your average dorm-room wall, for example).
And what about netbooks, or even just regular laptops? These are increasingly used to watch movies, and I know I’d rather have my computer beam Inglourious Basterds onto the ceiling as I lie beneath, rather than sitting up and balancing a hot notebook on my knees for two-and-a-half hours.
Also look out for more projectors using Laser-Beam-Steering, or LBS, technology. This uses three lasers (red, green and blue) instead of the single colored light source used in DLP (Digital Light Processing) and LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) projection. Laser projectors are also smaller, always in focus, give a brighter image and use less power. They are also, we probably don’t need to add, made of frickin' lasers. What else do you need? -- Charlie Sorrel
