CES Roundup: Exciting things to come
Theo Boshoff

The largest annual gadgets and tech show, the always-anticipated Consumer Electronics Show (CES), was held in Las Vegas between 7 and 10 January, drawing thousands of tech enthusiasts and showcasing the latest in gadgetry. CES basically showcases what’s to come on the tech front, and there are some great things in store for us.

Here are our top five highlights of CES 2010:

Everything 3D
The biggest news from the show was the huge focus on everything 3D, with 3D TVs, cameras and PC screens being unveiled left, right and centre.    
Panasonic, for instance, unveiled the world’s largest (152-inch) 4K x 2K definition, full-HD 3D plasma display, the Panasonic 3D HDTV TC-PVT25. It features a new plasma display panel (PDP), sporting the company’s efficient quadruple luminous efficiency technology. It also won the “Best of show” award.
Panasonic also unveiled what it claims is the first integrated 3D video camera with two lenses and two sensors in a single body.
Sony released its Bravia LX900 series TVs offering integrated 3D functionality with the company’s 3D active shutter glasses and built-in 3D transmitter, most impressive of which was the top-of-the-range Sony Bravia XBR-LX900 series.
LG, in turn, showed off its CF3D, a full-HD, 3D Single Lens Type Projector, featuring a brightness rating of 2 500 ANSI-lumens and a high contrast ratio of 7 000:1.

Tablets and e-Readers
Tablet PCs seem to also have been a hot topic at the show, with Dell showcasing a prototype, HP unveiling the Slate, and Lenovo unveiling the IdeaPad U1 Tablet, which we think is pretty hot. But we’ll have to wait and see what the outcome of the debate on netbooks and smartbooks vs. tablets will deliver to see whether Tablet PCs will win out in the end. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for what’s to come and wait in anticipation to hear whether Apple will debut a Tablet as well. 
A host of e-Readers are also seeing the light of day, with well-known brands like Fujitsu, iRiver and MSI unveiling their products and Amazon Kindle announcing the new Kindle DX wireless and its availability in over 100 countries worldwide.

Skype extra
For all those Skype-loving folk out there, there’s good news! Skype-enabled TVs are coming and we think it’s super-cool. Skype announced at CES that it is partnering with LG and Panasonic to offer Skype-enabled HDTVs, with the Skype software embedded into the Panasonic line of 2010 Viera Casst-enabled HDTVs and in 26 new LG LCD and plasma HDTVs.

Parrot AR.Drone
Of course, no Consumer Electronics Show would be complete without something to do with the iPhone and the cool badge goes to Parrot for this one. The company showed off the Parrot AR.Drone. It’s a remote-controlled helicopter, well, quadricopter, to be precise, completely controlled with an iPhone or iPod Touch. We see some serious fun being had with this gadget.

WiDi
For the more serious tech geeks out there, we believe WiDi, which won a CES people’s choice award, is just the thing to get excited about. WiDi is Intel's Wireless Display. This technology makes it possible to stream multimedia from laptops to TVs with not a cable in sight.