CES 2009 Predictions and/or Wish List

With CES about a month away, it’s time to guess what will be the newest gadgets and innovations unveiled at CES this year. I’ll keep adding to this list as ideas come to me, then once the show gets under way I’ll make note of where I was right or where I was wrong. Feel free to add your own suggestions here or on our forums.

•Network connections on most (or at least more) TVs. What Sony started (and didn’t do very well) with the Internet Bravia in 2007 has taken off with Panasonic, Samsung and Sharp. I expect network connections to proliferate on HDTVs as will content partnerships such as youtube, USA Today, Hulu, Rhapsody etc. On top of that, I expect Sony to build network connectively into their TVs, rather than stick with the awkward and expensive add-on it currently offers.

•Netflix “Watch Instantly” feature on more Blu-ray players, built into TVs and hopefully even home theater receivers. Even better, it might show up in TV set-top-boxes for cable companies (where it could compete with VOD services), but more likely would be to see Netflix (or Blockbuster’s similar service) built into satellite TV boxes.

•Netflix Watch Instantly on cell phones—wouldn’t that be cool.

•Mobile Broadcast TV on many handsets. Now that the ATSC has settled on a format, there’s nothing stopping the handset makers from rolling out devices with broadcast mobile TV capability. Next we’ll need mobile TiVo to manager our mobile TV.

•Ultra thin TVs everywhere. The trend started last year with a few razor thin screens from Hitachi and others (including Sony’s attention-getting 11-inch OLED screen). This year expect to see more, lots more, but they’ll still be freakin expensive.

•50-inch OLED. Look for this either from Samsung or Sony.

•Pansonic’s latest monster plasma TV will take up one whole wall of the LVCC Center Hall.

•Blu-ray recorders. Well, they’ve been shown in Japan, so this wouldn’t be a big surprise.

•GPS navigation watch—a dumb idea, but someone will make one.

•HD Radio built into PMPs. Why not?

•Green, Green, Green. Low power, recycled, recyclable and solar-powered.

•Ham detecting digital cameras. We already have face detecting, smile detecting, shake detecting … so why not ham detecting. When a subject starts hamming it up for the camera, the unit automatically turns itself off and won’t restart until the subject leaves the room.