Oh hello! It’s time again for the Consumer Electronics Show, that yearly bacchanal of gadgets, gizmos, and sweaty assurances that this is the year 3D printing will catch on (honest). We’re here, as always, to share it with you.
If you’re wondering what to expect out of CES 2015, what new products will grace the show floor (or, in our world of funtime consumer quadcopters, float above it), the list can be summed up pretty quickly. Except slightly better, cheaper versions of technologies you weren’t quite sold on yet anyway, in hopes of finally selling you. That means connected homes, activity trackers, cars that can drive just fine without you. It means TVs packed with something called quantum dots, which are not quantum in any scientific sense but are inarguably dots and will make The Big Bang Theory sparkle that much brighter.
What to expect, though, is the wrong question. The showcases you can see coming at CES are definitionally uninspiring. The joys of the show—and yes, there are CES joys, lots of them, despite whatever grumping you hear from media attendees—lie in the unexpected, the products and moments and people that you could never have dreamed of. There are risk-takers here, and absurdities, and sad abandoned booths to gently mock, and every so often a genuinely inspiring bit of technology that will make people’s lives better in a tangible way.
We’ve already seen some greatness, or at least innovation, from less-expected corners. The Withings Activité Pop has an unfortunate accent in its name but incredible style and functionality for its price. I’m not a gamer, but this MSI laptop with a built-in mechanical keyboard is joyful overkill. And the show hasn’t even (technically) started yet.
This year you can follow all of our CES action at its own dedicated site, ces.gizmodo.com, as well as mixed in with the usual smatterings of the future on our homepage. We’re going to bring you everything you’d expect, sure. But we’re also going to present them to you in unexpected ways, and more importantly we’re going to unearth the treasures you’d never thought to expect in the first place.
There are still joys in CES. And We’re going to find them for you.
