I had the opportunity to sit down this afternoon with my friends over at WBIR to discuss the Consumer Electronics Show happening right now in Las Vegas.  This is, without a doubt, one of the most exciting shows for us gadget geeks, and this year has been no disappointment.

    I mention in the video that I LOVED the new Lenovo ThinkPad Helix, which is the coolest thing I’ve seen from CES 2013 so far.  This is exactly where I’m thinking laptops are headed and frankly what I think Windows 8 needs to be truly successful.  Windows 8 just makes more sense when you’ve got it running on a touch screen device.  I love the idea of being able to use it like a laptop when I’ve got work to do, and being able to pop off the screen when I need to be mobile or when I just need an “entertainment” device (think iPad).

   Also on the floor this week are some hefty new phones.  For some reason (which I don’t personally get) phones just keep growing and growing… which in my opinion marginalizes the 7 inch form factor tablets.  If you’ve got a 5.5 inch phone in your pocket, is a 7 inch tablet really that appealing?  I mean, if you can’t see it good enough on an HD screen that’s 5 and half inches big, I can’t see that extra 1.5 inches saving the day; you’re going to want a 10 inch tablet… or how about the 20 inch “table” PC (aren’t all PCs table PCs?) that Panasonic was showing off?  Pretty neat… not sure I’d buy one. 

   4K, or UltraHD, TVs seem to be buzzing this year quite a bit as well.  I’m thinking it’ll be at least 2014 before these things really get down in the prices where the average consumer can afford them (remember when 3D TVs were outrageously expensive?  Brace yourself.), but who knows, maybe someone will surprise us next Black Friday with some awesome deals on the latest in High Definition entertainment.

–Dan Thompson