Prepping for CES 2014

It's been nearly a long year since I posted to this blog. A year full of great personal and professional events: my girlfriend and I moved in together; I took control of my startup; Several conventions and hackathons occurred; Plenty of new gadgets acquired, and a new laptop arriving soon...

For the third year in a row, I plan to visit the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas on January. This time, I'll be joined by my girlfriend (aren't I lucky she likes gadgets :)), and a new ultrabook that I intend to use to post from the show floor.

Last year, the big stars of the show were 3D printers and robots - and I expect more of the same this year. But I really think wearables will take a more central place, with almost every company releasing a "smart" watch, a band, a shoe - whatever they can to collect more info on your movements.

I do not foresee any big changes in the phone or tablet market - just more of the same Android black squares, with better cameras. Same for TVs, with probably more 4K offerings (although 4K content is still far in the future). In the laptops arena, last year introduced the Asus Taichi as the design coup of the show, and I'm hoping to see something similar this year, but will hold my expectations in check.

Personally, I'm looking forward to meeting the funny people from Pressy - a project I supported on Kickstarter - and looking forward to actually hold in my hand.

I was hoping that the guys from Agent smart watch (another supported KS project) will make it, but they are struggling with release deadlines apparently, and I'd rather have the watch in my hands sooner :). I'm especially excited about the SDK, and pondering developing some watch apps, when it's out.

Another event I'm looking forward to, is the AT&T Developers Summit. This year I'm skipping the hackathon (I already published my first WP8 app last week - I'll post about that experience in my code blog at a later date), but will enjoy the professional sessions, and the party and concert.

Visit CES 2014 virtually

This year I'd like to offer my readers a free service: if you are not capable of visiting CES yourself, I can visit it for you virtually. If you are interested in a particular company, product, trend, release date, etc. - let me know. I'll attempt to visit the booths of the companies you mention, ask the questions you want, and take (blurry, phone-quality) pictures of the gadgets you like.

To have me virtually visit a company/product for you, follow these easy steps:

1. Locate the company's booth in the list of CES 2014 presenters - I'd need the hall and booth number, to better plan my path
2. Submit this online form with the company name, product, and location - you can fill it as many times as you like. Alternatively, post a comment with the info (although, for planning purposes, the form will work better for me)
3. I'll chart a path including (hopefully) all the requested booths, ask all the questions, and post the results to the blog. If you provide an email, I'll personally notify you of a post containing the answers to your questions

And that's it - your chance to virtually visit CES 2014. And now I'm off to plan my Christmas trip to Salt Lake City - more on that next time.