New Gadgets for 2012

January always means two things: New Year’s resolutions that are broken before the end of the month, and the granddaddy of all trade shows, the International Consumer Electronics Show, more simply known as CES. This positively enormous show with over 32 football fields’ worth of stuff being exhibited is held in Las Vegas, with an attendance of over 150,000. All are there looking for products that will be on the 2012 must-have list or as one heck of a knockout Valentine’s gift.

While it is impossible to summarize all of the innovative and downright fascinating items from the 20,000 new products demonstrated at the show, a few did stand out and received quite a bit of attention from the attendees and the 5000-plus media folks who were there.

Your Next Television

The television manufacturers demonstrated some incredible new technology to induce you to buy a new television this year. This is actually very hard to do because most of us have recently purchased a HDTV—the hot item from CES two years ago— and really do not need another set. This year’s Best-of-Show winner goes under the funny-sounding name of Organic Light-Emitting Diode. Shortened to OLED, this technology has several technical benefits like power efficiency, wider viewing angles, and a light weight. But the real wow is that it displays much deeper, richer blacks, providing for more contrast in your picture. The picture image is truly outstanding as well. Both Samsung and LG demonstrated new 55-inch OLED TVs. The LG model was a “smart TV” with passive 3-D and the ability to stream media from the Internet already built in. While pricing was not provided, industry experts estimate that you would have to shell out over $5,000 to be the first on your block with an OLED TV.

Taking On The iPad?

Without a doubt, Apple’s iPad is the king of the tablet market. Toward the end of last year, we saw some new products, such as the ASUS Eee Transformer Prime and the Amazon Kindle, that rocked Apple’s cage a bit. This attack on Apple’s leadership was amped up at CES as ASUS announced the Memo 370T with an incredibly powerful processor and 1GB of RAM for just $250. This could be the first real challenger for the iPad, with its $500 price tag. Tablets will be very hot items in 2012, with more variations and lower price points. If you are planning to buy a tablet this year, there will be plenty of great products to choose from.

The Connected Car

Your car is going to compete with your living room as a hotbed of electronic-gadget innovation. While built-in navigation systems and subscription-based services such as those offered by OnStar have been available for some time now, the next few years will see notable advancements in what the automakers call telematics.

Live data feeds for your navigation and entertainment systems allow things like current traffic conditions, weather, and “what’s available at the next freeway exit” types of information to be displayed. The whole world of the Internet will be available to you while you are traveling. Mercedes-Benz had a new SL-Class roadster on the CES floor complete with Internet applications such as Yelp and Facebook. Think of it this way: The apps that you use all the time on your smartphone are finding their way onto the dashboard or in the backseat of your car. You can find new restaurants, book a hotel room, connect with friends, access your online music and videos, and…you get the idea. Your next car, no matter what model, will probably be more connected than you ever thought possible.

There was so much more at this year’s CES. Ultrabooks. Point-and-shoot cameras. Stylish accessories for your phone, your car, your TV, your PC—everything. Windows phones. Games. Headphones—I’ve never seen so many new headphones! Even the basic memory stick was there in every possible design and color. You can learn a bit more about the new gadgets you will see advertised in 2012 by going to the Web and searching for “CES highlights.”