It is time for my annual "Wouldn't Mind Holiday Wish List". I thought I would start out with some ideas to help get everyone into the holiday spirit! And this year is probably the richest trove of awesome gear I have ever amassed in one season. If you haven't noticed, this has been a great year for new and innovative product offerings from a wide range of sources. Mobile technology, photography, commuting, entertainment, toys and novelties are all covered here. So let's get started.

The Big Ones

I'll just start out with the "biggest" for the season right off the bat and the bad news is some of these are already going to prove hard to not impossible to find. But I am putting everything here and letting the cards land as they may.

The very thin and light iPad Air

An iPad Christmas? That is what Tim Cook (Apple's CEO) is calling this holiday season. And why wouldn't he be confident!? Apple just dropped the bomb of an all-new iPad Air. This 9.7" iPad still features the amazing 3.1 million pixel Retina display and is packaged in a new smaller and lighter form-factor. As a matter of fact, the new iPad Air weighs just 1-pound which is 28% lighter than the previous iPad! And that weight-loss combined with a device that is 20% thinner creates an incredibly new user experience. It is so much easier to hold one handed now for extended periods of time. Great for reading a book or surfing the web.

And if that wasn't enough, the iPad Air has some new magic inside with the inclusion of Apple's new A7 processor. What is most important about this processor is its support of the 64-bit architecture in the newly released iOS 7 operating system. You can immediately sense the boost in performance from the previous generation. And last but not least, the thing I have been griping about for quite some time, Apple also deemed to provide us with a 128 gigabyte(gb) storage option. Previously they had limited their devices to 64gb of storage which as time has gone on it has made it hard to have enough space...I know I spend a fair bit of time managing my iPad's storage just to accommodate my travel videos and the like. Now I have a refreshing 60+gb to fill up! :-)

And not to be outdone and to further help ensure Apple is having an iPad Christmas, they also released a new version of the iPad Mini with Retina display. The previous introduction of the Mini was limited to the original iPad 1's resolution but this new device is much cleaner and crisper with the same resolution of its larger iPad Air incarnation. It also benefits from the new, fast, 64-bit A7 processor and the option to get 128 gigabytes of storage. It should be noted that while the iPad Air will probably be in fairly good supplies, the Retina iPad Mini may be limited in availability. If you want one of these...you better get your order or get in line quickly.

Speaking of hard to get, I would also be remise if I didn't mention the Playstation 4 and Xbox One. Truth be told these will be hard to secure at this point but they are great systems and should be a wonderful gift for those avid game players on your list. I am not going to go into great lengths here, you know if you have a video game player in your life and if you need to get one of these things most likely. But I did want to mention start looking now or consider it an uphill battle to find it in time for the holidays!

How about something to get us into the holiday spirit?

How about the 2013 Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar to kick it off and count it down! This is an annual tradition at our home and is fun for every "sci-fi geeky family" holiday. This year you will find a slew of very cool mini Star Wars Lego character figures and vehicles. Another nice surprise is that last year many complained about the limited number of Lego pieces and a big price increase. Well this year I am pleased to report that the number of pieces have increased and the price has come back to the traditional $39 vs $49 last year. Definitely a must for the Lego or Star Wars fans at your place.

Perhaps some nice holiday songs will get you into the mood?

I don't know about you but it is nice to pick up some new Christmas music every year or two and Michael Bublé knows how to make the season bright with his album creatively titled Christmas. In this album Bublé delivers his classic "rat pack" voice but modernizing those familiar songs with the help of Puppini Sisters (Jingle bells, Frosty the snowman), Shania Twain (White Christmas) and Thalia (Mis Deseos / Feliz Navidad). This is a must have for the holidays to get you in the spirit.

This year we also have a new entrant with the introduction of Kelly Clarkson's Wrapped in Red. A holiday album full of familiar as well as some new pieces from the songwriter herself like "Underneath the Tree". Definitely worth checking out.

And let us say you want to take those holiday tunes with you no matter where you go and you read my blog, you know I am always on the lookout for the best solutions to untether me and my music. I don't like the constraints of wires...especially when you look at how mobile your media is nowadays with everything on your smart-device.


Well Jabra is always looking to help and this year's REVO wireless headphones are a great start! These new wireless headphones unshackle you from your audio device via a high-quality Bluetooth connection and provide enhance sound thanks to its use of Dolby Digital Plus. Jabra worked with Dolby to offer this powerful sound with the help of an exclusive Sound App on your mobile device that helps deliver a rich, full-spectrum of sound. The app allows you to preset playlists, share music and adjust the graphic equalizer to your listening preferences.

The headphones themselves feature a turntable type setup on the side to interface with the device. Pause, play, volume, take a call, skip songs all in easy reach. You can also leverage the included Near-Field Communications (NFC) to help pair the device with other NFC smart-devices. You should expect up to 12 hours of listening time from my experience and 10 days of standby.

I was able to walk away from my iPad and roam into the next room and still make connection. And you can also use the provided cable if and when the rechargeable battery dies. The Jabra REVO's are definitely one of the finest all-around wireless headsets I have experienced to date and well priced at just around $200.

Another stylish and premium set of Bluetooth headphones is the Parrot Zik. I mean if you are going to wear something on your head in public, why not wear something designed by famed French designer Phillipe Starck? :-)

These headphones features four active microphones to provide up to 98% noise reduction. The right ear cup is touch sensitive and controls the volume, song selection and the like. This clever device knows when you put them off and automatically pauses the song. Zik also provides the Audio Suite App to adjust your audio settings.

Those last two headphones are not small but they are very high-quality products that deliver amazing sound. Yet I quite often talk about trying to travel as light as possible and sometimes I need to find a more "portable" solution. With regards to my music listening preferences, my latest favorite earbuds are the Bose QuietComfort 20i Noise Canceling headphones.

What sets these guys apart from other earbuds is their impressive noise canceling solution. The system can actively cancel out surrounding noise or be dialed down to partially cancel some out in an "Aware mode".  You are also provided with an assortment of StayHear tips (S, M, L) to further help isolate the sound as well as improve comfort. These amazing earbuds do come with an amazing $299 price tag...but you won't be sorry you got these for yourself or a wonderful gift. I do wish they were magically untethered from a cable but they are still small and pretty amazing.

The Bose QC20i are available with a standard inline microphone or in a more advanced iPhone/iPad microphone control pod.

Making that holiday gift list?

How about a pen that takes all your handwriting and stores it on your smartphone, tablet or even into the cloud via Evernote or Dropbox? Well that is what the latest Livescribe 3 Smartpen can do for you!

For those of you unexperienced with Livescribe pens, it is a normal looking pen for writing but when you use special paper you can purchase or print out of your printer...the pen records your writing and can store it to your mobile device or online service. Other clever applications include the ability to record audio while you write and have to two synced up on the computer. This is great for finding out what was being discussed while you jotted something down in the notes.

Unlike previous Livescribe pens that syncs via a cable or wifi to your computer...the new pen goes straight to your mobile device and from there your writing can go pretty much anywhere. The smartpen syncs to your smartdevice via Bluetooth Smart for live, real-time syncing of whatever you write or draw.

As much as you would think it would be great to just use a pen to write directly onto a tablet for note-taking but so far that experience hasn't been as flawless and easy to use as the old pen and paper. Whereas this combo gives you the best of both worlds. I really recommend the Livescribe 3 Smartpen which is priced at around $150 for the standard edition or $200 for the pro edition that includes a Leather Smartpen Portfolio as well as a one-year Evernote Premium Subscription. I use a Livescribe pen every day.

While I love using the Livescribe for note-taking and some light doodling. The artist in me does love to sketch and paint on my iPad when the inspiration strikes. My latest favorite product to help in this pursuit is the Wacom Intuos Creative Stylus of iPad. This very advanced stylus will work with iPad 3, 4 and Air as well as the iPad Mini. Wacom is the leader in graphic tablets for artists and this new stylus introduces 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity for amazing detailed accuracy and a robust palm-rejection solution to prevent the side of your hand from smudging the image as you rest your hand on the iPad as you draw.

This new stylus is well integrated in many popular creative apps including Sketchbook, PSTouch, ProCreate, ArtRage and Bamboo Paper. One thing to keep in mind is that if you get this stylus, you don't pair it via the normal Bluetooth process but instead within the apps themselves.

This is a professional level graphics solution priced at less than $100. Definitely a nice gift for the artist you know!

Before I forget, I have been talking about a lot of gear to use with your smartdevice. And for me and many people, that tends to be iPhones, iPads and the usual Apple gear. But I do want to talk about another awesome smartdevice, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. The Note 3 is a different type of smartphone. It is a large phone with a 5.7 inch screen. The iPhone screen is only 4 inches and truth be told...it is a starting to feel a bit small to me. Almost cramp. Maybe my older eyes are feeling the strain but whatever the reason...bigger is probably better.

Now the Galaxy Note 3 is running Android and I am still firmly in the camp that the Android app universe is a distant 2nd to Apple. And the Android user experience is much more confusing overall. But the Note is a quality constructed piece of gear and for the most part is totally livable. So instead of talking about its limitations...lets start out with why it is great.

That 5.7 inch screen gives you a lot of real estate to view important information. The display is very bright and high resolution. The phone feels fast. Much faster than previous Android phones I have used. This is probably because the Note 3 is one of the few Android phones to give you a full 3-gigabytes of system memory. That extra memory must give the operating system plenty of room to breath.

But the coolest thing about the Note 3 is a hidden "S Pen" that when pulled out allows you to write and draw on the screen. It is a very nice experience that is great for taking notes on the go. And yes, this phone is chuck full of all the latest must-have features. A 13-megapixel camera, Voice Control, 4G LTE network speed, etc. All and all, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is very nice smartphone as long as you are okay with the size. Check it out!

Worried about putting on some pounds over the holidays?

A popular gift in my circle of friends over the past couple years has been the amazing fitness trackers made by Fitbit. And this year is no except with the introduction of the Fitbit Force Wireless Activity + Sleep wristband. Like previous versions, the Fitbit will track your steps, distance, calories burned, stairs climbed, active minutes and a sleep monitor. These stats are wirelessly synced to your mobile device and available for your review on the Fitbit app or online.

What is unique about this years offering is the inclusion of an actual timepiece to help "tell the time" but also to provide new services like a silent vibrating alarm to wake you up in the morning. The gift of health is a very thoughtful gift and I really like what Fitbit has refined over the years. Quality construction and inspirational guidance to help anyone and everyone get more active. Available at Fitbit.com for $130.

Does someone not reach out and call enough?

Perhaps the gift of free home phone service will help? I don't know if you have been following the phenomenon of "voice over IP" technology but the Ooma Telo is a device that you hook up to your internet broadband connection and to your regular home phones to create a new type of solution that can call anyone within the U.S. for free! You only have to pay the applicable taxes or fees with telecommunications. Businesses have been leveraging the cost-saving of voice over IP for years but Ooma has successfully brought about a product to bring it to everyone.

The voice quality is pretty amazing. Be sure to check out the Ooma Telo Free Home Phone Service for less than $120 on Amazon. Also note the over 3,500 reviews on Amazon with an overall score of 4 1/2 stars. Very impressive!

Speaking of cool technology that leverages your home internet connection. You should check out the Dropcam Pro Wi-Fi video monitoring camera. The Dropcam provides wireless monitoring of a home or office. The video footage is streamed to the cloud and is accessible via your smartphone, tablet or computer.

Some nice features include the mobile app, intelligent alerts if motion or sound is heard, night vision and two-way talking from your mobile device to the camera on-site. Dropcam also offers optional services including a cloud-based recording solution that can capture a month of video footage. Check out the $199 Dropcam and give someone the piece of mind of being able to check on their home, children or pet while away.

Another way to keep an eye on the house as you are busy getting ready for the holidays is the new Nest Learning Thermostat. Here is a replacement to your old and tired thermostat with a high-tech, wirelessly connected device. The Nest will auto-schedule itself to remember when you come home and leave the home to help save costs. It is a wi-fi device that sits on your home network and allows you to adjust the settings with your smartphone, tablet or computer.

Nest is very easy to install, typically just takes 30 minutes to get going and will pay back its $249 cost in no time with the potential energy savings of such a smart device.

How about some help setting the mood?

Okay these next two items might be "unusual" gifts but I always believe that a great gift is something that the person will enjoy but probably will not go out and immediately get for themselves. And the Philips Hue Personal Wireless Lighting really falls into that gap. This is not your normal set of lightbulbs...Hue does just that...it changes the color in your life.

These lightbulbs are connected via Wi-Fi and work with a mobile app to adjust the color of your room. Before you count these out, think about it. You can set the lights to a more relaxed setting when appropriate or to a more bright setting when you need to get to work.

Now lets talk about even the more practical applications including the ability to set the lights conveniently on a timer including the ability to have the lights gradually brighten over time to wake you up in the morning. Or to be able to turn the lights on and off when you are away from the home.

The Philips Hue wireless lights are starting to sound neat...huh? You can order a started pack with the wireless bridge controller and three bulbs for $200. Individual bulbs run $60 each. The bridge can control up to 50 bulbs throughout your home.

Okay, let's say you like the idea of setting the mood but the entire room lighting system might be too much. How about a beautiful set of Philips rechargeable candles. These soft flickering LED candles provide 20 hours of light and include their own charging cradle. A set of three runs $39 and can really change the look and feel of a room. A very nice gift.

Is that all the holiday gift ideas?

Nah, did you see any cameras, much talk about video games, audio/video or mobile storage solutions mentioned? Would this be a Wouldn't Mind blog post without them? The previous list was just the ideas around getting you, your life, your friends and your home "in the holiday spirit". We'll cover the rest in the next post.

Hope this helped get you started! Let me know if there are any categories of gift ideas or anything specific I should cover in the follow-up.

Larry Pacey, award-winning designer tracks the latest news on consumer products, electronics, appliances, smart devices, networking and the gadget lifestyle.

For the latest news follow me on: ------------------------------ OR ------------------------------- Follow me on Twitter @WouldntMindThis Please comment below and share your thoughts. If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to email me at wouldntmind@gmail.com. Just my 2-cents, Larry

We have a lot to talk about. Tons of new and innovative products are making their way into consumer's hands over the first six months of 2013 and the second half looks just as enticing! Computers, cameras, cellphones have all popped with new capabilities and we can also expect more of that as well as the big video-gaming innovations due around the holidays from Microsoft and Sony.

Let's start with...

COMPUTERS
Okay, speaking of Microsoft...which did not set the world on fire with Windows 8. The new user interfaces complicated many peoples lives without providing enough of a value proposition to justify the pain. Windows 8 RT is Microsoft's tablet operating system which was paired with a Microsoft Surface tablet. With limited memory and a weak app library...this product went nowhere.


There is also the Surface Pro which is a tablet-like format (though a bit thicker and heavier than you would expect if you have seen or used an Apple iPad or Google-based tablet) but it runs the full version of Windows 8. While this version was also plagued with limited memory problems and weight issues...it does show promise. And Microsoft has not given up! They have a new version of Windows 8 coming down the pipe codenamed Blue (real imaginatively named Windows 8.1) which I will not make jokes about what a poor choice of naming this is considering the famous Window's "blue screens of death" when a PC computer crashes. There is a marketing theory about embracing your negatives and turning them into positives BUT I just can't give Microsoft that much credit. Windows Blue is suppose to address issues around allowing consumers to directly access the old windowing systems, having multiple windows open at the same time (two browser windows at the same time!) and more personalization and even boot up right to the desktop!

Because of all these misgivings and weak consumer sentiments around Windows 8, PC manufacturers have been suffering a fair bit. Not only are laptop sales are down 14%, they are being overtaken by tablets which will outsell them in 2013. While it is true that tablets are an underserved market and justifying the huge ramp-up in sales, I do not believe the laptop form-factor is dead. Far from it! Similarly to Windows Vista...Windows 8 is an immature operating system and consumers saw no value in flipping over or upgrading to the new OS. As a matter of fact, less that 5% of active PCs in the market have converted to this new OS. Many are staying with Windows 7 (44%) or Windows XP (38%) until there is a good enough reason to move.

As a result, while the PC manufactures attempt to produce novel and interesting new form-factors including Lenovo Yoga, Dell XPS-12 and the like. Until Windows matures to a point with more polish and value-added features...this category will suffer. Many believe this suffering is due to tablet innovations and a bit of that is true, BUT this form factor also needs the right innovations in user-interface and usability features to make it more personable again. Then we will see this category stabilize. So for right now, while PC makers continue to innovate at the hardware level, I would wait for a better OS before jumping back into the Windows market with a new PC purchase.

But if you are in need of a new laptop, I do like what Lenovo has been doing lately in the Ultrabook category including the sleek Yoga.

But while all this has been going on, Apple is holding their own with a very solid computer product offering with their Macintosh line. Apple has seen their last two quarters experience either a slight 1% drop or this past quarter they were flat year over year. But this year's product offerings already look to provide some additional reasons to purchase new Mac hardware.

The new iMac launched at the top of the year, was a nice, sleek update to their tradition all-in-one Macintosh desktop. We have also seen the introduction of new Macbook Air products that offer tablet-like battery lives (up to 12 hours), a new more powerful CPU and substantially enhanced graphics processing power as well as support for the new very fast 802.11ac wireless protocol. I did notice that Apple did not upgrade their Macbook Pro line with the new Haswell CPU...something they will surely do in the coming months. So if you are interested in the Air products, now is the time to buy but if you need more robust capabilities like support for a Retina (very high resolution display) or most likely the new Thunderbolt 2 (high speed peripheral interface)...I'd wait until the end of Summer or early Fall when we will also see the introduction of the latest Macintosh operating system called OS X Mavericks which introduces a slew of new features.

Apple also announced the Airport Extreme wireless router to support the new 3x faster wireless connectivity of the latest Macbook Airs. Expect all new Apple wireless devices to support this new standard.

But that is not all! We also got a peek last week at Apple's replacement for their aging large, professional desktop system used by photographers, videographers, advertising and animation firms...the Mac Pro. This new version is a little "over designed" but is build on some very powerful components that should be a very worthwhile boost for the aging older version. Below is the hero video introducing the new look.


Okay...it looks like a sleek black R2D2 or a Molla Space: Ideaco Tubelor trashcan!

The following is my annual Product Trends review from the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas each year. This show is a melting pot of all the latest and greatest product offerings in the Consumer Electronic space. Tons of televisions, computer, mobile, home appliance and automation gear.

My goal is to scrub this to help figure out what are the new or maturing trends and what products to watch out for over the coming year. So let's look at how this year breaks down...

Ultra HD
The biggest push at CES this year is clearly the television manufacturers efforts to obsolete your current flat-panel television. Did you know it needed to be obsoleted? Probably not. You would probably say your current set looks great! Well, the manufacturers over the past few years have tried to hype up 3D as a reason to replace your current TV but those efforts have failed to generate much excitement. As I've mentioned here before...3D has been too much of a gimmick to me. You have this nice, bright flat-panel plasma or LCD and you put on these sunglasses that dim the overall image to get a 3D effect. And don't get me started on the tricks movie studios have been pulling to post-convert movies into 3D so they can charge more for them even though they were original filmed in traditional 2D!

But this year is a bit of a different story, this year it is all about 4K displays. Televisions four times the pixels of your 1080p Full HD flat-panel. These displays feature a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels and have been universally branded "Ultra HD". Unlike 3D, a 4K television is discernibly different...better than your current TV.


Now there is a catch...actually three BIG catches that make this more of an introduction and not really a meaningful launch for a couple years to come.

1) Like any new technology this stuff is much more expensive than the current offerings.

2) The distribution mechanisms (disks, download, etc.) to deliver these very large, high-resolution files is not really there. You won't be "on-demand" at this resolution for quite a while.

3) There will be very limited amount of content produced at that much higher resolution. Sony was showing movies originally filmed in 4K but then downgraded to 1080p to feel "almost 4K" resolution to fit on a Blu-Ray disk or a bundled package with a 65-inch display, tablet and dedicated server to hold these big movie files for $20,000+. Just expect the library of available content to be slim for quite some time following the launch of these Ultra HD televisions over the next year or so.

But I like where this is going. Not only is this image crisper and clearer, it also scales to support larger display sizes (65+ inches) while still keeping the content looking great. Also at these higher resolutions that 3D offering gets closer to being worthwhile. One big issue with 3D is that the current 1080p displays support 3D actual end up reducing the clarity of the image to support two frames at the same time to create the 3D effect. But at this higher resolution that reduction in clarity doesn't feel so noticeable. That might be different once we are use to a 4K pictures but for now is looked really nice.

One last thing before I get into the specifics of what everyone was offering at the show. There is some new display technology on the horizon called OLED. I talked a bit about it last year but this year everyone was talking about it. Currently LCD is the popular high-definition display technology out there and it is getting better each year (brighter, less glare, deeper blacks, off-angle viewing, etc.). This new OLED technology is lighter, more flexible and easier to produce in large sizes. But the big advantage is that they don't require a special layer of glass  like LCD's do which absorb some of the light...meaning OLED can be very bright, more vibrant and consume less power. It is still a new technology as you will see below but it is a pretty exciting development of the past couple years.

More on this in a bit...let's talk about what the big TV manufacturers specifically showcased -

Panasonic had a slew of new LCD and Plasma offerings but their showcase piece was their 56-inch Ultra HD OLED TV which in my opinion had the best image quality of these 4K displays at the show. The television weighed around 27 pounds and was less than half an inch thick. This was a prototype and the Panasonic CEO was clear to point out that the cost of this tech is prohibitive but they are focused on how to bring the prices down. I really loved the combination of the OLED technology at this Ultra HD resolution. Very nice!

As I mentioned earlier, I've not been a fan of the 3D offerings to date but I was impressed by LG's 84-inch Ultra HD LCD that was the largest 4K display to support 3D. With 8 million pixels to support the 3D (two frames at the same time issue) and its shear size...you really get an immersive 3D effect. And you can take one home later this year for only $20,000! At what point are they going to offering automobile-type financing for these things? ;-) With regards to their OLED offering and to give you a sense of pricing for their larger OLED televisions, the first generation shipping this year is a 55-inch (4mm thick) TV offering1080p resolution at a price around $12,000!

LG also demonstrated a 55-inch'ish slightly curved OLED to provide in theory better, more intimate viewing angles. This was just a prototype, I can just imagine this thing on my wall and me hitting the edge that sticks out of the wall every time I walk by but it was kinda cool to see.

Samsung was also loaded with similar Ultra HD goodness. They showcased the most extreme 110-inch LCD also supporting the 3,840 x 2,160 resolution. But this product is a beast. Huge stand and quite thick profile to support the glass and lighting to present this resolution at that scale. Samsung also had a 55-inch OLED that they showed last year and looks to ship this year probably similarly priced to the LG.

Sony demonstrated their Ultra HD solutions including 55" and 65" LCD versions as well as a 56" prototype OLED which made it the largest OLED Ultra HD at the show...by one inch! While the image quality was stunning I was not impressed by the integrated side mounted, non-removable speakers. Yes they were pretty but don't tell me you are going to buy a $5,000, $10,000 or $20,000+ TV and use the integrated speakers!? And like other manufacturers, Sony had an OLED Ultra HD product...it was a prototype with no pricing...matter of fact it actually didn't even work at the press conference (PC driving it died) but the units in the booth seem to work fine.

Obviously this Ultra HD tech is early in its life cycle and will come down in price over the next couple years. Definitely a technology to watch but not to prevent you from buying a contemporary LCD from Samsung or plasma from Panasonic in the near-term. I probably am due for a new TV write-up soon.

While talking about TV's...the thing everyone is waiting and watching for is the long-rumored Apple iTelevision. Apple does not participate at CES and nothing has been announced but it does make sense that a "giant iPad/app-enabled" TV leveraging the 100's of thousands of iOS apps has to be in the works inside the land of Apple R&D.

These app-enabled TVs (SMART TV's) will become more and more of a thing over the next few years. Research today shows that people are limiting their app use to mostly streaming services like Netflix but as the TV manufacturers wizen up a bit and put the same level of computational power in their tablets into the TVs and evolve the user interfaces beyond basic TV remotes...people will get more and more comfortable with the improved services available. This trend is coming...we were definitely hearing more and more mention of multi-core processor power televisions...Samsung was even offering an upgrade for some of last year's TVs to an even more powerful processing unit you can add to the back of the older sets!

Mobile, Sharing and Personalized
Now that your data (books, photos, music, videos) is digital the next thing is being able to do stuff with your data. Many manufacturers were talking about wireless transfer solutions to move digital information quickly between devices. LG, Samsung, Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony, etc. All offered solutions. Some are talking about standardizing that hopefully will come to fruition over the coming year or two. Sony's new flagship smartphone, the Xperia Z was great at demonstrating all the different Sony accessories you just tap to seamlessly interface with.

Mobile things are getting bigger. I really see this as a viable trend. With everyone in the family having personalize, unique content to consume...people will not necessarily all want to sit in front of one communal display when you can stream your own stuff to your own display. At the same time small phones, even tablets can potentially be too small to watch a movie on all the time. So here comes a trend of "bigger". Samsung and their Galaxy Note II (ie: huge smartphone), several manufacturers started showing/talking about larger tablets ranging upwards of 20 to 27-inches! Bigger portable displays to consume content while still small enough to move from room to room could be a hot new category.

Lenovo's Horizon is a great example of this "bigger" trend, a 27-inch tablet running Windows 8. Lenovo says they are targeting home use, families and schools. They see this size as ideal for 2 or 3 people to work together or experience custom games made for the larger screen real estate. EA and Ubisoft (two large game publishers) are already working on a couple games for this solution. Priced at $1,700 is a bit of an issue and a battery life when "unplugged" of only 3 hours limits its applications but  I can see how this type of solution will mature over the coming years as the power, price and weight issues get further addressed.

This year your access to content will continue to be more personalized with unique user logins and customization features. Tap your phone to a speaker and they are linked. Tap a picture on your tablet to the printer and it prints. Tap smart devices with a friend and transfer a movie clip. TVs that show a range of apps and video content based on who is viewing. Smart refrigerators...even the main console display in a new Chevy's can drag and drop apps to be configured to your personal preferences. Ford even introduced a developer program to enable 3rd parties to make apps for your car!

Speaking of mobile and taking everything with you, what about Kingston's 1 tera-byte USB drive! No price yet but a 512 giga-byte version sells for around $1,700.



Photography
In the realm of camera products at the show, I was definitely disappointed. 2012 was a spectacular year with tons of innovation, meaningful updates and new form-factors. But CES didn't offer much new stuff worth mentioning. Probably the only exception was the Fuji X100s which upgrades the retro-styled popular camera from last year to a 16.3 mega-pixel APS-C offering. The new camera also has an updated lens, faster processor and new solution that allows for even quicker focusing (something the original already did well). Expect this camera to come to market for around $1,300 in March. You can preorder the X100s at Amazon.

Sony is really on the cutting-edge of leveraging a Full-Frame (35mm equivalent) sensory is a whole range of products to provide a premium image quality over their peers. They had a compact Full-Frame called the Sony DSC-RX1 as well as a high-end camcorder that supported the Full-Frame sensor. The RX1 was probably the most agressive example of leveraging the large sensor versus a competitive set that typically holds the full-frame for their higher-end Digital SLR products. But this compact camera does come with a DSLR-price tag of $2,800!

Yes, there was an updated Nikon D5200, some new point-n-shoots from all the manufacturers, etc. I will do a more robust photography right up after the dust settles with some more real-world, hands-on details.

Gaming
I'm still looking for a "real" analog control solution for my iPhone and iPad. Apple has some "crazy" restrictions on what a peripheral can do with an App that limits the use of a real joystick controls across games on the iOS platform. I wish that restriction would go away because we could evolve games on these devices to have more advanced, serious gaming options. Even on Android there is no quality solution that is universal and easy to adopt.

So Nvidia (the maker of one of the more powerful tablet computing chips) has leveraged their next-generation CPU into a dedicated Android mobile gaming platform...Project Shield. I'm holding judgement but I am putting this on the freaky side for the time being. To fully take advantage of the product as presented at CES, you need a PC computer with a contemporary Nvidia graphics card in it. You then connect to your PC via wi-fi to stream the gameplay. Odd...huh? If I was them I would just focus on making their interfaces well understood for getting an Android game running well on their CPU and controller hardware. But they have their own plan. This is still just a prototype so we will have to wait and see where this goes.

So in conclusion...
1) Phones, tablets and TVs will grow in size, resolution and powered with more capable CPUs to make information and content more viewable/accessible.

2) Now that all your content (pictures, books, music and videos) is digital...it will become more and more important to make it easier to share and distribute these assets. This is a call to action for the manufacturers to ensure they are putting enough focus on the software and standards for connecting, pairing and sharing information.

3) The user interface needs to be evolved to make sure access to content is contextual and specific to the user(s) needs and preferences.

Yes there is a ton of other product categories but I really didn't see much "new and novel" to justify overly discussing these here in my trends section. I will be doing a couple odds and ends pieces to cover some of them in the coming week or so. This includes health and fitness, audio, photography, video, wireless storage and the like.

Wishing you a happy, prosperous and full of cool products 2013!

Larry Pacey, award-winning designer tracks the latest news on consumer products, electronics, appliances, smart devices, networking and the gadget lifestyle.

For the latest news follow me on: ------------------------------ OR ------------------------------- Follow me on Twitter @WouldntMindThis Please comment below and share your thoughts. If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to email me at wouldntmind@gmail.com. Just my 2-cents, Larry

This is turning out to be a pretty exciting year for great holiday gift options! Movies, games, products as well as a slew of trusted "relatively new" tech to keep everyone happy.

I really would appreciate it if you would "share, like, tweet, pin, post or follow" me. Please spread the word so I know there are people out there that are listening :-)




I have endeavored to put together a series of posts over the past month that highlight tons of great gift ideas. I certainly hope you found something to elicit joy and excitement for the recipient! I know I would be happy if I was on the receiving end of one of these!

Be sure to check out these posts for any gift ideas for friends, family...or something for yourself.










I hope these help! Once again, please "share, like or follow" for more great product information especially with the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) coming up next month.

Please follow me @


Happy Holidays,
Larry

Larry Pacey, award-winning designer tracks the latest news on consumer products, electronics, appliances, smart devices, networking and the gadget lifestyle.

For the latest news follow me on: ------------------------------ OR ------------------------------- Follow me on Twitter @WouldntMindThis Please comment below and share your thoughts. If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to email me at wouldntmind@gmail.com. Just my 2-cents, Larry

Every year there are product offers that seem too good to be true and as the adage goes...probably are. There are also gleaming new products entering the marketplace that from your first impression...these are awesome! But once you get it home you find out that the dream doesn't live up to reality.

My job around this time of year is to make sure you don't get caught up in the hype or end up getting something that will soon be obsoleted. Or at least you are informed enough to make the best decision for yourself.

So what don't you get over these Black Friday and holiday sales?
I would avoid gaming consoles EXCEPT for the Nintendo Wii U and perhaps the Nintendo 3DS (or 3DS XL). The Xbox 360 is at its end of life and is due for an update that should appear next year. The PlayStation 3 is pretty much in the same position. The Playstation Vita is just plain bad with a rather weak game library.

In the cameras I would avoid category, I was really excited about the prospect of a Canon mirrorless camera (Digital SLR cameras have a mirror so you can peek through a viewfinder and see what the camera's chip will see but this means they have to be pretty large) that takes advantage of the entire Canon library of lens. The Canon EOS-M had tons of promise...that at the end of the day just didn't deliver. It is a nice enough camera but it is missing a few physical dials to make sure functions easier to access and a rather slow focus...just ends up disappointing.

In a similar vein, I am not blown away by Nikon's offer in this category either. The Nikon 1 is a mirrorless camera but also exhibits slow focus speeds as well.

On the computer front, I would avoid the new Microsoft Surface tablet. Sure it looks cools with an all-new interface but try to use it! Unlike the Apple iPads, you have to micro-manage your memory on the Surface. If you have a few apps open...it starts to slow down and not run smoothly. I even had apps that wouldn't load! And don't be fooled, this is not a real computer running Windows 8. It is a version called RT that requires you to purchase new apps. For more information on why to avoid the Surface, check out my more in-depth Don't Buy a Microsoft Surface...not ready for prime-time piece.
Another Windows 8 device I was looking forward to but it ultimately let me down was the Lenovo Yoga 13. Okay, let me say that if you are looking for strictly a sleek Windows 8 ultrabook...then the Yoga might actually be a great choice. But as a tablet...it just doesn't deliver. Too bulky and cumbersome.

Televisions and digital cameras tend to see major updates in the early months of next year causing this years models to go on sale. It is then up to you to decide if the new version warrants the extra money or if you can save a good chunk on last years model. Even clothing and jewelry will see major discounts after the holidays as well!


And now you might be asking what do I get? Well be sure to check out my "2012 Holiday Gifts for your Cool Kids of All Ages" article.

And did I miss anything? Something else that should have been on this list of what to avoid? Add it in the comments below!

Larry Pacey, award-winning designer tracks the latest news on consumer products, electronics, appliances, smart devices, networking and the gadget lifestyle.

For the latest news follow me on: ------------------------------ OR ------------------------------- Follow me on Twitter @WouldntMindThis Please comment below and share your thoughts. If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to email me at wouldntmind@gmail.com. Just my 2-cents, Larry