Fifty years from now, the CES show floor may be some hybrid of the real and virtual world, as telepresence minidrones hover and swoop through the aisles, beaming the scene back to our VR contact lenses. But in 2017, the 50th anniversary show was something that would've been an equally unrealistic sci-fi vision to attendees of the first electronics exhibition in 1967: wall-sized TVs as thin as a house key. Electric cars that can drive themselves. Tiny robots that stand guard in your home. And an entire house that you can control with your voice. All of them real, touchable and available to home consumers soon, if not already.
Boring, you say? Stop being cynical, and start appreciating the fact that you're already living in the future: Take a look back at everything we saw on the show floor of the world's premier technology show, from the jaw-dropping to the groan-inducing to the just plain fun.
My first CES was a magical mess
CES 2067: Welcome to the future
The voice-controlled smart home gets real, and Alexa is dominating
For at least the past 2 5 7 10 years, we've been saying the "real" smart home is just around the corner. But at CES 2017, it finally felt more tangible than ever before. That's because a flood of products are now offering compatibility with systems like Google Home, Apple HomeKit and (most of all) Amazon Alexa. Whether it's lighting, DVRs, refrigerators, robot vacuums, home security systems, phones or cars -- to name just a few -- the list of stuff you'll be able to interact with by saying Alexa's name is set to explode in the coming months. And with such networked integration now becoming the rule rather than the exception in major appliances from the likes of Whirlpool, Samsung and LG, there's no turning back.
Accept your fate: you can't escape the smart home
CES 2017 smart home scorecard
TVs are thinner, brighter and better than ever
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TVs of CES 2017
CES was, is and presumably always will be "the big TV show." And while some of the players may have changed -- China's TCL and Hisense have replaced the likes of old-line Japan manufacturers such as Panasonic and Sharp -- the screens get better every year. Samsung is offering a fresh alternative with its QLED sets, but LG's OLED technology is so good that rivals like Sony are now licensing it. LG itself, meanwhile, created its most stunning OLED TV showpiece yet: the W7 "wallpaper" TV. And this is no pie-in-the-sky prototype: You can preorder the W7 (albeit for $8,000 -- a rough conversion to £6526 or AU$10,964) now, for delivery in just a few months. Prefer a big-screen alternative? Plenty of tantalizing new short-throw projectors were on display, too.
Don't need a new TV? There were more promising add-on boxes at the show, too, from over-the-air TV options (Mohu Airwave and new Tablo products) to streaming boxes (a hot new Nvidia Shield) -- to the new AirTV, which aims to combine the best of both worlds.
My favorite TVs of CES 2017 (and other TV-related stuff I liked)
CES = "Car Electronics Show"
Faraday Future FF 91 at CES
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All the cool new car stuff at CES 2017
The North American International Auto Show is starting this week in Detroit -- and CNET's Roadshow is already there cranking up coverage. But in recent years, Las Vegas has taken more and more of the auto industry spotlight. We got to see some impressive autonomous driving tech from Nvidia and Delphi, and a full-on "holographic" heads-up display from BMW. Chrysler, Honda, Bosch and Toyota delivered some gorgeous concept vehicles. Meanwhile, troubled Faraday Future went the other way: Its new FF91, designed to be the company's debut production model in 2018, is an electric vehicle that's said to have a 350-mile range and the ability to hit 60 mph from a standing start in under three seconds. And CES's voice control theme didn't stop at the garage door: BMW and Ford demoed in-car integration with Cortana and Alexa, respectively, for which Hyundai and Chrysler showed off Google Assistant integration.
Riding in cars with computers: How tech at CES changes driving
2017 Detroit Auto Show: Complete coverage
Laptops are more powerful, flexible and affordable
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The hybrid laptops we flipped for at CES 2017
Anyone who says "PCs are dead" needs to come to Las Vegas during CES. Though most of them don't actually have a booth on the show floor, the world's premier PC vendors -- the likes of Dell, HP, Asus, Acer and Samsung -- use the show as a launchpad for their latest and greatest machines. Yes, Intel's latest generation of chips may not be a big leap forward in performance, but that's not stopping vendors from creating increasingly impressive 2-in-1 hybrid laptops, ever more affordable gaming laptops and new Chromebooks that can run Android apps. And with the exception of Razer's crazy-amazing triple-screen laptop prototype, you'll be able to buy most of these new PCs within a matter of weeks -- if not right now.
https://www.cnet.com/news/ces-2017-the-final-word/