The holiday season is over. We’re stranded in early January with drying Christmas trees, curdling eggnog, and hardening fruitcake that will inevitably be re-gifted next year as a paperweight. There’s suddenly no cheer left, only the beginning of winter.
Wrong.
CES begins Monday, heralding the new year in all (most) that is consumer tech, and there has been quite some buzz surrounding this year’s event. Gamers are talking about Microsoft’s Xbox 720 and Nintendo’s Wii U (yes, that’s what it’s actually called), while photographers are talking about the Canon EOS 5D MK II and Nikon D4.
Computing news definitely looks interesting with a Windows 8 keynote anticipated, the unveiling of Intel’s Ivy Bridge processor, and many USB 3.0 products – including the first XQD memory cards. Boat loads of tablets are also expected to make an appearance, except one – Apple’s iPad.
As usual, Apple is not participating in CES. Instead, a keynote of their own is scheduled soon after CES focusing on publishing and textbooks. Could this be iPad related? As we all know, Apple has a knack for dropping industry game-changers soon after CES. In 2010: the iPad, and the Verizon iPhone in 2011.
Could it be that Apple will steal the show again, without even showing up? Judging by the design of a few products, such as the HP Envy which looks resoundingly similar to the MacBook Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Ace which supposedly emulates the iPhone, it’s not unlikely.
This Apple announcement should definitely be one to look forward to. For all we know, Apple might even release the new Apple television equipped with smell-o-vision, Star Trek food replicator, and ESP channel changing. Now wouldn’t that be a treat.