CES 2013 Watch: Fab Phablets, Self-Driving Cars, and Smarter Smart Devices

Posted by Shirley Brady on January 7, 2013 08:55 AM

Brands and marketers are heading to Las Vegas for the International CES show this week, which is expected to be an "evolutionary" showcase for "phablets," smart cars, mobile entertainment, celebrity-gawking and trend-watching. So what's in store for this year's edition of "the mother of all trade shows"?

A lot of noise from the many brands looking to make some noise in Vegas, including:

Audi and Toyota will unveil self-driving cars among other auto brand moves.
Corning will unveil tougher Gorilla Glass for smartphones and tablets.
Google TV news is being closely watched, along with YouTube integration, while execs speak on "Brand Matters" lunch panel.
Huawei is bringing the Ascend D2 among other "competitive" new devices.
Intel is expected to tout its cloud-based web TV service.
Kodak licenses brand for consumer digital products as company exits camera biz.
Lego's smart toy platform evolves Mindstorms EV3 lets users build a robot in 20 minutes.
Lenovo is demonstrating industry-first "table PC" ahead of spinning off its Think brand.
LG is touting smart TV and Ultra HD (and expanding Smart TV Alliance with Toshiba) plus smarter appliances including a square vacuum.
Microsoft is conspicuous by its absence, along with perennial no-show Apple, which "cheekily" announced 40 billion downloads today.
Nvidia is calling its Tegra 4 the "world's fastest mobile processor."
Polaroid is displaying its new Fotobar retail concept and kids' tablets.
Qualcomm CEO will highlight mobile transformation in pre-show keynote (previewed below).
Samsung buzz includes smarter TV design, and bendable and Apple-challenging smartphones.
Sony will be talking up "a multichannel TV service to rival cable," Variety reports.
Victorinox may be lugging a $3,000 Swiss Army knife with a 1 terabyte drive.