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Next Big Things? Taking Devices Wireless Plus Conserving Power

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Editor’s note: Emily Price of the WRAL Newschannel and a published technology blogger covered the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas for WRAL.com and WRAL Local Tech Wire.

LAS VEGAS — The Consumer Electronics Show reached its final hours Thursday afternoon. The week was filled with new, exciting innovations across the board, but none that really stood above the rest as this year’s new big thing.

One unifying theme across manufacturers at this year’s CES was wireless technology. As we get more and more devices in our homes, we are in turn getting more and more wires.

Many manufacturers were showing off ways to connect all of your devices in your home with few or no wires. This was done best this year by Panasonic, which has created a way for users to stream HD wirelessly from a Blu-ray player directly to their plasma televisions. Panasonic hopes to make a plasma television the center of your home, in the future giving users the ability to control things like their air conditioning and the blinds on the windows with one remote control and their television.

Touch screens were also a big theme this year. In the wake of the popular iPhone, Motorola launched the Motorola Rokr E8, a handset using Motorolas new “ModeShift” technology. "ModeShift" is a touchpad the company says will digitally “morph” to work best for how you are using the handset. Like the iPhone, the E8 is designed to be a music player as well as a cell phone and will upload music directly from a USB connection.

As we get more devices in our homes, power has also started to become a concern this year. Companies were looking at ways to give you the same great devices without using nearly as much power.

One of the most innovative products on that front was the Philips Eco TV. The Eco TV is a 42-inch, 1080p, flat-panel LCD that is loaded with power-saving features. One of the most prominent features in the television is its ability to dim its backlight. A dimmed backlight in darker scenes will not only save power but it also improve the look of black. The television can also dim light in dark rooms and has a power-saving mode that can cap peak-light output. All of the power-saving features can be turned on and off at the viewer's discretion.

As time goes on, I think we’ll start seeing more power saving devices start to pop up.