CES 2013 – Create everything similar?

We use affiliate links. If you buy something through the links on this page, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Learn more.

CESSo, the Consumer Electronic Show 2013 (CES) is on right now. A Gadgeteer writer’s heaven wouldn’t you think? I’m probably seeing about 5000+ news items a day from the show via my feeds, but there are lots of repetition there, so let’s say 900 unique news items.  The problem is that, truth be told, I’m not really seeing much that I consider worthy of writing an article for on The Gadgeteer.

As expected, there are heaps of new Android devices, everything from cheaper tablets to Android-enabled rice cookers and fridges.  There are new cameras with more mega-pixels, larger displays, heaps of mobile speakers and external batteries, and of course, phones and Windows 8 tablets/notebooks/hybrids. But for me, there’s no “killer” product, that product that just stands out as being something special. To me, bigger or faster doesn’t automatically mean better.

Is it just me, and am I coming to expect too much from technology? Am I becoming jaded, or am I just becoming more fussy and harder to impress as I approach 50 (grumpy old man territory)?

Has anybody seen anything coming out of CES 2013 that really excites them?

7 thoughts on “CES 2013 – Create everything similar?”




  1. Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
  2. I am pretty fired up about finally getting shipping started for the Pebble that i bought 8 months ago. It looks very cool, can’t wait to get my hands on it.

  3. Im with you on this Ian I haven’t seen a much of anything that excites me from a gadget perspective. There is a lot of rehash or upgrade of existing technologies but this years CES really seems blah…

    1. That’s why I’ve skipped the show for the past 5 years. 😉 After attending several years in a row, it just felt like I was seeing the same stuff over and over. I bet I could go again this year and I’d see some of the same crazy Chinese gadgets that were there years ago. There’s only so many tablets, eReaders and Bluetooth speakers that you can see before your head explodes 😉

      Bryan Sherman (Gadgeteer writer) is there this week and my fingers are crossed that he will hopefully have something interesting to report soon.

  4. As one who is also approaching that magic milestone of 50 and being in tech since high school I have that same feeling. I knew the potiential of everything we were working with 10, 20 even 30 years ago, but now that it is here in many ways and everyone has the technology not just us urber geeks things are anti climatic. Plus the “gee whiz” gap is so small between new devices now. Nothing is really a “great advance” or a new technology just an improvment over what is already out there.

    Of course there are still days I stare at my IPAD and think how cool it looks to that 15 year old back in the day.

  5. It’s way past time for something new. It’s like hanging around a copy machine and the next copy gets some tiny detail added like a color stripe on the case. Boring.

  6. It’s a case of mankind numbness, and it’s not only reflecting in technology.
    How many new, baffling movies came out in the last 10 years? Something that we can call a “classic” and that generations would recommend onto the next ones? I mean, seriously, TOTAL RECALL TWO?
    Why did the space program stop?
    Why did everything else stop, or at least slowed down to snail-speed? – For instance, the computer processor advancement. We were all going lighting speed for 5, 6, 7 GHz and then bam, everything went to a halt.
    Why aren’t we writing any new, remarkable books?

    I think what you’re seeing at CES is a small symptom of a larger, far more widespread disease than thought.

  7. Did you get a look at the Razer Edge Tablet? What I read about seems very impressive. I will definitely get it unless you got a look and indicated it is crap!

Leave a Reply to Larry Geisz Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *