6. Super Storage
As you may have noticed from point 2 above, the SD Card Association has announced a new kind of flash memory card at CES, with capacities ranging from 32GB to 2TB - that's enough for 100 HD movies on a single postage-stamp sized slice of media.
Obviously SDXC - or Secure Digital eXtended Capacity - cards haven't reached 2TB yet, but even at 32GB it already boasts more capacity than a standard 25GB Blu-ray disc.
The arrival of SDXC and lower-price, larger-capacity solid state laptop drives - SanDisk is offering a 120GB drive for less than $250 (£166) - could eventually spell the death knell for two long-established computing technologies: the optical disc and the glass platter hard disk. We shall see.
7. Windows 7
Windows 7 is going to be big in 2009. From the millions of early adopters who'll try out the public beta to the monumental Microsoft marketing machine that will continue to drive the point home - there will be no escape. Windows 7 already looks like it will be a lot better than Vista.
8. Family-friendly media servers
Network Attached Storage (NAS) is fast throwing off its nerdy origins in favour of sexy home media servers that anyone in your family can use.HP launched a revamped - and Mac-friendly - version of its Home Server at Macworld Expo earlier in the week, and it's been joined here at CES 2009 by the Linksys Media Hub NAS among others.
The promise is easy access to your music, movie and photo files from any device in your home, which could obviously include network-ready TVs, too.True, home servers have been kicking around for a while, but this is one trend that really seems to have some momentum behind it.
9. Wireless charging
Another technology that's been a long time coming. Charging mats enable you to juice up the batteries in portable devices without having to hook them up to messy chargers with cables trailing all over the place. Companies like Powermat and WiPower have been busily showing off their wares at CES, while the Wireless Power Consortium is attempting to turn the technology into an industry standard.
10. Touchscreen everywhere
We still can't quite see the appeal of dragging your mucky fingers over your laptop's pristine screen, but PC makers apparently can. Asus showed off its N20 netbook with full touchscreen capability, More sensibly Samsung showed off its P3 MP3 player, which has a touchscreen with haptic feedback. Sony continues to play catch-up to Apple by finally introducing the NWZ-X1000 Walkman with touchscreen display.
From CES 2009
