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" Each January, the technology industry convenes for the Consumer Electronics Show--the Super Bowl of gadgets, and a forum for the biggest names in tech to show off their latest and greatest inventions. Indeed, if a game-changing gadget is going to come out sometime this year, chances are it will make its debut somewhere in the sprawling beast of a convention that is CES in Las Vegas. After all, this is where the public got its first glimpse of the VCR (1970). This is where we gazed into the viewfinder of the world&amp;#039;s first camcorder (1981), and where we saw the first spinning Laserdisc (1974), CD (1981) and DVD (1996). Perhaps most famously, this is where the original Nintendo Entertainment System made its United States debut some 23 years ago.  But it&amp;#039;s not just the category-shifting products that make a splash at the show: When you throw this much innovation together, trends and patterns inevitably appear, and it&amp;#039;s not terribly difficult for us to grab a glimpse of where the entire industry is headed. Of course, one thing we won&amp;#039;t see at CES 2008 is a new iPhone or Macbook. Apple plays hooky at the show every year, instead opting to show off its stuff at the self-branded, San Francisco-based Macworld Expo, which falls just a few short days after CES. We&amp;#039;ll be there, too, but be sure to stay tuned to PopularMechanics.com between Sunday, Jan. 5, and Thursday, Jan. 10, for our live coverage from Sin City. PM will have a small army of reporters scouring CES (with camcorders in tow), searching for the big releases, hidden gems and inscrutable oddities that make it a must-see on every geek&amp;#039;s calendar. Even for the everyday consumer, PM contributor Glenn Reynolds will be live-blogging here and on Instapundit. When it&amp;#039;s all said and done, we&amp;#039;ll pick our favorite gadgets and round up all the gear you need to know. So bookmark PM&amp;#039;s CES Central, then whet your appetite with three big-picture trends you&amp;#039;ll see next week. 3D The third dimension will most assuredly be a big theme at this year&amp;#039;s show. Some 25 years after the floating sharks in Jaws sent audience members shooting out of their theater seats, the tech world is making perhaps its largest and most concentrated effort yet to not only revive 3D on the big screen (a revolution we went in-depth with last year), but to bring it into your living room.  In fact, it may be disorienting, but the technology now exists to trick the brain into seeing 3D without the need for the red-and-blue spectacles of yesteryear. So expect several companies to show off their vision of the entertainment world&amp;#039;s 3D future--with and without goofy glasses (though we&amp;#039;ll try on as many as possible). WiMAX Just a couple of years ago, Americans were lusting after the 3G cellphones that had been delivering broadband-like speed to the pockets of Asians and Europeans for years. Well, now we have them, and you know what? They just aren&amp;#039;t fast enough for us. That&amp;#039;s why we can&amp;#039;t wait for WiMAX--the most prominent 4G tech on the horizon. Sprint recently told PM it has set the wheels in motion to build a nationwide network before long, and it can&amp;#039;t come soon enough. With WiMAX, manufacturers can stuff the ability to send and receive massive amounts of data into just about any gadget. In addition to always-on, high-speed Internet on your laptop and phone, this kind of networking opens up the floodgates to a slew of far more creative possibilities. Imagine a camcorder with the ability to broadcast video to a TV station or Web site live from anywhere--without having to even plug it in. Just think about the possibilities of a pocket-size PC (Intel is expected to be behind a number of such products in the coming year) that can access the entire Internet at Ethernet-like speeds--from anywhere. It will be costly for companies to build up the WiMax network infrastructure, but if they do it right, this could change everything. Cheap High-Def Discs So far, the high-definition format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD has been a nonstarter. While both formats have seen significant growth since their introductions, they&amp;#039;re still hampered by limited video libraries and pricey players. Most serious analysts, meanwhile, expect that if a winner is declared, its time on top will be limited by the impending growth of broadband-delivered, high-def movies from services such as Xbox Live and iTunes. After all, plastic discs are so 1999. However, 2008 could be the year that Blu-ray and HD-DVD players become so cheap, that it&amp;#039;s a virtually negligible difference over a standard (or at least a decent up-converting) DVD player. Even more significantly, we should see the price of combo players that can play both formats with equal aplomb, such as those made by LG and Samsung, drop to a price point that makes them the only high-def purchase that makes sense. If that happens, people will just buy whatever movies they want, regardless of format. And as long as movie studios continue to camp out on one side or the other, ensuring a steady stream of content from each, both formats should survive--if not thrive--until instant HD downloads make them a thing of the past.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a2448/4243153/>