Packing up for CES 2013: Here’s what we’re looking forward to

This is what CES looked like the last time Apple attended. J/K. Via the Verge

The 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show is almost here, with official CES show floor at the Las Vegas Convention Center opening up next week on Jan. 8. To kick things off, hundreds of companies and the press will invade Las Vegas this weekend for three days of pre-show product demos, press conferences, and more from the majority of the tech industry’s biggest names. Samsung, Sony, NVIDIA, Intel, Toshiba, and LG are just a few of the companies with scheduled announcements, but there will surely be more than a few surprises with over 3,000 exhibitors setting up shop. Apple’s last official appearance at CES was in 1992 with John Sculley’s keynote introduction of the Newton, but its presence at the show remains with hundreds of new Apple-related products unveiled every year.

9to5Mac is on its way to Vegas to bring you full coverage of the best products from the show. But, until then, here’s a wrap-up of what we already know will be there and what else you can expect to see at CES 2013:

Intel

We already know Intel has plans to discuss limited SKUs of its third-generation Ivy Bridge processors rated at 10 watts below, but earlier rumors of an Intel TV product debuting at CES were all but shot down by the Wall Street Journal. An Intel spokesperson also confirmed to CNET that we would hear more about Haswell processors coming later this year, the next generation following the Ivy Bridge chips used in the current generation of Macs. The low-power versions of Haswell could bring even better efficiency than its 10-watt Ivy Bridge processors.

Samsung

Samsung typically has a big presence at these events, and CES will almost certainly be no different. The company has already started teasing CES announcements, such as this “Get Ready” teaser video that promises something new. Similar teaser videos have popped for smartphone and tablet announcements in the past, so this could very well be Sammy’s next flagship mobile device. One thing is for sure, like previous years at CES, the company confirmed we would get a glimpse into the latest developments with its new 5.5-inch, 280-by-720-pixel HD flexible, bendable displays.

Gorilla Glass 3

Corning will be CES this year. It confirmed Gorilla Glass 3 yesterday, the next-generation of glass composition used in many iOS devices, with demo-time slated for next week. The product brings what Corning called “Native Damage Resistance” resulting in a 50 percent boost in strength and 40 percent reduction in scratches.

Smart Watches

Rumor has it Apple is working on a smart watch product (reportedly with Intel) that may or may not expand on the sixth-generation iPod nano design commonly used as a wristwatch. We recently laid out our case for Apple bringing the product to market, noting a January-February launch could make sense for a new hardware-related announcement if the rumored product is truly ready to go. Last year, Apple sent invites during CES for its January education event. If Apple were going to hold a January-February event, it would not be too surprising to see invites go out next week.

Apple smart watch or not, we will see what the competition has to offer in the space with announcements scheduled from Pebble—the E-Paper watch for iPhone and Android that raised over $10M on Kickstarter. We’ll also get our hands on the latest products from Martian Watches. It is one of the only smart watches on the market tapping into Siri and providing total voice control.

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Accessories

While we know we will at least see the latest round of accessories from big names like Otterbox, Cyngett, LifeProof, Speck, and more, CES usually brings us more than few innovative Apple related product accessories. Example: Pictured above is JBL’s just announced OnBeat Mini ($149). It is an iPad mini version of the iPhone OnBeat micro dock it recently released. Next, we have a MacBook Air doc and the iOdock conductive charging/stand solution from iOmounts. And on the right, AT&T’s new 4G LTE Mobile hotspot that sports a 2.4-inch touchscreen. All of the products we will be on show next week at CES, and we’ll bring you coverage of the best products we come across. Also, expect to see more interesting goods for the latest lineup of refreshed Apple products, like this MacBook Air Docking Station from LandingZone:

TV

There will definitely be no shortage of TV announcements at CES, LG already announced it will bring advanced voice recognition, NFC, dual-core processors, and cameras to some of its new 2013 models, while Westinghouse will show off a 110-inch 4K set. We’ll of course also see some new Google TV products from LG, another from Archos, and others. However, Samsung might get the most attention in the TV space with its blog recently teasing “a true innovation of TV design” with an “unprecedented new TV shape and timeless design.” With all the recent rumors of what Apple has in store for the next generation of Apple TV, it will be interesting to see what the competition has planned for 2013.