download: Break out the Red and Blue Glasses

If CES 2010 is any indication, the big prediction for this year in technology is worldwide eyestrain.

The Consumer Electronic Show this year reflected people's smaller bank accounts, offering fewer showstoppers and lots of people in strange glasses, ducking from things only they could see. That was (mostly) due to the surge of 3D TV featured, a technology which promises the same jaw-dropping, cross-eyed experience as watching “Avatar” in the comfort of your own home. While the TV’s use a few different 3D techniques to recreate the experience, they often fail to mention that there simply isn’t much 3D content to watch at the moment. Or how you plan on lying on a pillow with a pair of oversized glasses on. Or whether the new TVs are worth pawning off the HD TV you just bought. Still, they look very pretty. Keep your eyes out for the World Cup penalty kicks this year flying straight at your face.

Also on display was a raft of e-ink readers in the same vein as Amazon’s Kindle. While a proper e-book service hasn’t made its way to the UK yet, the sheer volume of cheaper, tablet-like readers may mean that physical books, at least the ones you don’t really need for your home library, may be fading away. Some analysts see these readers as the saviours of the newspaper format as well as textbook-heavy students. The technology and the infrastructure, however, doesn’t quite look ready for prime time. E-ink is great for reading, but can’t yet do video, often can’t even do color, and hasn’t yet hit the right balance of price and slick design. It’s amazing just how much tech has to go into beating a book for convenience.

Other finds included Boxee’s set-top box, which can bring the internet and all your video files to your TV at last, Lenovo’s laptop concept which has a removable screen that turns into a tablet, and, of course, disinterested booth babes. While Microsoft and HP tried to steal Apple’s thunder pending their end-of the month tablet release, it often felt like everyone was holding their breath until Apple made their move. If that sounds unbalanced, then blame an industry built on being distracted by shiny, pretty – hey, what’s that over there?