It is that time of year again. CES 2018 is upon us where thousands arrive in Las Vegas to gawk at the latest gadgets, gear, and tech that we will see throughout 2018.
iDB will be on the ground reporting on all the latest for Apple fans. While Apple doesn’t exhibit or have an official presence at CES, countless accessory makers will be on-hand with their latest wares.
So, what do we expect to see at CES?
To keep the list short, sweet, and relevant to our core audience, here is what Apple fans may be excited about.
Wireless Chargers
Now that the iPhone officially supports Qi wireless charging, there is going to undoubtedly be many, many wireless chargers released this year.
This is already evident by Belkin’s recent announcement of no less than 5 wireless chargers tailor-made for the iPhone X and iPhone 8.
There are going to be wireless charging stands, car chargers, mats, and ones that support multiple devices. Basically, there will be a wireless charger that will fit nearly everyone. Similar to how there are endless iPhone docks.
If you don’t want to wait, you can always check out our roundup video of some of the top wireless chargers currently available.
HomeKit gear
Apple loosened up their manufacturer restrictions for HomeKit accessories last year, so expect to see a whole host of new ones at CES 2018. Last year we saw a bunch of new accessories for you to control your Apple smart home, and this year should be no different.
Elgato has already released a pair of new products to be released early this year.
So many smart speakers
Apple is a bit late to the party when it comes to smart speakers. There are big companies already here with speakers for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. We even recently started our review on the first Cortana-enabled speaker from Harmon-Kardon.
Competitors have no doubt taken advantage of Apple’s HomePod delay and will be releasing speakers in all shapes and sizes from the large and powerful, to the small and portable.
Competition is generally good as it forces manufacturers to innovate on their products, but Apple is poised to face significant challenges as it fights to gain market share in a saturated market.
We should also start seeing speakers support AirPlay 2. Sonos, Bose, Polk, and many others have already pledged to support it as well.
Thunderbolt 3/USB-C accessories
There will be a ton of Mac accessories announced, but specifically we will see a variety of USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 accessories come to market.
2017 had a whole host of different Thunderbolt 3 docks come to market, and now that the standard has been around, manufacturers will know the best way to integrate it into their products.
We will also see more compact form factors like the militarized version of their Thunderbolt 3 dock from Elgato.
Aside from docks and hubs, there will be many new storage devices using the standard, like the insanely fast Thunderblade from OWC we reviewed last week.
USB-C will also be on the uptick as more and more machines launch with the standard in place of USB-A.
Expect to see many cables, hubs, adapters, monitors, and more.
Smartphone-connected accessories
Year after year we see new accessories that connect to our phones. Some frivolous, others useful.
We will see more of these this year than ever as cameras have gotten better, and Bluetooth has become more popular.
Neutrogena has already announced a skin sensor that uses the camera on your iPhone along with a magnification lens and 12 LEDs to collect data on your skin.
AR surpasses VR
AR and VR will be highlighted again at CES, with more emphasis on AR thanks to Apple’s launch of ARKit on iOS and renewed interest.
VR will still be popular and while it doesn’t help you at all on the iPhone, the Mac has gotten VR support with High Sierra, and several new 4K and 8K VR headsets will be shown off this week.
Surprises
There will be of course many surprises in store, so be sure to stay tuned here at iDB and our YouTube channel for the latest coverage throughout the week.
Is there anything specific you are looking forward to this week? Let us know below!