The Worlds biggest gadget fayre takes place at CES Las Vegas this week, with over 4000 companies from around the worlds showing off the products of the future at CES 2018, from self driving buses, AI and robots, to giant televisions and VR headsets. With smart speakers such as Amazons Alexa and Google Home becoming this years Christmas present gadget of choice, the internet of things and the Smart Home is finally taking meaningful shape.

Here are a few brief highlights….

  • A first opportunity to ride in a self-driving car may be in Navya’s Autonom Cab. It can seat six people and is designed to travel at about at about 35 mph.

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  • Ford said it was partnering with Qualcomm to equip its vehicles with vehicle-to-everything communication (V2X). Working through a cellular connection the technology would help identify dangerous driving situations, the status of traffic lights and just about everything happening on the roads that could pose a hazard to the driver.

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  • Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant will land in some Toyota and Lexus vehicles in the US later this year. Drivers will be able to remotely lock a vehicle, play music, find recommendations for nearby restaurants and get directions, all using voice controls.

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  • CES Las Vegas 2018 01A phone from Vivo offered the first fingerprint scanner built into a phone display. Rather than needing a separate button below the display or a separate sensor on the phone’s back, you register your digit by touching the screen. Yes, the same screen you use to text, tweet and, once in a great while, dial a phone number. Don’t be surprised if this technology shows up in some high-end phones this year, such as a Samsung Galaxy S9.

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  • Razer’s Project Linda blurs the line between phone and laptop by taking a laptop (in this case, a Razer Blade Stealth) and adding a space below the keyboard to insert a Razer Phone. You can then use the phone phone’s display as a touchpad or a second laptop screen.

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  • CES Las Vegas 2018 02Samsung debuted an exciting new TV it calls “The Wall.” Following up last year’s “The Frame” TV that is designed to look like a piece of art when it’s not in use, The Wall consists of multiple modular MicroLED displays. The screens have no bezels, so they combine to form a single massive 8K television that measures a whopping 146-inches diagonally.

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  • Sony showed its newest Aibo robot dog , cuter and more dog-like than ever before, it has OLED screen eyes, a camera in its nose and one on its back for learning the layout of your home. You pet it in three different places to show your love. It’s available in Japan right now.

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  • CES Las Vegas 2018 03Honda demonstrated four robot concepts . They included the 3E-D18, which is an autonomous off-road workhorse that looks like an ATV chassis without the handlebars or seat (it uses a customizable rail system instead). There’s also the 3R-B18, which is a robotic wheelchair that you can use indoors or outdoors.

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  • Dell’s Portable Thunderbolt 3 SSD is “the world’s most compact Thunderbolt 3 storage device,” or so the company says.

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  • Lenovo Mirage Solo, the standalone VR headset running Google’s Daydream. It allows a wider freedom of movement than we’ve seen from phone-based VR goggles before.

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  • Merge’s 6DoF Blaster looks like a Laser Tag gun and uses a phone. And that’s basically what it is: Laser Tag, for AR. It may even be Scott Stein’s favorite thing from CES.

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  • Huawei unveiled a Porsche Design of its Mate 10 Pro.

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  • Xerox said it could replace most of the water in your washer with dirt-sucking reusable XOrb Polymer Beads.

For a round up of the announcements here are a few useful links:-

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/ces-2018-live-news-highlights-3350586
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-42588274
http://www.techradar.com/news/ces-2018