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About 12 hours before CES we’ll kick into high gear with ‘Press Day”, here are my last minute predictions for the big themes at CES:

3D HDTV with out glasses

It has been a looong time in the making (yup a whole three o’s worth). 3D is the impossible tech that consumers always flock to and companies strive to deliver. Back in the say it was red and blue plastic glasses, then polarized glasses, but either way it just wasn’t realistic for 3D to enter consumers’ everyday life. In 2009 that will all change. 3D technology will be shown by Panasonic and others, without the use of glasses. The exact specs needed to get this into your living room are still unknown, but removing glasses was always the biggest obstacle, the rest will be overcome via the consumer product life cycle. Sure it may be expensive at first but like everything from color televisions to HDTVs, the prices will eventually fall. The other challenge will be the content available. To be honest I don’t think this will be a major challenge either, it’s not like you will want every single video you ever watch to be 3D (Friend’s and Oprah just does seem likely). The two major 3D content sources will likely be from Hollywood, who is already shooting a lot of content in 3d, and gaming.

Super thin (and maybe large) TVs

Each CES has it’s own TV/display trend. A few tears back it was HD sets, then ‘full HD’ as Blu-ray was introduced and 1080p came around, then massively sized LCDs and Plasmas. More recently the trend has gone back to picture quality with manufacturers focusing on contrast ratio, color vibrancy, and the refresh rate of the display. This year I predict we will see more of the latter (quality improvements) as well as everything getting much thinner. When you see this an want it, remember than a 6mm thin LCD tv is cool, but do you really need it over your 15mm set? Look for picture quality improvements and worry about thickness last.

Content partnerships galore

Have you heard of that Internet thing?well rumor has it that it is full of video content an more is being added every day. Netflix may have started as DVDs and as of last year was able to come via a set-top box, but soon enough your TV will be prebuilt to receive Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Unbox, YouTube, and more (yup you can probably get those sites as well).  Even less reason to leave your couch.

Wireless, wireless, wireless

People hates wires. They always have an always will. Wireless USB started to make an entrance over the past two years but has yet to really hit mainstream. In 2009 wireless USB will continue to gain in popularity. Joining it will be more and more wireless specs for video content, replacing those ugly/expensive HDMI cables and VGA cables.

Palm will offer a great operating system but a crappy phone

Palm needs help and they need it desperately. If you actually still use a Palm handset I feel bad for you. Maybe the Centro is ok, but only because it comes free with a contract. If you have used a iPhone, Blackberry Storm, or Blackberry Bold you have to admit that Palm just isn’t doing it an more. The biggest joke of them all was the release of the Palm Treo Pro. We know that they will b releasing a new operating system, which I am very hopeful about given their past success (unfortunately they did nothing with it 3 years). What worries me is the phone or phones that get released with this OS. A OS is only as good as the device that it is installed on - take Android as an example, the G1 just won’t cut it so the platform is limited until more devices join on. Let’s hope Palm goes big, otherwise please just go home.