The CES wrap-up: All of the key sightings at the planet’s biggest tech show

It is done. The technology behemoths have flaunted their wares, and from all indications this year abounds with promises. Be it wider, brighter, crisper, curvier televisions or smarter, connected, sexier home appliances, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015 seems to have left the impression that the Jetsons age is really and truly upon us.

More than any of the show’s previous avatars, this year’s was significant in the boggling breadth of product categories on display. From unmanned and autonomous drones to thinner Ultra HD curved TVs to smarter phones to every conceivable type of connected device (from cars to buttons, literally), this year is poised to be prime time for the electronics and consumer retail market.

There were numerous announcements on the even floor over the show’s four days. We’ve done the heavy lifting for you and bring you a distilled selection of the most important among them.

Cars this year will be smarter. Way smarter: From a time when all car electronics were hidden under the hood and not really discussed in the consumer context, the next breed of vehicles will be brimming with systems that drivers and passengers can interface with: from operating systems that can be worked like your smartphone to a host of safety, comfort and performance features that will make your wheels your real and true second home. Case in point, Mercedes’ display of their stunning F015 autonomous concept car. Also who knew that a company known for developing gaming and graphics processors is now at the forefront of creating intelligent automotive systems that can see and recognize pedestrian and vehicular situations to a startling degree: check out our coverage of Nvidia’s Tegra X1 graphics powerhouse that is aimed at being the brains in this year’s cars.

This massification of 4K TVs: If you’re in the market for a television upgrade this year, you would want to consider nothing less than an Ultra HD TV. Sure, there may not an abundance of video content to fully realize the technology’s potential, but with every key player launching competing products, expect affordability to factor in to the buying spectrum. Coupled with technology evolutions like Quantum Dot (an excellent explanation here), the cost of manufacturing these super-slim displays is only headed downward. Here, our pick of the best 4K TVs that made an appearance this week.

The Internet of Things is real: It’s a term that’s been bandied about with reckless abandon this past year. Of course we were expecting it to take center stage at CES. And what a performance it put on: from coffee machines with IP addresses to cloud-connected automatic plant watering systems, it seems everything tangible product in our future is likely to be connected. So much so that chief-of-the-Chaebol Samsung staked a claim in their announcements, promising that all of their products--including their air purifiers--will be connected in the next 5 years. It won’t be surprising to see every other consumer tech company--both small and large--ride this bandwagon from the get go.

But nowhere else was it more evidently demonstrated than in Intel’s showcase of computing pervading every weave and weft of our lives. From button-sized computing elements to smart cameras that will make gesture-based computing a reality, they had it all.

Smarter phones: CES, expectedly, witnessed no dearth of phones: faster processors, sharper screens, thinner, lighter--they were in abundance. From the usual suspects to relatively unknown brands like Saygus (which incidentally unveiled a pretty steroidal device), here are the phones that made the biggest splashes.

...and all the rest: CES has always been a launchpad for spectacular product launches: some truly innovative, others just outright bonkers. Here, our collection of the cool, the handy (and even judgemental) technology innovations from CES 2015.

Any products or technologies that especially blew you away? Talk to us in the comments below or on Twitter @dna.