CES 2010: Best future tech

This year's CES was as much about concepts and prototypes as it was about fully cooked gadgetry.

So to follow up our pick of the best new launches here's a finely curated smorgasbord of the most promising future tech that caught our eye at CES 2010:

Qualcomm's tablet concept
Expected: late 2010 (from other manufacturers)

Tablets were everywhere at CES 2010, but this demo from Qualcomm caught our eye with its close resemblance to the supposed Apple 'iSlate' preview posted by Sports Illustrated recently.

With eBook readers like the Que ProReader (sadly US-only for now, but check out the video below) already launching online stores for newspapers and magazines, the battle is on to find out which platform we want to deliver our next-gen media.

Will it be the readability of e-ink devices, the interactivity of colour-screened tablets or a hybrid of the two like the Notion Ink Adam that wins out? Apple looks likely to have its say on 26 January.

FloTV – finally, mobile TV worth watching?
Expected: early 2012

Whether it's been Virgin's DAB-based Lobster phone or DVB-H (Nokia's preferred platform), mobile TV has spectacularly failed to take off in the UK.

But FloTV might just change this –  it demoed its impressive mobile broadcast TV system and revealed that it's planning to launch in the UK in time for the 2012 Olympics.

The reason it could succeed is because it uses neither traditional broadcast signals nor 3G. Instead it fires live TV to an HTC-made unit mini telly via a block of bandwidth that it's bought on the US mobile spectrum (bandwidth has already been bought in the UK too).

As it's broadcast even a large number of users won't bring the network down, and in our demo there was no image degradation or interruption (despite being holed up in a downstairs bunker).

Mophie has also made an iPhone power pack with FloTV built-in.

Samsung's translucent OLED screen
Expected: 2012

We're always on the hunt for Minority Report-style gadgetry, so Samsung's translucent OLED screen caught our eye.

It's only a concept at the moment, but Samsung has already made a 14in version and attached it to a laptop. This seems a little pointless, but once it's multitouch and wall-sized it could get integrated into windscreens or your future office booth. Meetings might actually become fun.

Asus Waveface Ultra
Expected: 2014

We've already got wrist-mounted phones like the LG GD910 – now Asus has built a prototype watch that acts as a web portal.

Its screen is a touch-sensitive AMOLED job, and handy info like the weather, email, instant messages and RSS feeds get pushed to the device. There's also some nifty gesture control, though it's still very much at the concept stage.

Intel Infoscape
Expected: Concept-only

The final concept that turned our heads at CES 2010 was Intel's Infoscape, which consists of two giant multi-touch walls that pulled stories live from Google News and displayed them in a rather attractive wave.

It was really just built to flaunt Intel's new Core i7 processor, but we've already marked it for spot in our lounge next to the Samsung translucent OLED patio doors.