Tablets aren't the only thing to steal the show at this year's CES, the mobile internet has also grabbed the headlines. From new super-fast chips that could make current handsets seem prehistoric to amazing in-car app systems, super-charged graphics and mad ways of docking your mobile.
The iPhone 4 has wowed the world with its Retina Display which mimics the resolution of print magazines, but its rivals are catching up. Sony Ericsson will soon be releasing the Arc which is an Android Honeycomb phone with a new super-bright, super-clear display dubbed Reality Display Technology. That's sure to give the iPhone 4 a run for its money.
Also in the Android battle, the Motorola Atrix 4G comes with an HDMI connector to hook up to any HDTV or HDMI-enabled monitor but most excitingly it comes with a dock built-in to a laptop-style shell with a full physical keyboard. That's a little bit barmy at first glance but for business people having to bash out emails on the road it could be a perfect solution to lugging around loads of electronic kit.
Microsoft dropped big news outside of the continuing push it's giving its Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system and devices. For the first time, it's developing an operating system that will work with ARM processors which means the future versions of Windows (starting with Windows 8) will potentially be able to come to mobile phones and tablets as well as laptops and desktops.
Again in the normally fusty and yawnsome world of silicon chips, Nvidia, creators of graphics cards up until now, has announced that it will start making processors which is a big deal for mobile phones. If new mobiles arrive with the Nvidia processor we'd expect them to deliver gorgeous imagery thanks to Nvidia's graphics smarts.
Another exciting development among Android phones is the LG Optimus 2X which uses the new Tegra 2 chip and is stupendously powerful. During the CES demo, the LG Android phone was shown running 1080p HD video while simultaneously running 10 applications in the background. On that basis, the LG Optimus 2X looks like it could be the fastest phone ever.
Meanwhile, in the world of cars, mobiles are getting a serious look in with Ford continuing to power up its Ford Sync platform which hooks your smartphone into voice control and apps for your vehicle. Toyota is developing similar in-car app tech to work with your smartphone through its newly announced Toyota Entune system. Finally Parrot has outed the Parrot Asteroid, an Android-enabled stereo system.
The Parrot Asteroid will let you download apps from the Android Market, hook up to your smartphone to use its GPS power and comes with three USB ports so you can plug in separate 3G and GPS dongles to get Internet and navigation services that way. It's a clever direction to take Android and we'll see more of that in the future as Android can be incorporated into pretty much any device.
Tell us: what new mobile technology is exciting you? And what devices are you most looking forward to in 2011?
