The CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) judges have done their examination and have release the 2014 International CES list of Best of Innovations Design and Engineering Award Honorees. The judges look products across 28 consumer electronics product categories; they have also added extra categories this year: 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing and Wearable Technologies. The "Best of Innovations Design and Engineering Award" honors products and solutions that demonstrate outstanding design and engineering advancements. The CEA said they saw a record number of entries this year (See Photos).

For 2014, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has awarded Sony four “Best of Innovations Honoree” Awards.  The honorees were picked from 28 consumer product categories, which now include 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing, Wearable Technologies and In-Vehicle Experience. From these Sony was able to walk away with awards in Digital Imaging, Headphones, Home Audio/Video Components and Tablets, EReaders & Mobile Computing. To make it five their HT-ST7 Sound Bar received an Innovations Design and Engineering Award in the Home Theater Speakers category.

The 2014 International CES Best of Innovations Design and Engineering Award Honorees list is out. The Honorees are picked from 28 consumer products, such as home Audio/Video, Headphones and Tech For a Better world. This year the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) added three new categories: 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing, and In-Vehicle Experience and Wearable Technologies. The winners will receive their award at next year’s 2014 CES, which runs from January 7-10 in Las Vegas. Some of this year’s winners are: FormLabs, Tobii Technology, Sony Eletronics, Bruton, Novasentis, Plantronics, Kirk H&J Corporation, HARMAN International, Able Planet, Instabeat, Reebok & MC10, Bang & Olufsen, Pioneer Electronics and Philips Consumer Lifestyle.

Samsung has partnered with McAfee to add virus protection to its new home media player called, Samsung HomeSync.  The Android-base device can store up to 1TB of digital content, enough space for a standard home.  HomeSync is due in shops from the beginning of October and will come with McAfee VirusScan pre-installed.  Samsung said the partnership is to help protect and its customer’s digital content from the growing range of Android-based threats.

Apple has made public what I have suspected from a long time, they want a share of the home automation market.  In addition to that they want your location data collected by their iPhone, ipad etc., to provide the service. In 2010/2011 Apple came under a lot of pressure to say why they were collecting customers location data and what they were doing with it.

Deutsche Telekom recently announced that they are partnering with DSP Group, a wireless chipset manufacture, to trial the use of ULE (Ultra Low Energy) technology in Deutsche Telekom’s Speedport Home Gateway. ULE is seen by many as an important part to next-generation home networking and a preferred solution to offering connected home services.

After last year’s success in China, the HomePlug Alliance is going back this year to host the Connected Home Summits. Unlike last year Chinese Technology Summits where they did two shows, this year they are doing three from November 11 to 15 in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenshen.   Exclusive to the Beijing summit there will be a panel which include China’s Government Officials and moderated by CWW's Editor-in-Chief Yang Hai-Feng.

Google seems not to have given up on making a much bigger impact on the television and home entertainment market than it did with the Google TV.  Their latest attempt is Chromecast TV, a television dongle that transform your ordinary TV into one that can connected to the internet directly and smarter.  Chromecast TV is Promises to be a simple and intuitive solution to having a smart TV and only priced at US$35.

More and more services are moving online, which before would come to us physically or we would go where it is. This increase in digital services has put a lot of pressure on broadband service providers to offer better internet speed to download and upload data. It does not matter where we live we want the same quality of service.  The challenge some of these service providers face is it is not feasible possible to have the same quality service in every area they serve. This is where VDSL and LTE come in useful, both increasing internet speed for wired and wireless internet users.

The lowly thermostat has come a long way from being just a little device tucked away somewhere in your home.  They have now become intelligent part of your home energy management solution to the point where you can automate your home atmospheric control. In recent months we have seen a number of thermostats (e.g. Tado and Nest) offering to make it easier to manage the temperature in your home and the energy you use.  The latest of these is the Honeywell Wi-Fi Thermostat.