ReadWrite's Taylor Hatmaker is right about one thing: 2013 should indeed be a unusual year for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), as the industry struggles to find the next big thing.

(Read CES 2013: 5 Things You Won't See.)

Rattled by declining prices and lingering worries over the "fiscal cliff," gadget makers are likely to be more conservative than ever, focusing on extending tried-and-true trends rather than breaking out brand new ideas.

In fact, it's likely that CES 2013 is going to be, well, boring. As a 20-year veteran of the show, here's what I am expecting to see in Vegas this year:

1. Microsoft

No, I'm not totally disagreeing with Taylor here. As she correctly notes, 2012 was the last year that Microsoft plans to appear at the Consumer Electronics Show, although Consumer Electronics Association chief Gary Shapiro portrayed the company's absence as a "hiatus." Right.

Microsoft may not have bought booth space, but it will be represented by its manufacturing partners, which plan to show off Windows 8 PCs, tablets, all-in-ones and convertibles. The personal computer is simply too big to ignore, but I hear that the number of pitches for Windows 8 PC unveilings at CES is down, and that many companies are focusing on trivial matters, such as new colors. (Colors!?) Even the Surface Pro isn't expected to show up at CES, even though it's due out soon.

2. Tablets - From Off Brands

Yes, Taylor's right that a veritable flood of tablets were launched at the 2012 CES, but history tells us that where the big names tread, the smaller names are sure to follow. Amazon and Google, as well as Apple, have shown that there's a market for smaller, more manageable tablet form factors, and second- and third-tier providers are likely to try and bleed cost further out of the equation. You'll still see a number of Android tablets, mostly from by manufacturers you've never heard of.

Plus, I think we'll see more purpose-built tablets and peripherals. Last year, Razer showed off Project Fiona, a gaming tablet that ended up being vaporware. But I still believe that some manufacturer will throw out a Nexus 7-sized tablet with a Microsoft-style touch keyboard cover attached to it, and see if anyone will bite. Also look for tablet makers to try and shoehorn their products into some sort of software/hardware ecosystem.

By the way, Taylor's right: most major smartphone announcements are being delayed until Barcelona's Mobile World Congress in February.

3. TVs That People Will Actually Buy

People aren't buying 3D televisions. And while manufacturers will likely show off 4K, UltraHD TV technology, Taylor correctly points out that high prices and a lack of content make UltraHD pointless for most people right now. UltraHD doesn't make sense until cameras, cable and TVs all support it. (Still, while I may not buy the mammoth 110-inch UHDTV Westinghouse will show off at CES, that doesn't mean I don't want it.)

What people will buy, however, are connected televisions - and ways to connect their TVs - especially if they're cheap. Westinghouse just announced a television that supports its Streaming Stick, a $100 plastic stick that plugs into compliant televisions. There's still too much confusion here, which is why peripheral manufacturers like Roku and the small Google TV ecosystem just won't go away.

4. Connected Content

This is a catch-all category, encompassing everything from connected cars to second-screen apps that fling content to TVs and other devices, as well as peripherals that stream audio from Pandora and other services. This may sound like old news, but connected services creeping into more and more mundane devices is actually a game changer.

I'm hoping for more on the automotive front, but everything I've heard points to more autonomous automotive safety features, rather than suites of connected services. Blame the carriers' data caps for this: Streaming high-bandwidth media into your car might quickly blow through your data plan. Sending maps and other low-bandwidth data services makes more sense .

5. Digital Health/Fitness

They will never equal the splash of a new big-screen TV or smartphone, but digital fitness products should have an, er, healthy presence at CES. Consumers want things to both track their progress and distract them while exercising, and technology manufacturers are stepping up.

6. Crap

Seriously, I've seen enough smartphone cases to last a lifetime. USB keys, external hard drives, notebook sleeves, USB lights, fans, stickers and the like dominate huge swaths of CES's show floor. Sure there's a market for some of this stuff, but there's a fine line between junk and innovation. 

You know what I'm really hoping to see? Personal drones. Yes, the ones that we'd otherwise use to spy on enemy soldiers. I'd like to see a whole corner of the show floor devoted to those things, as a tool for tracking game, scouting inaccessible locations, and otherwise just having fun.

Would it be controversial? Absolutely. And that's just what CES needs. Otherwise, I'm afraid this year's show may end up being the dullest one in years.

For more, check out CES 2013: 5 Things You Won't See.

Image source: Flickr/PrimeImageMedia.com.

Call this the first Post-PC U.S. presidential election.

Sure, in 2008 we had iPhones and Android was celebrating its first birthday, but the smartphone revolution was just beginning and the iPad was still a gleam in Steve Jobs' eye.

Online TV Has Come A Long Way

We've come a long way. But as radically as mobile devices are changing our relationship with media, the experience still has a long way to go before it matches the power and convenience of plain old TV.

In 2008, I had a presidential-debate-watching party at my house. As somebody who has never seen the appeal of shelling out hundreds of dollars to a giant corporation for content in which I'm mostly disinterested, I needed a way to get the debate onto my HDTV without subscribing to cable or fidgeting with rabbit ears. Fortunately, CNN.com was streaming the debates between John McCain and Barack Obama for free. I hooked up my MacBook to the back of my TV, fired up CNN.com and got as close as I could to full-screening the video player. The picture wasn't great, but it worked. 

This year, the debate live-streaming options were practically limitless. YouTube, Hulu, PBS, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post, CNN and a list of networks and cable channels all offered their own streams, some of them with interactive, social media-fueled components and other bells and whistles. Most of these streams were geared toward desktop browsers, but plenty of outlets crafted their debate-night strategies with our second and third screens in mind. Apple has sold 100 million iPads and competing tablets are popping up constantly. The markets for smart TVs and streaming set top boxes is maturing more slowly, but technologies like Apple's AirPlay and Google TV's equivalent hint at an interesting future. It's amazing how much TV has evolved in the last four years.      

Mobile TV Still Has A Long Way To Go

Still, as I learned when I sat down to stream the third debate earlier this week, the experience remains far behind the old-fashioned way of watching things on screens. 

Armed with my iPad and an Apple TV, I sat down on my couch to watch Barack Obama and Mitt Romney argue about foreign policy. At first, it felt flawless. I just AirPlayed my tablet to the TV, launched the CNN iPad app and started watching.

But the good times didn't last. A few minutes in, the stream went black.

I checked Twitter and I wasn't the only one. Others were complaining about issues with CNN's lifestream, and @CNNMobile tweeted at me and confirmed that they were having issues with mobile streaming. I switched to the Al Jazeera app, but couldn't get the audio to play (which some people say is the best way to watch a presidential debate). I checked Hulu and the Huffington Post on the iPad, both of which were streaming the debate on their websites, but neither app had a readily-tappable link to the lifestream. 

At this point, I could have searched the App Store for another news app that was likely to be streaming the debate. But I wasn't about to start hunting for apps, only able to make educated guesses about who would be streaming to the iPad and then waiting for downloads. The fragile magic of democracy was unfolding in real-time on television screens everywhere and I wasn't going to miss another minute!

Finally, I turned to the browser. NBC was live-streaming the debate on the Web in what was thankfully an iPad-friendly format. I full-screened it, leaned back and watched. 

Ultimately, the Web came through and worked like a charm. And if I had lined up a stronger arsenal of apps (or owned an XBox 360, or AirPlayed my MacBook to the TV, or used the WSJ Live app on Apple TV, etc.), I might have been able to avoid the hiccups. 

Still, I couldn't help but picture my mother. What would she do if she were in my position?

People in the technology industry might be accustomed to hunting for livestreams to tune into a live television event. My mother? She sees no reason to fiddle with such nonsense. With traditional TV, you just sit down, turn it on and watch. Internet TV doesn't yet come close to matching that unquestioned ease of use.

So what will watching the debates look like in 2016, when Mitt Romney is debating Joe Biden? Who knows, but given the progress in the last four years, streaming the debates to the Web and mobile devices should be smooth as butter, but getting it to work on your Google Glasses might have a few hiccups. 

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.