Well… there’s no other way to say it… welcome to 2026 everyone! Yes I know, the more things change the more they stay the same and all that. Resolutions made and near-instantly broken. Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace flooded with all the… umm… “stuff” from last year that you need to get rid of to make room for all the… yeah… “stuff” that magically appeared over the holiday shopping season… and, as if that weren’t enough… it’s CES time once again!

That’s right, back to the desert, back to the endless rows of startups, established legends, and global phenomenons allequally trying to convince us that their widget is, in fact, the next big thing…

We’ve actually said for a couple CES’ in a row now that true “gadgets” continue to be on the rise… As the (entirely, at least) App-driven economy becomes even more commoditized, room continues to present itself for new, interesting ways to productize, package, and ship the latest, greatest way to do everything from scrambling eggs to exploring the outer reaches of space…

CES is all that and a bag of micro-chips this year, as much as any other. But, just underneath the surface, there’s also a different vibe just waiting to take the headline… With RAM-pocalypse in full swing, every brand you’ve ever heard of is pivoting prices, adjusting shipping timelines, and honestly re-assessing if certain offerings even make sense considering the environment…

With AI squarely to blame… it’s no less ironic that, at the core of far too many of the gadgets themselves is, well… AI!

Used to be, something was effectively vaporware until it shipped… now I have to wonder if it’s vaporware until it’s been shipped, delivered, and, well… proven to actually do anything?

Let’s see what we can find…