CES: E-readers, 3-D TVs, and the cool screens of the future

The annual gadget bacchanalia known as the Consumer Electronics Show continues through this weekend, but two types of technology have totally dominated this year’s showings: E-readers and 3-D TVs. But the weird, cool items that caught my attention? Transparent screens.

The big e-book readers that emerged this week are Skiff and Alex. (Oy, gadget names.) Skiff (pictured) is super light and geared toward periodicals, while Alex has an Android-based two-screen system, a la the Nook. Both Skiff and Alex use E Ink, which makes for easy reading — but lousy response time.

3-D TVs predictably took center stage this week, with Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, LG, and Panasonic all unveiling their attempts at the latest technology — though nothing is quite ready to be on shelves yet.

The cool thing about CES, though, are the kinda out-there gadgets or options that probably won’t dominate the market any time soon, which is why I’m strangely drawn to the transparent screens that showed up on a few gadgets this year. The transparent OLED laptop isn’t anywhere close to production, but the IceTouch mp3 player — which has a 2-inch translucent screen — should be available in a few months.

Gaze into your gadget crystal balls, PopWatchers: What do you hope takes the tech world by storm this year?