The Geek Girl Report: From Ultra HD to “Phablets;” What You’ll Expect To See in 2013

Welcome to 2013, everybody!

The Geek Girl Report is back for the new year, and a new year means new gadgets and new high-tech toys to check out. And this week, there's no better place to do that than in Las Vegas. The 2013 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) kicks off tomorrow, showing off the latest and greatest the technology world has to offer. And more often than not, CES provides a pretty good glimpse of what to expect in tech this year. Here's just a few technologies you should expect to see in 2013.

Computer/tablet hybrids

Computers, tablets and smartphones are all doing more and more as the years go by. Now, however, the trend seems to be finding that one "magic bullet" of a device that combines all three into a small, easy-to-use do everything device. Microsoft seems to be leading this trend with their recently released Surface tablet that can go from a computer to a tablet just by clipping on a keyboard. You can expect to see more of these hybrid devices as the year progresses.

Ultra HDTV

So, the whole 3D TV thing turned out to be a flop. So what's the next best option for TV manufactures? Make high-definition even better. New "ultra" HDTVs will be introduced at CES this year, boasting four times the resolution of your regular old HDTV. You might be hearing a lot of buzz about ultra-HD this year, but don't expect to put one in your living room right away. These TVs need to be at least 60 inches to tell the difference between regular and "ultra HD" and carry a hefty $20,000 price tag.

Supersized Smartphone

As the saying goes, bigger is better. And that seems to be the case with smartphones. From the noticeably taller iPhone 5 to the smartphone/tablet combo that is the Samsung Galaxy Note, (what would you call that sort of combination anyway? A "phablet?") smartphones are becoming larger as we try to stuff more and more features into them. Of course, "large" is the smartphone sense means a screens size larger than 5 inches, but you can count on seeing more of these "supersized" phones throughout the year.