Until decent sound cards arrived in PCs and Macs, there was no point having quality speakers because they’d only amplify the awfulness.

Many of AppleFruit, record label, world dominator in the slick boy's toys department’s competitors now seem to believe that really high-powered business thruster-types will pay through the nose for a laptop that mirrors their inflated opinions of themselves, so they’re all ploughing the high end furrow as well.

Information – about YOU – is the commodity that powers a free Internet. It’s the carrot that websites such as GoogleStarted life as a mere search engine; now hell bent on world domination. More PhDs work for Google than any other single organisation and they're determined to know everything about everyone. For some reason Google thinks this inside info will help them and their chums sell us more stuff. and Amazon dangle in front of commercial interests and makes Facebook worth squillions. But they’re not the only ones watching your every online move…

The tricksy bit is a fitting kit that sits on your bonce like a pair of headphones and squirts silicone goo – not into your ear canal itself, but into a membrane that has been shoved inside your lug-holes.

These lovely cans, which will have Bose and B&W all a-quiver, will be available later in the year for God knows how much. TF is guessing ‘quite a lot’.

At CES 2012 LG were peddling a TV with a bezel (frame) just 1mm thick. Useful, interesting feature or pointless point of difference? Discuss.

It’s a stand for your iPad. It’s a rest for your iPad. It’s cheap, effective and blissfully simple. Virtually unique, then.

Connected TV is one of the main ‘innovations’ at CES 2012. Do you really want kerzillions of apps on your TV? Will you umpire the fighting that will ensue if the TV becomes the focal point of your Internet experience. Seconds out!

What does the future hold? Where is consumer electronics heading in 2012. Does anyone have any original ideas? Is AppleFruit, record label, world dominator in the slick boy's toys department the only true innovator?

CES – the Consumer Electronics Show – is the biggest geek-fest on the planet. Every January the world’s tech heads descend on Las Vegas to drool over new products and eat too many free biscuits. TF makes sense of the madness.